I was an avid reader as a child.  Kind of had no choice because my Gramma and 3 of my aunts were teachers.  They enrolled me in every book-of-the-month club for children they could find.  One of the books that sticks in my mind (even 40-odd years later) is “What do you say, Dear?”.  I wish I could recall the name of the author and illustrator.

The book was basically an etiquette book for kids.  The illustrations were very similar to those in Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree”.  The author placed the characters in absurd situations, such as “you have just crashed your plane into the home of a nice lady, interrupting her dinner and ruining her chandelier…What do you say, Dear?” Then he/she would tell you the proper way to handle this obviously embarrassing encounter.

Somehow, this book popped into my mind this morning as I watched the morning news.  My warped inner-conversation went something like this “Kim Jong Il just exploded North Korea’s first nuclear weapon under ground after being warned by the International Community not to do so…What does he say, Dear?”

This led to the second dilemma…”You are the President of the United States.  You have been awakened at 2 am by an advisor who informs you that the nut-job in North Korea is not playing well with others…again!  You must now come up with a speech that will a) comfort the American people; b) assure the International Community that you are strongly opposed to this; and c) still maintain that you are on the side of the leftist liberals who put you in office…What do you say, Dear?”