The darnedest things our kids say

I watched on tv a coverage of the World Convention on Children whose theme was "Kids are real fun." I had real fun with the parents who related their experiences with their kids.

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There and then I recalled my book by Art Linkletter "Kids Say The Darnedest Things!" I pulled the volume out of the dusty bookshelf to have fun with the kids Art wrote about in the book. Let me cull from the book some items so you, too, can have fun -real fun- with me and the kids. Here...

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Q. - What are you going to be?
A. - A train engineer.
Q. - What's the main thing to remember about being an engineer?
A. Not to drive the train off the tracks.

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Q. What do you want to be?
A. An evangelist like Billy Graham.
Q. What's the most important part of being an evangelist?
A. Getting a big collection.

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Q. What will you be:
A. A nurse.
Q. What if you had a handsome, romantic patient?"
A. I'd read to him.
Q. And if you had a crabby, old, ugly one?
A. I'd give him sleeping pills.

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Q. What do you want to be?
A. An airline stewardess.
Q. Why?
A. Because my mother was one and she married a millionaire.
Q. Oh? What does your dad do?
A. He's a bartender.

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Q. How old are you?
A. Four.
Q. What do you want to be?
A. I don't want to be anything.
Q. Don't you want to get married?
A. Yes.
Q. How'll you get the money?
A. My wife can work.
Q. What if she won't?
A. I'll send for my mother.

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Reader Anselmo Porquez of Mandaue City disagrees with people who tag Manny Pacquiao a "national hero." He's proud of Manny, he says, and is thankful he has brought great honor for "our poor and troubled country," but to make him a national hero on the level of Ninoy Aquino "is too much."

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Mr. Porquez, however, does not fault those who have proposed naming Manny a national hero. "Na-carried away ra na sila. Di man gud kada adlaw nga dunay Pinoy nga makahatag og kadungganan sa atong nasud," he says. "Tinuod na nga sa Cebu ilang hatagan og titulo nga 'national hero' pero human sa seremonyas moundang na dayon sa pagpamoksing ang 'hero' aron di mamantsahan ang pangan kon napilde."

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Thank you Mr. Porquez, for calling and expressing your views on Manny Pacquiao. Thanks also for the encouraging remarks about Banat News, the Visayan sister publication of The Freeman.