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wotd: didactic

didactic \dy-DAK-tik; duh-\, adjective;
1.Fitted or intended to teach; conveying instruction; instructive; teaching some moral lesson; as, "didactic essays."
2.Inclined to teach or moralize excessively; moralistic.


Anthony (never Tony) had one didactic dad. William (never Bill) could kill any fun with a lecture. "Lookit my bubble, Daddy!" Anthony would exclaim, and William would say, "You know Anthony, bubbles are shaped by an equilibrium between their outward air pressure and the inward surface tension of the soap film." Anthony would say, "Please push me on the swing, Daddy," and William would, all the while yammering, "At an earlier time, swinging was understood as a parametric oscillator, but when scrutinized more closely, the action required to pump a swing is really a driven oscillator, most notable when the swinger is at the lowest point of the arc of the swing. Action occurs at the lowest point in paramatric oscillation, but as I'm watching you I see you glide through the lowest point of the arc, a trademark of driven oscillation."

Anthony was a smart kid. He knew all his letters and numbers and how to spell his name before he was three years old. Anthony was also socially inept. None of the other kids would play with him. At naptime he thrashed around for the first hour and a half and slept fitfully for the last half hour. And I'll tell you this: at the end of the school year, when Anthony moved on and we were deep-cleaning the nap room, we found the baseboard where he thrashed and slept smeared with boogers for a full 8 inches.

Comments

auntie m said…
was Anthony a real kid?
8:18 PM
shy_smiley said…
yeah, but one without much of a childhood
9:48 PM
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