The Proper Care And Feeding of T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas

Since my kids got some working Wii controllers from their semi-official uncle Donovan (it's kinda been working out this way; he's actually a family friend but he seems to be around a lot to do various chores and sharing in gatherings) they have in their free at-home moments been playing quite a bit. I'm not offended by that -- although I will confess I feel if my family's really missing something that I ought to be the one who knows it, or is providing it; I guess I just never considered a Wii controller high on my list of their needs. Especially the other day when I brought the kids to Grandma's on their way to work and Donovan asked them some questions about the summer reading program they've been doing with Ward County Public Library and he was replying about something else and the kids looked up at him seemingly hung on his every word. I remember when they looked at their dad like he was that important too.

Today's title was inspired by my looking up Yoshi, the cute little dinosaur in the Super Mario Brothers games, and apparently Yoshi is short for the character's full name. According to a 1993 Nintendo character guide, the full name of the creature is T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas, and Mario himself (homo nintendonus) isn't a fully human human being either. Last week a writer at Gamespot wrote about this, and even in 2014 we still don't know what the T. stands for. In my darker moments I'm thinking it stands for "The Second Coming", as in it will happen when we know what T. is an initial for. Or maybe it's like the S in Harry S Truman (yes Virginia, the S is not an initial; since his parents couldn't agree on which grandparent to use for his middle name, they chose the letter that began both their names) ... whatever, what's important to me is that Jeffrey asked me as I was finishing breakfast whether I'd play with him, and that I miss.

Jeffrey: Do you want me to be your brother or your trusty sidekick?[JEFFREY gives DAVID the first Wii controller, designating he will play Mario.]
David:  Well, you're not my brother, so how about my trusty sidekick?
Jeffrey: [big smile] Cool, I'll go set it up.
JEFFREY dashes off to the television set and the Wii beneath it. Ten seconds later, he dashes back to DAVID seated at the dining room table and gives him a big hug.

And for about thirty minutes Jeffrey and I -- with him as yellow Toad (the guy in Mario games with the mushroom hat) and me as Mario we had fun through several levels, riding Yoshis and otherwise. And I also learned that not only can Yoshis stick out their tongues and eat most of their enemies and spit them back out, they can also eat their trusty sidekicks, as Jeffrey with Yoshi did to ME several times! (And getting off Yoshi spit ... ugh, I'll need another shower today!) Anyway, I earnestly encouraged the kids to play out in our backyard for a while before we were ready to go this morning, and this morning I met Grandma at the South Side Park across from Our Redeemer's Church with them for a two-hour get-together where the kids could play kickball, T-ball, run about on the playground, eat, and enter a drawing to win prizes for the reading they've done this summer! And the kids are getting used to getting up at school time too, so they can see Martha off to work.

And while Jeffrey can't be my brother -- well, save as my brother in Christ -- he IS my son. But I imagine Batman was quite surprised to find he too had a son, if this bit of dialogue is any indication:

They say there's no coincidence, my detective. But have you forgotten that night you and I shared under the desert moon above the Tropic of Cancer?
I remember being drugged senseless and refusing to cooperate in some depraved eugenics experiment. THAT night, maybe?
We chose you, the perfect man, to breed the perfect heir to the empire of Ra's Al Ghul. And believe me, you cooperated ... magnificently.

The woman talking to a captive Batman (aka Bruce Wayne) in this passage from Batman #656 is Ra's (pronounced "raze") daughter Talia Al Ghul, and their son Damian Wayne -- apparently first met by Batman when he's ten years old -- will eventually become the fifth Robin, but he's got quite an edge on him. He'll kill his opponents, as Batman has always sworn not to do. This mid to late-2000s plotline is collected in Batman and Son (ISBN 9781401244026) and needless to say it's quite a game-changer. Along with Damian's ... well, let's say sputtering start as a crime-fighter like dear old dad and his will (speaking of will, despite the critics Green Lantern the film is worth seeing, I watched it yesterday) to do far darker deeds than his dad for justice's sake, Batman is also brought into conflict with a group called the Black Glove that wants to kill him by driving him ... in my view, crazier than he already is.

But in a quiet way, David