Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for June 20, 2012

what’s a chiton?

Not much. What’s a-chiton with you?

Re: yesterday’s late comments:@Night-Gaunt49: Thank you. Science I understand. It’s acronyms that give me trouble sometimes.@sjsczurek: Thank you; I was somewhat brain dead. I should have known that. I should also have known not to post such a trivial question, but I had ONE beer after work, and apparenty I’m a cheaper drunk than I thought. :)

Guess I should have Googled it last night. :)

Oh dear, is the other kids rolling their eyes in the last panel? I hope the lesson Alix learns in science camp isn’t that others don’t like the ‘smart kid’ and that being a ’teacher’s pet’ is bad.

Likely the lesson is the parents sign them up for camp not the kids.

Oh, No! Now she’s going to turn into Holly!

Anyone else remember the movie “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” with Don Knotts?

Amen, ghostkeeper and david_42! I’m rooting for Alix to continue being smart and be proud of it. I’ve taught that to my kids and so far so good. I’m just hoping it continues through the “landmine years” (aka middle and high school).

Next time she needs to be enrolled in the advanced oceanography class.

Well being a show off isn’t the way to make friends and influence people. So your a dren…so what, just don’t flaunt it so much.

And ‘hiding your light under a basket’ is no way to live. If she knows her stuff — show it off. Pretending to be dumb or uninformed is not the way to live your life. She’ll just be the validictorian or date him!

There’s a happy medium between flaunting one’s smarts and playing dumb. Once a little girl was telling me how very smart she was, and I told her, “You know, sometimes it’s better to let people figure out how smart you are, rather than telling them.” Maybe I was out of line, but couldn’t help myself.

You might be surprised to learn that anyone joining the military has to do a lot of classwork, both in and especially after boot camp. And given how the rights you so obviously take for granted were secured for you by and defended by soldiers, you might want to show the members of the armed forces some respect, which they have definitely earned.

And she was worried that she wouldn’t be smart enough. ;-)

Speaking as one of those who often had the answers to questions that not everyone else knew, I have to say there is nothing wrong with Alix’s responding to the question even if it gives the appearance of being a know-it-all. Learning to give others the chance to answer rather than being the first one to raise your hand is a social skill that is learned and does not require dumbing yourself down to achieve, but it may take a while to learn it. That being said, the comment she makes in panel 4 is uncalled for, and crosses the line from being an apparent showoff to actually being one.

I’m waiting for another kid to tease her about kitten? Where’s the kitten?

I heard of a starfish named Patrick.

;)

Alix glad your very excited about camp but let the other kids speak too. Or help the other kids also know the names of fish.

There is a modern use of the made up name Dren (Nerd spelled backwards) from the movie Splice. Here is the link if anyone is interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splice_(film)

I’m surprised no one mentioned that it isn’t a starfish – it is a Sea Star. Alix gets a pass, but I’m not sure about the camp instructor.

I think the other kids are rolling their eyes because seriously, who calls them starfish anymore? Everybody knows they’re seastars.