One of these things is markedly inferior to the other (Mama knows when she's outclassed)

James was sick earlier this week, so on Monday (my usual day off) we hung out at home instead of going out for adventures. Mimi gave James a DVD of early Sesame Street episodes for Christmas, so I turned it on for a few minutes to see if he'd like it.

(Yes, the early Sesame Street episodes that are now not recommended for children, or whatever. Having watched 20 minutes or so, I see why they don't fit with the current kid TV aesthetic -- the graphics look homemade, and some of the sequences lack background music and last longer than sequences would today -- but I found them infinitely preferable to the present Elmo-centric, jumpy-feeling episodes. And my 11-month-old test subject liked them just fine.)

James, in fact, was intrigued. He hadn't really seen any television before, and he thought the pictures and sound were pretty neat. His favorite sequence was the one that shows that milk comes from cows. Specifically, he was transfixed by the scene where the baby calf drinks milk from its mom's udder. "See? That's how the baby calf nurses," I explained. James looked from the cow to me and back to the cow, impressed and envious. I told him these things scaled -- that the calf was drinking so much milk because it was a lot larger than a baby is -- but he didn't think much of that. Sometimes you just can't compete.