Irony

I spent most of an afternoon last month in a school case conference about my high-spirited tow-headed young nonconformist who doesn't obey the rules.

That evening, I attended the school musical, "Tom Sawyer"... which was about a high-spirited tow-headed young nonconformist who doesn't obey the rules.

Am I the only one who finds this the teensiest bit ironic? I joked about it to the principal, but not having read Tom Sawyer, she just looked at me blankly.

Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. It seems that this goes for their literature as well.

Seriously, though, we have a collective fascination with blond-headed troublemakers who say and do all the things we yearned to get away with at that age. How long has Dennis the Menace been running on the comics page? How about his modern compatriot, Calvin of "Calvin and Hobbes"? Bart Simpson? All of them a right royal pain in the rear, and we're not keen to live next to them, but we seem to need them, nonetheless.