In Case of Emergency, Insert DVD

Let's say you had an emergency. And by "emergency", I mean, "two-year old in the midst of a life-celebrating whirling dervish". This may or may not include dipping a ball of Play-Doh into a dish of paint and using it as a brush. It may or may not include pushing things off the table accompanied by hand-clapping and crazy, evil scientist-type laughter. It may or may not (but probably does) include "Gooey Gooey Clap Clap".

What ever the emergency, we have a new, highly effective mind-zapper available to tired parents: "Here Come the 123's" by They Might Be Giants. This ain't no normal mind-zapper. This here is one of them there edu-ma-cational mind-zappers. There is nothing more gratifying than finding a way to edifyingly occupy your kid's brain. You can put this DVD in, email two or three people and then talk about numbers with your kid!

Max just stands there, absolutely stunned by the graphics and the songs. And then, a couple of hours later, he asks to see "Seven" or "High Five" again.

The kinda great thing about all this is, back in the day, back in the 120 Minutes days, I told anyone who would listen (a number, to this day, that remains quite small) that They Might Be Giants were the super-genius, weirdo, pop sensation of all time. Now, 20 years (gasp!) later, I sit here with Max laughing at the same damn band. The circle is complete, the prophecies are fulfilled: They Might Be Giants, contrary to the Uncle who once told me it was the Grateful Dead, is the glue that holds the universe together.