The Navigator and the Boxer

One of the party favors at Daniel's birthday party was compasses, but these were several-for-a-dollar, no doubt manufactured somewhere in the Pearl River valley, and, according to one of our adult neighbors, rather than pointing due north, they tend to point wherever each one chooses as its own relative-north.

Of course, this is taboo for Ian, the compass-purist, but Daniel has other priorities. Last night, Ian asked me, "This summer... do you think that I could get a real compass?" since the last time Ian got a real compass was over the summer, from a touristy "trading post" in northern New Hampshire.

But Daniel's interests were more hands-on:

"Do you think you could get me real boxing-stuff, like a boxing helmet and boxing gloves?"

(November 27, 2011)