Secret Bonds of Commonality and Exclusion

The other night, Ian was complaining, with some pain in his voice, that everyone in the family was, in some important sense, paired off with someone else, except for him. More specifically, he felt that Mommy and Madeleine formed one meaningful pair, and Daniel and I formed another, leaving the Angst-ridden eight-year-old as odd man out. Of course, I wanted to know more about these exclusive alliances.

Of course, Amy and Madeleine form a pair by virtue of their shared absence of the Y chromosome. I didn't even bother to ask... But me and Daniel?

"You have the same name."

'Hard to argue with that one, but there's more...

"Plus, he's five and you're forty-five."

The cabal has been uncovered...