Why (I Wish) Johnny Can't Read

We subscribe to The Week magazine, and this week's came today, with a picture of Obama and Karzai on the cover, emblazoned with the headline "Shotgun wedding."

With nary a stumble, the boy took a look at it. "What's a shotgun wedding?"

I started up with a brilliant move. "Um.... Um.... Um.... What?"

Doodles: "What's a shotgun wedding?"

Me: "Um. It's... Well... Um..."

Doodles: "Yes?"

Me: "You know how today all sorts of people have babies? Women by themselves, two women, two men?"

Doodles: "Yeah."

Me: "Well, it was different in the old days. In the old days, there was this idea that if a woman got pregnant without being married, that it was a bad thing. So if a woman got pregnant and she wasn't married, the idea goes, the woman's dad would make the man who got the woman pregnant marry her. It was like he took a shotgun and pointed it to the guy and said, 'Marry my daughter or I'll shoot you.' That's a shotgun wedding."

Doodles: "Well, what if there wasn't a guy? What if she had just gone to the sperm bank?"

Me: "Um, that's a good point."

Doodles: "And I don't understand what that has to do with Obama! Why is Obama going to have a shotgun wedding to that guy?"

Me: "Well, it means that he's being forced into a relationship he may not want with that guy, Karzai, the president of Afghanistan."

Doodles, thinks a moment. "So why is Obama having a wedding?"

To which I give the age-old response: "Who wants dinner?" And I hid the magazine.