MADELEINE MONDAY

The kid had last Thursday and Friday off school for fall break, a concept unknown in my day. Maybe it's because the academic year now starts in mid-August. Due to the other adults' schedules, I became the child entertainment coordinator. One day we went to our popular children's museum, The Magic House. The van de Graaff generator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator) is a constant hit, but it's even better if there is a record.              

THE STATE OF MISSOURI POLITICS / MADELEINE MONDAY

On Saturday I took Ellie to The Magic House, STL's children's museum. One section is about the divisions of government, with mock-ups of a courtroom, the president's oval office and a legislative chamber. Here she sits in the judge's bench, head in hand, perhaps thinking about the state of our state.

Tomorrow is election day in the U.S. Yes, it's odd to do it on a Tuesday but it has something to do with market days in agrarian post-colonial times. Lots of us, perhaps including my granddaughter, are terribly worried about the erosion of democracy in our country. Missouri has an open U.S. Senate seat. Not that the Democratic candidate is so great but, to everyone in this household, the Republican is a horror. This isn't the place for details but, in general, I could never vote for a candidate of a party that has lost its mind. There, I said it: the occasional rant.          

MADELEINE MONDAY

We temporarily interrupt the circus for a bad hair day. The kid had no school on Friday for some reason so she wheedled me to take her to our children's museum, The Magic  House. One small room has a Van de Graaff generator, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator, which pumps out very high voltage and very low wattage static electricity charges. You can buy one online if you like. 

It produces this effect, making it a mandatory photo stop. Better Ellie than me. I don't have enough hair to make it worthwhile.         

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

My son and his family live in central Michigan, a 10 hour drive from here with gas and kid breaks. We don't get to see them enough but they made the long trip down here this weekend. The postal abbreviation for Michigan is MI. It's MO for Missouri. Clever Andy refers to his division as MICrowes and ours as MOCrowes.

So we all went to the Magic House, STL's children's museum yesterday morning. OMG was it crowded. At some point part of the family made it to their Van der Graff generator. MICrowe Audrey, almost 6, had no fear. https://youtu.be/PIb6AZdTr-A Great phone cam shot by daughter Emily.

The first time we saw a Van der Graff generator was at the Deutches Muzeum in Munich, at least 30 years ago. We expect to be there in September but, with the passage of time, I don't have enough hair to be worth a try.           

MADELEINE MONDAY

Our children's museum, The Magic House, has a Halloween event last weekend and next. Daughter Emily took this beautiful phone cam shot of Ellie in the garden. The kid knows how to pose, too.       

Plastic Towers

The theme of the Lego exhibit at The Magic House was the world's tallest buildings and towers. These models were all displayed to scale with each other and a few were too tall for the room's ceiling. I can't remember the names of all of them but dead center in the top photo is New York's beloved Chrysler Building, with the Empire State Building a bit to the left. (The new One World Trade Center was not represented.) Those two very tall, very thin structures to the right of the Chrysler are ultra-expensive apartment buildings erected on small lots in mid-town Manhattan. I think the blue one to the right of that is the Comcast Tower in Philadelphia. Didn't make a note about the others.

Below, Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers are in the left background. The foreground contains Toronto's CN Tower, and to the right, some unimaginably tall building with torticollis in Shanghai, new since our one visit there, and then the Tree Tower in Tokyo.       

Madeleine Monday - Architect

Such concentration! Ellie is not ready to build an eighty brick tall tower but she was making quite an edifice (with a little initial help from her grandmother). She took over the design and construction quickly. There were a few collapses but she always went right back to work, making the next version stronger and taller.