I remembering asking my Mum a similar awkward question when I was young. An advert in my comic invited readers to send off for a T-shirt. The coupon said '"State age and sex". Finding an unfamiliar word, I shouted out to my Mum (who was in the loo at the time!), "What does 'sex' mean, Mum?". I still remember the awkward silence which followed my enquiry ;-)
I made the mistake of saying trickie dickie and the resonse was - "or licky dickie..." luckly I spotted a helicopter out the window and we moved the conversation on...
Judge, your post made ME smile. One of my HS students had this big quote tattooed on his forearm. It was something about opportunity. I went and looked at it closely and started laughing so hard. The tattoo artist had left the "r" out of opportunity. I got a lot of mileage out of that for the rest of the school term. I even put a "R" from a display board in a school envelope and had the secretary deliver it to him in a classroom. He was in class across the hall from my room and I could hear the rest of the class hooting and howling with laughter. Thanks for making me laugh
EngTeach:
Your story of a missing letter reminds me of a a display in the Felixstowe Tourist Information office, here on the East Anglian coast. They had the word 'INFORMATION' in felt letters across the front of their enquiry desk, but the 'F' had fallen on to the floor. As I picked it up and handed it to the assistant, I couldn't resist say "I don't think much of this place; there's no effin' information!" ;-)
Hi NoM - sorry - went to bed! They are just turned 10 and almost 9. They are at out of school care at the moment so mixing with a different bunch of kids from usual - we get this every summer, but they have such a good time that they lapse into slang and the odd funny question is definitely worth it. They went kayaking and on a ropes course and tree climbing yesterday and had a fabby time.