KNOW YOUR RITES

Last weekend our family observed an American rite of passage. We've been slowly allowing our two-year old daughter to watch TV, we began on Thanksgiving with a viewing of The Great Muppet Caper (the greatest of the Muppet films) and Saturday we watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time. The scene in which the Wicked Witch of the West first appears in smoke and flame is a trial that all children must pass through on the road to maturity, and I'm proud to say the little girl handled it rather well, comforting daddy as he shook and cried.