On Youth.

Lest this should become a blog dedicated to promoting the awesome coolness of my niece, let me just say that this wee biddy embodies the Extreme Friday spirit.

1. Extreme hairstyle...check.

2. Extreme desire to rock the fashions that move her (recall the Canadian Tuxedo).

3. Dance moves fit for a Beyonce video.

They say that babies come out of the womb knowing more math than they every will, and just spend the subsequent five years forgetting it all. This is interesting, because math, being the ultimate universal and irrefutable truth, is just innately logical and understandable. Why shouldn't a baby understand it? For some reason primary school just preps us to freak out about it...but this is clearly another topic for another day...

I wonder if we're also born with more style and panache than we'll ever have, and then we spend the rest of our lives keeping a lid on it. Kids are so bold with their self-expression, they don't care. Dancing front and center at a live show, when nobody else is on the dance floor? No problem. Shoes on wrong feet? It's a look! They have a better command of color-blocking and accessorizing, than I have in my pinky finger.

To be clear, I'm not talking about children whose parents dress them in $1500 Burberry threads. That, I believe, is a disgrace. But suffice it to say, that I think I reached my fashion apex in the second grade with my knee grazing, plumb-purple, "bag-lady coat" that I insisted on wearing until the arms fell off. My adult self would never be so bold.

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