Fame is Where You Find It

SCENE:  My grand­daugh­ter, (a sec­ond grad­er) is rid­ing in the car with my son.

GRANDDAUGHTER: (Out of the blue) Dad­dy, who is Cleopatra?

MY SON: She was a very famous queen of Egypt a long time ago.  But most peo­ple prob­a­bly know about her because Shake­speare wrote a play about her.

[Pause]

GRANDDAUGHTER: Who is Shakespeare?

SON:  He was an Eng­lish writer who wrote plays a few hun­dred years ago. He’s the most famous writer in the world.

GRANDDAUGHTER:  I thought Grand­pa Avi was the most famous writer in the world.

SON:  Well, maybe he’s the sec­ond most famous.

GRAND DAUGHTER: Oh, okay. I still like his books.

They dri­ve on.