Saturday, March 24

Girlz

Madeleine and I contemplate the future , which is in our face at the Kingston mall.

And some food for thought : The number of teenagers living in Britain will decline by 10% over the next decade. By 2017 there will 4.9million of them, down from 5.4M today, according to the Office of National Statistics.  The fall due to the so-called 'baby slump' which occurred from the 1970s , when women began having far fewer children (and far more fun).  Compared with the baby boom of the 1960s, birth-rates have steadily fallen thanks to the pill and family planning.  This impacts everything from education to retail.  Sonnet and I are happy to make a contribution.

When the Shakespeares younger, I had them evenly scared of teen-agers : "Look!" I would say. "Teen-agers in their natural habitat. Smoking cigarettes and holding hands."  We would peek through the curtains and thank goodness we did not have them in our house. This about the time I told Eitan and Madeleine that , when a fellow falls in love , his hands turn sweaty, he cannot think straight, and he starts babbling like an idiot .  Both kids horrified by the prospect of love : they, then, ensemble : "La la lala la la la la llllaaaa."