I like Honk because Honk is a great story because Honk really really really goes into the Swan Lake ballet. And Swan Lake is a great movie. I’ve seen the movie too. But it’s a little scary, because in the Swan Lake movie, the swan doesn’t marry the prince, and they die at the end. They don’t marry at all because at one party they don’t usually have the swan princess, and the mean sorcerer tricks the prince. So the swan lake girl is trapped up, and that’s how the mean wizard tricks the prince. And it’s very scary because at the end they really do want to marry each other. All the other princesses that were changed into swans were so beautiful because they all had white dresses and beautiful — like lapis lazuli

Julia decided that Paris was the fanciest place on Earth and wouldn’t stop talking about it. In order to show her that New York is every bit as fancy, I took her to Tiffany’s for a daddy-daughter date. At first they tried to sell us stuff, but finally left us alone. One girl thought she’d be nice and pointed out a heart shaped necklace, which failed to capture Julia’s attention. She thought she’d try again. She pulled out a ginormous ring and asked Julia if she knew what it was. Julia nodded and said, “Aquamarine.” The lady was impressed.

The next step in our tour of New York’s fanciness was The Nutcracker Ballet (It iiiiiiiiis the cracker ballet). Julia wore her sparkly shoes and held her dress as she walked up the stairs just like I imagine all princesses do. She sat on the edge of the seat and clapped when everyone else clapped. She got a lot of attention. The lady who sat next to her offered to let her borrow her binoculars because we were of course in the cheap seats. They were much too big for her little head and she covered the lenses with her hands trying to hold them, but that didn’t stop her. She held them to her head and enjoyed the ballet. About half way through the first half, she turned to me and said, “Papa, I am having a lovely time.”