It's Right Because I Just Made It Up

The Gremlin isn't new to setting trends, but even this one surprised me. He was at the beach the other day when a boy many years older than him had a Nerf gun that the Gremlin wanted to look at. So he approached the boy.

"Scuse me, can I see your pch-ewer, please?" The boy looked at him scornfully.

"'Pch-ewer?' I've never heard of that. I don't know what that is."  The boy tried to turn away, but the Gremlin pointed and spoke up quickly.

"That's a pch-ewer."

"It's not a 'pch-ewer' it's a Nerf toy." At this point the Gremlin knew the kid did not want him to look at it, but the manipulation track the Gremlin took was so subtle and so quickly decided upon it took me by surprise.

"Oh, you don't know it's a pch-ewer? I thought you were smart so you'd know what it was called, cause only smart people know that." The boy stopped at this and looked at him. "May I please see your Nerf toy?" The Gremlin pronounced this last part very carefully, and the boy, now very unsure of himself, looked at his mother, who shrugged.

"You should let the little boy have a look at it." The boy turned back around and reluctantly handed over the gun. He walked the Gremlin through the basic functionality, shooting, cocking, and reloading, and then took it back. The Gremlin, with his short attention span, moved on to the playground equipment, and we forgot out the incident until we were leaving some time later.

Walking back to our car, we came upon the 9 year-old boy with the Nerf gun who had joined up with one of his friends, and was now explaining to him that they're changing the name of the Nerf guns.

"It's called a 'pch-ewer.' That's the smart name for it, and I just learned it because I'm so smart. You can be smart too, but I was smart first." But apparently not as smart as the 3 year-old who convinced you it was called something he had just made up.


Favorite Toy of the Week: Licky (so named because he 'licks the Gremlin a lot' when he goes to sleep)

Don't forget to check out the Gremlin's YouTube channel - which is being updated now, and contains even more Gremlin-related material!