Talking to a few kids about cartoon today reminded me of something that happened last weekend.

My little cousin Kelly is 3.5 or so years old. She speaks more Cantonese than English, but after learning to spell her name, I think she learned to spell c-a-r-t-o-o-n-n-e-t-w-o-r-k. If we are watching anything on tv when she comes into the room, she will ask us to change it to channel 54. We used to be able to trick her and tell her the show was over, but she has also learned what channel Nickelodeon is on. Once it's on her channel, she will sit and stare at the screen.

My brother and I were watching an episode of Iron Chef America where the Japanese chefs come over to battle. It was some kind of tag team battle, with one chef from each country on a team. In walks Kelly, so we change the channel to Cartoon Network, and Kelly starts cheering for Scooby-Doo.

I don't know how many cartoons she watches, or if she understands what the characters are saying. I ask her which one is Scooby-Doo. She says 'the brown one.' Pat seemed sastified with the answer, but we started laughing when I asked him why Kelly said 'the brown one' instead of saying 'the dog.' I thought kids were supposed to be color-blind. Maybe some are species-blind.

Today's cartoon conversation was about how the Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon was boring. I have never seen Winnie-the-Pooh, but I have no interest seeing a bear that wears a shirt and no pants. I was pleased when two other kids agreed that The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy was funny.