This question is a good repeat one... I mean, it's not silverware or serial comma, but still a good one.

My favorite repeat question involves Nutty, a squash court, and a cheetah.

so my second assumption is that Iris is doing my job for me.

we all assume that sometimes. her new nickname is 'management'.

Because with the toddlers, they only have the power to kill you if you feel responsible for them and want to try to take care of them

Seriously, no. If you are surrounded by toddlers, especially if you are holding a toy that they all want, it does not matter if you feel responsible for them or not. Plus, there's the noise. And the chatter.

The start for a running list of ways that they could do it (aside from in the drawing room, with a candlestick):

• They could kill you with blunt repetition.
• or with the much-used whine-you-to-death strategy
• They could ignore you to death.
• They could seriously wound you about the kneecaps with their sweet, but really bony heads.
• ... [Cashmere? you in?]

Unless the infinite plain has a water source, then everybody dies of dehydration or asphyxiates if there isn't adequate ventilation.

It's possible I'm over thinking this.

I dunno Sox, I've been surrounded by toddlers on many occasion (like 20 or 30), and I'm fairly sure the main reason I stayed there, even when the whining and the biting started, was my own desire to be near them and care for them. I don't think they'd be an organized killing machine. But I bet 5 year olds could do it.

Burrell's tag is especially appropriate for this discussion.

I have whistling stuck in my head. Which is weird.

Toddler shrieks. Those can liquify your brain.

oh no Burrell - sorry! I was working on the assumption that there was actually no feeling of responsibility... totally impossible here -

6. They can cover you with sticky stuff... like popsickle drippings.

Five year olds - aieee.

There's a little shrieker in my neighborhood, but she's older than toddler -- I'd guess K or 1st grade. But still -- OMG the shrieking.

A shrieker lived in my co-op. Any desire to protect was usually overcome by the urge to kill once the shrieking started. She's nine now and the shrieker still shrieks.

A couple of stories struck me about the Republican debate last night.

There was Tommy Thompson:

Thompson was asked by the moderator: "If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?"

The former Wisconsin governor answered: "I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be." The moderator appeared a bit startled: "OK, so the answer is yes?" Thompson replied, "Yes."

In a telephone interview from O'Hare Airport, Thompson told "American Morning" that he "misinterpreted" the question and should have asked to have it repeated.

"That's never been my position," Thompson said, said adding that discrimination isn't acceptable.

What did he think the question actually was?