Chapter 18

“Yeah,” Tyche said, “Grandmother Sultry was positively sedate.”

“Oh Kay ... little Miss Muffet.” I said, “What does sedate mean?”

Tyche said, “Serious, grave, solemn, staid, sober, earnest. It means not light or frivolous. Serious implies a concern for what really matters. a serious play about social injustice. Grave implies both seriousness and dignity in expression or attitude. He read the proclamation in a grave voice. Solemn suggests an impressive gravity utterly free from levity. A sad and solemn occasion. Sedate implies a composed and decorous seriousness. I remained sedate amid the commotion. Staid suggests a settled, accustomed sedateness and prim self-restraint. A quiet and staid community...”

She had more to say but JW interrupted. “Tyche ... Stop!” He said. “Surprise, don’t encourage her.”

“ ... Webster’s.” Tyke mumbled. Then she gave her dad the MOM look.

JW flinched. “I hate it when she does that,” he said.

And I said, “Which Webster’s?”

“New Collegiate, 2019 edition.” Tyche said. “ ... Mom says there are words in the Unabridged that I don’t need to know.”

And Then she said, “Miss Muffet refers to,

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Little Miss Muffet ... an archaic rhyme that has little worth in modern society.” She pondered the poem, “What are Curds and Whey?”

Zoe said, “The New Collegiate is bad enough.” Then she responded to her daughters last question, “Curds and whey are a product of cheese-making. When rennet, an enzyme derived from a newborn ruminant is added to milk, the milk curdles. These solid, curdled lumps are the curds. The whey is the liquid byproduct of the curdling process.”

And, wouldn’t you know it, “What’s a ruminant?” asked Tyke.

“A cow,” JW said ... then he clapped his hand over his mouth.

“Newborn ... a baby cow?”

“Yes.”

“How do they get the rennet?”

“Look it up.”

“Okay...” and off she went.

Uh oh. JW just made a serious mistake.

In just a few minutes she was back... “They KILL the calf! To get it’s stomach? Cheese? EWW!”