Let's play a little word association game. I'll start. Are you ready for the word? I'll wait.
Ready now? Okay.
Potatoes.
No, now you say something else. Let's try again.
Potatoes.
No, see, you just repeated my word again. This isn't an echo game, you're not supposed to be the Grand Canyon. Let's try again.
Potatoes.
Okay, seriously, say what comes to mind when I say the word potatoes! I know, obviously the word potatoes comes to mind, but you have to say something else. Because that's how the game works! Come on, son, you're better than this!
What's that? No, you can't watch your Elmo until we've completed this game. Now, let's try again. Here, you start. Say a word.
Potatoes? Wait! No, no, try me again.
Uh... Potatoes? Come on, brain, think a word to associate with potatoes. Something! Okay, something. That's my word. Now you go.
No! Not potatoes again! Something else. And not something, either.
Spuds? Uh, potat- wait. I mean, spuds. No! Son, you're mixing me up! Okay, uh... uh...
Potatoes! Potatoes! Potatoes!
Happy?
A writer, reader, swashbuckler, former counter-spy, soda jerk, space cowboy, and honorary Professor of Not-Quite-Mad-But-Pretty-Unusual Sciences at the University of Genial Monsters (Go Smilin' Sasquatch!), Mark J. Hansen has secretly saved the universe numerous times, with more close calls than he cares to admit. He enjoys fast trips through time and space, arm-wrestling rainbows, eccentric headwear and kittens with British accents. When he is not sharing his Stories of the Amazing and the Amazingly Well-Written, he mostly hangs out in his hot-air balloon overlooking Skull Island with a root beer float and a parrot on each shoulder, practicing hypnotism and innovative shoe-tying techniques.