Shakespeare, Take Two

I was getting dinner on the table; Edith was hovering.

"I didn't steal anyone's [bell] peppers [from their salad]," she said. "I didn't steal anyone's peppers." She kept dancing around repeating that she hadn't stolen any peppers.

"'Methinks thou doth protest too much,'" I said, then paused. "You're interested in Shakespeare. That's Shakespeare. Have you heard that phrase before?" I asked.

She shook her head no.

"Have you read it?"

She shook her head.

"Do you understand what it means?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Really? What does it mean?"

"You use it when someone is repeating that they didn't do something. They keep saying it over and over, to the point that it's suspicious, and it becomes obvious that they actually did do it and are trying to cover it up." She smiled, appreciating the idea. "Like when Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes pulls the faucet off the bathroom sink, and water is spurting everywhere, and he dances downstairs singing, 'Everything's fine, everything's fine, I just would like to gather all our buckets, everything's fine.'"

I love watching a child educate herself.