Verbatim snippet from today’s lunch with my fifth-grade-son and his friends.

The name “Barack Obama” comes up randomly in a conversation that had been, thus far, mostly about football teams.

Boy 1: “I don’t like Barack Obama.”

Boy 2, who is (incidentally) African American: “Why? Because he’s black?”

Boy 1: “No. Do you want to know why?”

(No one responds. This does not deter Boy 1.)

Boy 1: “My mom has a small business. And because of Barack Obama…”

Boy 2, grinning, interrupts: “I follow Obama on Twitter.”

Boy 1, now distracted, “I follow Snape! I wrote to him once but he didn’t write back.”

Me, sotto voce, to my son: “Does he know Snape isn’t a real person?”

Son, for some reason looking strangely relieved, shrugs.