This is Your Brain on Kids

If you are the mother of an American child under the age of five, you may already know this.  PBSkids has a new show.  It is called The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That.  Jonah has been talking about it for two weeks, even though he has only seen the ads.  He's never seen the show, not because of some responsible limit on television watching imposed by me, but because it comes on at the same time we must be running Sam to school.  Poor, poor, Jonah.  He has even lobbied for me to take Sam to school early.

As luck would have it, The Cat in the Hat Know A Lot About That, is re-run on our local station on Sundays.  So, last Sunday, as I was making breakfast, Jonah, got to watch it.  "Finally!" said he.

As I was scrambling eggs and baking Monkey Bread (affectionately known around here as Monkey Brains--you can imagine!) I heard a familiar voice.  It was The Cat in the Hat, played by...

This is where my Mom Brain kicked in.  That addled, confused, and sleep-deprived side of me that is sure it knows something, but can't quite put it's finger on what.  The internal dialogue sounded something like this.

"Oh, that is that guy.  The comedian.  The one I don't like.  What is his name?  Not Dana Carvey.  But he used to be on Saturday Night Live.  Jimmy?  Jimmy Something?  Not Fallon.  Not Kimmel.  He had a TV show where he wore a fat suit and did celebrity interviews.  Ugh.  I hate that guy.  He was in Father of the Bride with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton.  He played the wedding planner.  Frank.  Pronounced Frahnk.  Oh, what is his name!?  It is driving me crazy.  Frahnk had a side-kick, played by B.D. Wong."

B.D. Wong.  Seriously?  Who knows who B.D. Wong is?  I can remember B.D. "Nobody-knows-what-he's-been-in-but-his-mother" Wong, but NOT the name of the really famous guy I don't like.  This is Mom Brain.

I knew I could go to IMDb.com to look it up.  But that was not the point!  I knew this guy.  I knew him and I knew his name.  It was in there somewhere, darn it, and my brain was going to give it up.  I wracked and scrambled and baked and listened to that voice I hated coming from the television.

I could remember the name of the actress who played the bride in Father of the Bride (Kimberly William).  I could remember the country singer she is married to (Brad Paisley).  I could remember that Kimberly Williams has a sister names Ashley who was in a short lived sit-com, set in Miami, with Suzanne Pleshette and Tom Poston, who both used to be on The Bob Newhart Show and were married in real life, and they both have both dies recently, and ARGHHHHH!  I felt like was having some kind of seizure.

Finally, I could not stand it any longer.  Hubband walked into the kitchen and I pounced on him.  "Who played Frahnk in Father of the Bride?" I asked, a tone of manic desperation in my voice.

Hubband, either not noticing my tone, or very used to it by now, calmly answered, "Martin Short."

MARTIN SHORT!!!!  Of course.  I hate that guy.

My breathing grew more regular.  My heart slowed.  My blood pressure went back down.  This episode of Mom Brain had passed.