Hunter continues to astonish me with his acumen.

We were sitting on the couch together, watching Animal Planet with the sound off. (After a year without cable, we got hooked up again last week as part of a class-action settlement that gets us six months free; the sound was off because it was one of those "Extreme" shows with jarring, suspenseful music.)

This particular episode was about poisonous animals. (When they were showing a cobra, he kept saying, "Pah-oo! Pah-oo!" -- insisting it was a caterpillar.) They were talking about pufferfish, and I was pointing out the fish and seaweed and things like that.

The scene then shifts to a Japanese restaurant, starting with a businessman sitting down at a traditional table, then going to the kitchen where a chef was meticulously shaving a 5"x1" piece of translucent material (fugu) and arranging the slices into a beautiful chrysanthemum on a platter.

Next to me, Hunter starts to whimper.

"Ish? Ish?" he asks worriedly, then bursts into tears.

How the hell did he figure that one out?!?!?

*sigh*

No Bambi for this kid.