Encounter with the next generation

A rare bit of at-work blogging for me, but this is too good to resist (or wait for.)

So I'm riding the M11 bus (PDF link) up 10th Avenue to work this morning. Around 34th Street a little girl (guesstimated age: 5) and her grandmother board the bus. The little girl has a bright pink plastic briefcase, which she is banging carelessly and noisily against every hard surface on the bus as she comes on board.

I smile indulgently and then gasp audibly as she sits down near me, opens up the bright pink briefcase and reveals that what she's toting is actually some kind of ruggedized laptop for small children. She boots it up and happily starts playing a word-matching game, stabbing at the keyboard with her chubby little fingers.

Recovering, I give the grandmother a wink and lean over to address the little girl. "Excuse me," I say, "but could you check and see whether I have any new e-mail this morning?"

"No!" she shouts, delightedly...

...and then, she explains, as one would to a Very Slow Person:

"New York City buses don't have Wi-Fi yet, you know."