Child buys newspaper; parents in shock

Friday afternoon, Laurie and I were visiting with a friend at a local coffee shop, discussing a new Web venture, while the kids ran around the plaza outside.

Brian and Natalie would drop into the conversation from time to time, find it about "grown-up stuff," then quickly leave. But Brian lingered as we chatted about newspapers.

"Can I borrow some money from my allowance?" he asked, after a few moments.

Not wanting to jack the kids on any more sugar than they'd already had that day, I resisted.

"What for?"

"I want to buy a newspaper."

Silence. Shock. Three adults, all journalism school graduates, started at Brian with a level of comprehension typically demonstrated by the heavily sedated.

"Huh?" I stammered.

Laurie came to first. "Give him the money, before he changes his mind!"

So Brian ran, triumphantly, to the newspaper rack, two quarters in hand. His sister and another child gathered as he dropped the coins into the alien machine. He grabbed the handle, pulled it open, then lifted out his paper.

Brian brought the paper back to the table and turned through it, pointing out the stories he found interesting.

"Look, the price of gas is going down!" he said, pointing to the main art on the front page.

After about 10 minutes, he'd moved on and bounded back outside, the paper forgotten on the table. But his notable work had been done. With a 50-cent purchase, 8-year-old Brian Niles might have become the youngest person in Los Angeles County to buy a newspaper this year.

Another Niles family member infected by the journalism bug? I don't know whether to take pride... or to apologize to Brian and to promise to find him the best treatment available.

Robert Niles also can be found at http://www.themeparkinsider.com