BELLICOSE WOMEN OF THE FUTURE: Went to a kid’s birthday party with my daughter this morning. It was at a laser-tag place, so the kids all suited up and ran around darkened mazes happily shooting at each other. They were pretty good, and the girls seemed to like it as much as the boys. My daughter had never done it before, and she loved it. She wants to go back, and has decided to have her next party there.

It’s funny because (as you may guess from the frequent Barbie references) she’s a girly-girl in most of her play activities. “But this is fun,” she said, by way of explaining the difference.