Scenes from Chicago Midway on a Saturday morning

* A 40-something mother in a tracksuit sips her Bloody Mary as her 15-ish daughter wearing Daisy Dukes and fitted oxford shirt aimlessly kicks her sandal against her chair. If this were "Pop-up Video", a bubble above her head reading "Jailbait" would follow the daughter down the concourse. The daughter stares blankly at the flat screen tuned to WB. She suddenly perks up and coos, "Look Mom, it's a Tom & Jerry cartoon." Very cute. I check the airport bookstores for a Nabokov tome for her, but only find Ann Coulter screeds. I'm searching for a Lolita/lollipop line here, but I'm starting to creep myself out.

So, in the words of Real Sports' Bryant Gumbel. "Let's move on."

* I'm digging these new cushy SWA seats in the waiting area - fully equipped with electrical outlets that do not work. "Must not have paid their electric bill, " the gentleman next to me offers. Thanks for the diagnosis, doctor. Based on that logic, it appears that you haven't paid your dermatology bill.

* There's something fascinating to about children's faces as they watch Tom & Jerry cartoons. The older ones have a look of sly recognition. They are resigned to Tom's (or is it Jerry's?) fate. They are world weary 10-year olds who have seen the cruel machinations of the cat and mouse dynamic - Centuries of generations battling with one another, neither side ever achieving a lasting advantage. It's as if Christine Amanpour's Bosnia visage has been transplanted on pre-teen middle America.

Meanwhile, the 5 to 6-year olds sit transfixed - their mouths agape. Their eyes glazed over while they drink their purple Kool-Aid, I feel relief that Jim Jones is not in a nearby zip code. The poor darlings have no idea that this feline vs. vermin battle will have no resolution. Nay, it is only an ongoing litany of mistakenly ingested hot peppers turning faces red and unseen hammers pummelling swirling stars and chirping birdies around the heads of unsuspecting victims to be repeated over and over again.

Perhaps, someday, our children's children will not be as cruelly cast as cynics at so young of an age.

Instead a world of possibility and free thinking will take over.

A time of ideas and hope.

An age - of Teletubbies