"You know, dad, the living room isn't Wrigley's field. As for the Cracker Jacks, they are in the kitchen, and you can get them yourself," said the only other person in the room. She wasn't getting up right now, and she was too interested in the TV to care.
"Well, that's not a good way to treat your father during a game!" said the man, mockingly.
"This isn't even a baseball game, dad - it's CNN. It's the Ivorian ELECTION," said the young girl.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize my bones were able to vote!" said the father, chuckling.
The young girl rolled her eyes.
The father left the room to go to get his Cracker Jacks. When he had gone, the young girl grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.
"... you can't proclaim the presidency from the lobby of a hotel," said the Ivorian incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo. What did that mean, she thought.
She knew what it meant, but she didn't understand how Gbagbo could be so stupid. Didn't a couple of U.S. Presidents find out that they were president in the lobby of a hotel?
The reporter was speaking now. "Gbahgo has not consented to requests by the United Nations to go through peaceful transition. This is the same president that, years ago, took the seat by force after a devastating and deadly coup. The president has not been able to leave the devastation behind him. Ten years ago, he was a direct cause of what is known today as the civil war - and this year, after twenty deaths due to his inability to let go of the seat, it looks very possible that there may be another civil war in Cote d'Ivoire. With CNN, this is Rod Ross,"
There were a couple of pictures of Alassane Ouattara shaking hands with the U.N. General assembly. Then the station went to commercial break.
The father came back into the room carrying a large bag of Cracker Jacks.
"Oh, did I miss it? Well, that's fine - I guess it's time for Scrabble!" said the father, excitedly. He got out a game board and joked with his daughter. "I'll give you five bucks if you can spell Gbagbo in half a minute!"
She was never going to get a break, was she?
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