“You should read to that little girl,” the man startled me by saying. I had just noticed the study room from which he had emerged. I hadn’t even realized there was such a room at the local library. It seemed curious to me that it was just next to the children’s book area. The man was looking at Chalice who sat demurely at the table in front of us, her big blue eyes blinked their long lashes. I had just taken Joel and Chalice to a toddler reading hour my neighbor had told me about and subsequently selected a stack of children’s books to replace the previous stack I’d returned. What an original sort of man to tell me to read to my daughter at the library–sort of like telling a man to dance with his wife whom he’d escorted to a dance room or telling a parent at Disney World they ought to take their child on one of the rides. I was getting ready to take the kids home for lunch, but was in no hurry as Joel had found a little kid computer and was enjoying the headset and buttons and Chalice was happy wandering about the play area. Being the tractable sycophantic type that I am, I proceeded to flip through one of the books I’d just selected with Chalice. Several moments later, the helpful stranger reappeared just as I was showing Chalice the final page and Chalice was wandering off to a new simple exploit. “You’ll have to be a WHOLE lot more interesting than that to hold her attention….definitely more interesting than that little girl she’s following….bla bla bla….” He continued his little lecture giving me no chance to respond as he looked me up and down. Did I have “ignoramus parent” printed on my forehead, or “please lecture me about how I should read to my baby and bring up my children.” It surprised me just how irritated I felt about his several words as I loaded the kids back in the car. I even thought of a number of responses I could have given him, if he’d had any interest in hearing anything from me. I could have inquired if he’d read How to Win Friends and Influence People. Maybe he was an author. I could suggest the title for his new hot seller “How to Allienate Acquaintances and Insult Strangers.”