Shout Out to Uncle Tim

Each day Margot chooses a different stuffed animal from her menagerie to accompany her to preschool. Yesterday she brought her Curious George puppet.

On the ride home from school, Margot asked me "Did Uncle Tim give me this Curious George?"

I paused and thought about it. My brother Tim did, in fact, give her that puppet. It was a Christmas present more than two years ago, during her obsessive "Monkey George" phase.

"Yes, he did give you that monkey. Do you remember that?" I asked her.

"Well, no," she said. "But he put his name on it."

"What?" I asked. "Where?"

"Right here," she said. "T-M. Tim. Tuh-mmm," she sounded the letters out. "T M spells Tim."

And there, beneath the script on George's shirt that spells Curious George, were the letters TM (for 'trademark').