Bennet’s letter to Baily.
TOO SWEET
Never underestimate the appeal – and adorableness – of a young boy looking for love.
Everyone is talking about the letter sent by four-year-old Bennet Skinner to a classmate in Portland, Ore.
As first reported on BuzzFeed, Bennet recently asked his mother to type the heartfelt missive to a classmate named Baily, also age 4. Jennifer Miller posted the note to Reddit last week and it has been going viral ever since.
The letter opens with Bennet inviting the object of his preschool affections over for a playdate.
"Baily. Will you please come to my house? I think you are pretty like a horse or a ladybug. I'm not sure which. You should come to my house and eat cheeses with me."
And then, as four-year-old boys often do, Bennet gets straight to the point in the most precocious manner imaginable:
"I love you and I lost a tooth last night," he writes. "I think I would like to do a magic trick for you and then let you watch me battle robots."
The note is signed, "Love, Bennet."
In a subsequent BuzzFeed interview, Bennet's mother said her son was inspired to pen the letter after he watched her write an e-mail to a friend.
"I asked him who he wanted to send a letter to and he stated, 'Baily, of course,' " said Miller. "So, he sat down next to me on the couch and dictated the letter and I typed word for word what he said."
Miller also confirmed that Bennet was indeed smitten with Baily.
"He talks constantly about her and how much he loves her 'yellow hair,' He will be having his fifth birthday in a few weeks and the theme is knights and princesses. He is over the moon knowing that Baily will be dressed as a princess."
As to whether Baily is receptive to Bennet's romantic overtures, his mother was diplomatic.
"Of course, Baily is a bit awkward at just four years old and really doesn't know what to think about Bennet. Honestly, I think he overwhelms her a bit," she said.
And the touching coda to this story: Bennet is also a cancer survivor and his mother is grateful for the attention that her son's note has generated.
"I have to say that the attention the letter has received has put a smile on my face, as Bennet was a very sick kid," said Miller. "He was diagnosed with cancer at six months old and actually goes up for one of his last cancer checks in Portland very soon. I'm always nervous about these checks and this has been a nice distraction."
Many thanks, Bennet. Your letter has been a nice distraction for all of us.
GIVING SEASON
Prepare to dig a little deeper if you're using The Twelve Days of Christmas as your holiday gift list. According to the U.S. financial services corporation PNC, purchasing all the items referenced in the classic Christmas song will cost you $27,673.21 (U.S.) this year – up 1 per cent from last season. Although most of the goods and services mentioned in the song remain unchanged, the price hike this year is attributed to the inclusion of partridges, which increased from $15 to $20 apiece, and geese, which jumped from $210 to $360.
Source: Slate
SECRET VOWS
Now it can be told: Scarlett Johansson secretly got married more than two months ago. A clerk in Granite County, Mon., confirmed to People magazine that the 30-year-old actress wed advertising executive Romain Dauriac in the small town of Philipsburg on Oct. 1. The wedding reportedly took place three weeks after Johansson gave birth to the couple's daughter, named Rose Dorothy. Johansson was previously married to Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011.
Source: People
FILLING IN
Music icons Bruce Springsteen and Chris Martin filled in for Bono at a New York concert yesterday. The Boss and Coldplay frontman lent their distinctive voices to the U2 songs Where The Streets Have No Name and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For at the impromptu benefit show held in Times Square in honour of World AIDS Day. Bono was unable to attend the concert since he's still recovering from arm surgery following a bicycle accident in Central Park last month. The Times Square show also featured stage turns by Kanye West and Carrie Underwood.
Source: Rolling Stone
BARING IT ALL
Madonna holds nothing back – literally – in an upcoming magazine profile. For her cover story in the December-January issue of Interview magazine, the 56-year-old pop icon posed topless in a photo layout by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. In the corresponding interview, conducted by illusionist David Blaine, Madonna spoke candidly about her past drug use ("I tried everything once"), her early career relationship with late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat ("He thought what I did was more connected to pop culture than what he did") and the impact of losing her mother when she was only six years old ("I became very obsessed with death and the idea that you never know when death will arrive"). In the same chat, Madonna also said she regularly gets away from her fame with a solid day of isolation. "The idea of a whole day of silence sounds very seductive to me," she said. [Editor's note: The below link may not be safe for work]
Source: Interview