It's the small things
It is odd how "anti" can be used as "near" as well as "opposed to". One would think it senseless for the same word (or prefix, in this case) to possess largely opposing meanings. But I suppose that if we consider the meaning of "opposed to" (against) and "against" (near), the two usages are fairly close. And one probably needs to be near to someone/something (as in, familiar with it) to be opposed to it. And in a completely different observation, there's flammable and inflammable, which, against all existing grammatical logic, mean exactly the same thing.
English, sod it.
Hanging out the washing this morning, I was struck by a rather unprecedented sense of pride in my little sister, who, at the precocious age of 8, possesses the necessary logical and reasoning faculties to hang out the washing in a way that will prevent varied wind-prone undergarments from ending up in the next block of apartments. In a show of remarkable mental agility, she artfully fused the roles of pegs and hangers to ensure minimum space taken up and maximum drying area for all items of clothing. All with an air of acute nonchalance, and completely unaware of her own brilliance.
I teach a variety of 7-8 year old children who are barely managing to pick out "This is a shop" from a small pile of flash cards. And even if they do, the difference is that they will go through the entire pile of flash cards looking for "this", extract it when found, and then go through the entire pile looking for "is", etc. My little sister will find all four words going through the pile once. Without even being told that that is the most logical way.
I taught her blackjack in five minutes. One 7-year-old child I teach struggles with adding more than two numbers at a time without the help of little seeds to count with.
She has an enormous vocabulary. I'm not kidding.
It's the little things. I'm not a very nurturing older sister, and she is a lazy little monster who does relatively poorly in school, but some things strike me like just so many small lightning bolts.