We were walking along talking when we came to a friend's house. He was entertaining his grandson, who was about 4 years old. The grandson was wearing his mutant ninja turtle outfit and looked plenty tough to me:
He is a little older than the boy pictured. He informed me with a steady gaze: "I am Michelangelo." I told him that in addition to the member of Ninja Turtle team, there was a famous artist named Michelangelo. His grandfather backed me up.
In roughly 100 years, humans have extended the old practice of writing short messages about what has happened lately to many additional media, from radio to text messages. The fun of sending a message is short-lived but the question quickly arises: What message should I send? Why buy a tv if there is nothing interesting on? So the rise of mass media, comic books and inspiring images and messages.
I pictured the task of explaining to Senor Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, last seen alive in the 1560's, why a four year old wearing a turtle costume and a Japanese headband has taken his name for his fantasies and play. How did the boy come to know his name? What is a mutant? What is a ninja?
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