"And nothing makes elephants."

Quoth my four-year-old son.

That's just an excerpt, of course. The entire statement is as follows:

"Weasels make otters; hyenas make weasels; elephants make hyenas. And nothing [a foreboding pause] makes elephants."

Damn, little guy. Why so serious? Kind of a bleak outlook, if you're an elephant. Or a hyena, weasel or otter, for that matter. One can only guess at what otters make. Wapiti, perhaps?

And this is from a kid who has never once seen The Lion King, so don't tell me it has anything to do with Walt Disney and the whole "circle of life" thing.

No, the lad is obviously an existential nihilist. I blame myself. (I would have to, wouldn't I; in his eyes anyway.)

Fortunately for the food chain and all its many links, five minutes later he was stripping off his clothes and doing the "booty dance" for his sisters. It was our own little return to normalcy.

(But if I were an elephant, et al, I'd watch myself, all the same. Just to be safe.)