While at work one day, I was speaking to a young mother who had her thirteen month old son with her. As we were talking I glanced down at her child and was startled to see the kid was frowning. Not slightly, not briefly: he had what appeared to be a permanent worried scowl on his face. He looked really upset about something; like somebody was after him. His expression never changed. He constantly had this concerned look. Then things got really weird: his eyes started moving from side to side. He looked like an actor in a sixties spy flick. A co-worker and I tried to make him laugh but failed. We attempted this for two reasons; one: to get the kid to smile and stop looking so worried and two: because the way he looked made us uncomfortable. Just like some people act like their Uncle Harry or other folks look like the mailman, I think that's the way this little guy was. Nothing bad had happened to him, he just frowned a hell of a lot.
But, as we all looked at him, he started to remind me of various fictional characters who have fixed facial expressions (like The Joker). I couldn't put my finger on it, but he reminded me of one character in particular. Then it dawned on me. The kid looked just like . . . .
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