Liam (getting out of the shower): Mommy, can I tell you something?

Mommy (ears pricking up lest she miss An Important Mother-Son Moment): Sure, anything.

Liam (looking at mommy sideways to gauge her reaction): Today, at Barnes and Noble, in the magazine section, I saw a magazine with a lady on the cover who was … completely naked.

Mommy (aware of the potential irony of this conversation occurring while she is drying off her son’s naked post-shower body): Really. Hmmm … So what did you think about that? 

Liam: It was weird, Mommy. And there were other magazines like that, too and I saw –

Mommy: You saw her breasts and –

Liam (giggling): and everything. And I saw another magazine that said “hot guys inside” and had a picture of a guy with no shirt on.

Mommy (wishing that the magazine racks were higher off the ground or that her son didn’t know how to read): What does “hot” mean, do you know?

Liam (striking a pose and flexing his muscles): it means really, really good looking. But this guy, I don’t know mommy, he wasn’t that hot. He had a big moustache and stuff.

Mommy (wondering when and why the 1970s ‘stache came back into fashion and what, exactly, Liam means by “stuff”): Really. So hot means good-looking? But you didn’t think this guy was good looking?

Liam: No. It was just weird. Why would someone want a magazine like that do you think?

Mommy: Well… I guess some people like to look at naked bodies. So they make magazines that they think people will buy.

Liam: Like they do with legos. Always making things so you want new stuff?

Mommy: Same idea, I guess, right.

Liam (pjs on, teeth brushed): Can I play Wii now?

Clearly, in the battle between “gadgets” and “naked” that rages constantly in the male brain, electronica is winning – at least for now. I wonder how much longer?