Little Tommy watched his mom as she was baking this magnificent chocolate cake, and he was celebrating.

I mean, he started pestering his mother.

Mom, when are we going to eat the cake?

When are we going to eat the cake?

And his mother said, now, Tommy,

this cake is not for us. It's for the guests who will be coming tonight. Tommy, I'm going

upstairs to take a nap. And Tommy, do not touch the cake.

And so she goes upstairs, and I want you to imagine Tommy pulling his chair a little closer

to look at the cake, just close up, to admire mom's handiwork.

But as Tommy got closer to the cake, he noticed a slight imperfection in the double fudge

icing. There's a little swirl there. And he sought to smooth it over. That's all he's doing.

It's just going to smooth the cake over. And then, of course, he licked his

finger. But once he did this, he realized that there's another imperfection on the other side of

the cake. So he turns the cake around, and he smoothed that other side and licks his finger.

That's his reasoning.

And so he kept on turning it around, turning it around,

and then all of a sudden he realized that the cake looks far worse than in the beginning.

So he reasoned again.

Well, now that I messed it up, might as well enjoy a piece of

cake. Surely Mom would not mind at all, would she? So as Tommy was finishing his second piece of

cake, he hears Mom yelling from upstairs saying, Tommy, did I not tell you not to touch the cake?

Well, the thing is, Tommy reasoned in his mind that mom is not really very reasonable, is she?

...