by Sarah Kliban
kids@thd.org
Welcome to Kids Corner! THD wants to hear from kids from the neighborhood and The City in general! If you’d like to ask a question, or you’re a kid and want to be interviewed, please contact us at: kids@thd.org.
ZOË LEPPER, 11
Make up a new word right now and tell us what it means.
“Cataphobic. When you cannot tolerate cats in your home. (Depressing!) e.g., Theroommates were cataphobic people and, therefore, did not accept someone with cats.”
If you could be in the circus, what would your act be?
“Unicycler. I’ve always found it so cool. Or trapeze. I would be riding in circles on a Unicycle; then somebody would pick me up and we’d go flying and do something. I could
then do a trapeze act.”
If you could design a new toy, what would it be?
“It would be a brainwashing machine. Your parents would get brainwashed into letting you get whatever you want. Knowing me, that would probably end up being ten cats. It would look like a yo-yo that moves back and forth in front of someone but interesting-looking.”
If you could switch places with anyone in the world for a day, who would it be?
“Somebody in Donald Trump’s close family, so I could go up to him and punch him inthe face. It would feel like vindication.”
What is your favorite place to hang out in San Francisco?
“Any open market. Alemany Market or the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. There are a bunch of shops and food trucks in the back. I’ve had the best tacos ever at Alemany.”
ARHAN CHANDRASEKARAN, 11
Make up a new word right now and tell us what it means.
“Blorg. It means ecstatic or happy. e.g., I’m kind of blorg right now.”
If you could be in the circus, what would your act be?
“The trapeze person. I’d jump from one trapeze to another and do flips. I’d work with ateam. We could do a human pyramid. I’d be The Great Arhan.”
If you could design a new toy, what would it be?
“A stuffed animal with ChatGPT built into it. You could talk to it, and it would give youanswers. Like a Build-A-Bear. It would talk like a kid—not overly wordy. It would be smart and funny.”
If you could switch places with anyone in the world for a day, who would it be?
“Jeff Probst. I like his job as the host on ‘Survivor’—on an island somewhere. He gets to watch everybody and interrogate them, and he also gets to know everything. He can be pretty sassy.”
What is your favorite place to hang out in San Francisco?
“Dogpatch Games. There’s not really anything like it anywhere else. It’s not expensive,and it’s fun. It’s for the people, not for the money. All the staff there are really nice and helpful when you want to pick out a game to play.”
IMOGEN CLARKE, 11
Make up a new word right now and tell us what it means.
“Gibba. You’re happy, but you’re also scared. e.g., Right now, I’m very gibba because I have a test coming up.”
If you could be in the circus, what would your act be?
“Tap dancing—on a rope. Twenty feet up. I’d have backup dancers who would try to catch me if I fell. I’d be wearing a big ploofy dress—pink with black polka dots, and my tap shoes would be gold high heels.”
If you could design a new toy, what would it be?
“You could have whatever you want flying. It would be an app. You would plug in whatever you want to fly. You could say, ‘I want a donut flying,’ and this slime creation would magically turn into a donut and start flying around your room. It would be $30.
The Flying Collapsible Toy.”
If you could switch places with anyone in the world for a day, who would it be?
“Taylor Swift. I would be really rich, and I would have a lot of fans, bodyguards, seven trillion mansions, a bunch of cats. (I think she has three.) I would get to see what I do every day and what normal life is when I’m not in the studio.”
What is your favorite place to hang out in San Francisco?
“Going to Starbucks with my friends after school is really fun. I normally get a Pink Drink (coconut strawberry thing). And playing volleyball on the court. At Jackson Park or a park near me. I don’t have a volleyball though, so I’d count on my friends to bring
one.”
PHOEBE TUCKER, 11
Make up a new word right now and tell us what it means.
“Padudu. You’re kinda having a good time and feeling kinda goofy. e.g., I was padudu around my friends today.”
If you could be in the circus, what would your act be?
“The hoop with the lions. A lion tamer. Three lions would jump through the hoop, and I would do crazy stuff with them. Then they would hug me. The audience would be scared at first and then ‘Aww!’”
If you could design a new toy, what would it be?
“A toy that can make a pool for you and put it anywhere. It’s a little robot that can put a pool in the ground. In five minutes, you can have a big pool. When you’re done with the pool, it can just take the pool back. Temperature-controlled. It would have a remote, and you could turn it into a hot tub.”
If you could switch places with anyone in the world for a day, who would it be?
“A zookeeper at the San Diego Zoo so I can see cute animals for the day. I could be in charge of maybe the foxes or Fennec foxes or a few of the birds. Sometimes foxes are hard to get along with, but I think it would go pretty well.”
What is your favorite place to hang out in San Francisco?
“Japantown. I like the bookstore (Kinokuniya). It’s not just books. They have other stuff. Downstairs they have a whole Anime section. And good magazines. Sometimes they have K-Pop magazines and cute outfit magazines. And I also like Boba Guys (Potrero) and the whole vibe of the place. My favorite drink: Iced Matcha latte with strawberry puree, double boba, and drinkable mochi.”
