Like most four-year-olds, Mojo has imaginary friends. He refers to them as "my little men" and he most often describes them as being engaged in some contraption-building activity in support of Cookie and Mojo's greater schemes.

We suspect these "little men" are the cartoon construction workers who appear in the Tonka computer game the boys have played for years. Once the player operates the Tonka rig to dig the hole, the little men in hard-hats scurry out and build, say, the wooden forms for casting the concrete foundation. Then the player operates the cement mixer to pour the foundation, and the little men scurry out again to set up the next stage of construction. And so on.

On our way to New Paltz yesterday Mojo informed us that his little men were also going to the corn maze. Except they weren't in the car with us -- they were traveling in a flying car. We told him it was a long trip and we hoped his little men didn't run out of gas. He assured us it was okay because his little men also have a flying gas station.

And that represents an expansion of the little men's involvement in the oil industry: earlier this summer, Mojo told us his little men operate a conventional gas station. Its name: Um'Bo M'Bummbo. He said at Um'Bo M'Bummbo they cleaned the cars and put gas in the tires. We told him that was a bad idea because the wheels would explode and that made him laugh like a maniac.

So anyway, now the little men run refueling tankers in additional to service stations.

Right now a bunch of those apples are in the oven in the form of a pie. Mojo's little men were no apparent help in the effort. Alane did the pie-prep herself, noting that at least she would follow a recipe and therefore have a greater likelihood of success than I ever would.

We'll see about that.