Maybe the reason musical kids stand out ("like aliens" as someone putit) is because nowadays so few children are given exposure to enough of it to create an interest. Most kids are left in front of a TV by parents who are too busy to expose them to any better culture on a regular basis; others are given "toys" like video games, cell phones, boom boxes and other electronica at an early age, and as they get older they demand more and more such "toys" and grow farther and farther away from anything more substantial. How many parents today even buy their youngsters musical instruments, compared to the number that buy their kids these expensive, status-conferring "gizmos" that we see everywhere? Of course a musically talented child is looked on as unusual --- heck, *any* child today who learns to play an instrument (or, alas, to *read* before entering school) will be seen as "different" from her/his peers. Give thanks for the gag-inducing "cuteness" of that five year old fiddle player; that child has a chance of growing up with its brains in place and a fair amount of its individuality intact.

Mary Katherine <-----stepping down from soapbox now