DR. WALLACE: I'm a 17-year-old girl and the eldest of three siblings. My youngest brother is 11, and he sees himself as a jokester, prankster and occasional actor. He thinks his entire life is a performance on a stage.

He came to me early Saturday evening as I was putting on makeup to get ready to go out for an evening with my friends, and he asked me if I would drive him to our local mall the next Saturday afternoon.

I asked him why, and then he told me a whole story he had concocted. He wants me to use my makeup to dress his face up so that he can perform in front of the mall as a mime! He seems to think that he's going to make enough money to make it worthwhile for his time. I humorously told him that I thought he wasn't going to make any money "worthy to speak of," but he gave me a long face with a grimace, as he didn't think my joke was funny.

I suggested that we go check with our mom to see if that would be all right since I do have a car to drive. I could take him over there and I'd be willing to make up his face with my makeup as long as my mother approves. But my brother doesn't want me to say anything to my mom because he's afraid she won't let him do it. He wants me to drive him over there in the early afternoon and then for me to go shopping in the mall for about an hour and a half and then come back and check on him to see how much money he had earned.

Should I do this since I'll be near him the entire time? He actually wants to set up outside of the mall because he's afraid the mall won't let him do it inside since he's not any type of an authorized vendor.

I find his idea to be interesting and creative, but I'm quite hesitant to do this without checking with my mother first. What do you think? - Little Brother Wants to Mime, via email

LITTLE BROTHER WANTS TO MIME: You would be treading into treacherous waters if you did this behind your mother's back. Under no circumstances should you do this without informing your mother and garnering her approval in advance.

Think about it: Your brother went to you directly with this idea rather than mentioning it to your mother at all. This should tell you everything you need to know, as he feels he would not be allowed to do this by a parent. Yet he's bold enough to try to persuade you since you could provide the two things that he needs: a vehicle for transportation, and a makeup artist who could paint his face for him. Simply put, don't do this in an unauthorized manner.

If your mother were to somehow approve, she should be included in the outing. Short of that, the best way to resolve this is to tell your brother you'll be happy to do it as long as your mother approves, and that you'll be his personal makeup stylist. From there, the ball is rightfully in his court.

MY BROTHER RAPS FROM SHORTSTOP!

DR. WALLACE: I'm a high school baseball player on the boys' team, and my little brother plays in our city's Little League. He's pretty athletic for his age and he plays shortstop, which is an important position in the infield.

However, when I went to see one of his games recently, I was surprised by not only the amount of chatter he was making when he was out in the field at shortstop, but also in the way he was doing it. When it comes to Little League games, for many years, I've heard the usual chatter of "hey batter, hey batter, ... swing!"

But apparently this is not good enough for my little brother. He literally thinks he's a smooth operator out there at shortstop and he whips himself up into a fervor before each pitch, and he starts spewing a whole bunch of rhyming rap "lyrics" filled with baseball jargon! He keeps it brief and quick so that he can get the words out just before the ball is pitched. What's even crazier is that he changes the rap line with every pitch! I have no idea how he's coming up with all this stuff. He probably has a whole bunch of lines that he recites randomly and eventually repeats, but while I was watching his game, I never heard two lines that were the same.

I was surprised that none of the coaches on his team or even the other team tried to stop him from doing this. After the game, I asked him why he was "rapping" while he was out in the field, and he answered that he wanted the batters to focus on what he might say next and think about it rather than concentrating on the ball coming in.

Do you think my little brother is exhibiting bad sportsmanship by doing this, even if no one told him to stop it? — Brother is a Little League Rapper, via email

BROTHER IS A LITTLE LEAGUE RAPPER: This is indeed an unusual twist on a time-honored tradition of little leaguers chirping their infield banter. As long as your brother is not using any swear words, controversial or demeaning phrases in any way, he's likely not causing a problem that concerns anyone, especially his coach.

They could have easily stepped in and corrected him had they felt the need to do so, and the fact that the opposing coach also did not speak up about this indicates further unspoken approval, or at least indifference to your brother's sports rhymes. It could be that everyone is slightly entertained by his creative antics.

And to your question about sportsmanship, baseball is a sport that does involve ongoing chatter, and also one in which teams try to steal signs from each other, or to see if a pitcher is "tipping" pitches so that a batter may be able to figure out what pitch is coming next. Therefore, as long as his rap lyrics are clean, I don't see any sportsmanship violation at all.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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