Fourteen people interviewed by a team of reporters on Ford Parkway called today's weather "great."

IT all started on a visit home two weeks ago, when I suggested to my seven-and-a-half-year-old cousin Ari that we interview our grandparents.

"They can tell us about when they were kids," I suggested.

"Naw," Ari said defiantly. "Let's be real reporters. Let's write a story for tomorrow's newspaper."

I went along with it. After all, I was curious to find out what being a reporter meant to a seven-year-old.

I gathered a few sharpened pencils and two stenographic notepads. We headed to the living room for a private story conference.

"Well, what do you think is a news-worthy event, something worth asking about?" I tried to lead him on, anticipating some fresh news judgment, or at least something as imaginative as his drawings of robots.

We sat for a while, puzzled. Searching for that elusive story idea that would please both of us and our hypothetical readers.

"How about the weather?" he offered.

USA-Today-full-color-weather-map news judgment in its incubating stages? I wasn't eager to find out. Not wanting to quash his enthusiasm, however, I jotted this down as the first question.

I tried to think of a question he would like to hear answered, and remembered the preeminence of Nintendo in his world.

"How about 'what toys did you play with when you were young, and how do they compare with toys nowadays?'" I suggested. Not exactly news, but a features angle that might keep him interested. He agreed.

Now what we needed was an issue of global importance. Death, politics, controversy. What would he grasp?

The environment, I offered. "Instead, how about asking them about their habitats," he wondered. He had spent too much time learning about his pet snake.

WE had scrawled our three questions onto our pads--including his last entry, "Invirment"--and now we embarked on the search for people to interview. I thought we'd stop after the two adults in the house.