An Anecdote Antidote

I was saying good night to the kids when a few amusing things happened:

The first things was that Megan begged me to do her homework for her.  It was ironic because the assignment was to write a slogan about the importance of educating someone to do things themselves instead of doing things for them. 

Then I turned off the hall light at Rachel's request but had to flip it back on so that I could see to put some ointment on Andrew's sore finger.  While I was doctoring Andrew, I heard an annoyed whisper from Rachel in the other room: Turn off the hall light!!!  When I was done with Andrew I walked back in to Rachel's room but before I could explain to her why I had needed the light again she asked me to define two words from the book she was reading: "anecdote" and "antidote".  I said, "An 'anecdote' is a short, amusing story and an 'antidote' is a medicine that reverses a disease.  Then I said, "I will now give you an example of an anecdote. . [insert pretentious throat-clearing here]. . There I was, applying an antidote to Andrew's finger when I heard you whisper an angry request which you didn't know I could hear."

She giggled in embarrassment and said, "Wow.  You have good hearing."  Then, maybe just to change the subject,  she said, "Well, is there such a thing as an "anecdote antidote"?  I said, " I don't think so.  Unless maybe someone is suffering from an acute lack of amusing short stories."