Ben Klinkman-Sinatra is 14 years old and an eighth-grader at St. John Catholic School on North 79th Street. He plays soccer. He runs cross-country. He lives in Ballard. He has to be coaxed to get in the shower.

He would seem to be an average teenage boy with two busy but involved parents, one younger sister and varied interests.

So why do strangers stare at Ben when we meet at The Scoop after his Saturday morning soccer game? Why are they looking at his chest as if it contains a riddle that needs to be solved?

Ben hasn’t had his teenage growth spurt yet; he actually looks a bit younger than 14. He has dark eyes, probably from his mother’s Sicilian side of the family.

Drinking a hot chocolate with whipped cream on top, it’s not immediately obvious why anyone would stare. Until you read the white typeface on his black T-shirt: tolerate lactose!

The phrase started as wordplay on the morning ride to school, then a bumper sticker and now there are T-shirts, less than 24-hours old.

Tolerate lactose, people read on the white-on-black bumper stickers. “That’s clever” they say, wondering, what it really means.

Another customer, Lucy, offers her opinion. She reveals that she herself is lactose intolerant. She doesn’t consider the t-shirt message dismissive nor is she offended.

Many years ago doctors misdiagnosed her with liver cancer when the problem was revealed to be lactose intolerance.

For Lucy, the shirt says, “Never be afraid to speak out. There can be more than one reason for symptoms or actions. Everyone needs to be challenged.”

Her response is articulate and impassioned.

Ben and I sit down while his dad orders us something with lactose and caffeine.

“My dad and I just like to joke around a lot,” Ben told me when I asked what he thinks his slogan means. “We do puns and stuff. We were putting different words after 'tolerate' and that combination jumped out at us.”

Ben’s dad Dave joins us with the drinks.

“Ben has always been very inquisitive,” he says as if by way of explanation.

It becomes obvious inquisitiveness and entrepreneurialism in the Klinkman-Sinatra family is not limited to Ben.

Theresa Klinkman-Sinatra, a fifth-grader at St. John’s, writes and illustrates stories. She is passionate about jellyfish and has her own rubber stamp logo.

Dad, Dave Klinkman, has always had an aptitude for materials management and does project management and technical sales for Color Craft Inc., a print shop that puts logos on airplanes.

Mom, Jackie Sinatra, is COO of a medical clinic with a Masters in public administration. When Ben and Theresa were younger, she was the creator of “Jackie’s Sassy Salsa.” Sunset Hill Green Market was one of her customers. The Sicilian-based salsa was such a success that the business grew beyond where she wanted to take it.

Ben has already designed the logo/exterior design for when he and his dad convert an older BMW to electric. He is fascinated by almost anything with an engine that moves (boats, not so much).

He doesn’t like to read music but composes on the piano by ear, memorizing his compositions. He started writing a pizza opera musical over the summer, with lyrics set to U2 songs, not yet completed.

Like his other ventures, such as the bumper stickers and T-shirts that he hopes to market, his profits will be donated to a charity, probably the Ballard Food Bank.

Not surprising in a teenager who is taking advanced math in the before-school time known as zero period and loves the Latin and Greek roots of words, Ben prefers nonfiction to fiction. But, he loves comedy in his movies and wit in his punning.

In exchange for helping his dad in the print shop he’s been able to make the bumper stickers and T-shirts. He has started a website (not quite active yet) to market the Tolerate Lactose products and is considering adding a blog.

He’s still learning about business and marketing costs, gross versus net profits, but there will be time. For now, he’s got a slogan that his friends think is cool and that he and his family think might have market potential.

“Make your audience an interpreter, not a critic,” his dad reminds him.

Ben’s take on the meaning of his message: “I think it’s a funny way of saying world peace.”

Kim Paxton at The Scoop loves the Tolerate Lactose message but interprets it rather differently.

“Lighten up,” she says. “That’s what it means – lighten up.”