View From the Bushes

I started watching the Star Wars trilogy with my kids on Sunday. No, not the new DVD releases, but the original movies on VHS. Our main VCR is broken, so all the kids would crowd into my office to watch it on my little 14" TV/VCR. Every so often do you ever look around and think, "This is what it's all about," or perhaps, "This is exactly how I imagined it." It's a sort of a sudden epiphany that your dreams have come to pass and life is pretty good. Last night as I was finishing up things with Jedi I had that feeling -- one kid on my lap while I worked on the computer, another sitting in a folding chair just behind me and to the right, and another one sitting on top of the second desk, all basking in the magic.

Of course, those little brats would not shut up with the questions (yes this part is tongue-in-cheek). Why are they burning Darth Vader? Who's the Emperor? If Luke and Leia were seperated at birth how are they 100% brother and sister? Why is Luke wearing a glove? Is that Ewok dead? Who does the blue tail belong to? Why is the big fat man crying? How could things which resemble teddy-bears and possessing stone-age technology defeat the most advanced military in the galaxy? (okay, that last one is mine, and disappointingly none of my kids and an answer.) Still, despite the questions, to be able to watch the movies I loved as a children and have my children love them just as much is pretty damn cool.

For the link today, we have a recent article in Snopes about General Patton. There are several nice things about this article: first, unlike many recent articles in Snopes, it turns out to be true (or at least it's actually an anecdote related by the great general, not something incorrectly attributed to him). Secondly, it makes fun of the French, and finally anything about Patton is automatically cool.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross