Gratuitous Nats Posting (TM) - "What'r You Going To Do, Bleed On Me?" Division

The Nats dropped a rain-shortened make-up game to the Cards last night, 4-1. The gremlin bogey now stands at 54.

When they stopped play, it was raining heavily enough that we reckoned the game would be washed out altogether. So instead of waiting around to see, I popped in my battered old tape of Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the Llama-ettes.

Now my philosophy is that there are certain culchahrul references with which any young lady or gentleman should become familiar in the course of their education. (The significance of Birnam Wood, for instance. Or the melody of Bach's Wachet Auf! Or what NFL team is still the only one ever to have had a perfect season.) And among those references, I feel it is very important that they also should know that there's a difference in the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow depending on whether it's an African or a European variety.

I'm happy to report that the Llama-ettes ate up all that they should have, from the first appearance of the coconuts, through the Black Knight, "Bring out yer dead!" "Run awaaaaay!!", Camelot being a silly place, Brave Sir Robin, the Knights Who Say "Ni!", the Holy Hand-Grenade of Antioch and all the rest of it.

The only joke that sailed completely over their heads was the anarcho-syndicalist commune and "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" The only slightly sticky point for me was when they asked, "But Dad, why do all those ladies WANT Galahad to give them spanks?" (I responded with a nonchalant "Never mind." Do not underestimate the value of the non-answer in dealing with the young.)

Interestingly enough, the Llama-ettes all thought the end of the movie was, to quote the eldest, "pretty lame". I have heard this criticism before from more sophisticated mouths, and although I am more or less neutral on the topic myself, I can recognize that the position has some merit. (Certainly the ending is the movie's weak point, and of course it can't compare with the ending of Life of Brian.) I was impressed that the gels swooped in on it so emphatically.

So this morning, the eleven year old sidled up to me and said, "Dad? Did Monty Python make any more movies or shows? They're really funny." "That's good!" I replied, slipping into a completely different reference. "You've taken your first steps into a wider universe!"

Incidentally, they're all outside playing "Answer Me These Questions Three". Only instead of being hurled into the Gorge of Eternal Peril, those who miss an answer are made to suffer the Hose of Eternal Soaking.