Ben, Maria and mo’ bang bang

Another busy weekend in the Dilettante household – herewith a recap and a few additional thoughts on the passing scene:

• We sent Ben off to Laurentian Environmental Center this morning. LEC is a facility that the Mounds View School District 621 (ISD 621) operates in lovely Britt, Minnesota, which is about 60 miles northwest of Duluth, past the Iron Range towns of Eveleth and Virginia, smack dab in the middle of the Superior National Forest. ISD 621 sends its 5th grade students up there for a week to learn about nature, the North Woods, and probably some general-issue environmental propaganda. It’s par for the course, but whether I agree with the curriculum, it’s a big adventure for the kids. Ben’s school gets the mid-winter visit; other schools in ISD 621 go at different times of the year. Ben is now 11 years old and he’s never been away from his family for more than an overnight sleepover before, so it will be an interesting experience for him. He will also get a chance to try his hand at playing lacrosse and doing some ice fishing and cross-country skiing, in between bouts of Will Steger and Al Gore. Fortunately, no Arctic blasts are imminent, so he should be able to stay warm while he’s up there. Just another reason to like global warming.
• Ben’s basketball team was also back in action on Saturday, losing to the hated Maroon team by a final score of 40-20. Ben scored four points, grabbed a few rebounds and set a textbook pick that freed one of his teammates for an uncontested layup. For a kid who weighs less than 80 pounds, it was an excellent impersonation of Karl Malone. While his team continues to suffer from a talent and experience gap, we’re seeing some progress and Ben’s game has improved a lot this year.
• Maria had her kids’ birthday party on Saturday as well. She invited her Brownie troop buddies over for a Hawaiian-style “hula girl” party, which meant we had a bunch of giggly 7 year old girls running around our house in hula skirts, after they’d removed their winter jackets and snow pants, of course. We even cranked up the furnace to make it warm in the house. Maria and co. had a marvelous time; she has a nice group of friends and we’re delighted about that. And our house is now littered with even more Polly Pockets stuff; I didn’t think that was possible.
• I need to get out of the prognostication business. I picked the Saints and Patriots to advance to Super Bowl XLI. That worked out well, eh? Okay, I’ll say this much about the SBXLI matchup – the allegiance in our household lies strongly with Tony Dungy. Time for Tony to get his ring. If Rex Grossman becomes a winning Super Bowl quarterback, I’ll be amazed. This should be a fun one, though.
• It’s been bugging me for months now – every time I see Chuck Hagel on camera, I’m instantly repulsed, but I’ve never been quite able to figure out why, aside from his asinine rhetoric. Then I figured it out – Hagel looks a hell of a lot like Robert Mitchum did in “Night of the Hunter,” one of the most genuinely scary movies ever made. See for yourself: