Aunt Connie found this precious letter in her file and sent the original to David Meredith and the copy to me. When I opened it yesterday, I was overwhelmed with memories of the cutest little red headed boy in the kindergarten at St Paul's Catholic School in 1981. This is a letter that John dictated to his cousin David Meredith:

January 22, 1981

Dear David,
Can you come to our house after you come home from Switzerland? If you do have a suitcase, you can pack it. If you don't, you can bring a backpack.

If you want to be a policeman, you can come with me to the police station. Bring your standard plain old truck, and your gas man and your batman. I, John, will share with you all my Christmas toys.

Sorry David, I got an Empire Strikes Back book and my friend broke the trap door.

David, I am happy when you come back. I have never seen you before. Tell your Mom to read all of it.

I'm in kindergarten. How old are you? If you're six or five now, I'll be happy - either one.

David, my Mom is going to ask Matthew to come and bring his tie fighter.

In my school picture, I am wearing my uniform. I'll ask my teacher if my cousin, David can come to school. I can teach him all we do. He is new.

And then this masterpiece is signed in the most wonderful scrall across the entire page....John Bennion

The dear thing is that John and Wendy are at this exact time with Nathan. What fun to get a flashback to the way John was at that same age!

After a long time finally...

Mary Bennion's Talk. I uploaded it to this site here. http://www.lulu.com/content/263186. So if you want to hear it again, or you want to get it to someone else, click here to download it.

Washington DC Pt. 1

Here are some photos from Spring Break. We went to Washington DC, and saw the sights. While there we stayed with Mike and Rebecca and Margaret and Samuel. Below are some highlights. We loved the trip and recommend it highly!

Nathan and Katie in the Rosslyn Metro station near our hotel in Arlington.

All of us sitting at the WWII memorial on the east side of the Reflection Pool. The Lincoln Memorial is behind us. The pool is the site of the MLK "I Have a Dream" speech.

Inside the Lincoln Memorial. I like the lighting of this shot, and perspective that Wendy and the kids give to the statue of Lincoln.

This is shot from the Lincoln Memorial looking east to the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

This is Nate at the Vietnam Memorial. He is pointing out names of people in our family.

The White House shot from the northern tip of the Ellipse. Below that is the other side of the White House shot from the south-west corner of Lafayette Square.

NCAA Picks

Here are my picks (elite eight and on)
Duke v Texas --> Duke
Pitt v UCLA --> UCLA
UConn v UNC --> UConn
Ariz v Flor --> Ariz

Duke v UCLA --> UCLA
UConn v Ariz --> Ariz

UCLA v Ariz --> Ariz

Bring It.

FINALLY! John on Tron

First of all, I should say that I still enjoy Tron. In an era of CGI centered films and over the top action sequences (Exhibit 1 – King Kong from the Brontosaurus stampede through the bugs eating that guy headfirst), Tron is a fun story.

So here goes,

Acting – Thumb Up: I like Jeff Bridges in most everything and Bruce Boxleitner is not too shabby. The rest of the cast is also pretty good.

Writing – Thumb Middle: Aside from a pretty preposterous premise, the writing is good. In today’s world some of the terms seem silly, but taken in its time it is great. My criteria for writing is not too high, and the writing does not detract from the story. There is one notable exception, “Shall we dance?”.

Cinematography – Thumb Up: I liked the zooms, and use of contrast to add to the effects. Again, does not distract from the story.

Special Effects – Thumb Up: I like that they are not over the top. The lightcycles are still pretty cool, as are the disks.

Overall – Thumb Up: Definitely worth a rental. Get the new DVD with all the extras if you like documentary stuff. For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(film). Below is a treasure to pique your memories.

Dang Gina!

I just finished teaching my 115 class. I was observed today by one of the professors over English Composition. I showed a clip from The Fugitive--the train wreck scene. I was hoping to help my students see how to go beyond plot line to analysis (ie--not only what's going on, but how do we know it's an action film, how do we feel when we watch it, why etc...). And of course there were BAD WORDS which I didn't really think about until we watched it in front of my professor! Then they really stuck out. I hope I don't get fired! Ooops!!! It's a cool scene though. And a great film.