Barbarians

So the kid has been reading Monty Python's Holy Grail in the back seat over the past few days with the same obessive attention that she was, last winter, giving to the Black Adder scripts -- asking me to explain jokes and define words and annotate cultural references, as we drive around Pork Smith.

(My favorite bit: yesterday, as we're driving home from Aikido, she demands: "What's an epic?" Me: [Startled] "What?" The Kid: "What's an epic?" Me: "Ah...it's a long narrative poem about a cultural hero which espouses the ethos of a society. I can't believe you asked me that. Hot damn. Nine years of graduate school pay off." The kid: "Blah blah blah.")

So imagine her glee when mr. delagar comes home to tell her that Terry Jones -- yes, the Terry Jones -- is speaking tomorrow evening in Fayetteville, on his new book, Barbarians.

"Oh!" she cried in bliss. "Do you think he will sign my copy of The Holy Grail?"

It was as if she had found the Holy Grail.

She and mr. delagar are attending, of course.

(Though she did have an uneasy moment, as I was writing the note to get her out of class early this morning. "I'm not sure you should tell them why, exactly," she said. "Monty Python can get a bit vulgar.")