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Hey all,

Some may have picked this up from my thread "Black Powder question" but my girls are involved with the non-profit Creative Arts Theater and School in Arlington. They are running "Yankee Doodle Dandies" which is a funny and sometimes moving musical revue of American History. It is written and directed by a local and renowned playwright/director Taffy Geisel and runs tomorrow night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night (by now all of the kinks are worked out ) and for those who want to stick around we are retiring a flag Saturday night after the last show.

This school does a huge service in teaching kids skills the need to excel in communication and many go on to work in the profession. They offer occasional scholarships and currently one of the biggest talents is there on scholarship. Please come out if you can and support the kids and the school, you won't be disappointed and may even learn something.

I know you guys are tired of me harping on my girls' work, but I am a proud dad. Anyway the play wrapped this weekend with good houses at both shows on Saturday. In preparation for the flag retirement, the director asked me to address the class, give a small lecture on flag protocol and we covered a bit of Civil War History (I had brought my great great grandfather's sword). It turned into an involved Q&A over history and some time on the topic of 9-11, I was praying I'd know the answers.

I had cobbled together an honor guard with two other dads (one an army vet), three boys from the cast and one of my daughters. We worked out the walk out and procedure for dismantling and then incinerating the flag. The gathering was huge (about 100) with a few more vets. I did a short brief and advised the veterans that according to the US code they could render hand salutes. We did a silent drill and once the honor guard dismissed the director's son started a round of "God Bless America". There wasn't a dry eye. Of course I didn't cry but I must have gotten smoke in my eye