Benfinger

While I was watching television with Rachel and her friends last night, my son Ben was on the computer in the other room. He kept laughing loudly and then suddenly showed up at my elbow asking me to come look at something he had found on the Internet.

A couple of months ago, Ben discovered Google Earth and then Googling. He likes to look at weird geographic features, cities and countries he's heard about (especially Dubai), and our house. He usually Googles Star Wars and TV shows he likes. He loves YouTube videos made from Star Wars video games. Lately, he's been watching the Large Marge scene of "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" over and over.

So last night I go in to see what he's excited about with a warning that I don't want to see Large Marge again. He pulls up Google and types in "Crocodile eating someones head". Yes, that's right.

He doesn't get the hit he's looking for, so he tries some other combination. He then finds the video that's been cracking him up. It's of some circus performer in Asia who's got a trained crocodile. He has the croc open its mouth and after demonstrating that whacking it in the head won't make it close its jaws, he sticks his hand in. The croc decides he's had enough and bites down on the guy's arm. Chaos ensues, and Ben is laughing hysterically. (At the end, the guy doesn't appear to be seriously injured.)

Ben then shows me another similar video, this one involving a guy sticking his head into a croc's open jaws. "Shockingly", the croc bites the guy's head. This is also apparently really, really funny.

This incident has made it clear to me that that Ben is heading towards some sort of career in Super-Villainy. His crocodile tank will be designed to tear James Bond to bits. I hope he figures out some way to keep Bond from just running on the backs of the crocs and out of the tank. Maybe we'll talk about that tonight.

If he's going to be a Super-Villain, I'd prefer he be a successful one.