"Why Don't You Put Her In Charge?"

We don't really celebrate Easter in the Buchanan household. The kids are older, so they don't need all the Easter Bunny trapping. A few chocolate bunnies and Cadbury Mini-Eggs do right by them. We are not every religious. We were Unitarian for a while until we moved. My in-laws became Born Again, and are always asking us to go to their church. (We went once at Christmas. It fulfilled an old obligation, and we don't plan on going back.) So how did we celebrate the start of spring?

We had a "Bill Paxton" Easter.

It started when The Wife and I sat to read the paper. For some, odd reason, The Wife picked up the lastest issue of Entertainment Weekly. Inside was a one-pager about the immortal actor. It gave a brief synopsis of his career; from director of the video "Fish-Heads" (Eat them up, yum!) to his defining role as Corporal Hicks in Aliens to his lead in the new HBO series, Big Love. Tis got The Wife to thinking. We had watched Big Love when we had a free HBO weekend. She wanted to see some more. Through some unnamed sources, I actually had the latest episodes. We sat down and watch two. (The one where Second Wife Chloe Sevigny throws a nightmarish birthday party, and the one where Bill takes his son hunting.) We both actually like the show; we find it kinda funny. I also think that lifestyle is way too exhausting. So instead of huntng for Easter Eggs, we watched Bill Paxton as a polygamist.

After a very early (2:00 PM) Easter dinner at the in-laws, we came home to wind-down. The Wife suggested going to McDonalds to rent a movie. Something the whole family could watch. After searching the DVD kiosk, I came home with The Greatest Game Ever Played. It's a Disney sports movie about golf; in particular the 1913 U.S. Open. Shia LeBeouf plays Francis Ouimet, a caddy who can really play, who takes on the top British player. Although on one level, it is a typical underdog sports movie, in actuality it's about how through perserverance one can actually rise above one's station. Since he was a caddy, Francis Ouimet was looked down upon by all the Upper-Crust who claimed golf as their sport. On the other side of the ocean, the top British Player, Harry Vardon (played by Stephen Dillane) is greeted with fame and fortune, but is denied membership into the Elite due to his family background. The movie is very good. Everyone liked and found it very entertaining. So what has it have to do with Bill Paxton?

He directed it.

That's how you have a "Bill Paxton" Easter.