We had our annual Viking Youth Camp on Saturday, at the Danish American Society in Minneapolis. For a change we had a pretty nice day, by August standards in Minnesota. It was warm, but not stinking hot, and it was humid, but that’s not as bad if it’s not stinking (see above) hot.

Unfortunately the good weather wasn’t matched by good attendance. A lot of people who’d said they’d come didn’t show. So perhaps we’ve fallen under the classic Catch-22: If the weather is bad, it’s too lousy to come to the camp, and if it’s good, we can go up to the lake instead.

My charge for the day was to oversee the Stone Toss Game. It’s a game played with stones and stakes in the ground, kind of like horseshoes, except that there are limits to the science you can apply, because the uneven stones and the uneven ground make every toss a surprise.

I noted that the littler the kids were, the better they seemed to do at the game, as if proximity to the ground gave them the home court advantage. The exception was a somewhat older kid, perhaps Junior High age, who racked up a phenomenal six points, something I’d have sworn was impossible. I was later told he’s borderline autistic, and wouldn’t be at all surprised if that didn’t give him an advantage in some way.

Avoidance, alas, doesn’t seem to confer any benefit at all.