Web Log Archives, Sunday, June 25th through Saturday, July 8th, 2006

Saturday, July 8th, 2006

"Just because you're a bag of bones with a face like an alligator shoe doesn't mean you have to give up on romance," says Dr. Sheila Marsha, a geriatric sexologist from West Palm Beach, Fla. "It's true that you're over the hill -- but so are your potential lovers. So that means you still can score if you keep your expectations low and accept the fact that the cute little forty-somethings you fantasize about are young enough to be your grandchildren."

Friday, July 7th, 2006

Of all the college literature that Maggie received during her search, application and (Praise God!) acceptance at a bragging-rights campus of the University of California, one solicitation stands out.

Thursday, July 6th, 2006                   Bush is 60.

It is regularly broadcast by our MSM that critics are offering no alternate plans, no solutions, to deal with the mess in Iraq. But isn't it that the situation itself has become such a catastrophe---intractable, that no one can any longer deal with it. The only 'solution' now is to admit it was a blunder and to leave or to, maybe, just leave.
The Decider blathers on (to the cheers of a by-invitation-only audience): "I'm not going to allow the sacrifice of 2,527 troops who have died in Iraq to be in vain."  For those of us old enough to remember Lyndon Johnson, this is a familiar bit of blather.

Wednesday, July 5th, 2006

"In the second and third centuries there were, of course, Christians who believed that there was only one God. Other people who called themselves Christian, however, insisted that there were two different gods---one of the Old Testament and one of the New Testament. These were not simply two different facets of the same God: they were actually two different gods. The groups that made these [disparate] claims insisted that their views were the true teaching of Jesus and his apostles. Other groups [e.g., the Gnostic Christians] insisted that there were not just two gods, but twelve. Others said thirty. Still others said three hundred sixty-five. All these groups claimed to be Christian...insisting that their views were true and had been taught by Jesus and his followers. 
Why didn't these other groups simply read their New Testaments to see that their views were wrong? ...because there was no New Testament! The New Testament itself emerged out of these conflicts over God (or the gods), as one group of believers acquired more converts than all the others and decided which book should be included in the canon of scripture. During the second and third centuries, however, there was no agreed-upon canon----and no agreed-upon theology. Instead, there was a wide range of diversity: diverse groups asserting diverse theologies based on diverse written texts, all claiming to be written by apostles of Jesus." Bart Ehrman, 'Misquoting Jesus'

Tuesday, July 4th, 2006                   Happy Birthday, America!

"The flag burner, after all, is at least acknowledging the flag's power as a symbol of this country. Whatever else you might think about his political judgment, he at least cares enough to express his unhappiness with the nation's direction. Apathy and neglect are far greater threats to this nation's freedom and security than political criticism, however inappropriately expressed."  Jay Bookman

"...experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."  Thomas Jefferson, 1776

Monday, July 3rd, 2006

Saturday night, me and RJ began recording an old favorite. What fun!

The druggies are everywhere! This just in from the Associated Press:  Crack Found In Foam On Shuttle Fuel Tank! 

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006      Happy Birthday, Ruth!

Funeral directors (like emergency room and hospice care doctors and nurses) are accustomed to events and situations to which most of are quite unaccustomed. During my mother's final stay in a Florida hospital (more than twenty years ago) I noticed that staff on the 'terminal floor' regarded a patient who was expected to live a few more days as they might regard a patient who was expected to live a few more years; and someone expected to live a few more weeks (if such a one were there at all) was treated as if he (or she) might live forever! No urgency and no special concern. It was only when a patient's remaining time could (finally) be counted in hours did the staff's attention become concentrated. This seeming indifference stood in macabre contrast to the usual demeanor of visiting family members...fairly overcome by the anticipated death (or 'passing away') of a loved one. None of what I write here is startling. Someone who expects to work in an end-of-life environment will need to have an 'attitude'.

A week ago today, when Maggie and I attended the obsequies for KB,
among the many turns of phrase we heard was this one:

rather than saying that 'her life had ended', it was said that 'her life had been lived'.

I like that!

Saturday, July 1st, 2006

"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else." Fateh Mohammad

Friday, June 30th, 2006

"Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. Prudent people look beyond the incident itself and seek to form the habit of putting it to good use.
On the occasion of an accidental event, don't just react in a haphazard fashion. Remember, instead, to turn inward and to ask what resources you have for dealing with it. Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.

If you encounter an attractive person, then self-restraint is the resource needed;
if pain or weakness, then stamina;
if verbal abuse, then patience.

As time goes by and you build on the habit of matching the appropriate inner resource to each incident, you will not get carried away by life's appearances."

Epictetus (55-135) was, arguably, the author of the Western world's first 'self-help' book: the "Manual" (or the "Handbook", depending on the translator). He was a Dr. Phil for his time. He was a 'fatalist', in the sense that he reminds us that much of what happens ('an accidental event') is beyond our control...and all we might be able to control, with some practice and persistence ('turning inward' and 'matching the appropriate...resource'), is how we react to what happens. 

Thursday, June 29th, 2006                        Carol Aronson is fifty-nine.

OMG! Is this for real? The background story (weird all unto itself) is that last week a 67 year-old gentleman, living alone in Petaluma, California [who happens to be a convicted armed robber whose home in Southern California was used as a hideout for two men later convicted in the1963 plot to kidnap the son of Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra], was found to be harboring several hundred (perhaps a thousand) rats. When the authorities took notice, the situation was deemed to be a public health hazard and, so, the rodents were rounded up and moved to a local animal shelter where, not surprisingly, most were euthanized. 

Here are just two reactions from self-described rat-lovers:

Phyllis Mason wrote, "This is an unspeakable injustice to those rats who deserved better. Why didn't the Petaluma Animal Shelter give us a chance to help?" 

Tina Bird (yup, that's her name) wrote that the 'rat community' was in the process of  mobilizing when the rodents were killed. "Maybe they would have been better advised to leave the animals in their horrible conditions until we, the rat community, had a few days to get moving. Be sure that animal lovers across the United States will be scrutinizing Petaluma's actions and culpability for this slaughter!"

Is there really a Rat & Mouse Club of America...with a Florida Chapter? 

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006   My dad was born ninety-one years ago. My step-dad was born one hundred seventeen years ago!

 of Famine and Pestilence or
why no act of kindness, however small, ever goes unpunished. ;-)

Reading of my squirrelfriend, my big brother (on the other side of the country) was motivated to compose the following (excerpted and edited):

"It is against [Florida] State laws to feed (or kill) wild animals. We can't even [?] leave cat food outside...[on account of there being lotsa] rats and raccoons. We also have several  iguanas (4 footers) basking on the canal. [?] Our local outside cats  have battle scars. [?]  One has disappeared. [?] Our cars and patios are adorned with  pigeon poop. [Yum(!)...and me without a spoon!] Screeching blue jays dive bomb humans, cats and dogs [so] we now beg people "PLEASE DON'T FEED THE AMINALS (sic)" or we shoot to kill. [!] Bird feeders should be against the law."

Yeah, but how would you like it...if you were a squirrel and somebody decided not to feed you?
 
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

I have a squirrelfriend! 

         
He likes raw, shelled almonds...three at a time. But with almonds at $6.99 a pound, I've been trying to move him over to peanuts in the shell (at $1.79 a pound)...even if I have to remove the shells for him (or her). RJ says it's a Fox Squirrel.

Q:  OK. Why do they pronounce them "ah-monds" and not "al-monds"?
A: Because to get them out of the tree, they have to knock the "l" out of them.

Monday, June 26th, 2006

God, take my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my will.
All that I am and all that I have has been given to me.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things which should be changed,
And wisdom to distinguish one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace,
Taking this world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make things right if I surrender to Your will,
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy in the next. 

The above is an adaptation (a variation, really) of what has become known as 'The Serenity Prayer'. Although usually attributed to Rheinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), its origin is, actually, not so clear. Lines three through five, of course, are commonly associated with Alcoholics Anonymous. The story goes that it was an AA member, in 1939, who noticed them in an obituary and brought them to the attention of a AA co-founder.

Sunday, June 25th, 2006

Maggie and I attended a memorial service
 which was held this afternoon
 in Oakland for my friend Kirsten Burge.

KB's two stately daughters
 and her two beautiful teenage granddaughters
 were among the mourners.

At left is the single flower
 that bloomed this morning 
on a plant by the side of the house.
The plant was a gift two years back...
from my baby sister.
This is its first flower.

"...what we have here is an effort to amend the Constitution and abridge the First Amendment in order to stop people from doing what people aren't doing."  Leonard Pitts Jr.

Current Blog