Disney Movies + Poor Education = Homosexual Marriage

In a few hours the U.S. Supreme Court will hear  arguments in a case that will decide if the people of California have the right, under the U.S. Constitution, to forbid same-sex marriage.  I am astounded that it is even a question.  But, I suppose, I shouldn't be astounded.  There has been a 40 year campaign to see the normalization of homosexual behavior.  The entertainment media has been full of sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals since as early as I can remember.  When I was a little boy, 8 or 9 years old, there were two television shows that had homosexual caracters: Soap and Three's Company.  I didn't know until later, probably in my early teens what the shows were about, but there they were, polluting my mind;  and polluting the minds of my countrymen.  If one watches Glee or - and here I am guessing because I do not have a television machine and only stream a few things over the internet - or other television shows, then one can witness the constant overt persuasion.

And it seems the country has been persuaded.  But why?  What has changed?  This is what I think has changed.  Two things.  The first of them is Disney.  It is Disney's fault.  They have been telling kids since the 1930s that marriage is about happiness and romantic feelings.  Prior to that, I think everyone understood that marriage was about property and children, and if one was a Christian it was also about salvation.  When did divorce laws in America begin to liberalize?  In the middle 1950s and 1960s, when those kids raised on Disney movies and other fantasies about marriage began to be legislators and judges.

Abandonment and adultery and incurable insanity had been the usual grounds for the rare divorce.  But then "cruelty" or "mental cruelty" were added.  And in in California in the 1960s up to 70% of divorce case plantiffs were asking for divorces for such cruelties as "she refuses to make dinner", and "he swears at me".  And in 1970 at the urging of lawyers and judges, Caifornia made the first "no-fault" divorce law in the United States. (A black mark on Ronald Reagans record.)   And marriage, in the pursuit of individual happiness, became completely separated from its original purpose: The generation of and provision for children.

The second thing that contributed to the acceptance of the idea of homosexual marriage is a lack of mental training.  Are you surprised I did not say a lack of evangelization, or a decline in the percentage of Christians?  Perhaps, that is what I should have said for Natural Law is an important outgrowth of Christian theology, but many of the people who favor homosexual marriage are Christians.  They think of it as unfair to forbid the happiness of marriage to people who have homosexual urges.  (There's that happiness thing again.) No, the problem is lack of mental rigor and training.

The first time I really thought about the subject was in 1988. I was witness to a man getting a "bad conduct" discharge from the Army for committing homosexual sodomy.  Of course, being a Christian, I knew what he did was wrong, but I was interested in why the United States Army cared.   So I decided to try and figure it out.

It only took a couple of days, but I reasoned out the Natural Law on the subject (I had been introduced to the concept by Francis Schaeffer), though I am sure my understanding was crude.  Later, in my mid-20s and when I joined the Conservative Book Club, I read a little pamphlet the book club sent me by Harry V. Jaffa that stated much more precisely and elegantly what I had figured out for myself a few years earlier. The worth-reading pamphlet is titled Homosexuality and the Natural Law.

So now, here our country is, poised at the cusp of complete moral collapse.  It has reached the nadir of the death spiral St. Paul described in Romans 1:18-31.    I do not think we can be a free people very much longer.  Our Constitution was not written for a wicked people, and as Benjamin Franklin predicted, we can not but now fall into despotism.

Biblical Religion

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left."  Matthew 25:31-33

What does this tell us?  Those who are God's are on the right side.

But when he came to himself he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger!  I wil get up and go to my father, and will tell him, "Father, I have against heaven, and in your sight.  I am no more worthy to be called your son.  Make me as one of your hired servants".  And he arose and came to his father.  But while he was still afar off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran towards hin, and fell on his neck and kissed him."  Luke 15:17-20

What does this tell us?  That before the prodigal son even uttered a word, his father had forgiven him.

When I go to confession in the Orthodox Church, before I even utter a word the priest puts me on his right.

What does this tell us?

Spreading Good

A couple of days ago a man I worked with had a problem.  And he came up with a way to fix it.

"Matt, I have [company asset].  I need [solution to personal problem].  Can you help me by [lying and stealing].

I answered, "No".

He asked, "why?"

"Because it's evil."

"That's not evil."

"Yes it is, but I can give you the money you need."

"How is it evil"

"It's evil because it's dishonest"

"You church people make me crazy!  Now you are making me feel bad."

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad.  I'm trying to keep you from doing something evil."

Then he walked away with a very sad look on his face.

About an hour later I saw him bouncing through the FIAT studio with a giant smile on his face.  He walked by me and said, "Thanks, Matt.  You helped me do the right thing.  I [solved the problem] the right way."

See how easy it is to keep someone from doing evil?  In this case all I had to do was refuse to participate in it.

Advice for young men

I am 44 years old.  I have two divorces cut into me.  Here is my advice for avoiding my situation.

1.  Make yourself ready for marrige before you get married.  This includes but is not limited to...
2.  Finish school.  I do not mean be graduated from college. I mean have school behind you before you marry.  Whether that is highschool or a Ph.D. program be trough with it before you marry.
3.  Get estalished in a career
4.  Buy a house
5.  Don't waste money or time.  Your 20s are not your teens.  Save save save.  Let the grasshoppers play.  You be the ant.
6.  Do not marry a woman older than 22 if you can help it.  DO NOT marry a woman older than 30. Women of that age have been running their lives for years and are not going to give up that control.
7.  Look at the family the woman comes from.  Is there divorce or mental illness?  If so, run.  Do not let yourself fall in love with that woman.
8.  Look at how her mother treats her father.  Look at the marriages of her siblings.  Can you live like that?
9.  Consider a monastic vocation.
10. Heed the warning of "The Quiet Man".  Do not be weak, do not be afraid, and do not fail.  You must never ever lose her respect.  No woman wants to be married to a failure.
11.  Get to know her well enough that you can pick out presents for her that she will like.  Some women will like knitting needles.  Some will like pearls.  Make sure you know what she likes before you marry her.
12. Politics matters.  Do not marry a principled paleo-con if you are a principled neo-con.  It is difficult to maintain respect for each other if you think each other to be idiots.  Opposites might attract but they make for difficult marriages.
13. Do not go into debt.  Not for school (there is a glut of college graduates on the market.) Not for cars. But maybe for a house.
14.  Does she always need excitement?  Is she easily bored?  If so do not marry her.

Three Gold Merchants

I saw the three young scary Russians first.  The shop was deep inside the building. Like with all shops of this kind, I had to be buzzed in.  But this one had a large man by the door with a gun on his hip and a three-bar cross hanging on his neck.  An older man, maybe 35, sweating, was weighing small gold coins and putting them in plastic bags.  The third and youngest man, a double-headed eagle tattoo peeking out above his wife beater, spoke in a thick Russian accent.  "I've seen you before."
"Yes, I was in here a couple of years ago to show my sons the jewel map".
"What brings you in today?  We still have the map.  The oceans are lapis."
"I'm selling gold.  Can you give me yesterday's New York minus 1%?"
"Let me see it."

I reached into my pocket.  The man counting coins stopped and wached me pull it out and hand it to the younger man.  The watch on his otherwise bare arm was Patek.  His fingernails were dirty. He carefully weighed it and acid tested it.

"I must have a 3% profit. So I can give you..."
"Okay.  Thanks.  I'll walk up the block.  I might be back in a few minutes."

The Chinese woman was young and pretty and smiling like a snake.  Unlike the Russian's shop, hers was open and bright and orderly.  Her fingernails were perfect.  She smelled beautiful.  She cradled my right hand in her left as she took the gold from my palm with her right.  Her skin was cold and soft.  She smiled at me.  I would have let her devour me, almost.  She weighed the gold, she read the markings with a jewelers loop.
"You bought this in Chinatown".
It wasn't a question but I answered, "Yes".
"It's very nice.  I can give you..."
"Thank you, but I already have a better offer."
Cold narrow eyes.  "I can't pay more."
"You have some pretty things.  Maybe, I'll come back for that amythest ring."
"Thank you.  Please, come again."

The old Sicilian (He's connected, by way of the Falcone fmily, to the Bonanos.), a man I've done business with before, was siting at a card table looking through a big magnifying glass at an old belt buckle.  On the table before him were what looked like military artifacts from the WWI: Old French medals, a bayonet, a map case.  Around him on the walls of the shop were swords, sterling platers, hundreds of gold chains, cloth bags full of old (from the days when our money was real silver) U.S. coins, framed Krugerand collections, a commemorative plate of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spenser, and silver goblets full of Morgans.

He stood and greeted me with a hand shake and asked if I was buying or selling.
"Selling this", I answered and I set the gold on the card table.
"Hmmm.  You know the weight?" I knew he would weigh it.  He was just finding out if I had other offers.  I saw the sparkle of avarice in his eyes.
"I know, but you go ahead and weigh it."
"I can give you..."
"I already checked the New York and London prices this morning. That's all you can do?"
"It's called profit.  If you want more come back in a month.  Gold is going up."
"Okay.  Thanks.  I guess, I'll see you later."
"You know, this is the time to buy silver.  Are you in the market again?"
"I'm only selling.  See you later."

The Russians buzzed me in.  Everyone was in the same place but now the sweaty man was weighing little bars of silver or, maybe, it was platinum and recording the weights in a ledger.
"It looks like I won."
"Yes."
"Last night's New York spot minus 3%" (Even though it is $4 higher this morning)
"Yes."
He copied my name and address from my drivers license into the state's book.  I gave him the gold.  He counted out the Franklins.
"Don't feel bad.  I see a lot of this."

I walked out the door and I sobbed alone on the sidewalk for a few minutes before I walked home without my wedding ring.
Home.  But only for a few more days.  I think, I have enough money to get my own lonely place now.

Another Day

I had today off.  The boys didn't have school.  Athanasia left the car for me.  WOOO HOOOO! 

The boys and I went to the bagle store up the road and had our traditional breakfast (we haven't had it in months because of my job), read the comics to each other, and talked about the rain.  We also talked about the urge for gun control with a San Jose policeman.  He assured us that he would never obey orders that infringe on the rights of Americans to bear arms, inclundings those the California Legislature is trying to ban.

(I can't believe I'll be divorced on the 22nd of this month.)

After bagels we went by my work so I could return a credit card.  While we were there I let the boys check out the extreme sports - you know, snow boarding obstacle courses, cliff body diving, etc. - on the jumbotron in the lobby.  Then I took them through the car wash (a perk of my job is free car washes.)  They are stil young enough to enjoy being in the car as it goes through the car wash.

(Something is very very wrong.  I am going to be divorced on the 22nd of this month.)

Then we went to Japan Town, where we walked around, peeked into shops,  and looked at the monuments.  After we had been there for a while it started to rain, so we ran back to the car and headed to the MLJK library.

(O, God! What is going on? How can my marriage be ending in just a few more days?)

Basil took all the escalators to the top and back down to the 2nd floor where Anselm (he likes to be called Sam, now) was discovering that scholarly papers had been written about Minecraft.  The librarian helped Anselm find the article in an Australian science education journal, and had a pdf sent to Anselm's email address. (He has an email address?)  It is so weird to me that my "little boy" is already looking at scholarly journals.  It's neat, but I still think of him as my little boy who just yesterday was hunting for snails and worms after the rain.

After the Library (we checked out some books) we went to Mel Cottons where the boys were fitted for .22 rifles and I picked up a 2013 Dept. of Fish and Wildlife guide.  I saw an ad in the guide that said they are looking for game wardens.  I think I'll apply.

(I only met her a few days ago.  How is she throwing me away like this, like so much garbage?  I love her!)

Then we went to the gocery store and I bought the stuff we needed to make peanut butter milk shakes. (They were my Dad's favorite.)   When we got home from the market I made the milkshakes and hambrugers for the boys, like the hamburgers my Mammy used to make for me when I was a boy.

(How can there be even more loss?  Must I say good bye to more people?  I'll never remarry. Two divorces are enough heartbreak for any man.  Oh, my children!  God!  What about my children?)

We read books, we did the dishes, we played cards, we took a nap.  I made them dinner.  Athanasia came home and the teperature dropped to zero.

God, please, do not make me live to three score and ten.  Let me fly away.

Where does Lent come from?

Ever wonder where Lent comes from?  Did it suddenly appear in middle ages?  Is it some kind of pagan thing the church adapted to it's own use?  Nope. It is Apostolic.  Yes, you heard correctly.  Lent is Apostolic.

First century Bishop, successor of the Apostle Peter, the child Jesus set beside him (Luke 9:46-48), and food for the emperor's lions, St. Ignatius of the Church of Antioch:

"These things, brethren, out of the affection which I entertain for you, I have felt compelled to write, exhorting you with a view to the glory of God, not as if I were a person of any consequence, but simply as a brother. Be ye subject to the bishop, to the presbyters, and to the deacons. Love one another in the Lord, as being the images of God. Take heed, ye husbands, that ye love your wives as your own members. Ye wives also, love your husbands, as being one with them in virtue of your union. If any one lives in chastity or continence, let him not be lifted up, lest he lose his reward. Do not lightly esteem the festivals. Despise not the period of forty days [e.g. Lent], for it comprises an imitation of the conduct of the Lord. After the week of the passion, do not neglect to fast on the fourth and sixth days, distributing at the same time of thine abundance to the poor." - Letter to the Philippians, Chapter XIII

Saint Irenaeus, disciple of St. Polycarp who was the disciple of St. John to whom Jesus entrusted the care of his mother, of the second century, makes the claim that the fasting preparation for Pascha (Passover/Easter) was a long standing tradition.

"For the controversy is not merely as regards the day, but also as regards the form itself of the fast, For some consider themselves bound to fast one day, others two days, others still more, while others [do so during] forty: the diurnal and the nocturnal hours they measure out together as their [fasting] day. And this variety among the observers [of the fasts] had not its origin in our time, but long before in that of our predecessors, some of whom probably, being not very accurate in their observance of it, handed down to posterity the custom as it had, through simplicity or private fancy, been. And yet nevertheless all these lived in peace one with another, and we also keep peace together. Thus, in fact, the difference [in observing] the fast establishes the harmony of [our common] faith."

Eventually the Church universally accepted, and established, an inviolate practice regarding lenten fasting still held to by Orthodox Christians.  This acceptance was similar to how Christians accepted the various books of the New Testament.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thess 2:15)

A Day off.

Well, it after midnight so I guess I should say yesterday was my day off.  I slept through most of it, though.  I have a bad cold that is accompanied by a terrific headache.  I have to be at work at noon.  I hope I am feeling better by then.

I like my job.  It doesn't pay much, at least not now.  I sell cars but there aren't a lot of customers at the moment.  I have been doing okay compared to my peers (I've sold more than any of them this month.) but there seems to be a reluctance by people to spend money.  Perhaps, there is fear of what the future holds for the economy.  I don't know.

The other problem with my job (I don't want this to sound complainy.  I really do enjoy it.) is the hours.  I am at the FIAT studio 50 to 50 hours per week, including Sundays and Saturdays.  And I don't get off work until 9 p.m.  What this means is that I haven't been to church in months.  And I barely spend any time with my children.  I don't know what to do about it.  In the long run, I hope to become a high school teacher so I'll have Sundays and summers off, but right now I just don't see what else I can do.

Boom Shaka-laka

Where does "boom shaka-laka" come from? It pops up in various pop culture moments, such as during basic training graduation in the movie Stripes, and in the Muppet Treasue Island.  But where does it come from?  The earliest occurance of the phrase I have been able to uncover is in this 1971 song by Ike and Tina Turner.

Cocktail of the Week: Dreamy Chocolate Winter

Christmas is over and, here in northern California, we have settled in for the usual long cold wet winter.  It has been raining off and on all day and the mercury currently reads 40 F.  So, it is perfect weather for this cocktail.

Make a mug of hot cocoa according the the instructions on your tin of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa.  To that add the following:
1 oz. Kahlua Coffee Liquor (original)
1 oz. Baileys Original Irish Cream Liquor
1/4 oz. Potter's Amaretto (it is made in Fairfield, California by Frank-Lin)
Top with whipped cream.
Serve.

Two Ancient Songs

Greek



Ugaritic

Heaven in Tolkien

This is interesting.  C.S. Lewis (especially The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) layed part of the foundation for my conversion to Holy Orthodoxy.  I never thought of the influence of Tolkien on my thinking and believing.  But now I see it.

Heaven, at least as it was described to me when I was a child, always seemed very boring to me.  But but now I see how Hobbit holes, Tom Bombadil's house, Lothlorien, Rivendell, Beorn's home, and even the Prancing Pony inn in Bree planted seeds in me that grew into longing for more "home".   That home of course is Heaven.

Life Saver

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

Christ is Born!

In the year, from the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, five thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine; from the flood, two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-seven; from the birth of Abraham, two thousand and fifteen; from Moses and the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt, one thousand, five hundred and ten; from the anointing of King David, one thousand and thirty-two; in the sixty-fifth week, according to the prophecy of Daniel; in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; in the year seven hundred and fifty-two from the founding of the city of Rome; in the forty-second year of the empire of Octavian Augustus, when the whole earth was at peace, in the sixth age of the world, Jesus Christ, eternal God, and Son of the eternal Father, desirous to sanctify the world by His most merciful coming, having been conceived of the Holy Ghost, and nine months having elapsed since his conception, is born in Bethlehem of Juda, having become man of the Virgin Mary. 

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Music and Fruitcake

I'm making fruitcakes tonight.  I'm also listening to Christmas music just a wee but early.  This is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

The shepherds heard the story proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped and in the manger found Him,
As angel heralds said.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.

O Savior, Child of Mary, who felt our human woe,
O Savior, King of glory, who dost our weakness know;
Bring us at length we pray, to the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day!

Really? Who needs one of these?

Jay Leno has one.  The company's stock is being talked about by stock traders and investors.  I'm sure techno-geeks are drooling.  But what good is it?  Why would I need one of these?  I don't even use the inkjet printer that is attached to my computer.  And I already have too much stuff.  I don't need a machine that makes more stuff.

Cocktail of the Week: Piña Colada

Many years ago, in 1954 at the Hilton Caribe's Beachcomber Bar the Piña Colada was introduced.  About 30 years later, I guess it was 1980 or 1981, I was in Michigan visiting my cousin.   At that time a really really bad song by Rupert Holmes was popular.  I think the real name of the song was Escape but I always thought of it as the Piña Colada song.  I suppose most people who heard it thought of it the same way.  Regardless of that, my cousin and I, though we were under-aged (I was 12.  He was 15.) becme totally enthralled by the Piña Colada.  That meant that his fave ice cream was Piña Colada flavored, and my fave jelly beans were Piña Colada flavored.  Five years later while on an 18 hour pass from Fort Monmouth in New Jerssey, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan I tasted a real Piña Colada.  About 8 months after that I bought a Piña Colada at the Casa Gallardo restaurant in Tampa for a 17 year old girl who would later become my first wife.  It was her first mixed drink.  I haven't had a Piña Colada since that night.  I think I should have another.

Recipe
2 oz. white rum
1 oz. coconut cream
1 oz. heavy cream
6 oz. pineapple juice
4 oz. ice

Blend all ingredients until smoothe.  Pour into a goblet and garnish with pineapple and cherry.

Secret Menus

Everyone who's been into an In n' Out knows about the things you can order that are not on their menu.  But there are plenty of restaurants in America that have special menus.  For example, if you go to the café upstairs from Books Inc. in MountainView you might be there on the right day to have their poppy seed cake.  I haven't had it in years but it is very very good.  You have to know to ask for it.  They won't tell you about it if you don't already know.  And there used to be a certain cheese shop in San Francisco where one could, if the right words were said and enough cash paid, leave the premises with soft, unripened raw milk cheeses.  I don't know if that store still exists.  I hope it does, even though I don't have that kind of money anymore.  One place you can go and get a truly amazing off-menu item is Harris' Restaurant:  Sweetbreads in a conac reduction. But there is that money problem again.

There is one place, more than one place, maybe, in San Jose to get your off-menu yummies and not go broke in the process: Mama Do's Kitchen.  It has all the Vietnamese clasics but there is one thing that is sooooo good that you won't find on the menu:  Chicken stewed in ginger.  I can not even begin to describe how good it is.  I could say it is better than sex, but people have said that about many things.  Usually, they are wrong when they say that.    But if someone were to say Mama Do's chicken stewed in ginger is better than sex they might be right, at least, some of the time.

Cocktail of the Week: The Stinger

It is a truism that all the best cocktails are variations of the Martini.  That classic mixture of a high-alcohol spirit and a contrasting flavor of low-alcohol spirit is mirrored in the Manhattan, the Rusty Nail, the Black Russian, and a dozen or more others.  This weeks cocktail is part of that family.   No one, to the the best of my knowledge, remembers who first mixed one, but the recipe was included in Ideal Bartender (1917) by Tom Bullock.  Every Christmas I am reminded of this drink's former popularity when I watch Cary Grant order stingers in the classic movie The Bishop's Wife.

The Stinger

1 ounce brandy (I like Christian Brothers)

1/4  white creme de menthe

Shake well with crushed ice.  Strain into a cocktail glass.  Serve.

My brother, Demitrios.

Since Sept. 24 I've been selling cars for a living.  It's fun but the hours are long, 50 -60 hours per week. I take the bus to and from work.  Late tonight I was waiting for the bus, and it zoomed right past me.  The driver did see me, though.  He stopped half a block past me.  I ran up to the bus and when I got on he yelled at me for not being more noticable.  I yelled at him for not being more attentive.  Then I saw his eyes.  There was something different.  I said, "where to you go to chuch?"  He looked shocked, but said, "St. Nicholas Church, near the Alameda".  I said, "I go to to St. Nicholas Church in Saratoga!"  We apologised to each other, and Demitrios and I had good fellowship, talking about Jesus and his Church, until I had to get off the bus.

For hot California weather: Cocktail of the Week

As everyone knows, the Oskie is the mascot of U.C. Berkley, and a bruin is the mascot of U.C.L.A.  and a bear is on the flag of the California Republic (AKA The Golden State).  So, to offer refreshment during this hot California weather, here is another cocktail invention of my own.


The Golden Bear

Incredients
11/4 cup dry white California wine (Mondavi, Almaden or Gallo preferred)
3 tbsp Potter's triple sec (It is distilled in San José, California.)
1/2 cup of crush ice
Orange slice

Directions
Put ice, wine, and and triple sec into a pint jar.
Stir.
Garnish with orange slice.
Drink through a straw.

In the Ghetto: Saturday Soundtrack

I know exactly where I was on August 16, 1977.  I was in a car on my way from Visalia to Mountain View. I was on Highway 152 leading up the east side of the the Diablo Mountains, at the San Luis Reservoir when the announcer came on the air and said that Elvis Presley was dead.  My mother and my aunt Carolyn were in the car.  I was sitting on the front seat between them.  This is the first song that was played after the announcemnt.  I don't remember if they cried, but I did.



Elvis holds the record for most songs charting on the Billboard top 40 (104 sogns) and the Bilboard Top 100 (151 songs). To this day, The King of Rock and Roll makes hits.  Several of his pothumously released recording went to the top of the charts, and rereleases and remixes have have continued to reach the top ten all over the world as recently 2004.  In 2010 Cirque du Soleil released the music from their show, Viva Elvis, as an album.

Even though Elvis was a Rock and Roll and Country music star, arguably the brightest of them all, his three Grammy Awards were won in the Gospel category.  I hope I meet him someday.

Cocktail of the Week: The Dairy Farm

I thought I would start a new feature for this blog.  I have, pretty much, grown tired of the Saturday Soundtrack but I still like the structure of a regular topics.  So, without further ado, the first Cocktail of the Week.

The Dairy Farm (an original recipe)
The other night it was kind of chilly, I was feeling sad and wanting to feel the happiness of Christmas, which means eggnog.  But I didn't have all the needed ingredients.  What did I have?

Strauss Family heavy cream
Christian Brothers V.S. brandy (It is produced by the Heaven Hill company of Kentucky)
Granulated sugar
Nutmeg
Allspice

Note on spices: If you only have pre-ground nutmeg and allspice that's okay.  But if you are going to make this for guests, you really should use a little grater and a dedicated pepper mill, for the sake of presentation.  Besides, fresh is always better.

Note on brandy:  If you use Paul Mason brandy (not recommended) you will want to leave the sugar out of this recipe.  Paul Mason is already very sweet.

Note on cream:  This is the main part of the drink so it needs to be of the highest quality.  Ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurization and homoginization ruins the God-given taste of milk and cream.  If you can't get Strauss Family cream in your area look for any non-homoginized cream pastueurized using HTST pasteurization or even un-pasteurized (trust in the alcohol and stomach acid to kill any bacteria) that is from grass-fed (NO CORN!) dairy cows.

Directions:  Put 1 tsp granulated sugar and 2 oz brndy into a large mug. Heat 6 oz of heavy cream on stovetop or in microwave.  DO NOT BOIL!  Pour hot cream into mug.  Stir gently. Grate a little nutmeg and grind a little allspice onto the cream, no more than 1/8 tsp of each.  Drink.   If you only have pre-ground nutmeg and allspice that's okay.  But if you are going to make this for guests, you really should use a little grater and a dedicated pepper mill, for the sake of presentation.  Besides, fresh is always better.

When I was a child I drank as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish drinks.

Last night, after the boys and Athanasia were in bed I felt like drinking.  So I went to the Duke of Edinburough in Cupertino.  It took me a long time to decide what to order.  I settled on my old favorite: The Martini.  This particular martini was a 4-1 made, Tanqueray, two olives.  I only had one but it was beautiful.

Sitting there, drinking that drink, I felt like my old self again.

Today, I got a job offer.  I start to work on Monday.

Now, if I can just get my wife to love me again, everything will be all right.

Letter to the Romans

Many years ago, when I was a Protestant and attending Peninsula Bible Church in Cupertino, I think it was 1997 or 1998, I taught a 51 week long course on the Letter to the Romans.  In addition to the Letter I relied, primarily, on Martin Luther's lectures on Romans, but also the writings of John Calvin, Lorainne Boettner, J. Vernon McGee, and Matthew Henry.  I very much enjoyed all the reading and writing.  I felt very proud of myself, and by the time I finished the course I felt like I was an expert on the Letter.  But, in fact, after my year teaching Romans I had become cemented in antinomianism and hypocrisy.  Only now I feel like I am beginnging to understand the Letter, but only beginning.  I am not deep, but this is what I think I know:  The Letter isn't about theologogical systems.  It isn't about election or justification or supercession or predestination.  It is about love and how I am to live in love, which means living in thanksgiving and repentence, always experienceing God's mercy and working with God to make myself into a conduit for that mercy.

When I was a boy, I asked my Dad how to understand some passage in the Bible.  He didn't answer my question.  Instead, he asked me me a question: "What is the nature of God?"  Of course, I knew the answer to that question: Love.  So, here I am, a maiddle-aged Orthodox Christian, only learning now what my Dad tried to teach me when I was a boy.

Pie Crust

It is the beginning of autumn pie season; when pumpkin, cranberry-walnut, apple, onion, and chicken pies are lovingly put on tables.  But the foundation of every pie is the crust.

Here is my pie crust recipe

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour.  I like King Arthur brand.

2 cups fresh unsalted butter.  

1 cup COLD water.

1/2 tsp non-iodized salt. (I like Diamond Crystal.  Yes, I know most bakers like fine salt but I like this.)

(2 tsp granulated sugar is only for sweet pies.  I like C&H Baker's Sugar.  The quaity is consistent.)

Directions

Combine flour, salt (and sugar) into large mixing bowl. Stir it up with your fingers so the salt (and sugar) is evenly distributed throughout the flour.  Cut the butter into the flour with your fingers (I've never tried a pastry blender, so I don't know if that is a better method.)  When the butter and flour form pea sized balls (in about 5 minutes) start slowy adding the cold water; just a little at a time.  You do not want to add too much water.  Only add enough water so all those peas sized bits come together into one big ball.   Divide the dough in 1/2 and form it into disks.  Set in on parchment paper and put it the fridge for 1 hour.  Take out of the fridge and roll it out to fit your pie pan.  

Cold Enough For Socks

Today has been pretty cool.  I haven't actually put sock on, and the windows are still open, but I have thought about putting on socks and closing windows.  And that means Christmas is comming. So, today I learned this song on my ukulele.

CHRISTMAS TIME'S A-COMIN'

[D] Holly's in the window
[A7] Home where the wind blows
[D] Can't walk for runnin'
[A7] Christmas Time's A-[D] Comin'.

[D] Can't you hear them bells ringin', ringin'
[G] Joy, don'tcha hear them singin'
When [D] it's snowin', I'll be goin'
[A7] Back to my country [D] home.

[D] Christmas Time's A-Comin'
[A7] Christmas Time's A-Comin'
[D] Christmas Time's A-Comin'
And I [A7] know I'm goin' [D] home.

White candle's burnin'
My old heart's a-yearnin'
For the folks at home when
Christmas Time's A-Comin'.

Snow flake's a-fallin'
My old home's a-callin'
Tall pine's a-hummin'
Christmas Time's A-Comin'.

But it sounds a lot better with a fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and bass.

Coffee

I walk into the kitchen. Put the Mellita cone on my mug, insert a filter, add two tablespoons of ground coffee - dark roasted arabica beans from Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Quatemala. I pour water into the kettle and set it on the stove. Then I wake up my boys by singing to them. By the time they are out of bed the kettle is singing with me, so I return to the kitchen and slowly pour the water over the coffee. It is a cool morning, and I enjoy the warmth of the steam on my arm as I pour. Usually, but not today because it is Wednesday and the Beheading of St. John, when the cup is full, and the kitchen smells beautiful I add a little milk.  No sugar. I drink it while my sons get ready for school, while the squirrels play in the orange tree outside my window. 

Physician, Cure They Self

So, I'm being put through a divorce.  But a funny thing is that I got a letter from a friend the other day asking for advice on how to save her marriage.  The friend is a woman I have not seen since 1986, when I was 16 and she was 15.  I gave her the best advice I could think of, and yesterday she thanked me and said it had worked.  I wish I could do the same for my marriage.

Three Miracles I Have Seen

I was 6 years old.  My mother and I were driving home from somewhere.  The gasoline light came on.  We were just about out of gas.  My mother said, "Let's pray". We prayed.  I saw the gasoline guage go from empty to 1/4.  Enough to get home.

I was 15 years old my parents and I where out in the middle of nowhere Forida, near Horsehoe Beach. There was nothing but forest for miles.  We ran out of gas.  A big white truck pulled up behind us.  A giant black man with the most beautiful face and dressed in spotless white got out of the truck and walked up to my dad's window and said, "Hi, I have three gallons of gasoline for you.  It will get you to the next gas station."  My dad tried to pay him but he said, "No, God has been very good to me."  Then the man got in his truck pulled in front of us and at a certain point -  and I cannot explain it for there were no intersections, no driveways, no place for the truck to go - the truck and the man were gone.  We did not see another soul until we got to the gas station.

Just a few years ago I entered a church near here.  I was early and there was no one in the building but me and an old great schema monk, leaning on a cane.  He frightened me.  When he looked at me I knew every sin I had ever commtted.  Then he floated through the air to me. There were about two inches of air between the monk and the floor.  

Meteor Shower

Anselm, Basil, and I went out and watched part of the meteor shower tonight.  Right after supper (pasta with mushrooms and zuchini) we set out for the San Antonio Valley.  To get there from San Jose one drives on California State Highway 130 over the peak of Mt. Hamilton and the Lick Observatory, where the state highway becomes San Antonio Valley Road.

On the eastern slope of the mountain the grade was so steep and the turns so sharp and so frequent that even in first gear my brakes started to over heat.  It is merely an 50 minute drive from where I live but could be another planet.  Granite boulders, scrub oak, gnarly pine, deer, owls, bats, jack rabbits, bobcats.  I think it is named appropriately.  St. Anthony would feel at home there.  It is a beautiful piece of land.  Looks like a good place for cattle, but I think the Nature Conservancy has bought up a lot of it.

 We sat out there for three hours and only 1 pick up UC-owned truck heading to the observatory and three Hells Angels went by. We saw some amazing meteors.  Most of them were just short whit lines flashing in the sky.  Five of them had tails 20 degrees or more in length (Yes, I measured.) and traveled half way across the vault before they burnt into nothingness.  One meteor burned brightly enough to light up the sky, not like the sun, of course, but close to the brightness of the full Moon.  I was astounded.  Anselm and Basil both yelled "WOW!"

I was way past the boys bed time by the time we saw the first meteor.  And they were so tired from a long day of play and swimming at the YMCA that a few minutes before 11 I decided to drive them home.  It was fun.  And this outing helps Basil earn the Cub Scout astronomy pin. (Anselm already has his astronomy pin.)

Athanasia Wants a Divorce

She says that for 10 years she has not loved me and wants out of our marriage.  I beg God to kill me and he doesn't answer.

Cub Scout Skits

I have applied for many jobs over the last few weeks and have had a few interviews.  I still don't have a job.  However, I have been keeping busy by volunteering at Cub Scout camps.  I taught knots and leather work one week.  Another week I was the archery range master.  Next week I'll be range master again.  All the camps in out council have a safari theme this year.  So, for next weeks camp I wrote or modified some skits to fit the theme.  Here they are.

Berry Pie

On Saturday morning I went to the farmers market and bought 3 pints of black berries.   By the time I opened the bag that evening they were beginning to be moldy.  But I'd already made my crust and needed a filling.  So, last night I went to the grocery store and bought frozen black berries.  Today I made the pie.  Here is my recipe.

Ingredients
2 pints black berries (fresh or frozen)
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 bottom pie crust (I use a basic 321 pastry recipe with a little sugar added)
1 top pie crust
2 tablespoons milk
Juice of 1/4 lemon

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 425
Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup flour and 3 1/2 cups of berries.  This is the filing.  Put the filling in the bottom pie crust.  Add the remainder of the berries.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.  Put top crust on and pinch closed around the edge. Cut some vents in the top crust to let the steam out.  Brush the top with milk.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake in the 425 F oven for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 375 F and bake until the filling bubbles and the top crust is light brown, about 20 minutes.  Cool on wire rack before eating.

We look for the resurrection of the dead and life of the age to come.

We are all traveling in the footsteps of those who come before.
And we'll all be reunited on that new sun-lit shore

Oh, when the Saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marcing in
O Lord, I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in

And when the sun refuses to shine
When the sun refuses to shine
O Lord, how I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

Oh, when the saints go marching in

O Lord, I want to be there on that morning when the Saints go marching in

When the trumpet sounds its call

When the trumpet sounds its call

Oh, I want to be in that number when the trumpet souds its call

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

Oh, when the saints go marching in

Lord, oh, I want to be in that number

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

Now some say 

some say this world of trouble 

is the only world we'll ever see

But I wait for that morning when the new world is revealed

Oh, when the new world is revealed

Oh, when the new world is revealed

Lord, How I want to be there on that morning when the new world is reveald

When the Saints go marching in

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

Lord, how I want to be in that number

When the Saints go marching in

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

Oh, when the saints go marching in

Lord, oh, I want to be in that number

Oh, when the Saints go marching in

12 Movies

Since I've been diagnosed with depression I have, on doctor's orders, been watching a lot of movies.  Here are 12 movies I have enjoyed and recommend to you.  In no particular order they are:

1. Howards End
2. Eat Drink Man Woman
3. Enchanted April
4. Big Night
5. Like Water For Chocolate
6. Much Ado About Nothing
7. My Dinner with Andre
8. Zelig
9. The Quiet Man
10. Out of Africa
11.  The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain
12. Sweet Land

Mammy

My father's mother was named Minnie.  I called her Mammy. She did not see a car until she was 7 years old.  She told me it terrified her.  She thought it was some kind of animal that had gotten hold of her uncle.

My earliest memory of her is from the summer before I started Kindergarten.  My father and mother and I drove from California to Missouri to move her out west.  She was thrice widowed and living alone in a mobile home near Springfield.  I remember she had pretty flowers, and a manual water pump in the front yard.  My dad showed me how to prime the pump and get water to flow.  I remember enjoying playing with that pump.  I don't remember anything about the drive to Missouri and back to California.

When I was nine years old Mammy and I rode the Greyhound bus back to St. Louis to visit her sisters.  I bought a comic book at every depot.  I remember the Flagstaff depot was enormous and very clean.  I remember the soldiers on the bus getting off near Ft. Leonard Wood.  I remember a couple kissing, and really going at it, on the seat across from us.  Mammy told me not to look at them.  I looked anyway.

We didn't spend anytime in St. Louis.  One of her sisters, I forget which, picked us up at the bus station and drove us accross the river into Illinois.  I remember seeing the arch.  And on the way to that sister's house we ran over a snake in the road.  Actually, we skidded the tires on it to kill it.  The women in my family bear no sympathy for snakes.

At my Great Aunt Goldie's house I had a lot of fun.  We played aggravation (the board had been carved out of a piece of plywood) every night.  They let me use the blue marbles. We ate radishes from her garden at every meal.  They were big white radishes.

My Great Aunt Virgie took us fishing when we visted her.  That was a lot of fun except for the water moccasin which was scarry.  They told me about their uncle who died from a water moccasin bite.

At my Great Aunt Mable's house I had the most fun.  Her house was built out of stones her husband had pulled out of the field.  It was a beautiful house.  In the field was a garden where I pulled weeds, and picked strawberries and green beans.  We made strawberry jam, and when we were finished we bleached the strawberry stains from our fingers with lemon juice.

When I was twelve my parents moved to Florida, and Mammy moved with us.  She lived in a little house behind our house, and she made breakfast for me almost every day: Two hamburgers with mayonaise and mustard.  When she was in her eighties and I was a soldier at Ft. Campbell she died of cancer.

evil thoughts

‎"Above all beware of excessive day dreaming, of seeing yourself in the centre of a drama, of self pity, and, as far as possible, of fears."

(The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis V1: Family Letters 1905-1931)

Three Years

Three years ago today my oldest son died.  The local newspaper published this obituary.  I miss him more now than I did then.

The Fall of Constantinople

The Seige of Constantinople

On this day in 1453, the Roman Empire disappeared.  Since the 1430s the imperial capital, Constantinople had been surrounded on all sides by the forces of the Ottoman Turks.  The Balkans, Thrace, and Asia Minor fed the Muslim armies, while Constantinople, for the most part, had to be supplied by sea from the imperial lands in the Pelloponese.

For hundreds of years, Constantinople had held out, first against the Arabs, then the Seljuk Turks, and finally the Ottoman Turks.  But throughout that time the Roman Empire shrank in size, while the Muslims took all the land around Constantinople.  By 1453 the city, the jewel of Christendom lay in the heart of Ottoman territory, a beautiful thorn of independence between the eastern and western parts of the Ottoman Empire.

The last Roman Emperor, Constantine XI, who viewed himself as not only the Roman Emperor, but as the secular protector of the Church and "father" to all Christian kings and head of a commonwealth of all Christian states, continued to hold out for help from the kings of the west.  Though some of the merchant cities of northen Italy sent help, the kings of the west failed.  The most help came from western individuals such as Giovanni Giustianani, who brought with him 700 Genoese soldiers trained in defending walled cities. It was a pitiable token number, but it was almost enough.  Including the Genoese, the defenders had about 2,500 men to repel about 50,000 attackers, including 1,500 Christian cavalrymen from Serbia who were already subjects of the Turks.  Five years before the attack on Constantinople, the Christian prince of Serbia, though a subject of the Sultan paid for the repair and improvement of the walls of Constantinople. Constantinople had high thick walls, among the best fortifications in the world at that time.

A Gun Used in the Ottoman Seige of Constantiople

The seige began on April 7.  For the next seven weeks, while the Church prayed continuously and the smoke from censers mingled with the smoke from canon, attack after attack was repulsed by the outnumbered defenders on the outer walls.  But the western-built canons of the Mohamadens (Will the west ever stop siding with Muslims against Orthodox Christians?), eventually, breeched the walls.

On the dawn of May 29, when the final all-out attack began, the Serbian Christian subjects of the Sultan were the first to fall before the walls of the city.  Strangly, just as there were some Christian subjects of the Ottoman Turks fighting against the Roman Empire, there were Muslim subjects of the Roman empire helping to defend Conastantinople. Turkish soldiers working for the Romans and commanded by a Turk defended one section of the walls along the sea, and remained loyal to the Roman Empire till the very end. Nevertheless after nearly two months of fighting there were not enough Romans or allies left to defend the walls.  Actually, there had never been enough men to defend the walls, and only the outer walls had been manned.  But against these walls, built centuries earlier, the bodies of the attackers were piled up.

By the end of the attack the main formations of the Ottoman Turks were slain or exhausted.  But the Sultan had terrible force held in reserve, and over the bodies of the fallen these dreadful formations came: The reserve battalions of Janasaries, Balken Christian children kidnapped and raised to be killers for Mohamed and the personal bodyguard of the Sultan.

On this morning, when he saw the Janaseries raise the Ottoman flag over the walls, the Emperor, having put off the purple but arrayed in the splendor of courage, charged with the last of his knights into the seething army of Islam.  The emperor's body was never found.

Memory Eternal!

Saturday Sandtrack: Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was born in 1919, and everyone knows his name and what he is done. But even if they don't, Wikipaedia does.  If you like Peter Paul and Mary, The Kinston Trio, or thought the Lion King had the best movie soundtrack ever, you like them, in part, because of Pete Seeger.  Pete Seeger is even the force behind Bruce Sprinsteen finally making music worth listening to.    


As best as I can remember, the first Pete Seeger song I ever heard was "If I Had A Hammer", though at the time I thought it was a Peter, Paul, and Mary song.  And this brings me to something that makes me very sad, since he is such an important part of America, but Pete Seeger was and remains a Communist.   


I like to think he is merely deluded and not truly malevolent, but I don't know.   It is hard for me to think anyone can still be a Communist after the events of the 20th Century, but he is.  He joined the communist Youth League in 1936 and the Communist Party in 1942. In 1945 Seeger became head of People's Songs, Inc.  A report by a fact finding committee of the California Senate said of People's Songs that was 

"a vital Communist front … one which has spawned a horde of lesser fronts in the fields of music, stage entertainment, choral singing, folk dancing, recording, radio transcriptions and similar fields. It especially is important to Communist proselytizing and propaganda work because of its emphasis on appeal to youth, and because of its organization and technique to provide entertainment for organizations and groups as a smooth opening wedge for Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist propaganda."

In 2000 he affirmed that he is still a Communist, saying the Soviet union wasn't real Communism.  In 2008 he performed the anti-property verse of This Land is Your Land at the "We Are One" pre-innaugural concert for President Obama.  I pray for his salvation.
  
This is my favorite Pete Seeger song.  My first experience of the song was in 1982 when the Tokens version of it came over the Florida airwaves from WRBQ to my bedroom.  This mash-up version of the song, containing references to at least three other songs, is by an acapela show choir called Straight No Chaser. 

Mornings on Prozac

Report on the first day of prozac.   The M.D. (I also see a Psy.D.) said it would probably cause drowsiness for the first few days.  Wow!  That was an understatement.  I was dozing off all morning and finally just went back to bed around noon.  I set the alarm for 2:30 but slept through it. About 6p.m. I felt irrationally happy for about half an hour.  Have not cried at all today.  I am wide awake now and the boys and I are hanging out while Athanasia is at a Cub Scout summer camp planning meeting.  As soon as they go to bed I'll finish my last paper for the semester. I'll be glad to have this semester behind me.

Prozac

Today I start taking prozac.  The M.D. said if they work I should start feeling less sad in a month.

When it rains it pours

Imagine the most horrible thing possible.  I can't tell you what that is.  It's your imagination, and what you imagine is the most horribe thing is probably not the most horrible thing as I imagine it.  Now, pretend that horrible thing is really happening.  Yes, that is what is happening to me.  But it isn't imaginary.  It is real. The most horrible thing I can imagine is actually happening to me. If I was not absolutely sure suicides go directly to Hell my straight razor would be in my hand at this moment.  Some people think Hell is a bad thing.  But to me, right now, the threat of Hell is the only thing keeping me alive.  Some people think God  a merciful God wouldn't let there be a Hell.  Those people are wrong.  Right now Hell is proof to me of God's mercy.

On the Holy Trinity

In Christianity (and in Judaism, too) God is transcendent.  He is the One[1] who can not be approached.  Like a great black hole at the center of a galaxy He melts anything that gets too close to Him.  He is a consuming fire[2], and the dreadfulness of His glory is such that even the holy seraphim cover their eyes as they soar around His throne.[3]

But there is more to God than His terrible transcendent Oneness. He is also unimaginable condescending love.  His love is such that He is near whenever He is called[4], and He is unfailingly faithful and loyal.[5]   The Prophet King David describes God’s love:

The Lord executes mercy and judgment for all that are injured. He made known his ways to Moses, his will to the children of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and pitiful, long-suffering, and full of mercy. He will not be always angry; neither will he be wrathful for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor recompensed us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, the Lord has so increased his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame: remember that we are dust.[6]

Hedge and Donna: Saturday Soundtrack

Update 5/24/2012:  I have been in correspondence with Donna Carson.  She left the music industry in 1977 and became an emplyoyee of the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, from which she retired as Supervior of Advocates for Abused and Neglected Children in 2010.  She did not share with me any information about Hedge Carson.

-------
Originally Published on 3/19/2011

Hedge Carson and Donna Capers released several LPs from 1968 to 1973 (most of them on Capitol Records) and were popular touring artists.   Most interesting to me is hearing the melesmatic quality of Donna's voice.  It is the same powerful tremor heard in Annie Herring's earlier music, the stuff she recorded in the mid 70s with 2nd Chapter of Acts.  I wonder if Annie Herring got it from listening to Hedge and Donna. A big mystery is what ever happened to them.  After their last album release in 1973 (I think "Guava Jelly" was the only good song on that record.) they disappeared from the public eye.

My favorite Hedge and Donna song was released this this song the year I was born (Album: All The Friendly Colours. Publisher: Capitol Records).  I have no idea what it is about, but it seems like a congeries of two songs.  Here it is:

What Depression Is Like

I started thinking about my son Billy, then before I knew it I was thinking I had failed at everything worth doing, then I began thinking there was no reason to do anything else.  Then I wept for an hour before I managed to pull myself together and do the laundry.  This really sucks.  Being in the sunlight helps.

Army Days

I don't often think about my time in the U.S. Army.  But when I do I usually think about basic training.  That was the best part of the Army, as far as I'm concerned.  Running around, shooting, singing, shouting, blowing things up, leaping over walls.  And life was simple.  Wake up, work hard, eat, sleep, obey.  I was in the second squad (12 men) of the 1st platoon (53 men), of B Company (218 officers and men), of 4th Battalion (883 officers and men), of the 5th Brigade (4,600+ officers and men).  I saw the colonel once.  I saw the sergeant major once.  I saw my captain 4 times.  But I saw Drill Sergeant McCain every minute I was awake for 8 weeks.  He was one of the best men I've ever met.

In my squad was a man named Micael Ainsley.  I don't know much about him, but he had a hiarious sense of humour.  He told me about a book called Bored of the Rings. I read it after I was graduated from basic training and thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever read.  Back then, the only time a soldier got to fall out of formation was for a smoke break.  Until I heard a sergeant say it, I thought "smoke 'em if ya got 'em" was just something said in the movies.  He thought I was pretty funny and bought me my first cigar so I could hang out with him and the other smokers on their smoke breaks.  It was a White Owl.  In the second week of basic training the Surgeon General of the Army forbade smoking in all training units.

There was a man, he was 19, in my squad from the Dakotas.  He played the cello and had joined the army to pay for the rest of his education.  I think his name was Olson.  He told me, and I've never been brave enough to try it, that he learned on an indian reservation that one can pour a bottle of rubbing alcohol through a loaf of bread and it won't kill, blind, or make the drinker mad.

Pete McGlincy was one of the funniest men I met in those at weeks at Ft. Dix.  He was a 17 year old from Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania.  When Olson, Ainsly, and I would be talking about philosophy and cigars and our plans for the future (wow, those sure didn't work out!) he would talk about all the girls he slept with and laugh at us for not knowing what was important in life.  I think he managed to go on sick call at least half the days of basic training.  I think he actually added a few pounds of fat before graduation!  He was the one who told me about the donuts in the hospital.  I didn't see it for myself until I got hurt while stationed at Ft. Monmouth, but it seems that back then, if not today, there was a big platter of donuts on a counter in every Army hospital.  It had to be 3 feet high!

Laid off

I figured it was coming when, for over a month, I was only getting 2 or 3 days of work each week, and even some of the most skilled men in the company were being sent home early because of no work.  I was laid off today.  Oh, well.  It was fun.  Things I got to do that I had never done before: Weld steel and iron, solder copper tubes, repair and install pumps, drive a bobcat, weave re-bar and pour concrete, and a bunch of other really fun things.  I, also, received a nicknme: Pipewrench. Now that part of my life is over. Time to find something else. And file for unemployment insurance.

Oh, wait mintue.  My wife just gave me a list...

Star Trek

It is strange to think of it this way, but Star Trek has been part of my life, for my whole life.  In fact, the earliest thing I can remember seeing on teevee was an episode of Star Trek, the one in which Cap'n Kirk fight the Gorn.  I must have been four years old.  It scared me so I went outside and played with my plastic sword.  Later, when I got out of the Army and was living with my sister my brother-in-law and I would watch StarTrek: The Next Generation together.  The show had been on the air for a few years at that point, but I was busy doing Army stuff and hadn't seen it.  I really liked the last movie, especially how Cap'n Pike was put into the story with the whole time travel thing. Being a Star Trek purist, I was worried about how that was going to play out.  I think consistency in the Stat Trek universe is important.


Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Job Hunting

Things have been slow at work.  Only got 2 days this week.  Week before, too.  My boss says there are several really big jobs in the pipeline.  I'm looking for other work.  Applied for several media sales jobs today.  I need to make more money than I make as a pump and compressor mechanic.  Besides, I'm pretty good at media sales.  Seattle, Hollywood, Mountian View, Los Angeles.  Hope I get one of them.

Treehouse Closing

Stacy the "Chief Elf"

     When Anselm Samuel was in the second grade, and we lived 50% closer to his school he would walk to school and then back to home.  Sometimes, he wouldn't be home when I expected him.  On those occasions I would put Basil Wenceslas on my shoulders and walk down the street to the school.  Invariably, I would find him in Treehouse in the Glen, playing with Stacy the "Chief Elf" of the best toy store I ever knew.  Most of their toys were made of wood, and all of them were very engaging.  Haba, Holtzinger, and Ostheimer are some of the lines they carried.  The boys bought many marbles there.  And wooden swords.  My favorite thing we ever bought there is a game called Chickyboom.  But what was really nice was that my son had a place where he could stop for a few minutes on his way home from school.
     I just got an email announcing that Treehouse in the Glen is closing.  A couple of months ago I thought they were showing signs of struggle: No new inventory, half their floor space set apart for art lessons.  But today it is official.  Their website is already down.  Tomorrow they start a going-out-of-business sale: Everything 50% off.  I am not excited about the sale.  I know everything changes, and probably another interesting business will take the storeforent, but it makes me sad to see this place my son enjoyed so much go out of business.

When I was 10 or 11 I saw "A Little Romance".  It is still, after more than 30 years, the sweetest movie I have ever seen.  Nostalgia for a movie.  Gosh, what's wrong with me.  Well, this piece by Vivaldi was used throughout the movie, and makes me feel in love with being in love.  If you get a chance, see the movie.