Another Year, Another Christmas List.

1. You know the hours he has spent looking at Swiss watches on Chrono24 but you also know he is way too practical for those. He just admires the workmanship, engineering, and artistry of automatic watches. Also, he is a hunter. When he's running from a wild pig because he's missed every shot and only annoyed the pig, or when he's running through brush chasing a pheasant that refuses to fly, well, he just doesn't want to worry about damaging his watch in situations like that. He needs something that can "take a licking and keep on ticking". He needs a Timex field watch.

2. Ever since he was a little boy watching KBHK TV-44 out of San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon and saw the three stooges he has wanted one of these. He bought one on eBay for his two youngest boys the first Christmas after the divorce but it was from eBay and didn't work. And a few years ago he bought one for his friend. But here he is 50 years after he first saw Moe, Larry, and Curly playing with them in old movies, and he still doesn't have one. He would, don't you think, love finding a seltzer bottle under the Christmas tree.

3. You and he have been shooting pheasants for a few years but have nothing to show for it. Yes, they were good eating and, yes, it is fun to make pate from their livers and share it at church, but the one time he tried to have a pheasant taxidermied, well, it was a very expensive horror. Wouldn't it be nice to just have a bronze statue of a pheasant to commemorate all the pheasants you and he have downed?

4. It was September of 2020 when he was last at the Indian Colony Tobacco Store. Well, guess what. That's right his can of Captain Black (the original blend with the white label) is empty. You know you love the smell so this would, really, be a present for both of you.

5. You know how he loves to make fancy food and take it to church to share at the meal after Agape Vespers on Pascha? Well, you might not know this, but he has always thought he could do better. The only problem is that he has never had all the right equpment. Yes, you gave him a KitchenAid mixer and All-Clad pans but just think of all the yummy salmon mouse the people of your parish could be eating at Pascha if only he had a fish-shaped tin(or nickel)-lined mouse mold. If you get it for him for Christmas he will, probably, use it to make you yummy good food on Twelfth Night. Oh! And when it's not being used to make food it can hang on the wall and be beautiful.

6. About 40 years ago his mother had an old black and white photo of his grandfather hand tinted and framed. She gave it to her husband on his birthday. He kept it on his desk in his office until he retired and no longer had a desk. His mother and father are dead now. But it might be the case that his oldest brother's widow or one of her children, or his sister, or his yet living brother has the photo. Maybe, if one of them does have it, they will loan it to you long enough to have a copy made.

7. The years his kids were Scouts were the happiest years of his life. He would be very happy to wear the Eagle Scout and Arrow of Light lapel pins if he had them. They commemorate the highst awards his sons earned.

8. He likes Italian tuna . He eats several cans a month. He appreciates gifts of food. You can't go wrong getting him this.

9. Since 1996 when he was living in San Francisco flop houses he has been eating Molinari Salami. He would love get one for Christmas so he can slice it up and put it on this year's Astro Weenie Christmas Tree.

10. When he goes hunting for big game he doesn't want to tote around a whole box of cartridges with him. Nor does he want to carry loose ammo in his pockets. What to do? What to do? It seems a Tourbon leather ammo wallet is ideal for situations such as this.

11. He doesn't understand it. Where do they go? Regardless of the answer, the need is real. Black socks from Gold Toe.

12. He has bought them for his kids. He had one when he was a soldier (They sold them in the uniform store and its inside was the only thing in the barraks that wasn't inspected every morning.) but he hasn't had one in many many years. And the last few voyages he was on; to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, to Alaska and Cape Cod he really wished he'd had a leather dopp bag.

13. He wears Aramis. Not the Aramis 900 Herbal his dad switched to in 1981 but the original Aramis, the first designer fragrance for men. Maybe, delight him with a whole gift set!

14. He's had that leather club chair for a while now, and he knows you think it looks worn out. An easy way to get him to part with it would be to give him one of these for Christmas.


15. He would love to make more holodets (the old ladies at church love them) but he doesn't have enough little ramekins to ensure everyone can get some. Just imagine the glory as he walks into the hall at church bearing a platter of little holodets! (Shredded chicken breast with spicy mustard is his favorite but he knows some people who like minced ham with carrots and black pepper.)

16. Many times he has thought to himself, "Gosh, that's an amputation waiting to happen." And he is, genuinely, worried about it. That blade needs to be covered. So get him this razor head cover and ease his mind.

17. Sometimes, he has the feeling that too much of his shirt is exposed, and that his tie is having to do too much work. He really needs a vest.

18. Have you ever seen his tie fly away? He needs a tie tack. Or a tie bar. Maybe one in a duck or pheasant theme would be nice.

19. Because of that listeria problem that killed 9 people last year it has been hard to find liverwurst in stores. Thankfully, braunschweiger is still available. Imagine the joy when he makes everyone braunschweiger and red onion sandwiches with dark mustard on dense rye bread! Yummm!

20. When he was a little boy his mother and grandmother made pickles; sweet never dill. He loved those homemade sweet pickles but never really liked other pickles; not dill nor sweet. They always tasted chemically to him. But then, one day he tasted Bubbies, and WOW! That's all. Just WOW! They are the best pickles he has ever tasted and he would be thrilled to find a jar under the tree this year.

Yoo-Hoo

When I was 12 years old my Mom and Dad and I moved to Tampa, Florida. There was a little corner store near our house that sold Chocolate Yoo-Hoo. I had never tasted it until I moved to Florida. Once I tasted it, I think, I drank one or two bottles (YUM!) a week from 1981 to 1986, when I was old enough to join the Army.

That same corner store sold peach NeHi and blue cream NeHi. They also had a Galaga coin-op video game that spent $1 on every week. I also bought the Tampa Tribune (It seems to be out of business now.), there every morning and read it while drinking my morning coffee. Reading the Tampa Tribune - first to last page- every morning was, I think, one of the most important parts of being homeschooled. I had the BEST teen-age years.

One time, when I was home on leave from the Army, I think it was Christmas time in 1989, I was in that little corner store when a man got angry and yelled at the woman behind the counter. He left and the woman, whom I had known since I was 13, said through her tears, "Why didn't you do something?" I was ashamed for not having done "something" but I also knew that if I had done "something" one of us, either that angry man or I would not have walked out of there. I told her that but it didn't help. 40 years later I still don't know if I made the right decision. I wish I had done "something".

Max's Diner

Back in the 1990s and 2000s, when I worked in the advertising industry, I used to eat pretty often, maybe twice a week, at Max's Diner on Folsom Street in San Francisco. I always had what they called the "mini-Reuben" and a Martini. The "mini-Reuben" is just a Reuben sandwich cut into 8 bite-sizes pieces and held together with toothpicks. It was perfect: A bite of of sandwich, a sip of Martini.

Max's Diner did not survive the stupidity of our government's response to the Wuhan disease, but some of Max's resuraunts did survive. Among them Max's Opera Cafe. The mini-Reuben is not on their menu but, if you ask nicely, they will make one for you. A fun thing about Max's Opera Cafe is the singing. They have a grand piano and all the waiters and waitresses can sing. One tme, many years ago, a waitress there let me join her in a duet of The Way You Look Tonight. Neither of us was as good as Faith Hill or Tony Bennet, we were more like Ethel Merman and Buddy Hackett, but it was fun.

The Aga Khan is Dead.

I just read the news that the Aga Khan is dead. I had heard of him, of course, many decades ago (I think it was the late 1970s) but I didn't know much about him until about 12 or 15 or 20 years ago, when driving home from the Vigil Service at Holy Trinity Cathedral one Saturday night, when I heard Christine Baranski read Thomas Meehan's Yma Dream on James Lipton's Actors Studio show on KQED. After hearing Ms. Baranski's performance of Yma Dream I looked up every name mentioned. I learned so much! And was very happy to learn that I was not the only cocktail party host to experience this kind of stress. But I am sad to learn that the Aga Khan is dead. He was an important leader for his people.

Duets

It seems to me, and maybe, it's just because of how old I am and the music I heard growing up, but the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s were the heyday of pop music duets.

I remember hearing the song Private Dancer sometime in the 1980s. My Mom said, "That's too bad. Tina Turner was one of my favorite rock and roll singers." I think that, propably,bthis song was in her mind when she said that. 1971 -Proud Mary - Ike and Tina Turner.

I remember hearing this song on KOIT FM back in the 1970s. What I didn't know then is that the two singers, Niel Diamond and Barbara Streisand didn't record it together. In fact their two recordings of the song were made years apart. Back about 20 years ago I met a guy on Facebook who had recently converted to Holy Orthodxy and who had been a radio DJ in, I think, North Carolina. He told me about how they splice together the two recording to make their two recordings into a duet. They probably violated all kinds of copyright laws when they did it, but the duet version was a bigger hit than the two solo versions. Here are Barbara and Niel performing the song together for the first time at the 1980 Grammy Awards.

This song was a favorite of my late brother Ken's wife. Everytime it came on the radio or teevee she would say, "Oh! Kiki Dee!" 1976 - Don't go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and KiKi Dee

I was in the 4th grade when I saw the movie Greeae. At that age (9 or 10) I didn't know what the story was about. (It was only many years later when son #3 was running the lights in his high school production of the play that I finally saw and was appallled by what it was about.) But I knew from this song that if I was ever going to have a woman like Sandi I had better "shape up". You're The One That I Want- 1978 - Olivia Newton John and John Travolta.

There is a maried couple I really want to put on this list of duets but only one of them actually sang. The other was an instrumentalist. The Capatain and Tenille had some hits in the '70s but I don't think he ever sang so I can't count them as a duet. But there is another couple who were married (Until his heroin addiction wrecked that marriage. You know there is a reason why we outlaw that drug.) This song was part of Carly Simons 1974 album Hotcakes. I remember my teacher in kindergarten teaching it to me. I didn't understand it but it was fun to sing. 1974 - Mockingbird - Carly Simon and James Taylor It is one of my favorite songs. I hope you enjoy it. And, Oh My Gosh, do you see the look of love on her face when she looks at him?

I wanted to see the movie because I was 12 years old and "in love" with Brooke Shields but my parents wouldn't let me see it. Now, having read about the film, it seems to me, thaey made the right decision. 1981 Endless Love - Lionel Ritche and Diana Ross

This song was origiinally relesased by Bob Seegar as a solo, only later was it releasd as a duet with Keny Rogers and Shiela Easton, but I din't hear it until 1985 when Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton released it. 1985 - Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers - We've Got Tonightgt

Another Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song on this list of duets is, really, a Beegees song. (in the late 70s and early 80s I was huge Beegees fan.) This song was written by the Beegees but not recorded by them. 1983 - Islands in the Stream

in 1981 my Dad was chosen to oversee the churches of his denomination in Florida. When they first moved there I stayed in California with my sister and brother-in-law. One day I was listening to the radio and heard a song by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warrens. I loved it from the moment I heard it. All these years later I still haven't seen the movie for which it was written but in the mid-1990s I met Cocker's protoge Phil Driscoll in at a night club in San Farancisco. That is wheen I learned, if I remember correctly, that many years ago they owned, or maybe they only perfornmed, at a burlesque therater in Canada. It is hard to remember these days. Anyway - 1982 Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warrens - Up Where We Belong

I didn't even know about the exitence of Bary White until the mid 1990s but, OH HY GOSH, what an amazing phenomonon he was. Here he is singing All Around the World with Lisa Stansfield, the authhoress of the song, 1990

TELOS of this song. Though this song had been recorded by many singers between 1980 and 1989, the fullness of this song was only revealed by Neville and Rondstadt in in 1989.

It was in the late 1980s and I was a PFC in the U.S. Army's 101sst Airborne Division when a srgeant (his name was Morrison) came in to the battlion HQ one early Monday morning and said, "PFC Karnes, you need to see Dirty Dancing. Take your wife to see it with you. That is an order." This is th on;y song I remember from that movie. 1989 Jenifer Warraens and Bill Meddly - I had the time of my life.

Finally, Beloved, I give you a duet by Al Green and Annie Lennoox. Niether claims to be ORTHODOX buth bothhave opinions of Jesus. Lennox seems to be more complicated than Green. But we should pray for the salvation of both of them. Put a Little Loe in Your Heart.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

In 1971 the British rock band, The Who had a big hit with their song Won't Get Fooled Again. It reminds me of the words I sing in church every week, "put not your faith in princes or sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish." Today Donald J. Trump took over as President of the United States.

I was in a meeting when he swore the oath and when one of the men in the meeting (he was listening to a device in his ear) announced that we had a new Prsident the other 60 people in the room began clapping and cheering. (About the meeting: I quit my job as a teacher after last semester and took a job a a salesman for a general contractor. I sell roofs, windows, doors, concrete, solar energy systems, and insulation now. Much more money than teaching.) I am glad Trump is our President but I don't for a minute think he is going to usher in an age of justice and prosperity. I think he'll do less damage to us that Biden did but that is all.

I haven't been excited about a presidential candidate since Ron Paul ran for President. Although, I must admit that the last time Trump was President he did appint good judges to the U.S. courts, but I think that is mainly because he didn't have strong opinions about judges, and just asked the Federalist Society who they want him to appoint. Admittedly, that is a pretty good way to pick people to be federal judges. Gosh, It was fun campaigning for Ron Paul. It's too bad he didn't win.

David Lynch is dead

Snyder's show came on the teevee after Carson's show signed off. I first saw his show in 1980 or 81. I watched Snyder's teevee show until I was tatally surprised by Letterman's "Late Night with David Lettermn". I was 12 years old and was completely confused when Letterman said stuff about being on the air since the 1950s. Anyway, before Letterman, one of the things I liked about Snyde is that his show dealt with seious subjects. He wasn't just after a laugh like Carson and, later, Letterman were. I'm not sure I could have articulated it back the, but Snyder seemed a bit more serious than Carson or Leterman. The first time I saw David Lynch on Carson's tonight show he had with him a "bee board". It was nothing more that a pice of card board with aabout 3 dozen bees glued to to it. I saw it but can not understand wat Lynch meant by it. Was he a genius or was I a dullard? I do not know.

Movies

In the last couple of years it has come to my attention that people rarely go to the cinema to see movies anymore. I know I don't, I can count on one hand the number of movies I've seem in the last two years. It is a strange change in my life, and I guess I am thinking about it because David Lynch died three days ago. But several years before I saw my first David Lynch Film (I986, Blue Velvet, the only movie I saw after reading a review in a newspaper) I used to watch Siskel and Ebert on KQED chanel 9 out of San Francisco. It was my favotite show on the teevee. I don't think I missed a week. But my movie going memories really started years before I started watching Siskel and Ebert. The first three movies I remember seeing were Fantastic Planet at theMountain View Theather in Mountain View, California with my Brother-in-Law Dan, The Gumball Rally with my brother Mark at the Moffat Drive-in in Mountain View California, and the Swashbuckler at the Century 21 cinema in San Jose, California. All of those cinemas, the Mountain View, the Moffet Drive-in, and the Century 21 are gone now. The 1980s and early 1990s were to me the golden age of cimema for me. A Room with a View, Out of Africa, Big Trouble in Little China, Leaving Las Vegas, Remains of the Day, Romancing the Stone, Stand by Me, Howards End, Platoon, Glory, Nuch Ado about Nothing, Body Heat, and Gump were some of the best movies I ever saw. Hmmmm. Nostalgia might not be a good thing.

Coast to Coast

I was leaving the gym the other night (I like the steam room) and accidently hit the "search" button on my steering wheel. The next thing I know, I'm listening to Coast to Coast but it wasn't Art Bell (He's been dead for 20 years.)it was some other guy talking about the Rothschilds and global conspiracy.

I remember the first time I heard that show. It was sometime in 1997, '98, or'99, and I was driving down the San Juaquin Valley on Hwy 99 to see my parents. (I just found out that my Uncle Fred's place out near Ivanhoe where my parents spent some of their last years, before they got too old and sick, is vacant. I'm thinking about making an offer.) It was captivating. Over the years the show talked about space aliens, Atlantis, the CIA plot to kill JFK, and dozens of other conspiracy theories. It was nuts. The one thing I liked about Art Bell was that he was never critical of his guests. He would just let them say whatever their bizaare theory was and act like they weren't crazy but were, really, scholars and experts. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad the show survived it's founder.

A Man Under Authority

A centurian asked Jesus for a miracle. Jesus said he would be right there to heal the centurian's servant. The centurian said, "No, Lord. I am a man with autority. I know how these things work. Just say the word and my servant will be healed." Jesus spoke and the servant was healed.

Long ago, in the 1980s, I was a soldier in the 502nd Air Assault Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 101st Airborne Division. A few of our sergeants were combat veterans from the Vietnam War. But none of our officers had seen combat except for one captain. He was 15 years older than any of the other captains in the regiment and medals covered him: The Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, as well as decorations from the Chancellor of Germany, the President of the French republic, the King of Thailand, and the President of the Republic of Vietnam. Unlike the other 22 captains in the regiment he had been an enlisted man, a sergeant, during the Vietnam War.

I was only a Private First Class but I worked for the adjutant on the colonel's staff so I knew all the officers in the regiment. There was one lieutenant who was a Christian. There was a major who loved the Lord and with whom I sang Handel's Messiah one year. He and I would have been friends but he was an officer and I was enlisted. There was one captain who very ostentatiosly proclaimed his Christianity, as though he thought it would make people think he was a better man than he was. There was the colonel, he was a Christian of some sort, and attended the protestant chapel service every Sunday (it was on his official schedule). But there was my captain, who you think I would have known better than all the others because he was actually my commander. But he was quiet. When he came into the headquarters he didn't talk to anyone but would quickly walk to the colonel's office and make his report or recieve his orders. Always, on his way out of the headquarters he would stop by my desk and ask, "Soldier, do you have everything you need to do your job?" then go back to doing what ever he spent his days doing. I never saw him smile. The only time I saw him angry was when the lieutenant in charge of the mortar platoon said his men were too tired to complete a task. (That lieutenant was forced to resign his commission.) Though he worked us hard, that captain was absolutely loved by all his men.

He was loved because he was humble. He knew his power over us. He knew his responsibility to us. He never abused us but made us perform to the highist standards, much higher than the army-wide standards. I would sometimes hear the captains bragging to each other about how good their companies were. My captain never braggged. He didn't have to. The records were clear. His company had highest PT scores, the highes SQT Scores, the most days in the field, the highst marsmanship scores.... He just stood there and listened to the other captains brag on their men. I never felt like the the standards he set for us were so he would look good to the colonel or the other officers in the regiment. I think all we soldiers knew he demanded so much from us so we would survive on the battlefield, because he had survived on the battlefield.

He was Baptist. He attended a little Baptist church in Clarksville, Tennessee. He never talked about it. He didn't keep a Bible on his desk like the ostentatious captain did. He didn't talk about Jesus to his men. But he went to church every every Sunday morning, as I learned when I heard some of the other officers talking about why my captain wouldn't go out drinking with them on Saturday nights. Did I mention he was humble? There were 4 lieutenant colonels, and 7 majors in the regiment who outranked him, but as a Distingushed Member of the Regiment the captain should have always been seated beside the colonel at any dinner. But one time the adjutant (he was new in the position and didn't listen to me or the sergeant in charge of protocol) seated him below the majors. The colonel, of course, corrected the adjutant, and the adjunt apologized all over himself. What did the captain say? "Don't worry about it. We all put our pants on one leg at a time."

I sometimes think that the captain was a man like Holy Czar Nicholas was. Instead of letting his men bow to him, the Saint would hold an icon of the Savior before his men so they would bow to the Lord instead. That is what people who have authority and understand authority do; direct attention to the One who really has authority, who is the source of authority. And Jesus gave his life for us. And in a desperate attempt to to save his people, the Czar humilated himslf by abdicating. And my captain made no big deal of his rank or reputation but reminded one who gave offense that we are all just men.

A Day in Napa

Kathleen and I went to see Ottmar Liebert and Luna Nega at the Blue Note in Napa yesterday. It was much fun to see in person a band I first heard of back in 1994 when Columbia House sent me a CD. It is very rare that I go to a live music performance but I really like very much Ottmar Liebert's music. It was surpising to see him as an old man. The only picture I had ever seen of him was on the CD cover from 30 years ago. But I just saw my old drives license from back then and I'm old now, too.

The Blue Note was a nice place. I would not be opposed to seeing other performers there, but it is a long drive from San Jose. If I go to Napa again I'll stay overnight in a hotel.

Truth Is Truth No Matter Who Says It

I wish this were an Orthodox preacher but like a bee I'll take nectar where I can find it. From minute 9 through minute 20 is the best explanation of the reality of the bread and wine truly being the Body and Blood of Jesus. Following that he goes down list of some of the Church Fathers of the first 3 centuries, including Ss. Ignatius, Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom.

On a personal note, I remember when I was about 11 or 12 years old hearing, as though for the first time, my Dad do a communion service in Ukiah, California. Like most of the pastors in that denomination at that time, he read St. Paul's words from I Corinthinans 11:23-26, and when I heard the words I was astounded. And I was confused when I tried to reconcile those words with that denomination's teaching that the bread and grape juice are not really the Body and Blood of Jesus. I mean, we were Protestants and our whole religion was supposed to be based on the Bible (I first learned the Five Solas when I was 10 years old at Sunnyvale Christian School.), and we weren't just Protestants, we were Pentecostals who believed miracles and in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Why would we not interpret "this is my body" and "this is my blood" literally? Why would we think God couldn't do this miracle? The disagreement between the words I heard from St. Paul and the teaching of my denomination made no sense to me. It is no wonder I became Orthodox when Orthodoxy found me.

A Day Off

Until today all I'd been doing since Friday was reading textbooks and preparing for the coming school year. While reading the McClay history textbook (mentioned in my post) I came accross a small error so I looked up McClay's email and sent him the information he needs so he can fix the error in the second edition. He wrote back. It turns out he is a really neat guy. We are getting together later this year.

Today, Kathleen and I went to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Scott Creek Beach. I think it was the first time I've been to that beach since my boys were little. Scott Creek Beach, Waddell Creek Beach, and Bonny Doon Beach were the beaches I used to take them to all the time. It was Kathleen's first time at Scott Creek Beach.

There were lots of kite surfers today. Just before we came home the dog dug up a large crab, shook it ferrociosly, ripped it to pieces, and rolled in it. The smell in the car was horrible. We stopped at dog wash and got him all cleaned up before we let him in the house.

It was fun reading about Righteous Gamaleil today. As I was reading about him today I learned that he was a famous rabbi and the Jews still cite some of his decisions. I wonder how many secret Christians there are today. My guess is many.

This is thesecond day of the Dormition Fast. I am always surpised about hw good the food is. Also, meal prep and clean up is much easier when there is no meat, fish, dairy, or oil. I did make some vegan pesto for Katleen yesterday (Yesterday was an oil day. I don't know why.) I don't like pesto but she does so I made it for her.
A normal pesto recipe has five ingredients: fresh basil, Pamagiano Regiano, olive oil, fresh garlic, and pine nuts. To make it vegan, and thereby fast-friendly, all you have to do is leave out the cheese, add a little salt and, bingo, you have vegan pesto.

Two Days of Greeks and a Chinese Recipe

Kathleen and I went to the Greek Festival in Oakland on Saturday. It was okay. We were there too early in the day (11 a.m.) so there were no singing or dancing acts. But I don't really like street fairs, church festivals, art and wine festivals, and things like that, anyway. The best parts of the trip were talking about the cathedral architecture with with a young priest and praying with some nuns from Calistoga. They were there selling books and honey. The nuns and I prayed for my son, Basil, who is still not recovered from Covid. I spent way too much money on food (Kathleen is always surprised when she likes lamb. She thinks she doesn't like it.), more than I would have paid in a resturaunt but I thought of it as an offering more than paying for lunch: Church festivals are fundraisers. Kathleen bought wedding rings and a prayerbook.

On Sunday morning we went to the Divine Liturgy. We left after the sermon since neither of us could go to Communion; Kathleen because she isn't an Orthodox Christian yet (her Baptism is not for five more days.), I because I wasn't prepared. (Kathleen: "But you went to confession just last week. You haven't done any sins since then." Me: "I can't walk across the living room without sinning.")

The sermon was about St. Photini (AKA the Woman at the Well). In the car afterwards, Kathleen asked me how many sermons I've heard on that text. When I said many she asked if they were all different and if I could remember any of my Dad's sermons on the text. They were all different and I do remember two of my Dad's. In one of them, I remember he was talking about how ignorant the disciples were, how they never understood what God was doing, and that we are all like that because God is infinite and we are not, because his ways are not our ways, and God is always going to know things we do not know and do things we do not understand. The other sermon I remember him preaching on that text was about how we don't get to decide who is in the Church. God chooses whom to include and we have to accept them. The main point of Fr. Basil's sermon yesterday was that Jesus always did the will of his Father, and that it was the Father who wanted him to go through Samaria and meet the woman at the well. If we desire to know the Father we must look at Jesus.

After Church we drove over to Santa Cruz on Hwy 9. We wound trough the hills, hills I've been winding through since the early 1990s, where all my sons and I had many adventures. In Boulder Creek we stopped at my favorite grocery store and got roast beef sandwiches. At the antique store across the street Kathleen found a sealable porcelain jar with a mallard painted on it. We ate the sandwiches at the covered bridge park in Felton. Then we drove on to Santa Cruz.

In Santa Cruz we saw a play, "An Iliad" at the Jewel Theater. (I've known the story, or parts of it for most of my life. As an adult I've read several different translations, in prose and verse, and have even atempted to read it in Homeric Greek but my knowledge of Koine Greek was not up to the task.) I was sobbing at the end of the performance. It was very moving.

We got home and Kathleen took a nap while I did some work, listening to reruns of A Praire Home Companion at the same time. When she woke about 8:30 p.m. I made supper: My Mother's twice cooked pork. She used to make this for the anual dinner for my Dad's colleagues on the board of the Florida District of the PCG. It was such a good dish but she only ever made it for that one event. She, really, did not like cooking.

Recipe
-cooked pork roast. My mom always used boiled loin. I like a mixture of left over oven roasted shoulder and boiled loin. About 1 pound in total, cut into 1 inch cubes.
-one shallot, peeled and minced
-one head of garlic, peeled and minced
- fresh ginger root, about as big as your hand, peeled and minced
-sesame oil, about 3 table spoons
- a head of green cabbage, chopped into long ribbons
- soy sauce, 2 tablespoons is enough for me, but I don't like too much salt. Most people, I've noticed, like to add more soy sauce at the table.
(sometime my Mom would use a yellow onion istead of shallot. Also, she would sometimes shread green bellpepper and add it to the wok at the same time as the cabbage.)
- 1 tablespood sesame seeds.

heat the oil in a wok until crazy hot, but not smoking. Add the the garlic and ginger stir constantly when the garlic turns brown, add the shallots and pork and keep stiring until the pork browns and gets crispy edges. add the cabbage and soy sauce. Keep stiring until the cabbage is soft. Toss in the sesame seeds. Serve.

Anselm, Basil, and Baptism

Anselm was graduated from his final training (I think they put him through three different courses) as a junior enlisted man at the U.S. Navy's Submarine School. He is a qualified navigator and navigation equiment repairman now. Oh, he is a pistolero for the Navy, too. That last qualification, I am sure, will not be used on a submarine, but the more qualifications a sailor has the faster he gets promoted. Today he began driving from Connecticut to California. He'll stop by San Jose for a couple of days but then he reports for duty at Point Loma.

Basil is still very sick from the Covid, it has been since just before Palm Sunday. He is able to keep up with his classes (regular high school classes + an art history class from Evergreen Valley Community College but easly spends 15 hours a day in bed. He has no active virus but his heart and lungs are taking a long time to recover. The doctors changed his meds a week ago but say not to expect any improvement for at least another week.

Kathleen and her son are scheduled to be baptised on May 28. She ordered baptismal gowns from someplace in Greece. It was 45 years ago when I was baptised but I think I remember wearing brown couduroy pants and a brown and white striped cowboy shirt with mother-of-pearl snaps. It was just what I had on. No one had planned on me being baptised that day. I don't remember a lot about it. I remember visiting a church in Mountain View (The church my Dad pastored was in the neighbring city of Palo Alto.) where a whole lot of peole were being baptised. I remember having to convince my Mom and Dad that I really believed. And I remember standing in the water with my Dad and Uncle Harry (He was a preacher in the same denomination as my Dad.) I remember the question, "Do you believe in and choose to follow Jesus as your only Lord, God, and Savior" When I said "I do" they laid me down in the water saying I was being baptised in the "name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." When I came up they said to me, "You are a new creature in Christ". It was shorter than the Orthodox way of baptizing.

GNOSTICISM AND THE LGBTQ+ MOVEMENT

I saw something interesting posted on facebook by a friend of mine. (I won't name him because he is a friend and I want to keep him as such. Also, he is not a Christian so what I'm saying in this post is not directed to him. This post is intended for my fellow Christians to think about.) Many years ago, when I was eleven or twelve years old I heard and believed a heresy from Sunday school teacher. What he taught us, with the help of lots of snazzy charts and diagrams was this: We are spirits That have souls and live in bodies. Of course, any Orthodox or Roman Catholic Christian, and most Protestant Christians, should easily recognize this heresy as Gnosticism. But here is what my friend said, and again, my friend is not a Christian and, to the best of my knowledge, is unfamiliar with the Gnostic heresy; he was merely seeking to explain the sexual ideas that are popular in the larger Western post-Christian society. So this is what he said: a persons identity (whether he thinks of himself as male, female, or other) is located in his mind which, if one is not a materialist, usually means the spirit, while who a person is attracted to (e.g. wants to have sex with) is determined by his heart/soul, and a person's sex is determined by his body. When I saw what my friend said I was astounded. As Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. Of course, I knew before I saw my friend's Facebook post that there was some kind of link to Gnostic anthropology but I hadn't thought it all the way through. Now that my friend explained it I see it clearly. There is nothing that can or should be done to try to convince a non-Christian (they won't believe us) that this idea is an error, but we can and should strive to show Christians that the whole LGBTQ+ movement is merely the most recent iteration of the Gnostic understanding or human personhood. Of course, the Christian understanding of a human person is that we are a spirit and a soul and a body, created by God to be such, in unity without confusion, and forever. But there is a deceiver who does his best to make people think they are not one being, who tries his best to think there is and ought to be confusion between the spirit, soul, and body. It is the demonic idea, the lies the enemey puts into people's minds that must be combatted through prayer and fasting and a liberal application of holy water.

I've Got You Under My Skin x 4 (Saturday Soundtrack)

There are a lot of versions of this song. The Four Seasons had a #1 hit with it, Etta James and Carly Simon recorded it. And I've always loved this song.

Sadly, I can't find a video of Martin Short on the the David Letterman show in the early 1990s when during the interview segmaent he just took over the show with a crazy over the top parody of a 60s lounge singer. In a way it was a tribute to Frank Sinatra. It was brilliant. Nevertheless, here are the 3 I could find. .

This first one is, probably, the one with which most people are familiar. It's the first version I remember hearing. It's Frank Sinatra ( remember where I was when I heard the news that he had died.) singing Nelson Riddle's big band arragment. This concert wass in 1974 but as late as 1990 I heard Sinatra introduce the song by saying, "Here's a new arrangement by Nelson Riddle." Sometimes, while performing live Sinatra would change the words but from what I can tell, he was always spot on with the timing and phrasing. He never diviated from this arrangement. Oh, the trombone solo in this performance was played by Urbie Green. But I don't think he ever recorded with SInatra in the studio.



Around 1998 I was in Barnes And Noble bookstore sampling CD's (Remember those? I wish we could still buy them. I have no idea how to buy new music now. I guess, Apple wants me to do something with iTunes but I have no desire to learn new software.) and I came across a CD called "Love Scenes" by Diana Krall. WOW! At the time, I was living in a rehearsal room at at the Petite Trianon in San Jose (It has since been converted into a church where my brother-in-law is one of the pastors.) and would fall asleep to the CD every night. So when her 1999 "When I look In Your Eyes" came out I had to buy it, too. That CD had her recording of I've Got You Under My Skin. It totally changed the way I thought of the song. The guitar reminds me of a soft bossa nova and, as always, you can almost feel the piano keys on your finger tips. I understand she is married to Elvis Costello. I'm looking forward to getting to hear their kids sing when they grow up.



This final version of the song is by Storm Large, a singer I've seen around performing on her own and with various bands (I first heard her singing with Pink Martini) I thought she was a good singer of torch songs but not a jaw dropping amazing performer. But then I saw her audition for America's Got Talent. She wasn't just singing. She deserves acting credit too. Her reinterpretation of this song is a complete 180 from Krall's. It is astounding.

Work I don't remember

Yesterday Kathleem told me something. It seems that several years ago I wrote a guide to writing history papers for her students. I guess, one of her students gave it to the librarian at the college, the librarian made copies, and now it is used in their turotial center. It seems that what I wrote was good but the sad thing is that I wrote it back when I was a drunk and have no idea what it says and have no memory of writing it.

Old Stomping Grounds

My son, Anslem and I went hunting up in the Mendocino National Forest. There is a population of Merriam's turkeys on Mount Hull we were going to hunt but the daybefore we got there the California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed the area to hunters. I don't know how they can do that in a U.S. Forest; maybe CDFW has some kind of agreement with the U.S. Forst Service. So, our hunting trip turned into a camping trip. It was fun even if we got no turkies or pigs. (Pigs were our secondary prey but we learned from a local that in the last 10 years a growing mountain lion population eats all the piglets and they never get a chance to reproduce, so no more pigs in the forest.) We saw a two large heards of elk, a bald eagle, Great blue herons, wood ducks, chipmunks, rabbits, geese, and lots more besides. We wee there during the super moon event so it was light all night.
On the way home I took Anslem by the place I lived from October 1979 to October 1981 when I was a boy of 10, 11, and 12. Ukiah. The population has increased 16,000 since I lived there when the population was 12,000. Lots of car dealerships and fast food and convenience stores are on State Street that were not there when I was a kid. Several indoor growing and hydroponic stores serve the marijuana industry. The strip mall that was named The Pear Tree Center is gone, as are all the pear trees. They've been replaced by vinyards. (I saw my first big marijuana farm in a little valley between the forest and Ukiah. I guess that explains all the new car dealerships and other businesses) In place of the Pear Tree center is a new shopping center with a Staples and a Wal-Mart. The Staples surprised me. The town only has 16,000 people. How much office furniture and printer paper can it buy? I saw The Forks Cafe where my Dad ate lunch almost every day. And the Forks Ranch Market. where I used to buy my National Lampoon's and Mad magazines.

Of Course, I took Anselm by the house I used to live in and showed him the church my Dad pastored. Strangly, they have changed the name of the church. When my Dad took the pulpit there in 1979 he asked the board to change the name from Calvary Temple to Calvary Way because of the recent mass suicide of the members of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple. (A lot of people do not remember that before Peoples Temple went to Guyana to die, but after they left San Francisco, they stopped in the Ukiah area for a few years.) The word temple was thought to be off-putting after the suicides. Now the church has changed its name to Legacy Church. I wonder what was the thinking behind that decision? Protestant church names are complicated; not nearly as straigforward as Orthodox parish names. The bishop picks a saint or a feast that doesn't already have a parish in the diocese assigned to it and that's all there is to it. It doesn't change.

The Forks Market, the Forks Cafe, and the Parducci Winery were all within walking distance of the church and the pasronage I lived in with my parents. The Parducci winery was one of my favorite places. I loved the smell of the crush in the fall. I spent many hours playing in the vinyards with farm workers kids. I ate a lot of grapes. Every year before Christmas the church kids would sell ceramic bells to raise money to go to summer camp, and I would take my box of bells up to the winery and Mrs. Parducci would have everyone in the place buy a bell. They were good neighbors. Sadly, they sold out to a big wine company. I don't think the Parducci family is there anymore. Just their name.

Christmas is coming

 I have no big story to report but here are a few of the things that have been going on since my last post.  

Kathleen and I have been fishing and hunting a few times.  We really like the Delta but we are not good at fishing and the weather has been against us regarding water fowl.  On our last trip we caught one little striper, maybe 10 inches long, and set it free.  Then when we got back to the dock a sea lion swam up to us with a BIG striper, about 22 or 26 inches long, in its mouth.  It threw its head back and swallowed it.  Then it dove two more times and swallowed even bigger fish when it came up from each dive.  I really think it was taunting us.  It caught those three fish before we even got the boat out of the water.

As for waterfowl hunting, well, except for one canvasback that was on the water (legal but not sporting to shoot) all the birds have been flying too high to shoot.  We need blustery, overcast, and rainy weather for good duck and goose hunting.

We've launched onto the main channel at the City of Antioch's Marina but because of wind, boat traffic, and currents we prefer the Holland Riverside Marina.

Oh, Kathleen bought me an early Christmas present: A membership in the CWA and entrance into the hunt lotteries!

The Christmas tree up.  The wreath is above the door.  Kathleen, the boys and I have been reading one chapter of Luke's Gospel each day since the start of the month.  We've been doing the advent wreath services I compiled a few years ago.  All the present have been wrapped.  I have two turkeys (One for Christmas Dinner, one for 12th Night), three hens (for Poules du Provence on the 3rd Day of Christmas),  8 pounds of homemade Italian sausage and 7 pounds of homemade Greek sausage (for Christmas breakfast), a double crown roast of pork (also for Christmas dinner), and a big beautiful ham (For St. Basil's Day) in the freezer.  I still have to mail out Christmas cards and fruitcakes.  I found an address for my son Devon.   I haven't seen him or talked to him in 10 years.  I'll mail him one and see what happens.

I'm surprised I never mentioned it on this blog but a couple of years before the divorce I began buying Lemax Christmas village pieces for Anselm and Basil.  After the divorce I was too poor.  I started up again this year.  It has been fun giving them another one every few days during Advent.  I don't buy them new but I look for deals on eBay.  It's a lot of fun.

Something I did not do this Advent is read the Advent Storybook to my boys.  I'm a little bit sad about it but they are too old now, I think.  They are reading Luke now.  Oh well, if I ever have grand children I'll get to read it aloud again.

Did I tell you that my old boss at the Census Bureau asked me to apply for other position with the Bureau?  She emailed me a few weeks ago and asked me to submit my application before the opening was announced.  I have an interview scheduled tomorrow afternoon.  If they hire me it will be at 4 grades higher than I was at when I worked for them back in August, September and October.