This goes out to you listeners...

This goes out to a specific reader. You know who you are.

[Man. Did I just feel like Christian Slater there.]

Little Sister

Hey little sister I heard you went to Mr. So and So, knock knock knockin' on his door
again last night, said you needed it bad
you know that ain't right
'Cause so many times you've come to me cry-crying
trying to stop. you said it hurts so bad
But please don't let you
go back for more
My little sister is a zombie in a body
with no soul in a role she has learned to play
in a world today where nothing else matters
but it matters, we gotta start feeding our souls
Not our addiction or afflictions of pain
to avoid the same questions we must
ask ourselves to get any answers
We gotta start feeding our souls
have been lost to the millions with lots
who feed on addiction selling pills and what's hot
I wish I could save her from all their delusions
all the confusion
of a nation that starves for salvation
but clothing is the closest to approximation
to God and He only knows that drugs
are all we know of love
Every day we starve while we eat white bread
and beer instead of a hadshake or hug
We spill the pills and sweep them
under the rug
My little sister is a zombie in a body
with no soul in a role she has learned to play
in a world today where nothing else matters
but it matters, we gotta start feeding our souls
Hey little sister I heard you went to Mr. So and So's
Knock, knock, knockin' on his door again last night
Said you needed more
- Jewel, Little Sister

On racism

A rant...

Yesterday Barack Obama became our president, and I am very proud of that fact. I am one of the many who never thought such a thing could happen in my lifetime. And there's been a lot of press coverage of people exclaiming how it is a new day in our country, one filled with hope. It is, and it is. I even heard the term "post-racial" used on the news today, although the speaker didn't agree with it (neither do I), but instead was attributing its use to others.

But...

Things aren't all rosy yet in the good ol' U.S. of A. yet. The kids have told us about comments from their classmates at the parochial school, which I am sure just echo what they're hearing at home. For months now I have been told and sent "jokes" and flat-out hateful comments about Obama that are blatantly racist. They peaked around election time, then subsided, then resurfaced again this week. Sometimes at my work. Some of it from friends. Even the people that I volunteer with at the food bank (where many of the clientèle are African-American). Sometimes I think they volunteer there only for the white people who are "down on their luck", but "tsk-tsk" in their heads (and sometimes out loud) about the black clients, who obviously "aren't trying hard enough".

I don't like it.

Then there are those who are more careful to couch their language in "color neutral" terms (I have begun to rethink that, too - h.t. Dan and Erika - go read all of them). Oh, sure, they are sophisticated enough to always couch it in terms of wanting "experience" and fearing Obama won't "prove himself" (even while always tacking on the obligatory "although I hope and pray that he does!", which if you've noticed is already becoming like Seinfeld's "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"). Experience. Harrumph. Some of our presidents who supposedly had the best executive "experience" going into the office were terrible at being president (Nixon, Carter, Bush II). Some with almost no experience at all were the best (Lincoln). And I think Obama has a lot more experience than people give him credit for. But I digress.

I am not perfect. I have my prejudices, lots of them. But here's the thing - I don't roll myself up in them and wear them proudly as a badge and feel like I am right to have them. I was raised to believe prejudices are something to be ashamed of, and I am ashamed of mine. So I don't understand people feeling the need, the right or even the want to speak their prejudices out loud. It is like saying in a quiet aside, first checking both ways to make sure no one else is listening, "Hey, I like to molest sheep!", and then grinning and expecting a wink and a nod.

For all our self-congratulation on electing a black president, I predict within six months a wave of news stories on outbreaks of racism in various pockets of the country. I can already tell you there's an "Obama backlash" just from the above, and from a few relatives and friends posting Facebook statuses like "Armageddon" (and meaning it - to some, it is the end of the world...well, their world, perhaps). And for all they talk about it in terms of doctrine and dogma, "experience" and "concern", at the root, its racism. I know it, because I know them. I've heard their jokes over the years, I know how they think about blacks (and Hispanics, and others). They're just good at keeping it under cover unless it's safe to speak "just among us".

Well, your secret is no longer safe with me, whitey. Starting today, I am going to start demanding, not asking, people to quit with the fucking "jokes" around me. Don't tell them to me any more. Don't send them to me any more. You are squatting and shitting on the pride I feel in our country, and towards our new president. You are putting down other humans so you can feel big and stand on their shoulders. You are degrading the office of the President of the United States. You are disrespecting 53% of your fellow citizens who voted for him.

It is un-Christian. It is hurtful. It is unacceptable, unconscionable and ugly. It is injecting tales of fleecy flock fornication into the middle of my day. And from now on I am not going to just blow it off. I am going to make a scene. I might even tell a "dumb inbred cracker" joke for every prejudiced joke I am forced to hear or read. And if I do, please don't be offended. I don't mean any harm by it. It's just in fun. Why, I am willing to be color neutral and think even a white person is capable of change.

Even me.

Peace.

The Stranger

[Author unknown - provable attributions welcome. h.t. to my friend Kim.]

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small
Texas town.

From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and
soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted
and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind,
he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom
taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger...he
was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with
adventures, mysteries and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always
knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able
to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball
game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped
talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each
other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for
peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to
leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger
never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed
in our home... Not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime
visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and
made my dad squirm and my mother blush.

My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged
us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly
and pipes distinguished.

He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes
blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced
strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my
parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... And NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our
family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was
at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would
still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to
him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

His name?.... .. .

We just call him 'TV.'

Howdy!

Hi ya! Nice to see you! Welcome!

Buh-bye!

So long! ¡Adios! See ya!

She missed the 1990s

My blogger friend Erin apparently spent the entire 1990s coddled in a syrupy mass of CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) and missed out on one of the best decades of music I'll probably live to hear. It was the decade where grunge was born, "alternative" music flourished, the singer-songwriter returned, punk went through a second wave, "rave" music started to appear, some "name brands" completely reinvented themselves and much, much more. She knows she missed out and has had one friend build a list for her and recently asked me for my input, too.

So, following is my attempt to help. It is nowhere near a list of "The best of the 1990s in music." That list would be vastly larger than this one. Instead, I used the following criteria to try and build a representative cross-sample of the decade:

• In each case I am recommending a whole album, which means I have to like the whole album (there may be one clunker song on some of these, but no more than one).
• I chose only one album by each artist to maximize the breadth of coverage. This was really hard, to winnow down to one album some musicians who were prolific and at their peak.
• No complilations, greatest hits, or "Unplugged"/live albums, even though there were great examples of each in the '90s.
• No Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. Gasp! Kill the infidel! I liked them then. I like them now. But they defined the sound of that decade so much you'd have had to have been living in a refrigerator box not to have heard their stuff then, burrowed deeply into CCM or not. Me listing them here would be redundant.
  
• No Green Day, although I should have put it in there but Erin indicated she didn't like them and who am I to tell her she's wrong, even if she is? :o)
  

So, here's my list.

1990

• Charlatans UK - Some Friendly - Debut album by one of the bands in the "Madchester" English music scene.
• Pixies - Bossanova - Their second best album after 1988's Doolittle. Kurt Cobain cited the Pixies as an influence for Nirvana.
• Sonic Youth - Goo - Punk needs to periodically reinvent itself, and Goo sure did the trick. You have to love an album with a song dedicated to Karen Carpenter (Sonic Youth also played on the excellent If I Were a Carpenter tribute album) with the lyrics, "and I remember Mom, what you said; you said, 'Honey, you look so underfed'."
• Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic - Nice light alternative pop, well done.

1991

• Feelies - Time for a Witness - My favorite band, period. If they'd released any more albums in the 1990s instead of breaking up after this one, I would have had to break my own rules.
• Galaxie 500 - This is Our Music - Luckily, Galaxie 500 also let me off the hook by releasing only this album in the 1990s. Guitarist Dean Wareham went on to found Luna (below) with the drummer of the Feelies.
• Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend - What can I say? Matthew Sweet is 100% pure awesome in a jar, and this album proves it. Les and I still listen to it multiple times a month (at least). I hadn't known he had been part of the Athens music scene in the 1980s until looking up the Wikipedia link for this post.
• Smashing Pumpkins - Gish - A good, tight album before they started to take themselves too seriously.
• U2 - Achtung Baby - Right here is where U2 reinvented themselves. At least, the first time.

1992

• dada - Puzzle - This album delights me and pisses me off at the same time. No one should be allowed to be as talented as this trio was at the age they recorded this album.
• Darling Buds - Erotica - I love the thick, rich sound of this album.
• Luna - Lunapark - Feelies + Galaxie 500 = wonderful. Opening track's opening lyric? "You can never give the finger to the blind."
• Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth - Lyle's not quite country, he's not quite western swing, he's just...Lyle.
• Michael Penn - Free-For-All - I don't like Sean Penn (other than as Spicoli, perhaps), but I like this album by his brother, a lot.
• Morrissey - Your Arsenal - What can I say? If you liked the Smiths in the 1980s, then you had to like Morrissey in the 1990s, just to get your daily allowance of sardonism.
• Social Distortion - Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell - I have intense memories of driving in a blizzard across Highway 50 in Nevada ("The loneliest road in America") with this and Sarah McLachlan (below) as company. Social D to keep me focused and laughing and Sarah to calm me down in the middle of a white-knuckled 200 mile journey just trying to keep the car on the road.
• Sugar - Copper Blue - I love this album. Love it, love it, love it. If you liked Hüsker Dü in the 1980s, Sugar will not disappoint. I like to listen to a certain type of rock when I code and this is always on my playlist when I'm programming.
  

1993

• Better Than Ezra - Deluxe - I'll just use a verse from the second track of their debut album to sum it up: "It was good".
• Björk - Debut - The Sugarcubes singer takes off on her own, as does her wonderful, quirky voice.
• Connells - Ring - I have always summarized this album as "The best 1970s pop album you never heard." And I mean that in a good way. It leaves me "standing here, slackjawed", to lift a line.
• James - Laid - Another "Madchester" band, although their sound is different from a lot of the bands I think of from that time and place. Great lyrics, great music, and yes, the title track is about what you think it's about.
• Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville - Simply put, this debut is the best album of the decade. Period. End of discussion. Liz became more pop-oriented as she went on (although I hear she's returning to her roots), but this little gem, supposedly a feminine answer to the Rolling Stone's Exile on Main Street, is so fun, open, honest and raw it quickly becomes part of your own emotional lexicon. Listen especially to Divorce Song and Fuck and Run.
• Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See - I like the hazy, lo-fi understated sound of this band and Hope Sandoval's voice.
• Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - I don't think I need to say much about this album, other than it's better than ice cream.
• Sun-60 - Only - A great, upbeat rocking album with a female vocalist. It doesn't get any better!

1994

• Hole - Live Through This - I love Courtney Love's hutzpah. And I love this album. Whatever you may think of her as a human, this remains an excellent rock record.
• R.E.M. - Monster - R.E.M. leaves the jangly guitar licks behind and proves they can rock.
• Weezer - Weezer - Good old rock and roll, well played.

1995

• Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill - The singer-songwriter genre was strong in the '90s, and Alanis was part of the reason.
  
• Blue Mountain - Dog Days - Raw, country-tinged roots rock. Any of the releases from the decade could've have been here.
  
• Chris Isaak - Forever Blue - I have seen Chris Isaak live twice. His voice still amazes me. No one puts on a better show, either.
  
• Dandy Warhols - Dandys Rule, OK? - Fun album by a fun band (from Erin's own Portland, Oregon!) that makes you like music all over again. Opens with The Dandy Warhols' T.V. Theme Song and closes with over 20 minutes of rave music centered around It's a Fast Driving Rave-Up with The Dandy Warhols Sixteen Minutes (when the alarm clock rings, you know you're about done).
  
• Elastica - Elastica - Chick rock. I love it. Here's an album that shows why.
  
• Joan Osborne - Relish - Joan is somewhere between Janis Joplin incarnate and the best of R&B (which is why she sings in the excellent music documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown).
  
• Morphine - Yes - Proof that you don't need a guitar or even a keyboard to rock. A sax will do just fine. As will a great baritone instead of a strident, screaming tenor, and some understated, intelligent, funny lyrics. Too bad the front man, Mark Sandman, died.
• No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom - Patrick cleared the Spiderwebs out of my head and reminded me this terrific album needed to be here. It's hard to feel down when No Doubt is around. [Added 1/19/2009]

1996

• Dave Matthews Band - Crash - Man, was this a toss-up between this and Under the Table and Dreaming. Either would do. I originally really liked Dave Matthews. Then got burned out on him. Then saw him on VH-1 Storytellers and got enthused again, hearing the music through just him and Tim Reynolds play through these songs with just two acoustic guitars. I've stayed a fan since. [And yeah, I know - sorry Patrick, but I like him!]
• Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow - As with Dave Matthews, this was really a coin flip between Tuesday Night Music Club and this. Whereas Les likes the former more, I think this is her best album. And yes, this Missourian thinks that Missourian is hot. [Sorry, Les! :o) ]

1997

• Alabama 3 - Exile on Coldharbour Lane - You would only know this band because of the track off this album titled Woke Up This Morning (the opening theme to The Sopranos). But they are much broader, weirder, denser, weirder, rockier, weirder, dancier and weirder than that. Les and I love this band, and I got to see them live in England twice. Simply awesome.
• Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club - You can pretty much trace a lot of the interest in "Latin" music to right here. Thank you, Ry Cooder, for bringing them to our attention!
• Chumbawamba - Tubthumper - Tubthumping got old for many, but the thing is, this is just an awesome album of great music, excellent singing, dense, lush mixes and socially conscious lyrics, all that you can dance and rock out to. What could be better?
• Everclear - So Much for the Afterglow - I would love any album that ended with a hidden track called I Will be Hating You for Christmas. Like many other entries in this list, proof that a trio can be as powerful, perhaps more so, than larger groups. Another Portland, OR, band!
• Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind - Another incredible debut album in a list containing many incredible debut albums, this one just knocks me out still. And after the suicide of my friend John three years ago, Jumper gets to me every time I listen to it. And for a while when I was traveling to England all the time, the London lyric "I don't want to go to London" was my theme.

1998

• Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby - I'm too old for this music. I like it anyway. Maybe because it makes me feel like if I were younger, I could actually dance. But I know better. I can't dance. But this makes me want to.
• Gillian Welch - Hell Among the Yearlings - There's a certain type of singing that makes me want to sing along. Gillian sings that way. I sing along with her every time I play this album. She just invites it.
• Madonna - Ray of Light - I first became aware of this album during a trip to Amsterdam in 1998. It had been playing all week in the background of various places and I finally asked a server "Who is this?" "Madonna." Huh. For a woman adept at reinvention, I think this is her best reinvention ever. Fantastic album.

1999

• Moby - Play - Eminem hates him, and that's almost recommendation enough for me to like Moby. But the music is what really makes it. Seemingly simple songs that get in your head and then you can't get them out. That's the definition of "ear worm."
• White Stripes - The White Stripes - Lo-fi, DIY, quirky, minimalist, excellent. We love the White Stripes. And in 1999, they sounded like nothing else around.
  

Like I said, this is nowhere near enough. I left out some great albums because they didn't meet the criteria. I probably missed some just because I didn't want to spend all day in my CD collection squinting at copyright dates. But I think it's a pretty good cross sample of just how wide a variety of music was happening. Pick any of these albums and enjoy.

What about you? What do you think I missed? What music did you love in the last decade of the 20th century?

So much for cheating

Remember my post about shoes, just a week ago? I was out today (Saturday) and noticed the right one was feeling loose and looked down and the elastic was pulling out of the leather. After one week. Whaddya want for $29+tax in 2009? So later that afternoon I spent some time hand-sewing it back - sewing into leather with no thimble - fun! We'll see how long it lasts.

I shoulda wore (weared?) those Timberlands out, instead of trying to cheat with a new pair of shoes, no matter how "comfortable".

Lord, hear our prayer

The small community of Jefferson City and the surrounding environs have been marked by at least two tragedies in the past two weeks.

Margaret Romph

On January 2 there was an automobile accident that has left five year old Margaret Romph with a fractured spine and the possibility that if she survives she may spend the rest of her life paralyzed and on a ventilator. Her 16 year old sister Erin was driving and feels responsible. I can't even imagine what either of them and the whole family is going through, and I cry every time I pray for them all. I don't know them, but my heart is so full of care and worry for all the Romph family.

You can read more about Margaret here and here, and see photos of this beautiful little girl here. You can join a Facebook group expressing prayers of support for her and her family here. You can send a message of support to her parents Sherline and Eric on Facebook, too. And most of all, you can pray for them - for miraculous healing for Margaret, for peace for Erin, for comfort and strength for their parents and siblings, for them all to know God's will and love through this.

Lord, hear our prayer.


Two days ago on Thursday there was a fire that gutted a mobile home in Holts Summit, a small town just a few miles north of Jeff City. The Daniels family lost two daughters, Bailey, aged three, and Savannah, who was five. Les used to work with their mother. They have also lost everything they owned. It is a terrible, terrible thing. Please pray for the parents and brother of the Daniels children that the Lord may bring comfort into their grieving hearts and surround them with love.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Maybe the Epistles aren't meant for me

Erika wrote something last week that's been stewing in me ever since:

I was talking with someone on Friday and the topic turned toward the importance of community. Our context was a discussion about the reading of scripture, and I shared something one of my Fuller professors once said to a friend who was not interested in participating in any local church community but was committed to pursuing serious study of God’s word. There was a particular passage in one of Paul’s letters that this individual was struggling with, and my professor said to him: “Oh, that’s all right. You don’t need to worry about that passage. That passage doesn’t apply to you.” Shocked, his friend asked why, and my professor responded: “Paul wrote those letters to communities of faith; to churches. They are not written for an individual to try and figure out how to apply to his or her life apart from that context.”

That's a very interesting point.

She then goes on to say that she grew up in the church, has always loved church, has never felt alienated and abused by it, and is somewhat confused by those that have, even as she recognizes that there are many who have suffered at the hands of a church. The comment thread has been interesting, to say the least. And Erika is not just some dilettante church cheerleader, but someone who just spent six and a half years living in south central L.A. as part of a church plant, living in and becoming a part of a community many of us talk about "serving" but never even bother to visit. I respect her a lot. But even as she cannot understand people who don't want to be a part of a "faith community", I am on the other side wondering why people do (sorry, Dan). I mean, you can tell me, "Because the Bible says so," but then that just makes it law, right?

I dunno. I want to be part of a community of faith, but...ah, well, why drag all that up again?

Hot soup for a cold night

While everyone else had pork chops with mushroom sauce last night, I made a pot of minestrone for myself. It was good. It made enough for two as a dinner, or four or more as a soup course. I am sure the following would scale for more.

Ingredients

• 5 small red potatoes, cut into ¼" cubes
• 1/4 onion, diced fine
• 5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, diced fine (save the leaves)
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 15 oz can firm beans (I used northern white - garbanzo or kidney beans would work well, too)
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 15 oz can beef broth
• ½-1 cup leftover pasta (I used spaghetti and just cut it up a bit - almost any pasta would do, or leftover rice, I would imagine)
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp thyme

Directions

In a large pot heat the olive oil over medium high heat and then add the potatoes, onion, celery and carrots. Salt and pepper them and sauté for just a few minutes, no longer. Remove from heat. Pour in the broth and tomato sauce, add the beans and celery leaves, bay leaf, oregano and thyme. Return to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low (whatever will just keep it barely simmering), cover and continue gently simmering for 25 minutes, stirring often. Check seasoning. Put in the leftover pasta and bring back to a low simmer for five minutes. Serve. It is excellent with a few dashes of Tabasco or similar hot sauce added at the table.

Life ever feel like this to you?

Tarzan wasn't a ladies' man
He'd just come along and scoop 'em up under his arm
Like that, quick as a cat in the jungle
But Clark Kent, now there was a real gent
He would not be caught sittin' around in no
Junglescape, dumb as an ape doing nothing

Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him

Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job
Even though he could have smashed through any bank
In the United States, he had the strength, but he would not
Folks said his family were all dead
Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself
To carry on, forget Krypton, and keep going

Tarzan was king of the jungle and Lord over all the apes
But he could hardly string together four words: "I Tarzan, You Jane."

Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes
I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back
On man, join Tarzan in the forest
But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes
In dirty old phonebooths till his work was through
And nothing to do but go on home

Superman never made any money
For saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him
- Crash Test Dummies, Superman's Song

What's that, Lassie?

A fellow blogger is trapped in a mine shaft and needs help? Quick! Lead the way! Everyone, go help Heidi!

In the mean time, contemplate this cry for help:

[The Perry Bible Fellowship]

Bible up!

[Sacred Sandwich]

I've read the Bible clear through once, a project I completed a few years ago, and that took me about two years. When I started I thought I would do it in less than a year. I was non-traditional and started with the New Testament and then wrapped around and read the Old Testament. Or as this computer programmer likes to say, "I read the v2.0 manual and then went back and read the v1.0 instructions."

I've read other parts of the Bible multiple times, especially the N.T., especially the Gospels (I love the Gospels). I tried to restart another read-through last year but faltered pretty early on. So now I am looking for a bit of a more formal approach. I don't want a strict "The Bible in a Year" thing, because there will be days when other things come up. And while I attend a lectionary church (and even programmed the lectionary for use on our church Web site - feel free to rip off the code here, here and here - ask if you have questions), the problem with the lectionary is it's on a three-year cycle and still doesn't cover all the Bible, plus it repeats itself at certain times of the church year.

My question then is, do you have a good Bible reading plan? There are a multitude of "Bible in a year" sites on the Web, with email or RSS feeds to boot. It can be one of those. Or a book. Or some other resource. But what I am looking for is something more than just a mathematical division of the text into x equal parts. Most plans seem to have two or three parallel tracks - O.T., N.T. and perhaps Psalms and Proverbs divided in a way where they are supposed to enrich each other (which is how the lectionary works, too). Is that a good way to do it or should I just muscle through the books in single file order?

At the same time, I don't want a program with a lot of commentary. I was moved recently by an article that said we should try and approach the Bible with our own hearts and minds first, to engage it, listen to it and not try to "figure it out" by running to a study Bible. The Bible is not a test to be passed but a dialog to be engaged in. So I plan on using a footnote-free, chapter-and-verse-free, non-study Bible, probably the TNIV Books of the Bible, which could throw a curve in most Bible-in-a-year programs due to its reordering of some of the books to achieve a more chronological narrative along with the loss of navigational markers - but I am willing to deal with that.

Anyway, I am looking for feedback. Formal programs or informal methods that have worked for you. The goal is to get back into a consistent pattern of reading the Bible. The time period doesn't have to be a year, but it would be good if it were shorter than three years (and longer than a week! :o). All suggestions welcome. Thanks.

An observation

For a long, long time, most spam emails were either offering to enhance my prowess or at least my prow, or were from very nice people in Nigeria wanting to help my financial situation. Then in the mid-2000s there was that influx of offers of prescription medications cheaply available from our allies north of the border. But somewhere around 2006-7 it seemed like all those were pushed aside by neverending enticements to trade on sure-thing stocks and other financial instruments.

But I've noticed with the economic "downturn" all spam related to stocks have fled for the exits and we're back to getting offers from people genuinely concerned for my sexual and economic well-being. I like that, I think it makes for a kinder and gentler kind of spam. So not all aspects of the current financial crisis are gloomy.

Goodbye, old friends

Last January while on a training trip to Redmond, Washington, I bought a new pair of slip-on shoes because the pair I was wearing were falling apart. They were Timberlands, and usually I wouldn't pay for a name brand like that, but the Timberland store in the mall in downtown Redmond was closing and they were a great price ($39 marked down from $89, if I remember right). They were lined with SmartWool®, and while I have worn SmartWool socks on both winter and summer backpacking trips I was a bit skeptical they'd be comfortable in the summer, but it was winter, I needed shoes and so I bought them.

And thus began a love story. Those damned shoes have been the most comfortable things I've ever put on my feet. I wore them pretty much every day from then until now. They were warm and toasty in the winter, and cool and comfy in the summer (the miracle of SmartWool). And they just fit. Which on my flat feet is rare. The only time I didn't wear them was when wearing shorts in the summer 'cause they'd have looked dorky, and I don't need any help in that department.

But alas, all good things come to an end, and I wore those shoes so much that now they are worn out, with the soles starting to come apart and flap a bit around the heels. And of course as with any good pair of shoes you find and then want another pair, Timberland no longer makes the model nor anything even close to it. So yesterday I took the sad step and went to the shoe store and tried on every pair of slipons they had (I could say I like slipons because they make air travel easy, but really it's because as I age I don't want to spend more time than necessary bent over putting on my shoes). I tried on Timberlands, Doc Martens, Dockers, and others, and ended up settling on an offbrand that was also the cheapest. Which normally would appeal to me but in this case they were also the most comfortable and I was determined to get as close to the comfort of the Timberlands as I could - money be damned! I hope they stay that way and last me another year.

It felt almost adulterous putting them next to each other, but here are my old shoes on the left, and my new ones on the right:


Les suggested that I could continue to use the Timberlands as slippers, but I already have slippers and I think that would just prolong the heartache. I will just have to make a clean break of it and start life with my new shoes and not look back.

Goodbye! Thanks for all the miles of comfort!

Roasted tomato and garlic sauce

Meghann asked me for my spaghetti sauce recipe so I decided to post it here since I've mentioned it from time to time but never written it down. It is derived from a habanero salsa I've made for years, just without the habaneros! I wouldn't try this in winter, because it's hard to find enough romas ripe enough, and they're expensive. Just plant four or more roma tomato plants in your garden and you'll have more than enough for a batch a week throughout the summer. You'll note it uses fresh herbs - dried are OK, but it's better if everything is fresh. If you double the recipe (which you'll need to, to use up all the romas at the height of summer!), it will make enough to freeze a portion or two as well as serve some for the evening's dinner. I imagine you could can it via the water bath method as for tomatoes or salsa, too.

Ingredients

• 18-24 fresh roma tomatos, halved
• 12-18 fresh garlic cloves, peeled
• ½ sweet onion, peeled and quartered
• extra virgin olive oil (about half a cup, maybe a bit more)
  
• dry red wine
  
• salt
• pepper
• chopped fresh herbs - your choice of any combination of oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°.

Take the halved tomatoes and put them in two batches into a big plastic container with a tight fitting lid, pour over the olive oil (say a quarter cup per each batch), sprinkle on some salt, put the lid on and shake it real hard for about ten seconds until everything's covered with oil and the seeds and pulp are starting to come out of the halves. When both batches are done put the tomatoes out cut side up on a big cookie sheet. This is hard on cookie sheets (you'll see), so don't use your best ones. I have no best ones! :o)

Randomly put a whole peeled garlic clove in various tomato halves (the ones that have formed "cups" from having the seeds shaken out). Drizzle the oil/pulp mixture over the whole thing and put the sheet into the over for an hour. It will smoke. It will scorch. It will burn a bit. You want that. If it doesn't, raise the oven temp ten degrees or bake longer. Basically you want the tomatoes to be shriveled up, the garlic cloves browned and a bunch of blackened stuff around the bottom of the pan.

Pull the sheet(s) from the oven and let cool a bit. Put the onion into a blender and then on top of it scrape the contents of the pan into the blender with a metal spatula, making sure you get some of the blackened, roasted bits baked onto the sheet. Put in the herbs, splash in some wine, put the lid on and blend on slow until the whole thing is pasta sauce consistency (about 30 seconds). Now it is ready to be heated as spaghetti sauce. If you want a meat sauce, brown the beef (and whatever else you want - onions, green peppers, mushrooms, etc. - and then pour the sauce in with the meat and heat through. Correct seasoning while it heats, then boil the pasta and eat!

That's it. it will make about as much as a typical American-sized jar of pasta sauce. It is rich, and very good on spaghetti as a side to a grilled steak dinner (rib eye preferred - I call it a "Mafia meal").

Note: You can double this, just use two cookie sheets and swap their places in the oven halfway through, and increase the cooking time a bit.

Bulk up

I like to cook, and when I do I use a lot of herbs and spices. It'd be hard to afford the quantities I routinely throw in the simmering pot if we were paying grocery store prices for those that get used the most, but I have a better alternative - I buy them in bulk from the local "Amish" (Mennonite, really) store. Nothing like buying herbs priced by the pound. Here's a picture of the latest haul from today. For scale I have put a typical container of salt on one end and one of those 99¢ Tones bottles on the other (which typically hold somewhere between 0.5 and 1 oz. of spice, so that works out to between $16-$32/pound).

[Click to enlarge]

Working from left to right:

• $2.64 for 0.22 lb. (3.52 oz.) of thyme @ $12/lb.
• $2.50 for 0.25 lb. (4 oz.) of oregano @ $10/lb.
• $3.80 for 0.76 lb. (12.16 oz.) of dried onions @ $5/lb.
• $3.18 for 0.36 lb. (5.76 oz.) of dried garlic chips @ $8.84/lb.
• $1.59 for 0.16 lb. (2.56 oz.) of sweet basil @ $9.95/lb.

For a grand total of $14.02 counting tax for months worth of seasonings. Note all of those prices are what you'd pay for a puny jar containing an ounce or so at the grocers, instead of the tubs shown here.

I highly recommend you hunt down a local outlet for bulk spices. In the Midwest it is often Amish stores. In bigger cities ethnic food stores are often a good place to look. Do some research, ask friends, check the phone book. In these fiscally constrained times it's always good to save some money, so quit paying those grocery store prices, especially for the seasonings you use the most!

Sometimes you just gotta laugh

[Click to enlarge to full-sized fine print goodness.]

Disclaimers: (1) We own two American vehicles (a P.O.S. Chevrolet and a decent Dodge Dakota). (2) I have no idea where this originally came from 'cause it's making the rounds in email. But it's damned funny.

Twick or tweet!

My blogging friend Chaotic Hammer has written a hysterical piece on Twitter today. Go check it out! Spread the link love.

Play it again, Sam

I love covers songs. Not slavish ones that sound exactly like the original - why not just listen to the first? But remakes that chart really new territory, taking a song you know by heart and stretch it into something new, different, odd - something else you end up knowing by heart - those are special. So Les and I have been grooving to a handcrafted "Remakes" playlist lately. It's turned out to be one of our best lists yet. I am constantly adding to it as I remember yet another retread in my collection. A lot (not all) of the songs come from bargain basement tributes and compilations CDs I've bought over the years, some of which I hadn't given enough of a listen to until now. My mistake.

See how many of the bands and songs you recognize. (I wanted to obsessive-compulsively format and hyperlink all of the following, but...nah...It'll stimulate comments if you don't know what something is, maybe.) And none of these are remixes of originals, they're all covers.

• Bongwater - You Don't Love Me Yet
• 4 Non Blondes - Bless The Beasts And The Children
• Aerosmith - Come Together
• Aerosmith - Give Peace A Chance
• Alabina - Lolole (Don't Let Me Misunderstood)
• American Music Club - Goodbye To Love
• Angélique Kidjo - Summertime
• Avril Lavigne - Imagine
• B-52's Downtown
• B.A.L.L. - Out Of The Blue
• Babes In Toyland - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
• Bangles - Hazy Shade Of Winter
• Beausoleil - Valerie
• Belly - Are You Experienced?
• Ben Harper - Beautiful Boy
• Bettie Serveert - For All We Know
• Black Eyed Peas - Power To The People
• Blue Mountain - Cinnamon Girl (Live 11.02.96)
• Blue Mountain - White Freightliner Blues
• Bob Mould - Turning Of The Tide
• Body Count - Hey Joe
• Bongwater - Mr. Soul
• Bonnie Raitt - When The Spell Is Broken
• Buddy Guy - Red House
• Buffalo Tom - Merry Go Round
• Butthole Surfers - Earthquake
• Cal Tjader - Evil Ways
• Camper Van Beethoven - Pictures Of Matchstick Men
• Chris Thomas - Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)
• Corinne Bailey Rae - I'm Losing You
• Corrs - Dreams
• Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi
• Counting Crows - The Ghost In You (Live)
• Counting Crows - The Ghost In You
• Cracker - Rainy Days And Mondays
• Cranberries - (They Long To Be) Close To You
• Cranberries - Go Your Own Way
• Crowded House - Pale Blue Eyes
• Cure - Purple Haze
• Dancing Hoods - Angel From Montgomery
• Dave Matthews Band - On Broadway (Live)
• Dave Matthews Band - Watchtower (Woodstock 99)
• Dave Matthews Band - Wild Horses (Accoustic)
• David Byrne - Just The Motion
• Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
• Dinosaur Jr. - I Misunderstood
• Dinosaur Jr. - Lotta Love
• Dishwalla - It's Going to Take Some Time
• Duncan Sheik - Songbird
• Eddie Vedder - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
• Elton John - Don't Stop
• English Beat - Tears Of A Clown
• Eric Clapton - Stone Free
• Evan Dando - Frying Pan
• Fatal Mambo - Magot Tcheri
• Feelies - Paint It Black
• Fiona Apple - Across The Universe
• Five Blind Boys Of Alabama - Dimming Of The Day
• Flaming Lips - (Just Like) Starting Over
• Flaming Lips - After The Gold Rush
• Flor De Mal - Good Advices
• Foo Fighters - Baker Street
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Born to Run
  
• Giant Sand - Big Fish
• Golden Smog - Shooting Star
• Goo Goo Dolls - I Don't Want To Know
• Graham Parker - The Madness Of Love
• Grant Lee Buffalo - We've Only Just Begun
• Green Day - Working Class Hero
• Gumball - Stumble
• Hayseed Dixie - Back In Black
• Hayseed Dixie - Black Dog
• Hayseed Dixie - Blind Beggar Breakdown
• Hayseed Dixie - Dueling Banjos
• Hayseed Dixie - Fat Bottom Girls
• Hayseed Dixie - Holiday
• Hayseed Dixie - Kirby Hill
• Hayseed Dixie - Marijuana
• Hayseed Dixie - Moonshiner's Daughter
• Hayseed Dixie - Mountain Man
• Hayseed Dixie - Rockin' In The Free World
• Hayseed Dixie - Roses
• Hayseed Dixie - Runnin' With The Devil
• Hayseed Dixie - This Fire
• Hayseed Dixie - Uncle Virgil
• Hayseed Dixie - War Pigs
• Hayseed Dixie - Whole Lotta Love
• Hayseed Dixie - Wish I Was You
• Henry Kaiser - Medley: The Needle And The Damage Done/ Tonight's The Night
• Henry Kaiser - Words
• J Church - (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
• Jack Johnson - Imagine
• Jack's Mannequin - God
• Jaguares - Gimme Some Truth
• Jakob Dylan - Gimme Some Truth
• Jawbox - Low
• Jawbreaker - Pretty Persuasion
• Jayhawks - Lights
• Jesus And Mary Chain - Reverberation (Doubt)
• Jewel - Leaving On A Jet Plane
• Jewel - You Make Loving Fun
• Johnette Napolitano - Hurting Each Other
• Judybats - She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)
• Julian Cope - I Have Always Been Here Before
• June Tabor - Beat The Retreat
• June Tabor - Genesis Hall
• Just Say No - Radio Free Europe
• King Missile - Get Up
• Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson
  
• Lenny Kravitz - Cold Turkey
• Leo Kottke - Eight Miles High
• Leo Kottke - Embryonic Journey
• Leo Kottke - Sleepwalk
• Les Nubians - Tabou
• Living Colour - Crosstown Traffic
• Liz Phair - Turning Japanese
• Loop - Cinnamon Girl
• Los Lobos - Down Where The Drunkards Roll
• Los Lonely Boys - Whatever Gets You Through The Night
• Lou Ann Barton - Don't Slander Me
• Lou Reed - Tarbelly And Featherfoot
• Lucinda Williams - Main Road
• Luna Season Of The Witch
• Luna Sweet Child O' Mine
• M.A.C.C. - Hey Baby (Land Of The New Rising Sun)
• Madonna - American Pie
• Majek Fashek - Hotel California
• Maria Mckee - Opelousas (Sweet Relief)
• Matchbox Twenty - Never Going Back Again
• Matisyahu - Watching The Wheels
• Matthew Sweet - Let Me Be The One
• Matthew Sweet - This Moment
• Maxi Priest - Wild World
• Michael Penn - Weeds
• Michelle Shocked - Holy Spirit
• Mingo Saldívar - Rueda De Fuego (Ring Of Fire)
• Mitch Easter - Shiny Happy People
• Mr. T Experience - Can't Get There From Here
• Mxpx - Take On Me
• Nick Cave - Helpless
• Nigel Kennedy - Fire
• No Doubt - It's My Life
• Oasis - Hide Your Love Away (Acoustic Beatles Cover Demo)
• P.M. Dawn - You Got Me Floatin'
• Pat Metheny - Third Stone From The Sun
• Pearl Jam - Baba O'riley
• Pearl Jam - Crazy Mary
• Pearl Jam - Rockin' In The Free World
• Peter Tosh - Johnny B Goode
• Phleg Camp - Feeling Gravity's Pull
• Pickin' On - Born To Run
• Pickin' On - Casey Jones
• Pickin' On - D'yer Mak'er
• Pickin' On - Hotel California
• Pickin' On - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
• Pickin' On - Paint It Black
• Pickin' On - Paperback Writer
• Pickin' On - Purple Haze
• Pickin' On - Rift
• Pickin' On - That Smell
• Pickin' On - Tripping Billies
• Pickin' On - Wish You Were Here
• Pixies - Winterlong
• Poi Dog Pondering - I Had To Tell You
• Postal Service - Grow Old With Me
• Pretenders - Bold As Love
• Primal Scream - Slip Inside This House
• Psychic Tv - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
• Punchline - Bandwagon
• R.E.M. - #9 Dream
• R.E.M. - Crazy [no, not the Willie Nelson scribed/Patsy Cline sung one - think Pylon]
  
• R.E.M. - Femme Fatale
• R.E.M. - I Walked With A Zombie
• R.E.M. - King Of The Road
• R.E.M. - Pale Blue Eyes
• R.E.M. - There She Goes Again
• R.E.M. - To Sir With Love (Live)
• R.E.M. - Toys In The Attic
• R.E.M. - Wall Of Death
• Redd Kross - Yesterday Once More
• Regina Spektor - Real Love
• Richard Lloyd - Fire Engine
• Seaweed - Go Your Own Way
• Shawn Colvin - The Chain
• Shawn Colvin And Loudon Wainwright Iii - A Heart Needs A Home
• Sheryl Crow - D'yer Mak'er
• Sheryl Crow - Solitaire
• Shudder To Think - Animal Wild
• Sister Double Happiness - Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)
• Sister Hazel - Gold Dust Woman
• Snow Patrol - Isolation
• Sonic Youth - Computer Age
• Sonic Youth - Superstar
• Soul Asylum - Barstool Blues
• Soul Asylum - Summer Of Drugs
• Southern Pacific - It's A Cold Night For Alligators
• Spin Doctors - Spanish Castle Magic
• Steel Pole Bath Tub - We Walk
• Sting - Shadows In The Rain
• Stranglers - 96 Tears
• Stranglers - All Day And All Of The Night
• Stranglers - Walk On By
• Syd Straw And Evan Dando - For Shame Of Doing Wrong
• T - Nothing In Return
• Tallulah - Oh Daddy
• Tesco Vee's Hate Police - Losing My Religion
• Thin White Rope - Burn The Flames
• Tonic - Second Hand News
• Tori Amos - Smells Like Teen Spirit
• U2 - Instant Karma
• Van Halen - (Oh) Pretty Woman
• Vibrating Egg - Bermuda
• Vic Chesnutt - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
• Wailing Souls - Like A Rolling Stone
• Wake Ooloo - So You Wanna Be (A Rock N Roll Star)
• Waterboys - Why Look At The Moon
• When People Were Shorter And Lived Near The Water - I Believe
• X - Shoot Out The Lights
• Youssou N'dour - Jealous Guy
• ZZ Top - Reverberation (Doubt)
• 少年ナイフ (Shonen Knife) - Top Of The World

What are your favorite remakes?

Hey, guys!

Something's happened this decade, slipped by mostly unnoticed, a small cultural thing, a permutation in the ever-twisting word-mash of slang.

"Dude" became gender-neutral.

"Dude" is following the path of "guy", or to be more accurate, "guys". Whereas "guys" has long been used to address mixed groups, as in "You guys want to go out for a beer?", it never really was gender-neutral in the singular. Not too many people would address a female friend with, "Hey, guy, what's up?" But "dude" seems to be taking that place of sexless singularity. I read it and hear it addressed to females all the time, often by other females themselves, usually in that inflected, faux-surferspeak - "Dude, what were you thinking?"

I don't know what it means, if anything, but it's an interesting little twist, nonetheless. Hey, Dude, wanna go bowling?

I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
- Jeffrey Lebowski

My offspring

This post is to prove my earlier statement that Meghann's a better photographer than me. Here's a quick trip through my spawn and their spawn. All photos © 2008-2009, Meghann McLeroy. Meet the other half of my brood.

Meghann (photo by Jeremy McLeroy)

Jeremy (and Thimble, my aunt Sharon and uncle Darrel's dog)

Morgann and Hannah (I loved Meghann's Facebook caption for this:
"Morgann tentatively pets one of those small children thingies." :o)

Ryan (aka Mr. Smartypants)

Lindsay (aka Grandpa's heart-stealer)

Logan (aka Here Comes Trouble)

Hannah (guess who is on both Les and my desktop backgrounds right now?)

The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good

We have been reunited with Meghann (my eldest) and her family after two and a half years of estrangement. It came about from three women plotting - Meghann, Morgann and Leslie - and thank God for feminine wiles. Just last Monday Meghann and I were back in contact and by Tuesday night they were here from Georgia! We got to see all the grandbabies including Hannah, the youngest, who we had never seen before. While they were here I was able to apologize for my part in the whole thing and hopefully made amends.

The Bad

Last night at the end of a great Saturday evening alone with Les - a very rare event since she usually works a double shift on Saturdays and even rarer because none of the kids were here - I got embarrassed by something and ended up taking it out on her and we both went to bed upset. This is not the first time I've started a fight right before bed, not the first time she's gone to work in the morning upset, not the first time I've had to apologize. I hate it!

The Ugly

Me.

I have come to the conclusion that I am broken, an asshole with some serious issues. Oh, sure, I can fake being a pleasant person well enough, but in the end I always end up taking out my insecurities and problems on somebody. It sucks. And I think a big part of it comes from being really unhappy with myself. Not depressed - I know that feeling and this isn't it, at least, not exactly. More an earnest self-loathing around all the things I do and think that I am not very proud of.

I wish I could be as open as Erin and just start puking it all up here, but realistically some people from work read this and I would rather not be the subject of company gossip (this post will be enough fodder as it is). But even so, for the record as of the beginning of 2009, I think I do too much of all of the following (sorted alphabetically, not by priority or importance):

• Argue
• Belittle
  
• Complain
• Drink
• Eat
• Gossip
• Laze
• Lust
• Nag
• Snipe
• Swear
• Worry

I hate every one of those excesses, and in the end they're what make me hate me. Yet every time I resolve to fix one of them I slide back, sometimes within minutes, sometimes days, once in a while I last a week or so. And some of them lead directly to others - like I'll worry over something and then nag Les about it and then we'll argue over it.

I pray for help, I pray for forgiveness, but it doesn't seem to matter much. Maybe God knows I really don't mean it. Or maybe He is going to let me hit bottom before He picks me up and glues me back together. I dunno.

But in the mean time, it sucks. The new year is a time when people make resolutions, and there are twelve things in that list, maybe I could take one a month and try and do something about it. But I probably won't. I just don't seem to have any will power any more. No focus. It's just the usual day-in, day-out grind (SSDD), and it's wearing me down. I think it's wearing us both down.

I think there's been a lot of tension between us over the past six months because we're now halfway through her RN program. And I say "we" even though she's the one in school because she works the weekends and goes to school and practicums and studies during the week, and I work during the week and cook every night and do all the household stuff on the weekends, and every night we both make sure the kids are getting homework done and showers taken. While we see each other every day we don't have any "time off" together. It's just drudge, drudge, drudge, drudge. No wonder we snap at each other. It's one thing to know in our minds that it's all for a bigger goal, but it still sucks to live through the day-to-day to get there.

Les was saying a few weeks ago that she needs us to go somewhere and do something fun for a few days and I agree but I just don't see it happening. We can't afford it, for one. For another, with her school and work schedule this year being a repeat of last, I just don't see when it can happen until she graduates in December. In the mean time I think it is bringing out all the worst in me. Les seems to be handling the schedule and pressure (other than that being caused by me being a dick) much better than I am.

Whatever. My list includes "complain", and here I am doing it yet again. Sorry about that. I'm done. For now.

OK, OK, I am going to bore you...

...with some pics of my grandkids whether you want to see them or not! Click to enlarge if you care.

Ryan (8, on the left) with his uncle Jon (10). At this point Jon was very worn out. It's hard work being a role model!

Here's Lindsay (6), who pretty much owns Grandpa's heart, and knows it. Last night at the restaurant, which was going to be our last time together this trip, she told me, "We will miss you." Ahhh...Then, a bit later she asked, "Are you happy to see your little girl again?" Since my daughter Meghann was sitting across from me and Lindsay next to me I didn't know which she meant, but I could truthfully answer "Yes!" anyway.

Logan (4), who has figured out the best way to defeat your enemies is to eat them.

Logan getting into Jon's stuff - luckily Jon wasn't around at the time!

Grandma Leslie getting some quality time with Hannah (2).

Don't let that little look fool you - she's not that shy!

Grandma's are comfy.

Out cold.

Oh, yeah - and here's those other people what brung 'em. Hannah with Meghann and my son-in-law Jeremy. Meghann's shirt says "I'm blogging this" and I sure hope she does because she'll have better pictures with her fancy digital SLR camera than these from my phone!

And just to round it off, here are my three eldest kids - Morgann (22), Jeremy (34) and Meghann (28).

That's it. I'm done. You no longer have to feign interest.

Quote of the year

"I love it here, Grandpa. Your house is wonderful."
- Lindsay McLeroy, age 6

What a nice way to end '08, eh?