Friday, October 31, 2003

Libby Purves in the Tablet: Nuns also laugh a lot: not a lot of people know that, these days. But it wasn’t a bad sound to grow up with.

7:07 PM | 0 comments

catholic.org is continuing to solicit donations -- and I assume that they are funneling this money through their Your Catholic Voice Foundation (ycvf.org) so that the income (the donations) will not be taxed. Although catholic.org appears to be a commercial outfit, Your Catholic Voice is registered as an IRS 501(c)(4). In other words, they are tax-exempt, but donations to them are not tax deductible. Odd that Deacon Keith Fournier, Michael Galloway, and Sandy Galloway do not cop to this fact in their pitch (these are the people making the pitch, right? although no one actually puts his or her name to it on the pitch...), because it is not unreasonable that folks would assume that a donation to a dot-org in response to a solicitation for by dot-org would, in fact, be tax deductible.

The information from the State of Washington, link above, does not yet include financials because Your Catholic Voice was not registered there until August 4, 2003. The organization has until May 15, 2004 to submit further information. Some comparisons of 501(c) organizations.

To search online public records, check out Search Systems, a link from my brother the legal investigator.

3:10 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Malariotherapy against AIDS? At 83, Henry Heimlich is not finished.

1:54 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Boulder County Fire: My photos of smoke from the Jamestown fire; the evacuees are at Boulder County Fairgrounds. All three Denver network stations cut their afternoon programming in favor of their coifed and vacuous coverage. I called one (CBS, as it happens) to complain. "Lives are at stake," the flunkie answering the phone pompously advised me. And how is television coverage going to help with that? TV anchors like Jim Benneman add no light that I could see, only the heat of studio lights. These stations accomplished nothing by breaking into their programming, but they surely felt good getting it done.

5:20 PM | 0 comments

Right now it is 79 F. I should turn on the lawn sprinklers at dusk. Oh, wait -- they were blown out and shut off for the year YESTERDAY. Ah, home on the Front Range.

11:41 AM | 0 comments

Via Katja, more good news/bad news. Good news is that rental car companies National and Alamo will improve airport shuttle bus access at airports. Bad news is that it took investigation by the Department of Justice to get things -- er -- rolling. There's a real cynical attitude by some companies about the Americans with Disabilities Act. Public shame? Stiffer penalties? Forget letters of apology; let's see some Super Bowl COMMERCIALS of apology. Maybe real world consequences (which I don't consider a settlement agreement to be) would enable companies and government entities to find their resolve to abide by the law.

11:21 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Thus spake Roger Mosley, BBC's head of TV news: "I don't think this is true of the BBC, but I think it's true somewhere that people automatically assume that George Bush is wrong about everything. That is an example of a perspective that can set in if you are not careful." Indeed.

8:46 PM | 0 comments

Somebody is googling a fair bit (and using other search engines, too) to track the words: pastor jim mayo portland oregon

Interesting.

6:37 PM | 0 comments

A clergy tantrum that goes beyond even what I have seen of ... you know ... that fellow who used to be at St. Patrick's in Portland. What really amuses me is the banner ad for Scottish Opera at the top of the news page. They'll bring the fire and the Rev Daniel Hawthorn will supply the brimstone. What also seems familiar to me is the Rev Hawthorn's decamping for vacation. He told a paper: I’m on holiday in England, the sun is shining and the leaves are falling from the trees. I would be happy to speak about this next week, but not now. See? My church does not have a monopoly on clerical bullies.

3:57 PM | 0 comments

The husband of Terri Schiavo speaks for himself on Larry King live. Michael Schiavo seems to say that Terri's parents are fighting to keep their daughter alive "Probably just to make my life hell, I guess."

3:50 PM | 0 comments

Not a big surprise that females with children are calmer under pressure and deal with adversity better, a U.S. researcher said Tuesday....Writing in the journal Physiology and Behavior, [University of Richmond neuroscientist Craig Kinsley] called the phenomenon "maternal induced neural plasticity." [He said,] "There’s something about pregnancy and subsequent exposure to offspring that create a more adaptive brain, one that’s generally less susceptible to fear and stress."

Last year another study of Kinsley's suggested that having children makes women more clever and protects against dementia later in life... Kinsley's research page at University of Richmond

3:15 PM | 0 comments

Pretty funny story in the Denver Post about "re-branding" Denver. In part,

For instance, in trying to draw more national business conferences, the motto "Denver: The hookers are easy to find" could trigger some commerce associations to jump into contracts for national confabs here in the city. Unfortunately, some family-values groups might find the phrase a bit of a deal-breaker. On the other hand, promoting what some say is a lack of cultural and ethnic diversity in the city could attract a whole new group of visitors and their dollars, though maybe not the people we'd actually want.

"I come to Denver for the fresh air, fresh seafood and diversity," said Karen Sullivan, a former Colorado State student who now lives in San Francisco and rarely travels back to the Mile High City. "No wait, just the fresh air." We won't remind her about our high-pollution days.

There is a way to bring in college kids from around the country, though. The Denver metro area could become the next Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Once students learn how much more quickly they can get hammered at high altitude, they'll overrun the city.

3:07 PM | 0 comments

The grocer King Soopers is starting a delivery service in our area, which I would be delighted to see, but for some reason it is excluding Longmont. Bummer. They have pretty good stuff but, based on my experience here in Longmont, surly and produce-banging checkers. Delivery would have been a reason to shart shopping with them again.

2:42 PM | 0 comments

Monday, October 27, 2003

"Seeing" Mount Athos, which is nigh unto impossible for women: The monks reply frankly to questions, but they do not want publicity. Visitors are asked to keep photography to a minimum, and they were very wary of having a journalist around - since one of them was once sent a copy of an article in a German newspaper with his picture in it. "You come here to get away from all that," is the simple explanation.

4:08 PM | 0 comments

Best comment yet on the creepy parents of Elizabeth Smart

2:22 PM | 0 comments

What the stingiest analysts are saying looks good for the home team

1:38 PM | 0 comments

Patrick Jephson on the aspirations of Camilla Parker Bowles - The ambition that brought Camilla this far has not died.

11:16 AM | 0 comments

A secret weapon for France in the rugby world games? - Virgin Mary, who taught your child Jesus to play at your knee,/Keep a maternal watch over the game of these grown-up children./Be with us also in the great scrum of existence,/So that we may come out winners in the great game of life, /Giving an example - as on the field - of courage, zest and team spirit,/In a word of an ideal in your name. Amen.

10:57 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, October 26, 2003

Super organization that provides direct help to children and aging adults in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They emphasize the dignity of each individual (no dirty faces here) AND their administrative costs are phenomenally low.

9:21 PM | 0 comments

"For you, Mr. Gorbachev, four, five—as many as you want"...

4:55 PM | 0 comments

David Gelernter's essay on Terri Schiavo's life: Mrs. Schiavo's parents believe that she knows them and is comforted by them. They believe they are communing with their daughter. Given my own experience with the gravely ill and the dying, I will take the parents' word over the doctors' any day. Say Amen, somebody.

4:48 PM | 0 comments

V. Gene Robinson appears to have resolved any uncertainty: "I can't wait to be bishop..." His ordination is "exactly what God would have us do: to hold onto one another while we continue to be in very different places about this. I think that is in the greatest Anglican tradition".

Well, what about when YOUR being in a "different place" actually violates somebody else's spiritual and theological boundaries, bub?

3:10 PM | 0 comments

Something to keep in mind: Your synthetic genes can only be as good as the efforts invested in sequence optimization.

2:38 PM | 0 comments

A discussion of the Bad Breads of Longmont puts me in mind of how I longed for good bread when we moved back to the USA from Paris almost ten years ago. And asking about it caused people to look down their noses at me because in THEIR not-so-humble-opinions the US has had great bread for years now, especially in NW Oregon, where we lived. But the crust (especially) and crumb were terribly unsatisfying for someone accustomed to send her 12 year old out in the dusk before dinner to retrieve a fresh baguette.

Accepting that many boulangeries in Paris have the dough delivered and that it is "only" baked on the premises, even a mediocre boulangerie on a bad day turns out better bread than anything available within about thirty miles here. Marczyks in Denver has adequate (though not great) breads, breads that seem to stay with the ingredients of flour, yeast, salt and water. We live so far away that whenever we buy from their bakery, we always buy a loaf for the planned meal... and one for the road. Especially at rush hour :-)

11:28 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, October 25, 2003

A fresh response to assisted suicide in Oregon - Hoping to allay some of the fear of dying that led to legal assisted suicide in their state, a group of Catholic health workers and clergy are planning to open a small hospice for lonely people with nowhere else to die.

2:32 PM | 0 comments

...the beauty and the banality of Concorde...

2:28 PM | 0 comments

Is Verizon's pretty good rate a cover for their absolutely execrable service?

12:33 PM | 0 comments

Sober words from the Spekkie's media columnist: It is no longer possible to scoff at the idea that Diana was murdered

12:32 PM | 0 comments

Hopeful words for the Anglicans - The Anglican Church is much stronger than one would imagine from reading about it in the press, and can be expected to surmount its present difficulties within a century or two.

12:27 PM | 0 comments

Friday, October 24, 2003

Well, this is an interesting week to be reading The Mirror, with its serialization of the Paul Burrell book:

"Are you asking me to lie, Your Royal Highness?"

And then, with the temerity of that question from a servant, he exploded: "Yes! YES! I am!" ...."Yes, I am! I am the Prince of Wales," he screamed, and stamped a foot to emphasize his authority, "and I will be king! So Yes. YES!"

7:17 PM | 0 comments

What is so infuriating about the copyright infringements is that when an author loses control of content, it quickly ends up making money for other people: places like catholic.org and greeting card companies, for example. What is douby infuriating is that these are folk who will piss and moan all day about couples who do not practice Natural Family Planning, but who will gank content in a trice.

catholic.org is not responding to the author's email (they blocked mine and so I had him contact them, directly) and they have not responded to voice mail left for them. Maybe they take off Friday afternoons, though their voice mail message says something different. When I called this morning, a cranky young woman picked up the phone and uttered a very professional, "Hullo?"

3:24 PM | 0 comments

What goes around, comes around? -- It actually reminds me of the days of Tammy Faye and Jim crying crocodile tears to encourage their donors. It makes me wonder, though. Is catholic.org or any of its affiliates a 501(c)(3) corporation? There isn't any mention of donations being tax deductible, I notice. By the way, where are Sandy and Michael Galloway dining that they are able to get dinner for two for twenty bucks?

3:10 PM | 0 comments

What I know about Michael Galloway or Michael L. Galloway or however he is styling himself these days is that he or his "org" catholic.org or catholiconline.org is still infringing copyright in order to fill a page at their site. You wouldn't think they need to do it; supposedly they are the one of the BIGGEST Catholic sites, as measured by traffic. Law-abiding, copyright respecting sites like Bread on the Waters should not even complain if Mikee sets his sights on their authors' content, right?

He'll swear an oath of loyalty to the Magisterium, but won't keep his hands clean when it comes to intellectual property rights.

1:57 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, October 23, 2003

catholic.org is back to their old plagiarizing ways. Great.

7:28 PM | 0 comments

This article on accents of the poor contrasts interestingly with a Denver Post piece on how Denver police transcriptions make non-whites sound stupid.

6:19 AM | 0 comments

Winner of this year's Shiva Naipul Memorial Prize, awarded "for the most acute and profound observation of a culture evidently alien to the writer."

6:10 AM | 0 comments

Driving into Goya - Robert Hughes had a bruising encounter with Goya while he was in a coma. Yikes. Forget The Shock of the New. That would be The Shock of All Time.

2:19 AM | 0 comments

Sad. Yeah, we'll miss you, Elliott.

12:09 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

So much for nolo episcopari: The Rev Gene Robinson, bishop-elect of the Diocese of New Hampshire, has said in an interview with The Associated Press that he had been praying for years about becoming a bishop. Robinson adds that if Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams asked him to step aside - which Williams has not done - Robinson would take that into his "prayer life." But the words of Williams, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, would not be enough to dissuade him. To his church on Sunday Robinson admitted "I do have this sense I’m supposed to go forward, and I do feel that’s coming from God and not my own ego. But I don’t know."

10:11 PM | 0 comments

Well, Vicki Kueppers (Vicki PLASTER Kueppers, I think) appears to have shown our questions about her St Nicholas material (um, identical syntax and organization -- guess it divine inspiration DOES strike twice) to an ATTORNEY, she says. I'm betting it's her husband, Joseph Kueppers, whose firm sponsors this useful site. She writes: It is the opinion of our attorney who has today examined both stories of St. Nicholas from our website and your website, that the St. Nicholas story contained in our website is distinctly different in nature and scope from the materials in your website. The only similarity of the two are that they are both the story about St. Nicholas of Myra. It is the same story, it was written by different sources.

Mrs and Mr Kueppers appear to see themselves as "born again Catholics", and God bless them for that. It's still wrong, wrong, wrong to play fast and loose with somebody else's work.

8:44 PM | 0 comments

Town reaches agreement on wheelchair use - Thank God for small mercies, except that

There have been similar conflicts across the nation.

Last summer in Sweet Springs, Mo., a man with cerebral palsy who used a golf cart to get around was told to stay off the streets. After Gary Knight's family filed an ADA complaint, city officials said they would craft a law allowing the vehicle on city streets. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed in March that Donald Bertrand, who has multiple sclerosis, can use his motorized tricycle on Mackinac Island. Island officials argued that the tricycle could open the floodgates to motorized vehicles, destroying the island's renowned 19th-century charm. Electric wheelchairs and three-wheeled scooters have been allowed on the island, but other motorized vehicles, including cars and trucks, are banned.

Ah, the power of the temporarily able. Always makes me think of the parable in Luke 16:1-9.

2:14 PM | 0 comments

And I say unto you: plagiarists and intellectual property thieves do not inherit the Kingdom of Righteousness. Hear that, Houston McKelvey?

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Tuesday, October 21, 2003

This time, I'm naming names. You gank one of our writer's stuff, vanity googling might be less fun...

10:10 PM | 0 comments

Congress cooks - but nobody from Colorado OR Oregon does. Current congress folk get their names and recipe titles in bold type; formers are in regular type. Too funny! Yes, Virginia, even Montana has a recipe: Blueberry Jello Salad from Senator Conrad Burns. If that doesn't work for you, try the Babbo site. You know, where Mario Batali hangs...

4:53 PM | 0 comments

Can a Single Gas Bubble Sink a Ship? - Looks like it.

4:40 PM | 0 comments

Brother of Mrs OotFP says that Michael Schiavo will one day have to give an accounting. I say that I would be happy to request an accounting now, myself, on behalf of the Eternal Revenue Service.

4:35 PM | 0 comments

Another interesting article on the Schiavo case: When in doubt, choose life.

4:23 PM | 0 comments

Via Katja, an update on yesterday's upsetting and annoying news about the little town of Laurens, Iowa bringing down its collective legal powers on a 14 year old with MD who has the temerity to get around town in a wheelchair: Wheelchair flap sparks outcry, calls for fairness and Lawmakers May Get Involved. That latter link, BTW, has a poll about the law.

What incenses me is that the town is small. Little. Dinky. Less that 1500 folks in in 2000. Whaddya wanna bet that this little burg uses its tininess to justify not complying with ADA regs about accessibility? All right -- fair enough, but isn't a town of less than 1500 (which is maybe the population of our subdivision and its adjacents) then also small enough to keep track of a kid in a wheelchair? They are all watching out for each other's kids and grandkids on bikes and trikes; what in the world, in this tiny, isolated burg is the big deal about watching out for a kid riding a chair?

The supreme irony? David Lynch shot The Straight Story in Laurens.

12:42 PM | 0 comments

Monday, October 20, 2003

Patricia Ireland, not young and perhaps not Christian, either, has been cut loose by the YWCA -- and barely six months on the job.

11:45 PM | 0 comments

Zagat is sooooo bogus

9:38 PM | 0 comments

Sofia Echo, Bulgaria's English language newspaper

9:35 PM | 0 comments

Patricia Cornwell on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and more about what the butler knew, including bits of a memorandum written by the princess

9:18 PM | 0 comments

Always on the lookout for new things, I looked up The American Institute of Parliamentarians. Egads! It's a whole subculture that wields weird slogans like, "Have gavel, will travel" and "IT’S AMAZING WHAT PEOPLE CAN ACCOMPLISH WHEN THEY WORK TOGETHER EFFECTIVELY!" My favorite, though, is the trademarked "WE GO WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD". Of the parliamentary pros listed on the site, all appear to be white and most seem to be on the East coast. But that's okay: have gavel... right? Oh, and the median age is... not young. Although I'm glad Jesse Binnall mentions a wife, because I'm not strictly certain that he is old enough to vote. Except in parliamentary procedures, of course. (Tonight, his Web site is cracking me up because the "profile" rollover has been wrongly coded to "http://www.Binnall.com/pfofile.htm". YOUR SITE IS OUT OF ORDER!) The AIP's US map is pretty interesting, because it shrinks Alaska to about the size of South Carolina.

8:54 PM | 0 comments

The Portland Rose Society was such a different experience than that of the little group here in Longmont. Tonight we were privileged to hear a longtime Denver rose grower share her opinions about wintering rose bushes on the Front Range. Joan Franson also proffered her assistance with the group's bylaws review; she is a certifiable parliamentarian.

8:48 PM | 0 comments

All the People v. Bryant Court Documents and Schedule, including today's ruling. These are in .pdf. I scanned the judge's order. What a terrible case. I worry very much that media treatment of this case will make it more difficult for women who have been raped to report the crime. As for Kobe Bryant's defense team, they have incurred some serious karmic debt.

5:02 PM | 0 comments

Heat wave during the official Winter Weather Preparedness Week. Ha!

5:00 PM | 0 comments

Oh, for pete's sake! Via Katja, this disturbing story: Town threatens to ticket boy for using wheelchair. The story hasn't made its way onto the town e-portal, but you could call Laurens City Hall at (712) 841-4526 to express your outrage and astonishment. (I'm trying, but the line is BUSY!) And here's the phone number for Ann Beneke, Republican County Attorney: 712 845 4546. Huh. That number is BUSY, too.

1:06 PM | 0 comments

Johnny Cash in Christianity Today

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Saturday, October 18, 2003

Helen Mirren on date rape

9:38 PM | 0 comments

Men happy at adult kindergarten - German men dropped off at an experimental "kindergarten for men" by their wives say they were happy to avoid the tortuous boredom of shopping by spending Saturdays playing with mates instead.

9:36 PM | 0 comments

Eamon Duffy, professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge, has a worthwhile piece about John Paul II in the Tablet: John Paul is a prophet, not an administrator: he sees his role as Pope as that of a travelling evangelist, encouraging, exhorting, rebuking, proclaiming an ancient message he believes can renew the world.

2:21 PM | 0 comments

Good summary of Terri Schiavo's situation. While you're at the Prowler, have a look at George Neumayr holding forth on the Limbaugh troubles: Franken hates Rush not for breaking the moral law, but for once upholding it. Conservatives love the sinner and hate the sin; Franken hates the sinner and loves the sin.

1:58 PM | 0 comments

Friday, October 17, 2003

So I'm driving south on I-25 to Denver one morning recently and find myself overtaking a limo that looks stretched to at least 17 feet. Pretty unusual in these parts. It is closely following a hearse and the name discreetly scripted in the side window is Goes, which is pretty apt for a mortuary, right? We comes, we Goes...

7:12 PM | 0 comments

‘P-p-p-people try to put us down...’ Scroll down, down, down -- it'll come to ya

1:20 PM | 0 comments

Okay. Now THIS is funny.

12:46 PM | 0 comments

So what if the Anglicans break up?

By the bye, J.I. Packer, quoted below, disavows the use of the term "schism" in this instance: Schism is a technical term meaning causeless division, blameworthy division. What's envisaged and being feared is the separation of some parts of the Anglican Communion from other parts of the Anglican Communion, separation for conscientious reasons.

12:40 PM | 0 comments

Whoo-hooo! Washington Times offers this pretty scary (I'm thinking Old Testament prophets, here) image of Rowan Williams, along with this bit of analysis.

12:36 PM | 0 comments

J. I. Packer, Anglican theologian and executive editor of Christianity Today, comments in some detail on the results of the Lambeth meeting: There is a real likelihood of permanent separation. It hasn't been either increased or diminished by this statement, only postponed.

12:31 PM | 0 comments

There's no room for some errors, as Karen Hunter writes in the New York Daily News - This tragedy, unfortunately, is not an anomaly. Too often we give people a free pass for making human errors. "Nobody's perfect" is the catchall excuse. While that is certainly true, when we allow too many mistakes, they become common and accepted. "Oh, it's okay" and "Better luck next time" have become the standard in our society.... But there must be zero tolerance for mistakes by people who hold human lives in their hands.

Of course, the attorney retained by the ferry pilot says in the WaPo, "The family and all concerned hope that people will not rush to judgment."

On a routine, even mundane, back and forth and back and forth ferry crossing, it can be hard to remember that human lives are in the balance.

12:20 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, October 16, 2003

For the birds: Montana

7:17 PM | 0 comments

Librarian Wrestling Federation - some interesting thoughts about the democratization of information gathering.

5:11 PM | 0 comments

At home abroad, info for expats in the International Herald Tribune. (This is seldom mentioned, but the real trick is to be at home at home, after the assignment ends...)

4:36 PM | 0 comments

Pope's 25th anniversary pages: The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC, NY Times, MSNBC, CNN. I'd start with the Beeb's coverage.

4:27 PM | 0 comments

Also sprach Lambeth - At this time we feel the profound pain and uncertainty shared by others about our Christian discipleship in the light of controversial decisions by the Diocese of New Westminster to authorise a Public Rite of Blessing for those in committed same sex relationships, and by the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) to confirm the election of a priest in a committed same sex relationship to the office and work of a Bishop.

These actions threaten the unity of our own Communion as well as our relationships with other parts of Christ's Church, our mission and witness, and our relations with other faiths, in a world already confused in areas of sexuality, morality and theology, and polarised Christian opinion.

4:13 PM | 0 comments

Slate has a cute article about America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated.

4:04 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

You can be a lifetime subscriber to Rolling Stone. Really.

8:45 PM | 0 comments

Scroll, scroll scroll ALL the way down to the bit on Great Orators of the Democratic Party.

8:35 PM | 0 comments

Mark Steyn says the CIA scandal...shows that US Intelligence is either obstructive or inept - about the Valerie Plame affair: The notion that Ms Plame ‘fears for her life’ is somewhat undermined by the fact that her gabby hubby, currently on TV, radio and sympathetic websites 22 hours a day, is clearly having a ball, loving the attention and happy to yuk it up about how he and the missus have been ‘discussing who would play her in the movie’. Quite what Ms Plame does for the CIA remains unclear. One alleged colleague says he’s worked with her for 30 years, which seems unlikely, as she’s only 40 and if the Company was that good at spotting early talent it would be in a lot better shape.

8:23 PM | 0 comments

The end of painting? - Painting, it must be admitted, is very old technology indeed. It has been suggested that prehistoric painting may actually have preceded the development of speech. Whether or not you accept that, it is clear that one of the very first acts of human culture was to sketch bison and similar beasts on the walls of caves. Quite why this was done is not clear, but that is often the case with art. People ask the same question about the works of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin: why do they do it? Part of the point of painting seems to be that, in a practical sense, it’s pretty pointless.

8:17 PM | 0 comments

Stay home! - Five of Canada's Anglican archbishops have issued a stern warning to clerics "from afar" to stop coming to Canada to foment dissension on the sensitive issue of gay and lesbian rights in the church. "Bishops from outside the country have no business interfering in Canada. By their actions, they are exacerbating the situation," Archbishop David Crawley, the senior Anglican in B.C. and Yukon, said in an interview. "I think they should stay home. That's my opinion. They should stay home," said Crawley, who co-signed the statement along with Primate Michael Peers and three other archbishops.

5:22 PM | 0 comments

There's not much to report, according to the Telegraph's first day coverage of the Lambeth conference. You could take a look at one of the blow-by-blows being published.

4:49 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Something else I don't miss about Oregon: "Taxes for a home in Sandy assessed at $129,600 last year would increase by $137, to $2,018. Taxes for a Milwaukie home assessed at $103,100 last year would rise by $56, to $1,879, and a $274,600 Lake Oswego home's taxes would go up by $197, to $4,694." Yup, we lived in good ol' Lake Ego, and that valuation price is close to what our house sold for in April, 2001.

6:16 PM | 0 comments

Sweet article about celebrity chef Sara Moulton.

5:52 PM | 0 comments

A couple of sister Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth "bring... laughter and friendship" to the radiology department at St Joseph's in Denver.

4:56 PM | 0 comments

Oooh! More in the Telegraph: the newly named cardinal, Most Rev Keith O'Brien, stirs things up a bit: In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the archbishop said he would uphold God's Law saying there should be no compromise on issues such as abortion. But he indicated there was room for manoeuvre on laws including the vow of priestly celibacy. He pointed to married priests in east Europe and married former Anglican priests south of the border who had converted to Catholicism. For those who find this overly exciting, he adds, "My views coincide entirely with those of the Church. That's why I'm a churchman. Basically that's why I'm a cardinal. I would hate to think that over the past 18 years I've been deviating from the teaching of the church."

4:48 PM | 0 comments

Sylvia, the new flick about Sylvia Plath, receives what amounts to praise, I guess, from Anthony Lane in the New Yorker: Having dreaded the prospect of “Sylvia,” I admired it precisely because it refuses to play along with the mythologizing that has sprung up, and vulgarized, the lives of two poets.

4:41 PM | 0 comments

Also in today's -- er, tomorrow's Telegraph is a piece by Theodore Dalrymple, When self-expression is king, of course people behave badly, and a succinct talk-back to results of the prayer study at Duke: Perhaps it did not occur to the cardiologists that God might not wish to be mocked in this way, like a sort of Father Christmas figure. After all, a deity's ways are supposed to be mysterious. Perhaps, He might wish to keep them like that. He might even have taken pity on those unprayed-for patients, whose doctors were prepared to see them die in order to satisfy their curiosity. Another possibility is that He had no wish to give prayer groups ideas above their station. Imagine what a fortune could be made by professional supplicants if it could be proved that prayer could deliver the health and wealth that governments cannot.

4:30 PM | 0 comments

Turner in Venice - a gorgeous show at the Tate

4:23 PM | 0 comments

One tough mama - Wildlife officials are waiting to see if the female grizzly bear that wandered more than 200 miles last winter after being shot in the head decides to hibernate in the coming weeks.

4:20 PM | 0 comments

Monday, October 13, 2003

Corporal works of mercy in South Africa

9:32 PM | 0 comments

Off to the races! - Hardline archbishops gather on eve of summit

9:21 PM | 0 comments

Let me get this straight. We have a Anglican Metropolitan (sort of an über bishop) favoring order over orthodoxy: Metropolitan David Crawley, the top Anglican church leader in British Columbia and the Yukon, said Wednesday he had begun disciplinary proceedings against Bishop Terry Buckle. Buckle "unlawfully" has claimed authority to represent 11 Vancouver-area parishes that oppose wedding-style blessings for homosexual couples, Crawley said in a prepared statement. "Many of us are deeply grieved and embarrassed that a bishop, who has sworn an oath to maintain order in the life of the church, is himself the author of disorder," the statement said.

9:01 PM | 0 comments

This is the kind of story that drives me nuts: Six months ago, Jack Moody tried to send his son, Daniel, a care package containing Christian religious materials. Daniel, 21, is an Army National Guardsman serving in the Middle East. The post office in the family's hometown of Lenoir, N.C., said that Moody would not be allowed to send the items.

8:57 PM | 0 comments

Another gift from Mister Rogers.

8:53 PM | 0 comments

Sunday, October 12, 2003

What happened when five great writers dined at the world's five best restaurants?

5:44 PM | 0 comments

Gone to the dogs and cats and ferrets and God knows what else: Denver

4:47 PM | 0 comments

It hit me today. Shopping at Marczyk Fine Foods is like a quick trip down rue Cler in the old 'hood: a pretty good boulangerie, great charcuterie and boucherie, decent fruits and veg, and a nice selection of imported staples.

4:26 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, October 11, 2003

Christopher Hitchens' tribute to Edward Said: The loss of Professor Edward Said, after an arduous battle with demoralizing illness that he bore very bravely, will be unbearable for his family, insupportable to his immense circle of friends, upsetting to a vast periphery of admirers and readers who one might almost term his diaspora, and depressing to all those who continue hoping for a decent agreement in his birthplace of Jerusalem.

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So much for the 35 hour work week: alors, France reconsiders.

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One of the sufferers of West Nile virus in our community was able to proclaim the scriptures again this evening. It was good to hear her voice again.

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John Temple, the very sensible editor of the Rocky, shines a little common sense on those making a ruckus over Arnold Schwarzenegger's use of the Jay Leno show as a platform: It seems these pundits feel free speech is OK for them and other journalists, but not for Jay Leno and the other talk show hosts. Should Jay Leno really restrict his guest list based on the potential political impact of their appearance? I like John Temple so much that sometimes I think of having the Rocky delivered on days additional to the Saturday drop.

10:38 AM | 0 comments

Bill Richardson hot on the trail of the Nobel Peace Prize after Val Kilmer's interview in the Rolling Stone (which appears not to be online - boo-wa!) upset a local legislator: Kilmer, who has a ranch south of Pecos, was quoted in the magazine as saying he lives "in the homicide capital of the Southwest" and that "80 percent of the people in my county are drunk." The Guv invited Kilmer and the politico, Phil Griego, to a peace supper, but "Griego couldn't attend because of health problems". Hooooo-kay.

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Friday, October 10, 2003

Finally! A source of thimbleberry jam!

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This is such a bad idea: In an evangelical Simi Valley church decorated for the day like the Holy Temple from biblical times, the Christian pastor will be dressed as a Jewish high priest. He'll wear robes and a breastplate that includes symbols of the Old Testament's 12 tribes of Israel.

My mind is tumbling with responses to this idea: inappropriate, stupid, unthoughtful, disingenuous, ill-conceived... But I suspect that the plan for this was hatched in part because of evangelical liturgical inadequacy. For evangelical Simians, it may not be enough to go to their own "parties" of Christmas and Easter. Because they have enough time and resources on their hands to stage this kind of event, maybe they should think about joining the Christian church's rich traditions of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Time. It would keep them busy enough that they would not need to steal from other religions.

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Small excerpt from a new biography of the Little Flower by Kathryn Harrison in the Penguin Lives series. May not go over well with all Catholics, but maybe worth the (quick) read.

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Yeah! The Post's Kyle Wagner, who at last provides the Mile High City with a restaurant reviewer worthy of the moniker, puts the new Proto's in Denver (yeah, it started here in Longmont) at the head of the pizza class. She awards four stars and adds - It's the pizza Denver has been waiting for: an authentic Neapolitan pie, on the thin side and crispy, oven-charred and hand-tossed to order, with misshapen edges and so much molten cheese that some always pools in the center.

6:13 PM |

Thursday, October 09, 2003

The lives and death of Father John O'Shea - The many lives of the Rev. John O'Shea merged Wednesday at a packed funeral Mass, celebrated on a sun-drenched altar before about 800 mourners. A bagpipe wailed as a procession of 30 men and women in police blue - followed by a line of 90 priests in clergy white - accompanied O'Shea's wooden casket down the aisle of [Denver's] Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Four months earlier, at the same altar, the retired deputy police chief, widower and father of 10 had become a priest. He had continued to celebrate Mass there as he battled back from a heart attack two days after his ordination, followed by the discovery of a brain tumor in July. Links to other Rocky stories about Fr O'Shea, too.

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Yet another turn on my "Saturn makes bad cars" riff. A day or two ago I saw a large ad for GM cars. The ad showed, in profile, all the GM cars in production: everything from the Hummer to the lowly Saturn. As I looked at this matchbox display of cars, it occurred to me that there is no way that GM can ride this amount of product segregation. They've got too much going on, they are being pulled too many directions.

And about my opinion that Saturn made bad 1998 SL 200s, I don't think I've yet mentioned here that the morning after we bought the new used 2000 G-20 Infiniti, I was sitting in a Saturn lot in Aurora waiting to clean out the old grey mare. To my wondering eyes appeared another silver Saturn, looking in every way identical to the one Infiniti had just bought from us (for a lousy $2500); it was riding high on the back of a tow truck.

7:10 PM | 0 comments

Via brokenclay.org journal, Oregon State and OHSU have a grant to research air travel for disabled - "The Americans with Disability Act requirements for buses and trains are fairly prescriptive," [Katharine Hunter-Zaworski, an associate professor in the college of engineering at Oregon State University,] said. "But for aircraft, the rules are generally kind of vague - there's been no basic research to say what should be done." The problems are particularly acute on the smaller planes that ferry passengers from smaller cities to larger hubs, economical and increasingly popular routes for the cash-strapped airline industry...

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Is it vanity googling? Or is someone just looking for Gregory Hile??

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It's amusing to see Saturn's new catch-phrase: "Different". Not better, just "Different". Well, let me tell ya how Saturn was "Different" for me. The transmission, they (Saturn) said, was seriously on the fritz at 55,000 miles. The air conditioning was shot at 56,000. Its engine began CUTTING OUT ON THE FREEWAY at 57,000. All this on a car that had been meticulously maintained according to manufacturer's standards -- and then some (because, in recent years, the car was rarely driven more than 1,500 miles or so between the three month oil changes). The dealer and, indeed, the service folks at the manufacturer had a party line along the lines of a syllogism: anything mechanical breaks down; cars are mechanical; therefore, cars break down.

We traded a bought-new Saturn for a used car of the same kind we already had sitting in the garage, pretty trouble free until 100,000K, when we had some air-conditioning work done. It's an Infiniti. I drive the old one and I am pleased as can be. I love Infinitis and for damn sure they are not out there making their only claim as "Different". Would you buy a house or a coffee maker or even a ballpoint pen that claimed to be "Different"? Nope, I didn't think so.

8:40 AM | 0 comments

Nah, it's not insomnia; it's heartburn, an appropriate response to the travails of Governor Frank Keating, resigned chairman of the National Review Board: The lay community is justifiably incredulous. Catholics love their Church. They believe it’s Christ’s home on earth, and they want its leadership to be servants of servants, princes in piety, paupers in lifestyle. The arrogant need not apply. Catholic laypeople want virtue and goodness and biblical truth to lead their Church. They want it to succeed in its great mission of salvation. They want their children to be safe. They’re tired of being embarrassed by a Roman collar. And they want this scandal to end. Amen and amen.

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Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Orations about and tributes to the late Metropolitan Anthony - the latter link has a wonderful photo

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Bioprospecting, anyone? - A husband and wife biologist team has proposed a plan they say will be more effective in identifying medical cures found in tropical rain forest plants and animals.

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Any buyers for the Gibson movie? - "People think Mel’s crazy now," says one top producer. Adds a studio head, "People feel like his character in 'Lethal Weapon' isn't that far from who he is. It's like, 'Wow, he’s way out on a limb'." We should know very shortly who’s going to get out there with him.

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Tuesday, October 07, 2003

In an article about the Pope in Pompeii, the Guardian tells of two pilgrims: "We're glad his health has held out so that we could see him," said Jeanette McDermott, a 70-year-old pilgrim from Warminster, Pennsylvania. "I had to come," said 13-year-old Francesco Saverio Milano, who walked for two hours from the nearby coastal town of Castellammare, wearing his favourite Manchester United T-shirt, to secure a place in the front row . "This man is going to go down as one of the greatest in history. One day I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I saw him," he said.

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Baylor reaps the Enlightenment whirlwind? Maybe so, but the Buff's are still reeling from having been administered a big ol' can of Baylor whup-ass last Saturday.

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Francis Cardinal Arinze - papabile? And, in case you've forgotten, an exceptionally "out of the box" suggestion: Lubomyr Husar of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. Oh, yeah, one time the Wall Street Journal had an opinion, too...

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Monday, October 06, 2003

Pope to Archbishop of Canterbury: Y'all aren't making it easy... As we give thanks for the progress that has already been made we must also recognize that new and serious difficulties have arisen on the path to unity. These difficulties are not all of a merely disciplinary nature; some extend to essential matters of faith and morals. In light of this, we must reaffirm our obligation to listen attentively and honestly to the voice of Christ as it comes to us through the Gospel and the Church’s Apostolic Tradition. Faced with the increasing secularism of today’s world, the Church must ensure that the deposit of faith is proclaimed in its integrity and preserved from erroneous and misguided interpretations.

According to the Telegraph, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said yesterday that he was hopeful rather than optimistic that next week's emergency meeting of Anglican primates would avert a schism over homosexuality. That sounds realistic.

8:26 PM | 0 comments

Interested in water issues? A new weblog, DARCA Notes (DARCA stands for "Ditch and Reservoir Company Alliance"), tracks matters here in Colorado and beyond. There's plenty of verbal content interspersed with interesting (and current) photos that document the activities of DARCA's Executive Director.

8:19 PM | 0 comments

Ooh-la-la-la... - [Montana's] decision to sell some of its stock in French companies after France got in the way of the United State's efforts to invade Iraq didn't pay off.

8:09 PM | 0 comments

The Wood-man sez: All in all, you can't win 'em all, after all. But the Broncos should have won this all-important game. All of them blew it bad.

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Sunday, October 05, 2003

Personal ads in England - A friend once blind-dated a woman who was so nervous she set her hair on fire while lighting a cigarette. We're all fragile people and getting older doesn't help.

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It was the Sports Illustrated jinx - Jake was just on the cover, but who's happy now?

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The Church of England is preparing to ordain a former Satanist - This is a man who has travelled a huge distance, intellectually and morally: something has transformed him from an angry, anti-social menace into a responsible citizen, husband and father.

9:23 PM | 0 comments

October 5, "the most populous birthday of the year statistically", is the birthday of my brother, a wonderful father, an excellent brother, and all-around terrific human being. He also has the virtue of having obtained for me a most splendid sister-in-law. Happy birthday, dear brother of Mrs OotFP!

9:44 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, October 04, 2003

Andrew Greeley on The DaVinci Code Is all this stuff anti-Catholic? In a sense it is, and I am waiting for the voice of the indefatigable Bill Donahue of the Catholic League to cry boycott. However, the worst the book will do is upset some dedicated Catholics who won’t leave the church anyhow and feed the bigotry of some hard-line anti-Catholics.

9:13 PM | 0 comments

Andiamo was all right. The service was fast and competent and, at times, attentive. I disagree with some of the cook's choices, but it is the best non-breakfast place we've found in Santa Fe. There's no outdoor sign, which seems a little precious, and it is open for dinner, only -- still, a good find.

9:09 PM | 0 comments

Zia, a past favorite on many visits to Santa Fe, is being stricken from the list. A hungry young guest ordered Shepherd's Pie last evening and was served a dollop of it -- appetizer size, Mr OotFP noted. The waiter forgot to serve the actual appetizer we'd asked for and Mr OotFP's burger was Christmas red in parts, though he had prudently ordered "medium".

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Friday, October 03, 2003

John Allen's Word from Rome includes some interesting notes about the newly named princes of the Church. He calls Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien, the man from Scotland, "Perhaps the most surprising pick..."

2:52 PM | 0 comments

Coming up the mountains on I-25 southbound at the border, we saw a fifth wheeler being pulled smartly along by a snazzy-looking tractor, instead of the usual tired-looking pick-up or SUV. It wouldn't do for 18 wheels, but it managed the fifth wheeler with gusto to spare.

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Waiting at Infiniti of Denver for an oil change... and then, on to Santa Fe.

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Thursday, October 02, 2003

On a lighter note, here's what still shines through: agastache, zauschneria garrettii, Cupcake miniature rose, caryopteris, gazania, Johnson's Blue geranium, Abbaye de Cluny romantica rose, aster frikartii. If anything is still in bloom when we get back from Santa Fe, I'll try again -- with tripod.

9:35 PM |

Clinton hating - ...he was a hollow and posturing and feckless man who embodied that side of America that was also hollow and posturing and feckless.

7:57 PM | 0 comments

Damnation to Houston McKelvey, dean of Belfast Cathedral. photo with the family What he plagiarized for faithinschools.org is now online at his Cathedral site. Houston, we still have a problem. He may have made the birthday honours list at some point in his past, but building a site for school -- i.e., academic -- use by his spurious means is in no way honourable.

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Via brokenclay.org, What kind of thinker are you? According to this, I'm a linguistic thinker, like William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, or Anne Frank. Huh.

6:44 PM | 0 comments

Nifty article about an Oregon church becoming a partner of a huge parish in Honduras

5:50 PM | 0 comments

Top ten (actually, it's twenty, I think) ring tones for mobile phones in the UK. Michael Heath (cartoon editor for the Spekkie)'s diary put me on the hunt. The ring tones page helpfully provides mpeg samplers...

3:10 PM | 0 comments

More than anyone needs to know about the death of Dr Johnson, except that He asked his physician, Dr Brocklesby, to tell him plainly whether or not he would recover. When told that it would take a miracle, Johnson replied, ‘Then, I will take no more physick, not even my opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God unclouded.' - Oh, go on and take a look at the article; it is about an exhibit that offers an extraordinary opportunity for voyeurism. More intimations on mortality - the memorial business is going through a radical change. The old-fashioned idea of neatly mown grass bordered by rows of granite or Portland stone is being replaced by a brave new world of uninhibited, brightly coloured clutter in which the life and times of the deceased are interpreted in varying ways.

3:01 PM | 0 comments

Back from attempting an errand -- replacing my Mavica 75's battery charger -- in Boulder. Wolf Camera would not permit a return if the charger ($40!) did not work for my camera. Comp USA had no help available. Circuit City, whose Web site had said that a charger for my machine is available at the Boulder store, had an officious little man with white hair and a white goatee who "just [had] time for a quick question." He said, no, that camera's too old. Go to the Sony site and order it there. But your Web site says I can pick it up HERE. Well, the Web site is wrong.

I bought a charger, no thanks to this salesman, and it seems to be working. Most important to me is that Circuit City will take a return within 30 days. Their digital sales guy apparently doesn't know shit, but at least they are willing to take a return, which puts them leagues ahead of Wolf Camera.

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Wednesday, October 01, 2003

All heavens broke loose! - So at long last Ghana now has a Cardinal. It was long overdue. La Cote d’Ivoire has one or two. Togo has one. Benin’s Cardinal Gatin is a very powerful one in the Church. It is in his office that bishops are appointed. Nigeria has two or three and Cameroon has one. At long last Ghana has a Cardinal. This is the Catholic Hour.

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Did they have to say the sculptor is from Longmont? Yup, 3.5 miles from where I'm sitting right now.

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About relics: ...relics are reminders of ... loved ones...

10:28 PM | 0 comments

Oh, great. A county treasurer (in the county due south of ours, in fact) passes out a pamphlet encouraging jury nullification as his "personal gift to the people". An excerpt: YOU ARE ABOVE THE LAW! As a JUROR in a trial setting, when it comes to your individual vote of innocent or guilty, you truly are answerable only to GOD ALMIGHTY.

10:18 PM | 0 comments

A Protestant has a question: ...don't politicians, including political greenhorns like Schwarzenegger and Clark, have bishops willing to excommunicate them or at least reading them the riot act for trampling the Church's teachings underfoot? Why do bishops close their eyes to the enormous offense Catholics in public service give to the Catholic faithful --and the rest of us?

10:15 PM | 0 comments

Standard practice among preachers: "'borrow[ing] liberally,' without attribution". This is exactly what I locked horns about with a Disciples of Christ pastor in Sacramento last year. His excuse -- well, I won't get into it again, but clearly some seminaries don't teach that integrity begins in the pulpit. In fact, the Post article quotes a prominent DOC minister: When asked last month about the passages he had taken from other pastors, Jackson said that because sermons are God's word, they should be held "to a different standard" from other written or spoken material. He said that such borrowing was legitimate as long the person using the old material was not publishing it in book form under his own name. How about publishing the sermon on the Internet under the pilfering preacher's name?

This month's issue of the denomination's magazine, Disciple's World, has an article "Sermon borrowing on the rise?" The abstract: The Internet makes it easier than ever for ministers to copy the sermons of others. But is it ethical? Two homiletics professors say no. Yeah. Well, tell it to your preachers. Ironically, the issue leads off with a bit on "Christian ethics at work".

9:48 PM | 0 comments