… some Ash Wednesday thoughts from Father Jake and The Book of Common Prayer … Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to…
… some Ash Wednesday thoughts from Father Jake and The Book of Common Prayer …
Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and to one another,
and to the whole communion of saints
in heaven and on earth,
that we have sinned by our own fault
in thought, word, and deed;
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and
strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We
have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.
NASA may not be able to launch the space shuttle’s replacement by 2014 as promised, according to the agency’s 2008 budget request to Congress. This could increase the gap…
NASA may not be able to launch the space shuttle’s replacement by 2014 as promised, according to the agency’s 2008 budget request to Congress. This could increase the gap between the retirement of the space shuttles in 2010 and the launch of their successors, the Orion spacecraft and Ares I rocket, forcing NASA to rely on Russian Soyuz and future commercial spacecraft to send astronauts to
the International Space Station (ISS).The potential delay is due to the combined effects of the higher-than-expected costs of returning the space shuttles to flight, budget cuts to the Orion and Ares programmes, and new legislation that may limit NASA’s 2007 funding to that of 2006.
“I’m concerned about our ability to bring these new capabilities online by 2014,” says NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. “If we do not quickly come to grips with this issue, we may have a prolonged gap between the end of the shuttle programme and the beginning of operational capability in our new systems, like that which occurred between 1975 and 1981, when we transitioned from Apollo to space shuttle.” He says the gap led to the loss of engineering know-how within NASA.
The gap between the retirement of the shuttles in 2010 and the first flights of Ares and Orion – which will occur no earlier than 2014 – will leave NASA dependent on other nations and private companies for launches to the ISS.
Jesus (or, possibly, Gus Grissom) wept.
(via Warren Ellis)
Kudos to Pepsi for disclosing how much caffeine is in their sodas. Truly discriminating consumers will want to maximize their caffeine-per-calorie intake. (via Consumerist)…
Kudos to Pepsi for disclosing how much caffeine is in their sodas. Truly discriminating consumers will want to maximize their caffeine-per-calorie intake.
(via Consumerist)
Or at least it seems to be per the law in Florida, where a 15- and 16-year-old couple who (legally, if stupidly) had sex, and documented (even more stupidly) their…
Or at least it seems to be per the law in Florida, where a 15- and 16-year-old couple who (legally, if stupidly) had sex, and documented (even more stupidly) their exploits digitally, are facing criminal charges … for child pornography.
Okay, for the record, child pornographers — adults who exploit children sexually for the jollies of other pervs — deserve [fill in some truly horrendous, painful, degrading fate here of your choice]. But a pair of (stupid) teenagers who engaged in legal (if, again, stupid) activity being prosecuted, because they (really stupidly) took pictures of it, on child pornography charges because they, themselves, are minors?
Just crazy.
(via Les)
Or at least of the official snow-on-the-ground, which has hung around since … well, our ill-fated attempt to fly out to California for Christmas. The city was officially covered in…
Or at least of the official snow-on-the-ground, which has hung around since … well, our ill-fated attempt to fly out to California for Christmas.
The city was officially covered in snow for 61 straight days until Tuesday morning, when a National Weather Service contractor declared only a “trace” at the designated measuring site – a field surrounding the old Stapleton Airport weather station in northeast Denver.
That put an end to the second-longest stretch of snow-cover days in Denver history.
The latest streak fell just two days short of tying the record of 63 days, attained in the winter of 1983-84, and it broke the old second-place mark of 60 days, recorded in the winter of 1913-14.
The warm weather the past week has really put the kibosh on the snow. Even the stuff in the gutters has been reduced to icky black ice floes. Yay.
Guy is sitting in his apartment. Guy hears woman screaming for help from upstairs. Guy looks around, grabs an antique sword, runs upstairs, kicks open the door … Guy finds…
Guy is sitting in his apartment. Guy hears woman screaming for help from upstairs. Guy looks around, grabs an antique sword, runs upstairs, kicks open the door …
Guy finds himself looking at another guy watching a pr0n DVD.
Worse yet, police seized his sword – a family heirloom – carted him to jail and referred the case to a prosecutor who charged Van Iveren with three criminal counts.
[…] According to the criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning, damaging the frame and lock in the process. “Where is she?” Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the 39-inch sword at the neighbor, according to the complaint. “Where is she?”
The neighbor told police that Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he’d heard a woman being raped. With the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone, according to the complaint.
Van Iveren said it wasn’t nearly that dramatic. “I walked in the front room and looked around,” he said. “When I saw there was no woman, I left.
“I went downstairs and when I looked out the window, I saw the police had come, so I went out to tell them what happened.”
Van Iveren insisted that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword. “I had the sword extended,” he said. “But that was all.”
Okay, I have little doubt he was probably a bit — vigorous in his sword extension. But, come on — the guy has no phone. Should he have just done a Kitty Genovese? He should get, at most, a talking to.
For his effort, Van Iveren was charged with criminal trespass while using a dangerous weapon, criminal damage to property while using a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct while using a dangerous weapon, all criminal misdemeanors that carry a maximum total penalty of 33 months in jail.
I guess we don’t need heroes any more.
(via BoingBoing)
No pictures for distribution as yet, but I picked up my gi (karate outfit) last Thursday after class, and wore it for the first time last evening. Yes, I am…
No pictures for distribution as yet, but I picked up my gi (karate outfit) last Thursday after class, and wore it for the first time last evening. Yes, I am now committed (and got some nice comments over it and over getting the belt tied more-or-less correctly).
An observation, though: A t-shirt is much lighter (and less heat/sweat-inducing) than a t-shirt with a gi robe over it. This seems obvious, but for some reason escaped me, leaving me very hot and sweaty (well, relatively so). That’s not good, but it’s better to have an undershirt on and not get the gi all sweat-stained, or so is my current thinking.
Biggest other problem is that the pants are just a scosh long (which means they’re significantly long, since they should be definite “high-waters,” by my observation). I may have to ask Margie for a hemming job.
On a positive note, I more or less got the sequence moves down on my first kata, which means all I have to do is do them right. Fortunately, I have a few more months to work on that before testing to get out of my white belt. Still, felt pretty good.
If you’ve never heard the “I cast … MAGIC MISSILE!” D&D skit, it’s now available online with, um, animated characters. (I’m not sure the computer animation actually adds to the…
If you’ve never heard the “I cast … MAGIC MISSILE!” D&D skit, it’s now available online with, um, animated characters. (I’m not sure the computer animation actually adds to the tale, but you can always close your eyes; it’s the dialog and voice artistry of the Dead Alewives that’s priceless.)
(via Scott)
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has issued her post-Primates Meeting statement on the goings-on there and what’s next for the church. It’s a delicate, nuanced, spiritual summary that…
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has issued her post-Primates Meeting statement on the goings-on there and what’s next for the church. It’s a delicate, nuanced, spiritual summary that is most likely to infuriate pretty much everyone.
After discussing all the stuff (much of it pretty keen) other than the Focus on Episcopalian Stuff that the primates did, she points to this highlight, making some subtle points that will come into the letter more fully later.
The highlight of our meeting was the visit to Zanzibar and the remembrance of the end of the slave trade. We worshiped at the Anglican Cathedral in Zanzibar, built over the old slave market. Slavery was outlawed in British Empire in 1807, but it took another 90 years for the trade in Zanzibar to finally come to an end. Anglicans were a profound influence all through that period, and the Sultan of Zanzibar only signed the final treaty when faced with British warships in the harbor. David Livingstone
is commemorated here for his tireless efforts to put an end to the ancient and inhuman practice of slavery. The struggle to end slavery has some parallel with our current controversy, and we can note the less than universal agreement about the moral duty of Christians over a lengthy period. The United States also experienced major division over slavery, even though the Episcopal Church did not fully divide. Some see that part of our history as shameful, while others see it as a sign of hope, and that, too, has
current parallels.
Conservatives will, I’m sure, love the implication as to which their side of this controversy is seen to be. Bp Katharine then puts the coming time in a religious perspective:
We traveled home from this meeting at Carnival, the farewell to meat (carne vale) that comes just before Lent begins. That is an image that may be useful as we consider what the Primates’ gathering is commending to the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church has been asked to consider the wider body of the Anglican Communion and its needs. Our own Church has in recent years tended to focus on the suffering of one portion of the body, particularly those who feel that justice demands the full
recognition and celebration of the gifts of gay and lesbian Christians. That focus has been seen in some other parts of the global Church, as inappropriate, especially as it has been felt to be a dismissal of traditional understandings of sexual morality. Both parties hold positions that can be defended by appeal to our Anglican sources of authority – scripture, tradition, and reason – but each finds it very difficult to understand and embrace the other. What is being asked of both parties is a season of fasting
– from authorizing rites for blessing same-sex unions and consecrating bishops in such unions on the one hand, and from transgressing traditional diocesan boundaries on the other.
Bp Katharine tries to draw the same point several times — TEC has spent too much time in pursuit of justice for gay and lesbian members, not enough in being sensitive to the traditionalists. If, perhaps, she hopes to shame some of the latter into showing the same sort of sensitivity, I suspect she will be a long time waiting, as they’ll be too busy fuming over the equation of full inclusion of gays and lesbians as a pursuit of “justice.”
She does draw an interesting note from Paul over dietary laws — Paul noted in his epistles that while dietary laws weren’t a necessary part of salvation, it was important for Christians to be sensitive to those who were still attached to them.
Paul encourages the Christians in Rome and Corinth to recall that, while there may be no specific prohibition about eating such meat, the sensitive in the community might refrain if others would be offended. The needs of the weaker members, and the real possibility that their faith may be injured, are an important consideration in making the dietary decision.
The current controversy brings a desire for justice on the one hand into apparent conflict with a desire for fidelity to a strict understanding of the biblical tradition and to the main stream of the ethical tradition. Either party may be understood to be the meat-eaters, and each is reminded that their single-minded desire may be an idol. Either party might constructively also be understood by the other as the weaker member, whose sensibilities need to be considered and respected.
It’s not clear to me how those who seek to exclude gays from the life of the church might be seen as the meat-eaters here — but I’ve a feeling they might have a similar difficult time in seeing that, too, and so feel even further tweaked as being implicitly equated to the “weaker members.”
Bp Katharine concludes by saying,
God’s justice is always tempered with mercy, and God continues to be at work in this world, urging the faithful into deeper understandings of what it means to be human and our call as Christians to live as followers of Jesus. Each party in this conflict is asked to consider the good faith of the other, to consider that the weakness or sensitivity of the other is of significant import, and therefore to fast, or “refrain from eating meat,” for a season. Each is asked to discipline itself for the sake of the greater
whole, and the mission that is only possible when the community maintains its integrity.Justice, (steadfast) love, and mercy always go together in our biblical tradition. None is complete without the others. While those who seek full inclusion for gay and lesbian Christians, and the equal valuing of their gifts for ministry, do so out of an undeniable passion for justice, others seek a fidelity to the tradition that cannot understand or countenance the violation of what that tradition says about sexual ethics. Each is being asked to forbear for a season. The word of hope is that in God all things
are possible, and that fasting is not a permanent condition of a Christian people, nor a normative one. God’s dream is of all people gathered at a feast, and we enter Lent looking toward that Easter feast and the new life that will, in God’s good time, be proclaimed.
On the one hand, sure — let’s be sensitive, let’s try not to impose, let’s try to still walk together in mutual respect and forbearance. But the conservatives will look a this and again note with annoyance the subtle assumption that they’re only about holding onto tradition, a tradition that may very well be changed (see the letter section here), since, after all, fasts are “not permanent.” And the liberals (of which
I count myself a member in this context) will note that this forbearance and patience and “fasting” falls most heavily on the most excluded group, gay and lesbian Episcopalians — who must be wondering, yet again, how long this “season” is to last.
To which end, one intriguing suggestion I’ve read is that if we’re talking about a moratorium, a “fast,” on ordination and marriage, that ought to hold true for everyone, gay and straight, while we contemplate for this “season” and decide what God is calling us to do (or not to do). Rather than single out one group, let everyone feel the the emptiness and deprivation, and so perhaps feel compassion
for those others who historically have had to feel it.
(via Ginny)
So the other day I ran across (for the Nth time) a blog that had some stuff labeled as a “PayPerPost” post. I’ve heard of this before, but thought I’d…
So the other day I ran across (for the Nth time) a blog that had some stuff labeled as a “PayPerPost” post. I’ve heard of this before, but thought I’d actually poke around for more info.
According to the site, basically you:
Now, this is full of all sorts of pitfalls, the biggest of which is full disclosure. PPP says that all blogs must clearly note their relationship either with a sidebar note or with a PPP note in the post itself.
If I were do to something like this, please rest assured that I would (a) be honest, and (b) exercise full disclosure. This blog isn’t intended to be a money-making opportunity, but if I can earn a few bucks without compromising my principles, I’m not sure why I shouldn’t.
Anybody have a problem with that?
Well, a few people do, in general at least (and usually with passion). Part of the criticism is that, until the FTC got into the act,
PPP wasn’t requiring disclosure — which, I agree, was a huge issue. But to some folks, even with disclosure, being a “paid sponsor” is corrosive to the trust that readers should have in a writer. I think myself of the times when I’ve seen Joe-Bob Aging Star shilling for some company on late-night TV. Is that the same thing here?
There are also concerns that Google (since this is, in addition to whatever the value of word-of-mouth is, potentially gaming Google’s system) might devalue posts, or even full sites, that do PPP stuff. That’s moderately worrisome.
So … any thoughts?
Yikes. I wish I could say “Only in Georgia,” but … A memo recently went out under the name of Georgia state legislator Ben Bridges claiming that evolution (and the…
Yikes. I wish I could say “Only in Georgia,” but …
A memo recently went out under the name of Georgia state legislator Ben Bridges claiming that evolution (and the Big Bang theory, and just possibly Copernican physics) are all part of a vast Jewish conspiracy to destroy Christianity and pollute our precious bodily fluids. (Well, I made the fluids part up, but not the rest.)
“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” the memo says. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”
The memo calls on lawmakers to introduce legislation that would end the teaching of evolution in public schools because it is “a deception that is causing incalculable harm to every student and every truth-loving citizen.”
It also directs readers to a Web site www.fixedearth.com, which includes model legislation that calls the Kabbala “a mystic, anti-Christ ‘holy book’ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism.” The Web site also declares “the earth is not rotating … nor is it going around the sun.”
Bridges admits that the memo — sent to state legislators around the country — was written by Marshall Hall, whose wife is one of Bridges’ campaign managers. Hall says he’s discussed legislation with Bridges to ban the teaching of evolution, and says he cleared the memo with Bridges. Bridges denies that, and doesn’t defend the memo — but he’s previously introduced legislation to require teaching of criticism about evolution, and he doesn’t necessarily disagree with what the memo has to say.
“I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory,” Bridges said. “I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”
(via BoingBoing)
The Open Question from Steve’s site: Ties seem to be vanishing as a part of daily dress. Do you still wear ties/like people who wear ties? What occasions are tie-worthy?…
The Open Question from Steve’s site:
Ties seem to be vanishing as a part of daily dress. Do you still wear ties/like people who wear ties? What occasions are tie-worthy? How do you select your ties? Do you have a tie collection? Do you have any memorable ties?
Our company has gone through a number of evolutions on the whole dress code thing. The current rules are (a) if you’re meeting with a client, or (b) in an office where it’s expected, then you wear a tie. In case (b), that means mainly the corporate office in California. I’ll tend to err on the side of caution if there’s a question as to whether a work event (or other) requires a tie, but most offices are in a dress shirt/polo shirt kind of mode (though no blue jeans).
Outside of work, I’ll wear ties to formal events — weddings/funerals, formal parties. I’ve worn them to church on occasions when I’m doing something signficant but in mufti (as opposed to wearing some kind of vestments).
I have a love-hate relationship with ties. I hate wearing them, both because of the whole “choking me to death” thing and because it’s usually a lot hotter than not wearing one. Plus there’s that scrap of expensive cloth flopping around in front of you, getting into the soup, etc.
That said, they can be a lot of fun, one of the few “decorator accents” that guys get these days.
I have a pretty large selection of neck ties — maybe 40-odd on my tie rack, about the same number tucked away and occasionally rotated out. It’s such a large number (relatively) because I used to wear ties to the office all the time. So I don’t do a lot of tie buying these days, but when I do, I look for something that’s attractive, even noteworthjy. I’m not looking for something that’s garish, but I don’t want something dull, either. I have my set of “power ties” with various red
stripes, and some conservative ties with little patterns on them in various conservative colors, but I prefer things with a bit more zip.
My favorite ties (and the ones I get most comments on) are the “Jerry Garcia” collection sorts (though the relationship between his sketches and the tie patterns are fairly tenuous). I have some similarly zingy ties that were put out a while back with patterns derived from alcohol molecules or crystals or something (I think it was a MADD thing).
I like small patterns, then stripes, then solids or large patterns. Not much into “commercial” ties, though I have a fun Tabasco one I’ll wear sometimes to Houston or Baton Rouge, and I have a set of more subtle Disney ties (little Tigger or Mickey patterns) that I like. And, of course, it’s important that it’s a color that will go with stuff I actually wear.
Most of the tie buying and wearing I’ve done of any note in the past few years have been Christmas ties. There are usually multiple occasions over the holidays for me to wear them (parties, office visits), so it’s nice to have a decent collection thereof (stashed at the Ks).
Create your own “States I’ve Visited” map. Also available in “You Mean Provinces, Eh?” and “Today Germany, Tomorrow Lithuania” flavors. It was actually kind of cool thinking about this,…
Create your own “States I’ve Visited” map. Also available in “You Mean Provinces, Eh?” and “Today Germany, Tomorrow Lithuania” flavors.
It was actually kind of cool thinking about this, and seeing how many states I actually have visited (and by “visit” I mean more than “set down in the airport on a layover”; if the latter, I could add New York to the list).
Most of the places I haven’t been to, I’d like to go to. Heck, I’d like to revisit a lot of the places I’ve been to, too.
(via BD)
Okay, I appreciate my computer being sensitive to my desire, when planning on leaving the office, to shut down swiftly. Throwing up a Blue Screen of Death, though — that’s…
Okay, I appreciate my computer being sensitive to my desire, when planning on leaving the office, to shut down swiftly.
Throwing up a Blue Screen of Death, though — that’s maybe a bit overly-zealous.
The big Anglican Primates meeting in Tanzania wrapped up Monday. It was a bit of a mixed bag. Despite some public pissiness by a few Primates, most of the goings-on…
The big Anglican Primates meeting in Tanzania wrapped up Monday. It was a bit of a mixed bag. Despite some public pissiness by a few Primates, most of the goings-on were fairly favorable to the Episcopal Church. Bp Jefferts Schori was invited to sit in a very important committee. The work on the Anglican Covenant looked much less hard-line than I’m sure the hard-liners wanted, and the
committee that Canterbury had put together to report on whether TEC had worked with the Windsor Report recommendations or not came back a lot more positively than the conservatives had been hoping. There as no approved proposal to create a “provincial overlay” in the US.
Alas, the wheels kind of came off at the very end, with the official Communique issued at the conclusion. Father Jake gives a rather depressing analysis, which basically comes down to the Primates issuing ultimata that cannot, as the Episcopal Church is structured, be met, even if one was convinced they should
be. Unlike most Anglican provinces, TEC isn’t controlled by the Primate (our Presiding Bishop), nor even just by the Bishops themselves, but by General Convention which includes a legislative house that includes the laity. Major actions cannot take place outside of that structure and without their consent, and it seems unlikely that the demands that the US bishops just wave their hands and make commitments can be (or will be) met.
He adds:
It amazes me that the leaders of the Anglican Communion continue to believe that the Episcopal Church is so desperate to stay in their club that we will agree to anything to make peace. Peace at any cost is always a false peace. In this case, it seems to me that the cost is much too high.
This is no longer solely about issues of sexual diversity. That is the presenting issue; the canary in the coal mine. The foundational issue is about where the locus of authority will reside in the Anglicanism of the future. This proposal by the Primates is a direct challenge to our polity.
The Primates have not been, until now, like the Roman Curia. In our discipline, it is General Convention, with representatives from all four orders having voice and vote, that sets policy, within the confines of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church. We believe that this process allows us to discern the movement of God within the Church quite well. We are not inclined to grant veto power to some outside agency.
Thanks for playing, Primates, and better luck next time.
Here’s the real problem (aside from the Primates assuming the bishops in the US have more power than they do): TEC’s been trying to show that we’re sensitive to the recommendations of the Windsor Report (despite some folks seeing that report itself as marching orders for TEC and only ignorable guidelines for themselves). Part of that has been saying, “Y’know, we’re just going to hold off for now on all this ordination/blessing of gays thang until we’ve all had more of a chance to thrash it
out and discern more clearly where we think God is drawing us.”
The Primate’s Communique, though, is clear that (a) the Windsor items are non-negotiable (except for those who are violating apparently trivial aspects of it, such as predating on dioceses and congregations within TEC), and (b) they expect such moratoria to be immediate, complete and permanent. Given that GC06 held off from this stuff only out of respect for the process above, and that GC09 will likely move forward again in some fashion, I suspect the Primates behind the
Communique will be quite disappointed (except for those who are actually eager to boot the Episcopal Church from the fold).
From the Communique:
17. At the heart of our tensions is the belief that The Episcopal Church [5] has departed from the standard of teaching on human sexuality accepted by the Communion in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 by consenting to the episcopal election of a candidate living in a committed same-sex relationship, and by permitting Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions. The episcopal ministry of a person living in a same-sex relationship is not acceptable to the majority of the Communion.”
[…] While they appreciate the actions of the 75th General Convention which offer some affirmation of the Windsor Report and its recommendations, they deeply regret a lack of clarity about certain of those responses.
In particular, the Primates request, through the Presiding Bishop, that the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church
1. make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorise any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses or through General Convention (cf TWR, §143, 144); and
2. confirm that the passing of Resolution B033 of the 75th General Convention means that a candidate for episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent (cf TWR, §134);
unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion (cf TWR, §134).The Primates request that the answer of the House of Bishops is conveyed to the Primates by the Presiding Bishop by 30th September 2007.
If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, the relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion.
Which, y’know — may just be the bottom line. And while I’d regret it, I’d regret more toeing a moral line “acceptable to the majority of the Communion” but not to me.
Other commentary on the standard we follow, long-term good news but bad primates, asking again if the Communion is worth it, the
communique vs. the rest of the meeting.
Whilst slowly getting Stuff migrated back into the Office/Guest Room, I ran across a July 2000 e-mail from my mom. I’d inquired about an old Italian lullaby she’d sung…
Whilst slowly getting Stuff migrated back into the Office/Guest Room, I ran across a July 2000 e-mail from my mom. I’d inquired about an old Italian lullaby she’d sung me when I was a kid (presumably passed down through the family). She knew only the phonetics for it (per the e-mail), but was going to ask Nona.
I don’t know if she did, but that inspired me to see if I could do some quick Internet research and figure out (a) what the song was, and (b) what it meant.
After a lot of digging, I came up with a small list of sources for lullabies (in Italian, Ninna Nanna songs, which is also a reference to nursery rhymes) that were close to what I remembered.
This one‘s the closest:
Nanna cuneta
La mamma è andata a messa
Papà l’è andato ai campi
Coi cavallini bianchi
Bianca è la sella
Viva la bimba bella!
Which translates, very roughly (I don’t speak Italian, except for a couple of vulgarities):
Nanna cuneta
Mama has gone to church.
Papa has gone to the fields
With little white horses
The saddle is white
Long live the beautiful baby.
A couple of things. First off, most annoyingly, I can’t find an online translator to translate cuneta. It might be cunetta, but that means “bump” and I can’t quite make that work. In Spanish it means gutter, but … I would think it’s a mistaken spelling here — but it’s off a freaking Italian website, so …
Also, the last two lines weren’t part of the lullaby that was sung to us. Instead, after the bianchi we got a soothing sing-song:
Nanna, nanna,
Mm-mmm, Mm-mmm …
Nanna meams “sleep,” by the way.
Now, there’s a similar lullaby I also found:
Nanna culletta
la mamma è andata a messa
il papà è andato a Torino
a comprare un burattino.
In this case, Mama is still going to Mass, but Papa is going to Turin to buy … a puppet? Culletta is interesting here — culetta (one L) would be a female donkey, but more likely it’s related to the verb cullare, to cradle or rock (i.e., “Sleep, cradled one”).
There’s also this little ditty:
Tutù tutù musseta,
la mamma è andata a messa,
il papà è andato nei campi
con tre cavalli bianchi;
bianca la sella,
bianca la gonnella,
bianco il girasole,
prendi un po’ di sole;
sole, solicello,
casca giù l’anello;
pesca e ripesca
ho preso un pesciolino
vestito di turchino!
Note lines 2-4. Mama’s going to church (again), and Papa’s going to the fields/countryside (some more) — but the phrase Papà è andato nei campi is actually closer to the phonetic transliteration my mom did of the song than Papà l’è andato ai campi — and more importantly, I’m sure (and the transliteration agrees) that “my” version had con tre cavalli bianchi (“with three white horses”) rather than coi cavallini bianchi.
Given the linguistic diversity up and down the Italian peninsula, it doesn’t surprise me to find such an array of the same imagery expressed in parallel (but not identical) language.
So aside from an inability to learn what cuneta means, I think I have my lullaby:
Nanna cuneta,
La mamma è andata a messa,
Papà è andato nei campi
con tre cavalli bianchi,
Nanna, nanna,
Mmmmm, Mmmmm …
Friday: I’m not sure what I did on Friday. Worked some. Played some in the afternoon and evening. Went to sleep. Saturday: Saturday was Busy Errands Day, prepping for both…
Friday: I’m not sure what I did on Friday. Worked some. Played some in the afternoon and evening. Went to sleep.
Saturday: Saturday was Busy Errands Day, prepping for both the evening (Hungry Flock) and the Sunday (Fondue). Did some cleaning and straightening, including starting off with (gads) taking down the Christmas stuff. Yeah, I know. Bought some wine, bought some food, picked up some meds, all the usual running-around bits.
The evening was Hungry Flock (progressive dinner party thang from our church) over at Sarah’s. Jackie was kind enough to offer to babysit Katherine, which gave us our first look at her new place post-move-in (and feel guilty about how holiday timing and the like meant we’d done diddly-squat to actually help with said move). Jackie comments on sitting for Katherine.
Dinner was nice, though it was a small group (and a very big dog — a long-legged St Bernard whose back came to my waist). Rescued the daughter (or Jackie, take your pick) and headed home.
Sunday: Went to church, and incidentally chatted with Fr Craig about the big article. Did some more cleaning at home. Then … fondue! with Jackie, Randy, and Stan.
Monday: Worked from home, due to both Katherine’s school and her daycare at the school being closed for the holiday. Work was moderately productive (I didn’t fall any further behind), and toward the end of the day, Kitten and I baked cookies.
Doyce and Kate and KK came over for pizza and chit-chat, which was quite nice.
A pleasant rest-of-the-evening with Margie (my favorite company, though we have plenty of spiffy people over to visit), and then blessed sleep until the alarm went off.
Is there room for a comedy news show with a conservative slant? Absolutely — if it’s as well-done and amusing as, say, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And not…
Is there room for a comedy news show with a conservative slant? Absolutely — if it’s as well-done and amusing as, say, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And not if it’s as big a botch as The Fox Half-Hour News Hour — at least if this sample (via BD) s any example.
Now, never mind that Ann Coulter would likely top my list of Folks I’d Most Like To See Staked Before They Can Rise Again. Rush Limbaugh, the other main conservative commentator on the show can be, on occasion, witty and intelligent.
But to compare this to The Daily Show is is a huge mistake, because, frankly, even if TDS tends to focus on conservative follies most of the time, it has a modicum of even-handedness — Jon Stewart is more interested in goring sacred oxen than in making a partisan point, and he’s done some blistering bits on liberal politicians and causes (and one can expect these to grow in number as the Dems (cough) take more power back grom the GOP). His guests range all over the political spectrum, and he shows
all of them at least a measure of respect (something neither Limbaugh nor Coulter seem able to do).
Ultimately, TDS is about laughing at pomposity and stupidity, while the Half-Hour News Hour seems to be about laughing at liberals. Not that there isn’t overlap between those two sets, but the former is a much richer vein to mine and has the potential for much more interesting humor. Limbaugh and Coulter spend so much of their time ridiculing those they don’t agree with, one can hardly see the difference between their “reality” shows / columns / media packages and what they do here.
It’s just not funny. It’s not clever. It’s not witty. It’s not intersting. It’s just mean-spirited fun-poking and ridicule.
I predict a quick sinking beneath the waves without a trace, save for a bitter flotsam of bitter complaints about how the liberal media hounded the show out of existence.
(via Solonor)
The IAEA has released a new warning symbol to supplement the standard radiation trefoil to warn folks — well, that radiation can seriously mess you up. The new symbol…
The IAEA has released a new warning symbol to supplement the standard radiation trefoil to warn folks — well, that radiation can seriously mess you up.
The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance.
[…] The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups – mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female – to ensure that its message of “danger – stay away” was crystal clear and understood by all.
Well, yeah, I guess it’s clear (if butt-ugly), but … how much of a problem do we have with folks wandering by “large radiation sources” who aren’t already educated that it’s a bad idea or who don’t know what the radiation trefoil means?
(via BoingBoing)
Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner (2005) Overall Story Re-Readability Characters Imagine if Buffy the Vampire Slayer retired, settled down, married, had kids, and became a soccer mom — then…
Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner (2005)
| Overall |
 | Story |
|
| Re-Readability |
| Characters |
 |
Imagine if Buffy the Vampire Slayer retired, settled down, married, had kids, and became a soccer mom — then was suddenly faced with a resurgence of demonic activity in Sunnydale, and had to fight the baddies while throwing dinner parties for her husband, getting the kids to school, and keeping it all a secret? Well, you don’t have to imagine very hard, because Kenner basically lightly files off the Buffy serial numbers to present just that scenario. Instead of Slayers we have Hunters; instead
of Watchers, we have the Vatican’s Forza; but it’s all pretty much there.
How does it work? Um … okay.
Story: Just as Kate Connor thinks her suburban life can’t get any more complicated — her husband’s running for DA, she’s juggling a teenaged daughter from her first marriage and a toddler from her current one — a demon comes crashing through patio door, signaling her safe little domestic life is being invaded by her secret past as a Demon Hunter. Out of shape, out of touch, and so not wanting to go through that life again, especially with a husband and kids, what’s she going to
do? Especially when she becomes suspicious that someone very close to her is in service to the same High Demon that’s orchestrating the reinvasion of the town?
To call this book fluff is, to some degree, to denegrate fluff. It neither fully succeeds as a horror/action/adventure novel nor as a study of the harried domestic suburban housewife’s lot. The plot meanders, key points get telegraphed, things seem to happen more for the sake of complicating matters than because they make sense, coincidences abound, and the whole thing ends up as a clear setup for future books (of which at least one has come out in hardcover, a second lined up for June).
That said, it’s not bad, just mediocre. As someone who’s got an active child growing up for whom we try to balance our work lives and her activities, too, a lot of it rings true — or at least truish. There’s a decent mythos here, too. In more polished hands — heck, let’s just say Joss Whedon — this could be hip, edgy, entertainment. As it is, it’s a bit … pedestrian. Except that’s too strong an opinion, because there’s nothing here to actually provoke a
strong opinion.
The standard question — the artificial bit that makes life for Kate a lot more complex than it needs to be — is why she doesn’t tell her husband (and daughter) what’s going on. The former’s already had to face some of the secrets, and if there’s a reason Kate doesn’t confide in her husband part of the time, that’s pretty much wrapped by the end of the book. One has the sense the secret must be kept simply because sharing it would uncomplicate the story too much. Which is
weak (if stereotyped) plotting.
Characters: The harried housewife. Her supportive but clueless best friend. The mildly rebellious teenaged girl. The sweet but demanding toddler. The loving if distracted husband. There you go. Oh, yeah, there are a few other players, but you could probably write their dialog, too.
Re-Readability: Maybe. The book doesn’t depend on too much stuff that, once read, is spoiled. I might go back to it, especially when the next one comes out.
Overall: Cast in the best light, this is light-weight entertainment with some promise, but weakened by chick-lit fluffiness, less interested in some ways in writing a taut suspenseful modern-day action-horror novel than the mildly humorous travails of a put-upon housewife. I’m willing to pick up the next installment when it comes out, and won’t feel guilty about loaning out this one, but have still preferred something a bit more like Buffy in tone, if it was going to be like
it in settting.