Don't Crush That Dwarf...

For eight years, I’ve been hearing “Where’s the Outrage?” in regard to current events, and recalling all the outrage forty years ago over current events of that time.

Now, finally, we have some outrage. Travelocity has been charged with abuse in the treatment of its iconic garden gnome.



As you may have noticed, Travelocity’s television commercials have repeatedly placed the gnome in harm’s way at various travel destinations around the world. Many viewers, concerned for the gnome’s safety and survival, have become outraged.

In response, an international movement has formed to liberate ALL garden gnomes. Movement tactics thus far have included Campus Outreach and a German embargo. Click on the title to view one of the sites.

It’s heartening to discover what you’ll find if you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row.

Voldemort Hath No Fury...

... like angry Harry Potter fans: "'Within hours of Warner Bros.'s decision to postpone the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to next July, hate mail began to pour into the studio. An online petition expressing fans' disgust with the decision garnered more than 45,000 signatures. The studio says it even received death threats. "I hope you choke on your own saliva," snarled one fan in an email'" (Click on the title for more)

Change Agents

PETER BAKER
"For the first time since 1952, the party holding the White House has nominated someone other than the sitting president or vice president, someone without a vested interest in running on continuity, and at a moment when the party finds it difficult to defend its record from the last eight years.

But as a matter of history, it is easier to run as the opposition party if you actually are the opposition party."

DAVID BROOKS
"She gave a tough vice presidential speech, with maybe a few more jabs than necessary. Still it was stupendous to see a young woman emerge from nowhere to give a smart and assertive speech.

And what was most impressive was her speech’s freshness. Her words flowed directly from her life experience, her poise and mannerisms from her town and its conversations. She left behind most of the standard tropes of Republican rhetoric (compare her text to the others) and skated over abortion and the social issues. There wasn’t even any tired, old Reagan nostalgia.

Instead, her language resonated more of supermarket aisle than the megachurch pulpit. More than the men on the tickets, she embodies the spirit of the moment: impatient, fed up, tough-minded, but ironical. Even in attack, she projected the cheerfulness of someone confident about the future.

In those 40 minutes, the forces of reform Republicanism took control, at least for a time."
(Click on the title for the full texts from yesterday's New York Times)

Teenage Marriage

"'The median marrying age for women in the late 1950s was about 19, according to David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University and an emeritus professor of sociology there. But a marriage between 19-year-olds — or even 17- or 18-year-olds — then would not have been described as a “teenage marriage,” he said. It was too routine to be given a special label.

There is no way to know how many of those unions were prompted by a pregnancy — a phenomenon that has decreased sharply in the population in recent decades as the marriage rate itself has declined, sociologists say.

Studies show that today teenage marriages are two to three times more likely to end in divorce than are marriages between people 25 years of age and older. The most comprehensive study on marriage and age that sociologists cite was published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001, from 1995 data, and it found that 48 percent of those who marry before 18 are likely to divorce within 10 years, compared with 24 percent of those who marry after age 25.'"

(Click on the title for more from today's New York Times)

Lipstick

Let me see if I’ve got this straight: Sarah Palin said in her acceptance speech last night that the only difference between a pit bull and Sarah Palin the Hockey Mom is lipstick. (Click on the title to watch the speech)

So that would mean the only difference between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin is…lipstick.

I don’t know how he feels about lipstick on his pit bulls, but I’ll bet Michael Vick will be watching the debate between the candidates for Vice President.

Locks and Bagels


We recently took a ninety minute Boston Harbor cruise on a gorgeous Summer Saturday morning.

Unlike the better-known Boston Harbor Cruise, which departs from (and returns to) Long Wharf in Boston, ours (click on the title) departed from (and returned to) the Charles River, just outside CambridgeSide Galleria in Cambridge (weekend parking $3.99 in the mall garage). And you can get coffee and bagels at Au Bon Pain before you depart.

After passing by the Museum of Science on the Charles River, we waited under the Zakim Bridge for the Boston Harbor Locks to open so that we could enter Boston Harbor.

If you’ve never passed through any kind of locks before, being in a boat as it gradually drops ten feet is certainly a unique experience!

Gail and I must have been the only Bostonians aboard a boat full of tourists, so the Cruise Guide’s chirpy commentary was a little too general for us – especially his take on The Big Dig, which neglected all the ways in which that project has made it easier for us locals to get through and around town.

It’s always a great pleasure to see the USS Constitution, but for me the best part of the cruise was the opportunity it provided to see facets of the city visible only from the water. I never realized that so many beautiful waterfront greenspaces, parks and walking trails had been created as part of the new condominium projects in Charlestown and Cambridge, because they are not visible when you’re trying to navigate the area from behind the wheel of your car.

And in case you were wondering, the new Institute of Contemporary Art is one seriously ugly building when seen from the water. I much prefer the old building on Boylston Street.

Caribou Barbie

“Republicans don’t see the choice of Palin as affirmative action, despite her thin résumé and gaping absence of foreign policy knowledge, because they expect Republicans to put an underqualified “babe,” as Rush Limbaugh calls her, on the ticket. They have a tradition of nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West, like the previous Miss Congeniality types Dan Quayle and W., and then letting them learn on the job. So they crash into the globe a few times while they’re learning to drive, what’s the big deal?

This chick flick, naturally, features a wild stroke of fate, when the two-year governor of an oversized igloo becomes commander in chief after the president-elect chokes on a pretzel on day one.

The movie ends with the former beauty queen shaking out her pinned-up hair, taking off her glasses, slipping on ruby red peep-toe platform heels that reveal a pink French-style pedicure, and facing down Vladimir Putin in an island in the Bering Strait. Putting away her breast pump, she points her rifle and informs him frostily that she has some expertise in Russia because it’s close to Alaska. “Back off, Commie dude,” she says. “I’m a much better shot than Cheney.”

Then she takes off in her seaplane and lands on the White House lawn, near the new ice fishing hole and hockey rink. The “First Dude,” as she calls the hunky Eskimo in the East Wing, waits on his snowmobile with the kids — Track (named after high school track meets), Bristol (after Bristol Bay where they did commercial fishing), Willow (after a community in Alaska), Piper (just a cool name) and Trig (Norse for “strength.”)

“The P.T.A. is great preparation for dealing with the K.G.B.,” President Palin murmurs to Todd, as they kiss in the final scene while she changes Trig’s diaper. “Now that Georgia’s safe, how ’bout I cook you up some caribou hot dogs and moose stew for dinner, babe?”’

(Click on the title for the rest of Maureen Dowd's column)

Black and White

I’m really tired of hearing Barack Obama referred to as the first black presidential nominee of a major political party in The United States.

"Sen. Obama embodies contradictions in the community that are starting to bubble to the surface -- largely out of the earshot of whites. He is the biracial son of an African father and a white mother in a community where most people are descended from slavery or whose ancestors had direct experience with segregation. He is the married father of two in a community in which more than 60% of children grow up in a single-parent household. He's a politician who isn't steeped in the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s and didn't grow up in the inner city or in a black neighborhood." (Click on the title for the full Wall Street Journal article).

Barack Obama is in fact the first biracial presidential nominee of a major political party in The United States.

A couple of generations ago in this country Barack Obama's ethnicity might have been referred to in other terms, like "mulatto," but times change; now the politically correct term is "biracial”.

Whatever. Let’s just try to be accurate when we talk about a person's ethnicity, whether it be Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, or Halle Berry.

I'll Be Walking in Memphis

I’m going to Memphis, and I’m trying to fit all that I want to do there into three days.

For a hard core Rhythm and Blues fan like me, Memphis ranks right up there with Chicago as the capitol of the universe. In fact, it was the main stopover on the road from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago.

Here are some of the things I plan to see in Memphis:
National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
Gibson Guitar Museum
Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum
Sun Studio
Stax Museum of American Soul Music
Graceland

Our hotel is actually on Beale Street, and some of the attractions are within walking distance. The others are a short cab ride away. Also within walking distance: Beale Street’s many live-music bars.

Some music fans long to visit Nashville or Branson; I’ll take Memphis.

Summer Olympic Games Infomercial


I think this is the one image I will take away from the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. It really captures the focus of the China Olympics coverage.

I tried to avoid the opening and closing ceremonies (except for highlights) and as much of the human interest blather as possible. I did manage to catch a lot of Track and Field in between commercials. I’ve posted other observations about the Summer Olympic Games elsewhere on the Freeway.

NBC gave China a big, wet kiss with its coverage – does anyone know if Bob Costas ever alluded to the irony of having Chairman Mao looking over his shoulder whenever the network used the Forbidden City as backdrop to his commentary?

Not From Around Here

“Obama’s chief problem in this campaign is that large numbers of voters still don’t know who he is. They are having trouble putting him into one of the categories they use to grasp those they have not met.

And now he has to define himself amid the phantasmagorical vapors of his own party: the ghosts of the Kerry campaign, the overshadowing magic of the Kennedys and the ego-opera that perpetually surrounds the Clintons.

Of course, the Obama campaign has been here before. Just about a year ago, Obama was stagnant in the polls. His supporters were nervous and full of advice. And in the crowning moment of his whole race, Obama shut them out. He turned his back on the universe of geniuses and stayed true to his core identity.
At the core, Obama’s best message has always been this: He is unconnected with the tired old fights that constrict our politics. He is in tune with a new era. He has very little experience but a lot of potential. He does not have big achievements, but he is authentically the sort of person who emerges in a multicultural, globalized age. He is therefore naturally in step with the problems that will confront us in the years to come.”

I think David Brooks gets it right in this excerpt from his column in today’s New York Times (just as he did in an earlier column - click on the title above).

1968

Very little of what I’ve seen lately about the 1960s (especially in this 40th anniversary year of the Democrat Party’s Convention in Chicago) has been true to how I remember the time. And unlike some of the people I knew and worked with back then, I remember it all quite clearly. Maybe a little too clearly, as the Democrats convene in Denver this week.

As The World’s Oldest Baby Boomer, I was at once part of and apart from my peers. Whatever hope and optimism I had felt about America’s future in the 1960s had been generated by John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But by 1964, it was being overtaken by the everyday concerns of money, work, relationships -- the kinds of things you still wake up in the morning thinking about.

But another constant concern for guys like me was the military draft, as well as fear of a nuclear war between the United States and Russia, which was never off the table.

So for most of us white middle class Boomers in 1968, with a draft deferment of some sort, there wasn’t much time left in the day to think about the fires burning and people dying in Watts, Newark, Chicago and in other cities around the country since 1965– much less about the fires burning and people dying in Southeast Asia.

What tends to be forgotten in all of the Summer of Love and Swinging Sixties bloviating is the powerful undercurrent of anger and racial hatred that Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Wallace and others were able to tap into and use to rebuild the Republican Party after the Goldwater debacle in 1964.

Those of us who came a little unhinged by the live network coverage of blood and violence in the streets of Chicago during the Democrats’ Convention forty years ago thought that the "Whole World" was watching and coming to the same conclusion we were – why are the police beating up on these innocent people exercising their right to free speech?

But most of the rest of the country, we came to discover, was rooting for the police. Richard Nixon certainly understood this, and leveraged it all the way to The White House. The seeds for the racial, class and political polarization we talk about in 2008 were sown even before 1968.

And we later learned that not all the people demonstrating in the streets of Chicago forty years ago were innocent. It’s never that simple.

I think it was at that point that any residual Sixties hope and optimism evaporated, and most Americans really turned inward - and haven’t turned back since.

Bad Trip


This week's "Weeds" focused on Nancy Botwin's decision to try alternative medicine as a way to deal with the sudden string of migraine headaches she'd been experiencing. Excedrin Migraine temporarily mitigated the pain, but could not address the underlying causes.

The Mayor of Tijuana (you'll have to watch the past few episodes to understand) took Nancy to a Mexican Healer who arranged a session featuring an unconventional remedy for migraines: peyote.

I'm astonished at how much exceptional material the writers and directors cram into every thirty minute episode, but this week they topped themselves. Nancy's peyote trip sequence was absolutely terrifying, and her reflections the next morning on what she'd learned about herself the night before, as she sat on the beach with her brother-in-law Andy, signalled an intriguing new direction for her character.

Mary Louise Parker is a fine actress who has set the bar high by visiting some very dangerous places while developing this unique character. I hope she wins the Emmy.

You Really Couldn't Make This Up...

I wish that I could lay claim to the following announcements (or remember who I borrowed them from), but they were harvested from actual church bulletins:

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done

The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

The Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM . The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours