Something Fun

I found this one on one of our new RevGalBlogPal's blogs --

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Penguin Chrysler [sounds more like a whole band to me]
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Coffee Wicked Good Moccasin
3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Blue Calico Cat
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Andrea Gardiner
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name): STRNI
6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Red Drambuie
7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Stephen Caesar
8. STRIPPER NAME ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Shalimar Needham
9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your fifth grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Lehman Louisville
10. SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Christmas Daffodil
11. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Blueberry Turtleneck
12. HIPPIE NAME (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Bismarck Birch

President's Day Meme

Songbird posted this meme for Presidents' Day -- a good thing as I have no better ideas for today's posting.

1. Can you name the American Presidents we are honoring? Bonus: Any idea when their real birthdays are? (Don't look it up.)

George Washington, born February 22, 1731/2 (O.S.) in Virginia.

Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, 1809 in Kentucky.

2. Why do you suppose car sales are an important aspect of our President's Day observations in the U.S.? (Feel free to be whimsical.)

I can't think of anything whimsical. I would guess that since the new models have been out for a while by now, dealers are looking to get rid of some of them, and also, it's a day off for some people so that the family can shop for a car together.

3. Have you ever been President of a club or organization? How did that feel?

No, but I have been Moderator of my church. It was not an extremely powerful position, as the church was really run by the five committees, and the Council met infrequently. But I got to help plan the church's 90th anniversary celebration. It was a good experience for me. Also, I was Co-Editor-in-Chief of my college newspaper for a semester. That was fun too, in spite of some friction with the other co-editor.

4. If you could have dinner with any President of the United States no longer living, who would it be? Any particular questions you would like to ask? (Please feel free to substitute a nationally appropriate elected leader, such as a Prime Minister.)

I think, based on reading Merle Miller's Plain Speaking, that I would like to dine with Harry S Truman. He was President when I was born. I'd mostly like to dine with him because he was well-read and seemed to be an interesting conversationalist, and maybe a little less of an egotist than many of the others. However, a question did come up in my mind recently, the answer to which may be written somewhere, but I don't know: When he agreed to join FDR on the ticket in 1944, could he tell that he would probably end up becoming President when FDR died? I would think FDR's declining health might have been evident, and Truman was very much a realist. So I suspect he did. But I wonder.

5. On a more serious note, what are the qualities you hope for in our next President? (As above for those who live in other countries.)

The intelligence of Jefferson, the humility of Lincoln, the genius for dealing with Congress of Lyndon Johnson at his best, the integrity of Washington, the confidence (and the ability to inspire it in others) of FDR, the sense of history of Truman, the inspirational qualities of JFK, the environmental awareness of Teddy Roosevelt and Al Gore, and the plain good-heartedness of Jimmy Carter. A tall order.

Friday Five: The Water and the Word

In this Sunday's gospel Nicodemus asks Jesus, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Poor old Nicodemus! He was so confused about the whole "water and Spirit" business of baptism.

For today's five, tell us about your baptismal experiences.
1. When and where were you baptized? Do you remember it? Know any interesting tidbits?
Maundy Thursday, 1963, at First Church, Congregational in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was part of our confirmation ceremony that I, my friend The Enthusiast, and a few others who had not been baptized as infants, were baptized by sprinkling. I wore a pale blue Chanel-style suit and a pillbox hat with a little veil (Jacqui Kennedy style -- removed for the actual baptism, of course).
2. What's the most unexpected thing you've ever witnessed at a baptism?
It's pretty mild, but the one thing I remember is that, when our former pastor baptized his son, there was a large clap of thunder. This would not have been so unusual except that it was March in Minnesota. The kid has just graduated from law school and is a fine young man, but no evidence yet to suggest that the thunder was an omen of any kind.
3. Does your congregation have any special traditions surrounding baptisms?
Current one has a special song the choir always sings. In our old one there was a white rose on the communion table for baptism.
To the right is a picture of Sisterknits on her baptismal day (after the ceremony) with her rose. The christening gown she is wearing was made for her older brother by OHP's mother, and now awaits the next generation of wearers.
4. Are you a godparent or baptismal sponsor? Have a story to tell?
Yes and no. I have never been asked to be one, and my children don't have individual sponsors. OHP's grandfather, a Lutheran pastor, believed and practiced (at least for his own 9 children) that the entire congregation were the sponsors of the baptized. OHP's parents continued this tradition as did we. There are some members of our former congregation who take this very seriously and our children have always been supported in a "godparently" way by them. I hope I have done the same for some of the children I've seen baptized.
5. Do you have a favorite baptismal song or
hymn?
You bet, and here it is, written by Onkel Hankie Pants for Sisterknits' baptism. It can be sung to the hymn tunes Vienna or Innocents (or any tune with the meter 7.7.7.7 that seems to fit the spirit of the piece.) If you would like to use it for a baptism OHP would be happy to hear about it.

Just As On That Golden Morn

Vienna

New Century Hymnal 448

Just as on that golden morn,
From a thought the world was born,
So today our God has smiled,
Giving us this little child.

Thankfully we bring her(him) now
To make our baptismal vow
That this child will always be
Part of God’s one family.

By the water and the word
On this child a name’s conferred;
But the greater gift we give
Is a faith by which to live.

Let us pray that she(he) may grow
In God’s Grace and come to know
This, the miracle we share:
Heaven’s love is everywhere.

Copyright 1985, H. C. Strandskov

Enough, already!

Remember the other day I said we had had 76+ inches of snow this season? Well, it's probably closing in on 7 feet now. Of course, some of it melted during our January thaw. But here are some pictures of the scene that greeted us this morning, for those of you in snowless climes. The one on the right is the view from our front door at about 7:00 am. Yes, those are the lions, nearly covered in snow.


Here is a more expansive picture of the view from the
front door. If you click to enlarge it, it appears a snowblower is being used near the car in the parking lot of the apartment building across the street. (My sister checked into it and a 2 bedroom apartment goes for $850 a month; I'd guess maybe heat is included.) You can also see the many overhead power lines. Much has been made recently here of the 10th anniversary of the Great Ice Storm of 1998, when many people were without power for up to 9 days or more. Today we probably will not have quite such a disaster, but outages are being predicted because the heavy wet snow is to change to rain and then if it freezes later, branches will break and lines will go down. The tree-trimming schedule is better now, but I still wonder why some effort hasn't been made to put some of the lines underground. Just another infrastructure issue, I guess, where we defer maintenance to "save money." Then, like the I-35W bridge, more money, and lives, are lost.
And here's a little Shakespeare for you, the verse that
comes into my head whenever I look out the window
at this picture:

WINTER

When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! Tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all around the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw;
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl --
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! Tu-whoo! A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Although there are precious few shepherds blowing "nails" here, milking is done mostly with milking machines, crab(apple) roasting is in decline, and most of us are fairly clean and keel (stir) our own pots now, it is surprising how much of the rest of the poem still fits our experience of winter.

And apropos of the owl, one last photo, of the truck with a snowplow attached (a common amenity here) which has just finished clearing the parking lot of the Snowy Owl Gallery next door. (They cast silver, mostly, jewelry for a number of local designers and sell some of it in the front room. They bring their dogs, Isabella, Truman, and Chester, to work, and Rusty enjoys visiting with them.) I am looking down over our front yard and our driveway, which is on the basement level; it's not really a miniature truck.

I am...10:02 am???

Apparently on a Saturday, for most people. Right now my life is such that 10:02 am is rather like the description, with the additional enhancement that it's approximately time to take Rusty for his mid-morning walk. Oddly enough I saw this on Crimson Rambler's blog and she is also 10:02 am, but I suspect she has usually been long at work by then.

Tuneful Tuesday: Love Songs

Today is Onkel Hankie Pants's birthday! So while he's off at rehearsal I will post a few happy love songs in his honor, and for Valentine's Day coming in just two days. The songs come from several decades but none of them is exactly "Our Song." Um, that would be Morning Has Broken...the Cat Stevens version was popular during our brief engagement. So we often get to sing it in church, which not many people can say, I bet.

1. Always -- Irving Berlin -- 1925. Irving Berlin wrote this as a wedding gift to his wife Ellin Mackay, and it really was a gift -- he assigned the rights to her and it brought her a nice income. I have three recordings, one by Gordon Macrae, one by a British orchestra, and my favorite of the three is by Willie Nelson. For anyone who has never heard it, here's a nice young man doing a very creditable job of it:

2. Exactly Like You -- Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields -- 1930. "I know why my mama Taught me to be true She meant me for someone Exactly like you!" I really like the version by Tony Bennett and k.d. lang about the best of all, but here's an instrumental version made only seven years after the song was written, by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.

3. As Time Goes By -- Herman Hupfeld -- 1931. Ah, Casablanca, Bogart, Bergman -- what could be more romantic? Oddly enough the two recordings I have are by Peggy Lee and Guy Van Duser; Rudy Vallee had a big hit with it and then, of course, Dooley Wilson played and sang it in the film. If you have 15 minutes, you can go here and scroll down to hear the NPR 100 piece about it, which ends with what Susan Stamberg considers the "definitive" version -- by Barbra Streisand. Well, it's pretty good. But I'll go with this one:
Some people might say this was a sad song because of the context of the film, but I'd say it's more philosophical.

4. Two Sleepy People -- Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser -- 1938. You can't go wrong with Carmichael or Loesser -- the latter being OHP's favorite Broadway lyricist. I've always loved this song, in spite of the cigarettes, and my favorite version is by Fats Waller. But I also found this one which is different, but quite good:


5. Twilight Time -- Ram, Nevens, Nevens and Dunn -- 1944. It seems incredible that this great song was apparently written by a committee! This would be the first of the songs that OHP and I can actually remember from our childhood, or at least I can -- it was a hit for the Platters about the time I got my first radio. Although the beginning of the song is truncated, here they are performing it in France that year:

6. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face -- Ewan McColl -- 1957. Well, if we had another song besides Morning Has Broken, this might be it. Although Ewan McColl wrote it (for Peggy Seeger, his wife and Pete's sister) in 1957, and Roberta Flack recorded it in 1969, it was not until 1972, the year we met and were married, that it was released as a single and became a big hit, after being used in Clint Eastwood's movie Play Misty for Me (filmed on the Monterey Peninsula where we met). And here is Roberta Flack, so amazing, just as powerful as the first time I heard it.

7. In My Life -- John Lennon and Paul McCartney -- 1965. This song speaks to how, when you find that one special person, you still love your other friends, but there will always be one you love more. Someone has made a nice montage to go with the song.

Well, I could go on, but I won't, This is enough for one night!

Random Thoughts Walking along Maine St.

With the recent return of snow, enough so that the sidewalk clearers haven't made it to our sidewalks here yet, I've mostly been walking Rusty along Maine St., which is our main street. It doesn't take more than a teaspoonful of brains to walk the dog, so I get to observe and think about things. Some of the things I've seen and thought about:

• This morning I saw my first Maine Agriculture license plate, and then I saw two more! They are a new addition to the (some say too many) charitable-donation license plates here, and are by far the most colorful, as you will see. We have the lobster plate, the extra money from which goes to lobster research, in honor of my lobstering relatives. There are also the loon plate (facing the opposite way from Minnesota's loon plate, but for the same purpose), the Black Bear plate (I think this one's for U. of Maine - Orono alumni) and the rather generic "UMS" plate for the University of Maine System. And, of course, the standard one with our state bird and flower is quite nice as well.

• There are currently a few "For Lease" signs on Maine Street. The camera/digital photography store, one of a chain of three, has closed, and so has one of the three opticians. A natural skin care store/salon is moving into the optician space, leaving an empty space on the second floor of the former department store where the camera store is now also vacant. A chain video store has closed its Maine st. location, to the joy of the independent DVD rental store and also the game rental shop.
  
• A year or so ago, the Goodwill store on Maine St. closed, reopening in a new purpose-built, larger building in the next town, near Target and so on. The site was empty for a while, but now we have two new businesses there -- the wave of the future -- one sells gelato, locally roasted coffee, and Simply Divine brownies, and the other is a cybercafe and gaming venue. (I mean of course, the kind of gaming where you go to play Guitar Hero, not Las Vegas-style gaming.) Both seem to be doing well. Two more new restaurants have opened as well, one on each end of the downtown section of the street. As you can tell, all these businesses are dependent on discretionary spending or "disposable income." So far they seem to be doing well in spite of our national and local economic woes. I wish them luck.
  
• We have an awful lot of banks. Only two of them, as far as I can tell, are out-of-state banks.
• There's not much on the street that was there when I was in high school (business-wise -- most of the buildings are the same, just not their occupants). Off-hand I would say, apart from one of the opticians and the odd dentist, there's an insurance agency and Day's News (where you can get Italian sandwiches and ice cream cones as well as magazines and newspapers).
  
• License plates again -- Maine doesn't charge as much for vanity plates as some states, so they are quite common. Outside a church once I saw one that said XEGSIS. Last night, by the organic food store, was one that read PRSNKT. But most people, like LEONA B, BABETTE and DE BOYS, are not as creative.
• Rusty has once or twice found a discarded doughnut on Maine Street. He now believes that every municipal trashcan might just hold a doughnut, so he has to investigate each one. Fortunately they are sturdy and he has yet to knock one over.
• Now it's just about time to go for another walk down (or up) Maine Street. And by the way, I did make the biscuits, and they were good!