Saturday, March 29, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: 238th Big Fibbers

We have some great Fibbers lined up, but there's time for several more. Get your fib together and sign up online. Our latest contestant to join the fray is none other than Wade Williams. All you Rome area band students of the last -how many!!?- years will remember old man Williams and his crazy band stories. Come hear him on April Fools' Day next Tuesday evening at 7 at the rock Civic Center on Jackson Hill.


Gleaning Facebook: Rainy Day in Georgia

From Lillian's Facebook:
Having a blast at the Braves game! It's really sunny and beautiful. We're definitely not huddling under an umbrella right now.


 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: Tom Poor on Carter

Tim Poor (my Facebook friend as of today) came on board as a result of an employment ad we placed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. An excellent writer and reporter, Tim went on, after the demise of Broadside, to success with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I thought his response to Jimmy Carter's Playboy interview was spot-on.



Comment

Laurie Craw

I don't remember this, Terrell, but then I don't remember a LOT (and a lot I'm glad I DON'T remember LOL) Yes, our little newspaper bidness incubated a few smart, talented and idealistic young people who went on to greater heights in their respective careers. That makes me feel good.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: Haley Reaching Out

 

FROM HALEY'S MOM'S FACEBOOK: Haley just loves for me to post something like this about her...
Oh well... Her servant-leader mindset has been fostered by many amazing mentors. I can't wait to see what she does in the next phase of her life.



Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: Pink Slime?

Some folks are calling for less governmental regulation. I want more. But I want to control my govt (with your help fellow citizens). The government belongs to us (We The People) not the corporations. With "Citizens United" corporations are now people and they are free to use their gazillions to try to buy our government so they can feed us pink slime among other atrocities.

All food products should be clearly labeled and ably monitored for truth in labeling. Politicians should be clearly labeled, as well, with exactly who is paying their bills.

(This was in response to an outdated controversy over the content of some fast food, including McDonald's burgers. The "pink slime" once used by McDonald's and others is no longer used.) 



Monday, March 10, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: March Woods

The woods are wide open still. You can see the lay of the land and admire the winter textures. This is a special spot along the trail for my students of the last decade or so. We call it the Pentepus Tree. A Red Maple, or maybe a Chalk Maple - I don't remember - it has five boles that form an anthropomorphic hand reaching from the base of Lavender Mountain. The Pentepus was a way station where I'd lean against the fingers with my feet in the palm and tell a story to the kids sitting in the leaves. The strange tree is about to bite the dust, I'm afraid. The limbs have been dying one by one and they all look more than a little peaked now. The fungi are having a feast.

I got a chance to spend some time by myself in the woods today along the Armuchee Elementary Nature Trail. This Hepatica was about the only full-bloom going, but it's going up and down the stream along the little bluff behind the school in all its glory. 
The Toothwort and Rue Anemone will be along shortly. 




 

Gleaning Facebook: Big Government and Big Business

Lots of "conservative" folk talk about horrible intrusion of government into their lives. I have not experienced a lot of that. Our government, elected by me and my fellow citizens, has, in many instances, enriched my life and my liberties. Of course sometimes I am in the minority and have to accept, temporarily at l;east, government action/inaction with which I strongly disagree.

Our dear friend Laurie Craw posted this comment on a recent thread here. It deserves a reading:
"Instead of talking in abstractions, let's talk about HOW government controls our lives and HOW big business controls our lives, with concrete examples. And I'm talking about how we LIVE our lives, day in, day out. Government, that is, the laws created by our elected representatives in government and enforced by the agencies those representatives also created, tells me I can't do a lot of things but I honestly can't remember wanting to do something the government told me I couldn't do, except get into a national park campground after dark one time. If I were a male and got drafted to fight a war I didn't believe was moral or necessary for national defense, I'd definitely have a problem with "big government" as many young men did in the Vietnam era.
But here's how big corporations (and small businesses) have kept me from doing things I DID want to do. Back in the "old days" before "big government" passed a law or two, I wanted to get a credit card in my own name to establish my credit but the banks said I couldn't because I was a married woman. I also wanted to take a one-month leave from my job when our first child was born, but my employer said I had to return to work as soon as my doctor said I was recovered from childbirth (that is, no longer "sick" under their sick leave policy) or lose my job. My husband and I were evicted from our rental apartment when our baby was born and it was perfectly legal for landlords to refuse to rent to adults with small children. More recently, I wanted to buy our diabetic son some health insurance to help pay for his life-saving insulin and other medicines but NO insurance company would sell him any.
In all these examples from my real life, "big government" stepped in and made laws to enable me to do things I wanted to do, things that were very important to me. So these are my examples. Let's hear examples of how government has prevented you from doing something important to you."
- Laurie Craw

Like many other posts of this sort this one elicited lots of comments. I usually enjoy it when friends like Howard, Sam, Laurie start commenting.

Comments:

Sam Burnham
Edward Snowden's revelations.
TARP
No Child/Common Core
2nd Amendment violations
Income taxes that over half don't pay.
Tax dollars spent on corporate welfare

Federal courts overturning state laws
War, war, war, war
NAFTA
Guantanamo- still going like the Energizer Bunny.
$3.42/gallon
No third or fourth party allowed in debates
Politicians with immense power over my life that appear on no ballot in my state (the reason we started with a republic with weak federal and strong state govts)
That's a start. I guess I'm an equal opportunity complainer. Washington, not just a single party, is the problem.


Terrell Shaw
Whoops… wuzn't through wit this, how'd it it get posted? Oh well…
All of these that are the result of laws were passed by our representatives, though I would like to see us make the Senate more representative and do away with the Electoral College and the return the filibuster to a real one.
TARP - (a Bush program) 97% repaid and may have saved us from a depression.
NCLB - a bad bipartisan program
Common Core - Mostly Common Sense
2nd Amendment violations - huh? Not a single gun taken from any law-abiding citizen yet
Income taxes that over half don't pay - but those half still pay lots of other taxes, and the folks who are paying are paying a smaller percentage than before 1980 and their percentage of the wealth is greater.
Tax dollars spent on corporate welfare - has been moderated some, but I agree
Federal courts overturning state laws - Article VI
War, war, war, war - We have made several mistakes here, but we have elected the guys who did it.
NAFTA - a mixed bag but my guys' should not have gone along with this. They did, and at the time so did I. Note this, it doesn't happen often: I wuz wrong. 

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Guantanamo- still going like the Energizer Bunny. I hope we'll take another stab at closing it soon.
$3.42/gallon - OK I guess some govt taxes are part of this, but we need roads and bridges and such.
No third or fourth party allowed in debates - Is there any govt involvement in organizing debates? Usually news orbs and LWV and other private groups set the rules I think.
Politicians with immense power over my life that appear on no ballot in my state (the reason we started with a republic with weak federal and strong state govts) - When we had that horribly weak fed under the Articles it was a horrible failure. Madison and Co definitely wanted to replace that with a strong federal govt with plenty of checks and balances within it, and a balance between it and the states.


Sam Burnham
The electoral college is the last stronghold of the old republic. I'm not surprised that it comes under attack from liberals. Granting 5 or 6 states the numerical ability to elect the president of a 50 state republic is probably the least fair thing that could possibly be done with legislation.


Sam Burnham
And the Senate should still be elected by the state legislatures. The founding fathers designed it that way for a reason.


Terrell Shaw
I can see some value in giving small states some special power, but the huge discrepancy b/w Wyoming and California is just too much. It is anti-republican in my book. Not that any change is coming there anytime soon. 

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Terrell Shaw
The Great Compromise was a wonderful thing. It allowed our republic to come into existence. But it WAS a compromise and made our republic something less than a true republic, and may have been a very long-term time bomb. When one senator from Wyoming (less people than Cobb County GA) can stifle our entire legislative branch we end up with the disfunction of 2014.


Terrell Shaw
You are in good company with some of the founding fathers (not all) who were very distrustful of the "people" at large. I am a small-r republican to my toes. I always want the broadest franchise and the greatest equality among citizens. I see no advantage in placing a state legislature filter between the people and their senators.


Terrell Shaw
Now, trying to repeal the 17th is bad enough, but if you go after the 19th Amendment, I'm telling Leigha. pastedGraphic.png


Laurie Craw
Sam, judging from your list, I guess I didn't understand your anti-government perspective from the git-go. I thought you felt that government is controlling YOUR life and restricting your freedom in some ways, but apparently you just feel that the federal government (not state?) is involved in too many things in general. That's another debate.


Sam Burnham
Laurie, yes, the Federal government is too big and is involved on things it was never intended to be involved in. Most of it should be abolished.
On the contrary, the House is designed for the people, the Senate for the states. It would be unfair to bring Wyoming (first to pass suffrage) into the Union without giving it equal protection in the Senate.
Now, if you want to take power from ranchers and farmers and redistribute it to incredibly rich people and corporations in places like New York and California, that's the right course to take. pastedGraphic_1.png


Sam Burnham
And actually, I'm in line with Founding Fathers like Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Sam Adams that were so trustful of the people that they were willing to leave governing power close to them, to maximize their influence over it as opposed to the Hamilton model of placing it in an ivory tower of strong centralized government.


Howard Smith
Fortunately, for all of you our founders wrote a living document, that both endures and adapts, and created a government, based on law, if not always in practice, and that is, if imperfect, still elected by us....for better and worse....and it only demands of us to make it work better in its pursuit of the common good our earnest participation.


Sam Burnham
So long as the creature doesn't evolve into another entirely different organism,


Howard Smith
That is called evolution and we have to adapt to change so, yes, the "organism" will change, too. and WE THE PEOPLE can and do and will create the future if we survive.


Terrell Shaw
Time out: Though I disagree mightily with you, Sam, I appreciate your willingness to use argument rather than vitriol to express yourself. Too many of us on all sides use that famous argument "[Fill in bad guy, bad idea, failed effort, straw man here] _________________ stinks therefore all you say in nonsense." So thanks for the polite debate.
Time in: Although I certainly believe in simple truths that don't change, I realize we live in complicated times, a diverse society, and a crowded planet. IMO Fifty "sovereign" states are not governable in a way that protects liberty, the environment, physical safety (from domestic & foreign dangers), reasonable economic security, etc.
I am glad that the founders realized that the wholly states-controlled govt of the Articles was a failure. We needed a federal govt and it needed power. I'm also glad they wrote in many checks and balances and divided the powers.
And I am glad that as history has progressed the system they wisely instituted for growth and change has allowed us to expand the franchise and make our Republic more responsive to ordinary Americans.
But as we've grown, inequalities that result from the Great Compromise and the Electoral College have become more pronounced. I see no reason for the ranchers and farmers in WY to have fifty times the influence in the Senate of the ranchers and farmers in CA. That's TOO much. In 1789 Rhode Islanders had about a 10 to 1 advantage over Virginians. Still bad. Useless argument, of course, but there it is. pastedGraphic.png


Sam Burnham
And so many before us in other nations across the world have me believing that last "if" is very big. That is why I stay concerned


Sam Burnham
I'm not much for vitriol for vitriol's sake. I even try to find positives in people I disagree with and respect them in that way. This came in handy during this past summer's visit through Plains and Warm Springs. pastedGraphic_1.png

Reason, argument and truth. As much as I disagree with the President, "Not Obama" is not a political philosophy. You have to know why you are for and against someone. That's why I'll never vote for either of our senators for any seat under any party, ever. I don't agree in practical application of stated belief. I want less talk and more action.
GWB spoke of smaller government and added an entire department to the federal government. Really? Words should equal actions. Too many folks telling me it's raining when I know better.  

Gleaning Facebook: Cal Russell

Another of Mr. Shaw's Stars from 2004-2005. Yay Cal!

 
From his Mom's Facebook: I have to say how proud I am of my oldest son Cal! He was recognized tonight at the Hall of Fame banquet as Armuchee's male outstanding athlete award! It was also awarded for all his academic achievements! It did a mamas heart good to see all her son had accomplished! We love you and know you will do well in college!!! - Kim Russell

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Azalea Storytelling Festival 2014 (Part 2)


Second Session: Saturday afternoon

For lunch we took the shuttle to Bellevue, the antebellum home of Ben Hill, the Confederate and US Senator. We enjoyed homemade soup (I had potato, Sheila taco) and cornbread with homemade cookies for dessert, while we talked with out tablemates who included two of my Facebook friends, featured storyteller Michael Reno Harrell and our Atlanta storyteller friend Janice Butt as well as Janice’s friend whose name escapes me, and a nice couple from Carrollton.

The second session started with Megan Hicks who told some stories in her mother’s voice. Her mother talked of the terror of Western-Union telegrams during World War Two when they often brought news of war deaths. And of the train trip with her new groom and the lonely ride back after seeing him off. She met another seventeen-year-old bride to share her ride and her troubles. “This is what is called the ‘long haul’, she said, ‘and we’re in it.”

MAMA'S STORIES


Michael Reno Harrell took the stage again to talk about his new friends, the rich New York couple who, visiting the Blue Ridge, fell in love with the mountains... “so they bought one.” When Michael spied the label “Armani” on his new friend suit coat on the back of a chair he thought, “That’s a hundred dollar suit, I bet!” Michael described a big snow as “axle deep to a ferris wheel.” But in the end, his new friends convinced him “It ain’t about where you’re from. It’s who you are.” He finished up with his song about the rules for “living here in the South.”



Bill Harley, a former resident of Rhode Island shares the common resentment of the citizens there over the frequent comparison of unusual things to the size of the diminutive state. Here’s a link to the lyrics of Bill’s song on the topic:

Did you see that bride’s diamond? It’s the size of the state of Rode Island!

Then he talked of being lost out West, but nearly dying in Rhode Island. Out west they’ve reintroduced wolves to the ecosystem and wonderfully strange things happened: deer moved to the hills, so trees came back to the valleys, and then the grass, which filtered and slowed the water which revived the streams and rivers. Who knew wolves would improve the rivers?

Then just for fun his classic Harley song: Down in the Backpack to the tune of Under the Boardwalk.


Barbara McBride-Smith grabbed our attention with this opening: “The first time my sister Pat got cancer she figured she could whup it. The second time she got mad.”  Pat was profoundly deaf. Barbara sprinkled American Sign Launguage accompaniment into the touching story of Pat’s valient fight against cancer. “Why can’t we find a cure for cancer without torturing people?” 

Pat seemed to have extra sensitive tactile, visual, olfactory, and gustatory abilities in spite of her auditory deficit. As she explained her final wishes to Barbara she instructed that she wanted doors and windows opened when she died so that the aroma of roses or panzies could fill the house. Barbara made sure that wish was granted. And now, Barbara stubbornly asserts, she can actually smell the panzies that Pat’s spirit is “pushing up”.


Next :  Third Session - Saturday night.

Gleaning Facebook: I'm With Howard

"A major reason of why I am no longer a Republican....the increasing 'redistribution' of America's wealth into the hands of the top 1%. This increasing concentration of wealth, which started during the Reagan administration, is the greatest danger our socio-economic and political system faces today." - Howard Smith
I'm with Howard. (But I gave up the GOP in the sixties.) And just for the record folks, I've been an entrepreneur and I greatly admire and wish the best to those who start businesses and work to make our American businesses prosper. But I also know that David and Charles and Sheldon have spent a mere pittance of their fortunes and yet influence our politics profoundly. We need to regain some balance. I'll bet I give a larger share of my (ahem) wealth to political causes than any one of these three, but my influence is less than negligible by comparison. Uncontrolled obscene money in politics is anathema to (small-R) republican government. And extreme concentration of wealth leads to despotism just as surely as Communism. We need strong profit motives AND real efforts at promoting "the general welfare."

Extremism is dangerous on both ends.


Neal Brackett

Do you feel the same way about Warren Buffett and George Soros?


Sam Burnham
You don't hear much about Buffett or Soros. They're doing the exact same thing the Koch brothers are vilified for. Just as guilty, just as damaging, just as wrong.


Terrell Shaw
We need to reduce the effect of money in politics. Soros and Buffett have not been as influential in politics as the Koch brothers but they should be limited too. By the way, there is much to blame about the Koch brothers and Adelson, but I have not done that here. My criticism here is of 1) the cancerous nature of unlimited and even uncredited money in politics; and 2) the cancerous effect upon society by extreme concentration of wealth. Soros and Buffett may contribute to the first, but at least they recognize the second and are using their money to support measures that help to change that.


Sam Burnham
If we reverse the cancerous nature of unlimited power of politics over every area of our daily lives and the cancerous effect upon society of the concentration of that power in Washington, the money will follow it right out the door.
Once we don't need Washington's permission to sneeze, the money will go elsewhere. And once that power is gone & the corporate welfare dries up the rest will work itself out.


Terrell Shaw
Some may be willing to accept a much lesser America, but I believe most folks want the safety, infrastructure, environmental protections, parks, schools, etc. etc that a huge country like ours in the 21st century affords us. Yes we must guard our liberty, but we can not soon return to the days of a tremendously smaller population with much less complicated lives.
Life is what it is. We have 50 states and a population of over 300 million that includes lots of Baptists, Catholics, Sikhs, Muslims, Atheists, Gays, Straights, blacks, whites, Cherokee, Navajo, Cajuns, Hispanics, etc, etc, amen. No man is an island.
What Adelson does with his casinos and Buffett does with his stocks, affects more than themselves and their families. What BP does with their drills and Monsanto with their chemicals, concerns me and mine. I want We the People looking out for my interests and those of my posterity, not a bunch of rich businessmen.
When We the People make decisions that displease us, We the People can raise Cain to get those things changed through our republican processes. We have virtually no control over the Koches and Soroses unless We the People assert some limits on 'em.


Sam Burnham
Washington hasn't been "We the People" in a long, long time. Since that time we've seen Both parties enjoy the power of control of both the White House & Congress. And the promises are still broken by both.
And with 50 states having the ability to govern returned to them (closer to home, where the founding fathers put it) we'd actually have a much greater America, not less. Just the improvements that could be made to education by the removal of the federal govt from it would be a great start.


Raymond Atkins
Government service should be determined by lottery and limited to one term. If you're drafted, you go.


Sam Burnham
That's not a bad idea. Pay them like soldiers. Treat them like soldiers. They won't stay long then.


Raymond Atkins
Then all the people with money will be finding a way to avoid going...


Sam Burnham
And succeeding in doing so.


Laurie Craw
Sam Burnham, what you say sounds sensible. Take away government's power and the billionaires will have no reason to spend their money to influence our government. "Small government" sounds great until you remember a little history. Capitalism has many benefits but its natural evolution is concentration of wealth and concentration of power in monopolies. Energy monopolies. Transportation and communication monopolies. Banking monopolies. Healthcare monopolies. Food and water monopolies. The way to make the greatest wealth is not to compete but to eliminate the competition. And where does that leave us little guys? Without "big government," it leaves us at the mercy of a handful of megacorporations not only for our livelihoods but for everything we need to live. And BTW, those even-richer, unregulated billionaires would STILL control what's left of our "small government." In short, shrinking and weakening government would not expand individual freedom in any meaningful way but it would free the billionaires to take more control of our lives.


Sam Burnham
Well, since humongous government has done such a fine job of preventing monopolies, mega corporations and crooked billionaires, I guess I'll concede my argument.


Terry Lewis
Good point that it would free billionaires to take more control of our lives. But, OH how I would rather the billionaires control my life than the government!!! There are laws to protect me from billionaires but not the government!!! We need strong leadership at any organization or govt. A little common sense helps. Looking at Obama who said the Super Bowl would be close and who laughed at Romney who mentioned the power of Russia and whose experience was being a lawyer for Acorn and social activist. We need a Reagan who played all the different parts of leaders as an actor and gained a lot of insight! lol


Terrell Shaw
Sam, government does help rein in monopolies, corrupt corporations and corporate leaders, though Republicans have lessened our ability to do that over the last 30 years. Terry, I am just flabbergasted that anyone would rather be governed by billionaires than by our republican government. That is downright scary.


Sam Burnham
It's just hard for me to believe that either of these parties is less responsible than the other. History has shown time and again they only pad their own pockets on our efforts.


Terrell Shaw
Then vote 'em out. Democracy is a very bad form of govt but it beats all the rest. There will always be ne'er-do-wells, crooks, cowards, etc. But there will also always be statesfolk, thinkers, good guys.


Terry Lewis
Terrell, my point was about what Laurie said...."shrinking govt. would free billionaires to take more control of our lives". Billionaires taking control of my life is like an alien from Mars doing the same! the only one that controls me is my wife. lol. As I said, we have laws to protect us from unethical, criminalistic type persons. But, a government can have the power to control your life in many ways.


Terrell Shaw
Only by the will of the people, who should use the their government to balance six goals: better govt, justice, peace at home, defense from enemies, general welfare, and liberty.


Laurie Craw
Instead of talking in abstractions, let's talk about HOW government controls our lives and HOW big business controls our lives, with concrete examples. And I'm talking about how we LIVE our lives, day in, day out. Government, that is, the laws created by our elected representatives in government and enforced by the agencies those representatives also created, tells me I can't do a lot of things but I honestly can't remember wanting to do something the government told me I couldn't do, except get into a national park campground after dark one time. If I were a male and got drafted to fight a war I didn't believe was moral or necessary for national defense, I'd definitely have a problem with "big government" as many young men did in the Vietnam era. 

But here's how big corporations (and small businesses) have kept me from doing things I DID want to do. Back in the "old days" before "big government" passed a law or two, I wanted to get a credit card in my own name to establish my credit but the banks said I couldn't because I was a married woman. I also wanted to take a one-month leave from my job when our first child was born, but my employer said I had to return to work as soon as my doctor said I was recovered from childbirth (that is, no longer "sick" under their sick leave policy) or lose my job. My husband and I were evicted from our rental apartment when our baby was born and it was perfectly legal for landlords to refuse to rent to adults with small children. More recently, I wanted to buy our diabetic son some health insurance to help pay for his life-saving insulin and other medicines but NO insurance company would sell him any. 

In all these examples from my real life, "big government" stepped in and made laws to enable me to do things I wanted to do, things that were very important to me. So these are my examples. Let's hear examples of how government has prevented you from doing something important to you.


 

Gleaning Facebook: Yard Flowers


Jonquils, daffodils, and hyacinths from our yard.


David Marlin Rains
pastedGraphic.png


YOUTUBE.COM

"The Calla Lilies are in Bloom Again"

"The Calla Lilies are in Bloom Again"


Ruth Baird Shaw
My wonderful son, Terry brought a vase of jonquils, daffodils, and hyacinths over to me Sunday afternoon!


 

Azalea Storytelling Festival 2014 (PART 1)



If you are in comfortable driving distance of LaGrange Georgia tomorrow (Sunday, March 9, 2014), even though it’s time-change morning, come over to the Callaway Theater on the LaGrange College campus for the FREE storytelling finale of the annual Azalea Storytelling Festival --- 9:30 a.m. till noon with a short break in the middle.

The tellers this year are a very balanced group of entirely unbalanced personalities: the irrepressible Bill Harley (my kids grew up on Bill Harley tapes!), the dead-pan Tennessee bad-boy Michael Reno Harrell, the unhinged and earnest Megan Hicks, and that Texas Tornado Barbara McBride-Smith.

Six hours of tales and tunes. We have had us a day!


Emcee Carol Cain brought on Barbara first. She opened with her version of the tale of the poor seamtress who lost a leather thimble and later a husband in the river, and her interaction with the magic fish who came to her rescue. In the end she had the original thimble, plus silver and gold ones, and ... a George Clooney replacement for the old husband!

“If a woman lies,” says Barb, “It’s for a good and honest reason and benefits all around.”


Her Mama saved stuff. Why? “The Depression.” says Barbara. So the Mcbride-Smiths are still re-using Christmas wrapping paper from the sixties. “Lord love a duck! I’m becoming my mother.”

Megan Hicks told her fractured fairy tales. The fisherman who hated fish made a bargain with the devil, but his kindness to a fish got him some help when Satan came for the payment. 

DAVEY HATED FISH


“My son was born,” declares Megan, “and I was thrown into a blender.” And her Christmas cards became Groundhog Day cards... a tradition she has kept since. So when she retells “The Fisherman and His Wife” there’s a very practical groundhog in place of the usual purveyor of magic.


Michael Reno Harrell opens each set with a low-key “Hey.” Reaching down to plug up his guitar, Michael asserts, “I’m to the point when I bend over to tie my shoes I look around to see if there’s anything else I ought to do while I’m down there.”

When he went ot the Saturday movies, he emerged after four hours of Westerns “as blind as a cave fish.” He loved to stop by the Greyhound station on the way home to buy a nickle “Good Time” candy bar from the machine there. His love for the candy bar led him, as a ten-year-old, to take entirely the wrong idea from a scrawled “For a Good Time...” bit of graffiti. Later the Greyhound took him away from his Mama and to his first bout of homesickness. And then to Chicago where he discovered new music. From all that he composed a song that began, “There used to be a Greyhound station…”.

GREYHOUND

Michael’s song brought a song he’d never sung in public to Bill Harley’s mind. One line of it: “It’s the same road takes me from you that brings me back again.”

Bill followed that with the story of his love, as a kid, for Robert W. Service’s poems. Especially “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. That’s a love I had as a ten-year-old myself. He told the story of the poem and recited a little. Then he recited his own “Dirty Joe” ballad with similar rhyme scheme. This is one we Harley fans have heard before, but never tire of. 

DIRTY JOE


Bill finished up with another of my favorites, his autobiographical story and song “My Father Played The Phonograph.”



Well that is just a taste of justr the first of three sessions today.

More later.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: Newt



Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) a subspecies of the Eastern Newt. This a common newt of the eastern US and the newest occupant at Arrowhead Environmental Education Center.


Comments:

Sarah Anne
does it normally have a bigger abdomen or is s/he with child/eggs?


Terrell Shaw
I wondered the same thing. I don't remember it looking this way in the tank. Maybe it's just the way it is being held. I'll take a good look at it again on Monday.


Sarah Anne
maybe its not her good side. lol


Bob Doster
Any relation to the Gringrich newt?

Saturday, March 01, 2014

Gleaning Facebook: Giving Up Stuff

Giving-up stuff can enrich us. Self-denial can be a way toward self-fulfillment.
Lent is an opportunity.
For the last several years I have tried during Lent to drag myself back from the routine, practically unconscious, living, that we all gravitate toward if we allow it, and strive toward a more aware, rich life. Things distract us from Love. And Love is the only thing worth living for. Love demands some degree of immediate self-denial (though you could argue that that self-denial is actually done for long-term selfish intent.)
Like everyone else, I have my doubts. I am not a person who has absolute "Blessed Assurance" of every single theological tenant of my church. But I am assured, at least, of the basic truth that Love is good. And according to I John 4:8 we can go so far as to take one of the "o"s from "good": "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." And along the way I have made the decision to try to live according to that assurance. (I fall far short of my goal.)
Lent is a time for me to consciously re-up by giving-up some stuff -- physical, behavioral, or both.
This link has some good info about Lent and some ways to observe it. Click on the picture below: