Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Sweet Jesus

Chocolate Jesus Show Canceled – washingtonpost.com
The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate, and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.

Gee, it’s not too often I write a blog that fits in both the “religion” and the “food” categories.

This “artwork” was supposed to be showing during Easter week. Roman Catholics, who are probably more often especially attached to the image of the “Corpus” were outraged. The show has been cancelled. The director of the gallery has resigned in protest.

Those are the basic facts of the story. A person has to wonder, though, what was the impetus behind scheduling this show for Easter week. At first, I couldn’t think of anything other than that the intent was to offend. (And, because I’m from Minnesota, I’m usually against intentionally offending people.) I gave it a little more consideration, though, and I can indeed see a legitimate artistic reason for the creation of a chocolate Jesus. Perhaps the artist’s intent was to contrast the secular Easter celebration (bunny, candy) with the religious holiday (horrible death, resurrection).

Perhaps.

If that’s the case, though, I think it would have been MUCH more interesting to dress an Easter Bunny up in a loincloth, slap a crown of thorns on its head, and nail it to a cross. Not a real bunny, for Pete’s sake! What kind of person do you think I am? A pretend bunny. Maybe pink.

This all reminds me of a pink Easter Bunny I once had — that I liked far too much to ever nail to a cross.

My sister, a wonderfully crafty person even as a child, made the bunny for me. It was sewn from pink cotton fabric and had long floppy ears. The night before Easter, she put bunny “footprints” down on the floor using powder of some kind so, when I got up in the morning, I just had to follow the footprints to my Easter basket and my new bunny. I must have been pretty young when she did that for me because I don’t remember any of the details except that. I really liked that bunny and I wonder whatever happened to it. I suspect I must have just loved it until it fell apart.

My New Car

My car was 13 years old and dying. So, I’ve got a new car now — a Subaru Impreza. We love Subaru cars. Mark’s car is a Subaru Forester. Subarus have all-wheel drive, you know. It makes them very much fun to drive because when you turn the wheel, the car actually goes where you want it to! I have to say, the Impreza is even more fun to drive than the Forester, though, because it’s smaller. It’s quite zippy. And it’s black — like the Bat Mobile.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 45

What’s happening now…. In case you were interested.

The Achaeans and the Trojans are still fighting and it’s not looking so good for the Trojans. Hector, brother of Paris and son of King Priam, has challenged the Achaeans to hand-to-hand combat against their best guy. Apparently, Hector is one bad-assed fighting man. Initially, Menelaus himself wants to fight Hector but Agamemnon and others persuade him not to do it because they know Hector would beat him. Instead, the best of the Achaeans draw lots for the honor and Ajax wins.

Next up, the battle of the century between Hector and Ajax. Let’s get ready to rumble!

Picasa Web Albums – Garden in July 2005

Besides “Slide”, the service that provided the web album just below this (the “Walk Around The Neighborhood” one), I’ve also been fooling around a little with Google’s Picasa service. I have to admit that Picasa is more pleasant to use in some ways, BUT I’d really prefer to embed the slide show right into my web page like I can do with Slide. What do you all think? Slide or Picasa?

Garden in July of 2005

I think there’s no contest. It’s just a hassle to have to go to an entirely new web page and THEN click on “slideshow’ in order to see these pictures as a slide show! Hm…

A Walk Around The Neighborhood

It’s definitely spring here in Fairfax. Today I took a walk around the neighborhood with my camera.

Saudi King Cancels Dinner

Jim Hoagland – Bush’s Royal Trouble – washingtonpost.com
President Bush enjoys hosting formal state dinners about as much as having a root canal. Or proposing tax increases. So his decision to schedule a mid-April White House gala for Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah signified the president’s high regard for an Arab monarch who is also a Bush family friend.

Now the White House ponders what Abdullah’s sudden and sparsely explained cancellation of the dinner signifies. Nothing good — especially for Condoleezza Rice’s most important Middle East initiatives — is the clearest available answer.

Well… when you look down and realize you’ve stepped in a pile of camel dung, it’s only a fool who doesn’t scrape it off his shoe. The only thing that’s really surprising is how long it took King Abdullah to realize where the stink was coming from. But then, there’s money to be made in manure, too, and if the Saud family knows anything at all — it’s how to make money.

Actually, I think Saudi Arabia is a fine example of how things ought to be run in the Middle East. In a place where tribal and religious loyalties are stronger than national ties, it only makes sense to have a strong authoritarian monarchy in place. Folks, I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it again: Democracy doesn’t work everywhere and it certainly won’t work in that part of the world.

Here’s how I see it. If I were in charge of Saudi Arabia, I’d be distancing myself from the US. I’d be trying to build friendly relationships with my neighbors. I’d be thinking, “Hey! Why should we remain the lapdogs of the Americans? We’ve got the oil. We’ve got the power. Wouldn’t it make a whole lot more sense to set ourselves up as a sort of “wise older brother” in the Middle East?”

Why, yes! It would make a whole lot more sense. And that appears to be exactly what they’re trying to do.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 43

“My good brother,” answered Hector, “you fight bravely, and no man with any justice can make light of your doings in battle. But you are careless and wilfully remiss. It grieves me to the heart to hear the ill that the Trojans speak about you, for they have suffered much on your account. Let us be going, and we will make things right hereafter, should Jove vouchsafe us to set the cup of our deliverance before ever-living gods of heaven in our own homes, when we have chased the Achaeans from Troy.”

What really grabbed my attention in this little section of The Iliad is the expression “the cup of our deliverance”. That’s certainly something I’ve heard before in Christian religious rites, but — of course — The Iliad was written long before Christianity came on the scene. So I wonder: does the Greek phrase really translate as “cup of our deliverance”? Or was the person who translated this into English influenced by his own familiarity with the Christian reference?

We know the early Christians were influenced in many ways by Greek culture so it’s entirely possible “the cup of our deliverance” is originally a Greek idea. What does it mean, though? What exactly is Homer referring to here? I haven’t been able to find anything online to explain specifically what he would have meant by this. We do know that the Greeks used wine in their worship ceremonies. I’m supposing that’s the sort of thing he’s talking about.

At any rate, I just find it really interesting when I see the influence of the ancient Greeks in phrases and ideas still common today.

Smithsonian Head Replaced

Smithsonian Head Replaced Amid Criticism – washingtonpost.com
Small submitted his resignation on Saturday. The regents met on Sunday and accepted it.

“There were some regrets” among the regents, Sant said, “but we had to weigh that against the contrary current feeling among some in the community about Secretary Small. . . . It would be hard to ignore those when things were swirling around you.”

Sure, Small brought a lot of money to the Smithsonian Institution, but still… $160,000 to redecorate his office? $273,000 for “housekeeping services” for the six years he used his home to host Smithsonian functions? That’s over $40,000 a year! What kinds of parties was he throwing for the Smithsonian that it cost $40,000 per year to clean up after them??

The Smithsonian museums are really a national treasure. That’s what makes this blatant money grab by Lawrence M. Smith all the more offensive. It’s like finding out that some con man has ripped off your grandparents — know what I mean?

Tusker

This afternoon’s beer offering is another that’s not part of the Washington Post’s Beer Madness competition. It just looked interesting to me and — honestly — how could anyone resist a beer called “Tusker” brewed by the East African Breweries Ltd? Certainly, I couldn’t.

So, besides having a very cool lineage, how is Tusker to…you know…drink?

In a word: Yummy!

To tell you the truth, when I first opened my bottle of Tusker and sniffed its contents I thought it smelled a little weird. It was subtle but…odd. It almost smelled slightly skunky to me. It tastes great, though! It’s almost peppery when it first hits your tongue — then it mellows into a subtle honey-like sweetness mixed with a nice spicy sort of punch. Not too much… just right. The aftertaste is likewise mild and slightly malty.

This is a really good beer!

Deer Overpopulation

In Swelling Herds, A Growing Risk – washingtonpost.com
A surge in reported cases of Lyme disease in Fairfax County has prompted an outcry from residents who say the lawns and woodlands surrounding their homes are overrun with infected ticks and the deer that carry them.

Well, if they just do what I’ve suggested in the past, this wouldn’t be such a problem anymore.

The answer, friends, is WOLVES. Wolves! Nature’s great equalizers! Not only would the introduction of several large packs of wolves into Fairfax County control the deer population, it might also take care of your annoying neighbor children — and that yappy little dog down the street!

Wolves. Bring ‘em in. Set ‘em loose. Stay out of their way!

Sure, it might freak little Suzie or Bobbie out a bit the first time they come across a wolf pack ripping into one of the other neighborhood kids, but nothing teaches a child to respect nature like seeing first hand what nature can do to you if you poke it with a stick — or if you stay out after dark.