Euro Christmas Battle

 

Which nativity* is better?

My mom's brightly colored German style?

Or the Italian faux-wood muted style we bought in adulthood?

I may be of German descent, but I like the Italian nativity better!

*Wise Men to come later.  We celebrate their coming on Epiphany, January 6th, so I put them out around New Years.  We've acquired 6 for our Italian set. Since the Bible only numbers the gifts and not the men, we put them all out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

More Ducal Branding

     The related post of this date (take a look) suggested some ways King Charles' second son could use his branding to set off in a new life direction.  Might we suggest some more?

Spare Bowling Alley Chains

          We all know spares are not as desirable as strikes in bowling.  Strikes come in the 1st part of the frame, spares come in the 2nd.  Spare Bowling Alleys give you the space to nurse your bad feelings towards self and others for getting spares, not strikes.  And if you're a loser who can't even get a spare, we are here to remind you we don't really have time for you-- you're not important to anyone's story.  Spare Bowling Alleys will impress that point upon you.  Only those who are stuck getting Spares, not strikes, are allowed to nurse their bad feelings about their bowling lives.

Harry's Spare Parts

     Prince Harry expressed his opinion that his parents had him primarily as a backup to his brother, even to provide spare body parts if his brother needed them.  Perfect tie-in for this business.  Instead of your tired old NAPA, O'Reilly, AutoZone, etc., buy parts that weren't needed for another car!  A few steps above "junk" and wrecking yards, but you'll still walk away knowing that these parts were never really loved as much as the originals. 

     (Once again, it is not right to be cruel nor hateful to Harry.  I have some sympathy for him, just not in the ways he demands it.  There is a certain ridiculousness to much of what he says.  Left to stand, this reinforces some of the worst trends in society.  As before, please do not assume what my actual mindset is.  Look at my blog carefully before assuming.  If someone stumbles upon this little blog, assumes things wrongly and leaves comments, I will respond strongly with verifiable information, not feelings or conspiracies. Thank you.)

#royalfamily

Growing Up?

 

The best parts of adulthood are the parts of childhood that you can sensibly incorporate.  --Marie Byars

Happy Father's Day!

 

"I am your father."  --Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back

"No, Buzz, I am your father."  --Zurg to [a] Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2

"I and My Father are One [substance]." --Jesus Christ in John 10:30  

"Every father should remember that someday his son will follow his example, not his advice."  --Charles Kettering    

"Father!-- To God Himself, we cannot give a holier name."  --William Wordsworth  

"It is easier to build strong children then to repair broken men."  --Fredrick Douglass 

"Fathers, like mothers, are not born.  Men grow into fathers, and fathering is a very important stage in their development."  --David Gottesman  

"Having children is a lot like living in a frat house. Nobody sleeps, everything's broken, and there's a lot of throwing up."  --Ray Romano  

Happy Mother's Day!

This month, I'm putting in part of a poem by English Jesuit poet, Gerard Manly Hopkins.  I am not putting in on my other blog because, while it's got nature in it and expresses a form of Christianity, it has many specifically Roman Catholic ideas I do not agree with.  Hope you enjoy it!

The May Magnificat* 

May is Mary’s month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why :

Her feasts follow reason,

Dated due to season—**

Candlemas, Lady Day ;

But the Lady Month, May,**

Why fasten that upon her,

With a feasting in her honour ?

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together ;

Star-eyed strawberry-breasted

Throstle*** above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue*** eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within ;

And bird and blossom swell

In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathizing

With that world of good

Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored

Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this :

Spring’s universal bliss

Much, had much to say

To offering Mary May.

This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth

To remember and exultation

In God who was her salvation.  --Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, 1844-1889 *The "Magnificat" is a name given to Mary's song from Luke chapter 1. She sang it when the angel told her she was going to become the mother of the Savior.  It starts out, "My soul magnfies [makes great, praises] the Lord..." **There are other feast days honoring Mary.  The Roman Catholic Church has set May aside as a month to honor her since the17th century.  Pope Francis recently declared the Monday after Pentecost to be a feast day for her, since she seems to have been present at the coming of the Holy Spirit.  In 2021, it falls on May 21st.  A saints day for her that some Protestants also recognize is August 15th;  Catholics take this as the commemoration of her being taken up alive into heaven.  The Annunciation, marking of when the angel Gabriel came and announced her divine pregnancy is in March (nine months before Christmas).  Candlemas is February 2nd and celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, coinciding with the end of forced ceremonial confinement that a Jewish woman had for 40 days after the birth of a child. He seems to be saying that nature gives many signs that this month honors Mary.  Interestingly, though the US and many other countries celebrate Mother's Day in May, the UK celebrates it in late March.   ***Throstle:  old-fasioned word for "thrush" ****Many birds' eggs are blue.  Blue was chosen as a symbolic color for Mary, representing faithfulness and purity.  This is saying, as the eggs warm and nurture life inside, Mary did this as Jesus grew within her.

Pro-Life Bona Fides

Being pro-life, really being pro-life, means realizing you wanted these lives in the world when you see disagreeable toddlers in the grocery store or are seated near crying children on a plane.  Oh, and blaming it on bad parenting (as in "I'm pro-life, and the mother should definitely have had these children, but they're only being awful because she's a bad parent") doesn't count.  It also may not be true. 

Being pro-life isn't easy for anyone.  It's not easy for the mother who bore children at times that weren't convenient for her. But it's also not easy on the rest of society.  If you're Christian and pro-life, it doesn't fit the full Biblical ethic to make it solely "that woman's problem."  Be pro-life in the best sense of the word, and embrace the messiness that comes from children being in the world!

Hard But Worth It

An old sketch of mine.

Integrity is not easy. But it's important, and it's worth it.

More Corny Jokes

🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽

What did the mommy rope say to the baby rope?
"Don't be knotty."

How do you make an orange giggle?
Tickle its navel.   🍊

What kind of candy is never on time?
Choco-late.  🍬

What do you get when you cross an elephant with Darth Vader?
An ele-vader.   🐘 👐👥

What has four legs, one head, but only one foot?
A bed. 🌙🌃


What are a storm's undergarments?
Thunder wear.  ☂⛆


Why was the broom late for work?
It over swept.

Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants?
In case he got a hole-in-one.   🏆
Why did the banana wear sunscreen at the beach?
It didn't want to peel.  🍌

What do you call a dentist who cleans alligator teeth?
Crazy!!!  🐊

Corny Jokes

 🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽

Why do you eat sausage on February 2nd?
Because it's "ground hog."🐷🐷🐷🐹🐹🐹

What's a baby's motto?
If at first you don't succeed, cry, cry again.

What kind of craft does a pine tree do?
Needlepoint!   😝

What did the tomato say to the mushroom?
"You look like a fungi [fun guy]."

Where does the trombone stay off the merry-go-round?
Because it likes the slide.   🎵🎵🎵


Why aren't the trumpets on the slide?
Because they like to swing.  🎺🎺🎺 

Why don't Dalmatians like baths? 
They don't like being spotless.

Why did the hamburger quit answering questions?
If felt like it was being grilled.  🍔🍔


What did the cake say to the knife?
"You want a piece of me?"

What's the cleanest section in the choir?
The soap-ranos.   🎶🎶🎶

On a stoplight, red means "stop" and green means "go."
When does red mean "go" and green mean "stop"?
On a watermelon!  🍉🍉🍉😏

Epiphany Day & Carnival Season

Homemade "King Cake" for Epiphany Day, January 6th, the kick-off of Carnival Season.  Purple for Justice, Green for Faith, Gold for Power. Named for the presumed Three Kings (really, an unknown number of Magi, or "seers").  A plastic Baby Jesus is put inside, and whoever gets Him brings the next King Cake.

Short Rhyme

Big Thought

Never ignore 
Someone's cri de coeur.*    ---Marie Byars  

*"Cry of the heart"

Route 66 Tour

Route 66, where it splits off from I-40 in northwest Arizona

Wild Burros in Oatman

Colorado River, Grand Canyon

Different than in National Park

Permit to drive down (!)

Knock Yourself Out

(Knock-Knock Jokes to Make You Groan)

1: Knock-Knock.
2: Who's there?
1: Owl say.
2: Owl say who?
1: You're right, they do!

1: Knock-Knock.

2: Who's there?

1: Pencil.
2: Pencil who?
1: Never mind; it's pointless.

1: Knock-Knock.

2: Who's there?

1: Kanga.
2: Kanga who?
1: No...Kangaroo!

******************

How to end a Knock-Knock joke:

1: Knock-Knock.
2: It's open!

My Son's "Christmas" Humor

Alphabet Soup

Apparently, I'm friends with 25 letters of the alphabet.  I don't know "why"....  😉 
---Anonymous

October in Northern Arizona

The Pitfalls of Libertarianism

(aka:  "The United States of Koch Brothers")

(1)  This has never been a Libertarian country.  No matter what libertarians try to say about the early days and the Founding Fathers, it never was.  

(2)  Even if it had a bit more of a Libertarian bent in the early decades, that would no longer work, practically, in today's society. Things have changed. At the time of our founding, we were much more rural.  And if people ran out of space or wanted second chances or wanted to try to "get ahead", they often moved further west, where they could homestead.  (I'm not going to argue the ethics here about whether they should have taken land from Native Americans.  I'm only presenting what happened.)

(3)  When we were more rural, there was less social unrest. And those who were still rural could insulate themselves from a lot of it.  Now that we're living on top of each other in cities and sizeable towns, we can't do that.  If only for self-interest, there has to be some sort of safety net.  The alternative is to spend a lot more on law enforcement and incarceration.

(This is not to argue to liberal opposite that we must try to equalize income.  That would be socialism.  Of course, there are leaders on the Right that want to talk about any increase on taxes on the 1% for the public good as "socialism."  I know this for a fact because I went to see my congressman, Representative Trent Franks, in person [knowing it was probably a lost cause but doing so, anyway] armed with facts, and he tried bringing up the "s" word.  I shot that down... there was a long time that the top earners paid higher taxes in the 20th Century. And they lived through it... quite well, in fact.)

(4)  The Koch Brothers, when you read their stuff thoroughly, would truly like to work their way down to a 0% tax rate.  Think about that, if it really happens.  No public roads, no public libraries, no student loans, no public education, no consistency from one state to another.  Talk about your roving hoards in that scenario...

(5)  Kansas was so bankrupt from trying the Koch Brothers-Laffer [see above post]-Grover Norquist-type supply-side tax reductions that some schools couldn't even finish the 2016/2017 school year.  Yeah, increasing an under-educated, under-paid portion of society is always a good thing.... especially now that we live on top of each other!

(6)  Maybe some of the uber-wealthy are planning to build compounds to protect themselves from the social unrest.  However, when there's less money from the middle class being spent on the stuff that rich people's corporations put out, it's going to hit them, too. Because all this WILL shrink the middle class, or at least its buying power.  See the many links to economics in this blog.

(7)  Read the new book The CEO Pay Machine:  How It Trashes America and How to Stop It, by Steven Clifford, himself a former CEO.  Trust me, just read it.

(8)  The Koch Brothers are really Libertarians, trying to worm their way into the GOP because Libertarianism never got anyone elected.  (In fact, one of them was once on the Libertarian ticket as a vice presidential candidate.)  They really aren't social conservative; they're just happy to use the social conservatives to get their way.  (They'll pose as Centrists when it works for them, because Libertarians tend to avoid the Culture Wars by expressing "live and let live" ideas.)

As Libertarians, they are pro-choice.  (Or as many social conservatives would phrase it, they're "pro-abortion.")  In my more cynical moments, I wonder if their grand scheme is to offer, and even promote, abortion for the poorer in society so no one would have to pay for services for them.  (A return to Margaret Sanger's "eugenics"??)  

(9)  The Koch Brothers, who are late 70s (one pushing 80) will probably not be around to see all the havoc they've promoted, if their views hold sway.    But WE will all live with it.... including my son, whom I'm wondering if there will even be a decent student loan program for him to go to college on.

(10)  TEDDY ROOSEVELT STYLE REPUBLICANISM.  Balance between what business/labor/environmental concerns!!!!!  That should be more of a common goal as Americans.

Statues of Presidents, downtown Rapid City, SD, near Mount Rushmore

A Very Grand Canyon

There may be larger canyons around the world, but ours is very grand.  The kids & I recently went to the less-travelled North Rim, which is higher in elevation.

We also saw Roosevelt Point on the North Rim:

Here's a picture from October, 2010, when I took them to the South Rim:

(Both times, my husband had either work or study obligations.  But he & I went to the South Rim a few years ago for our wedding anniversary.)

Welsh Wisdom

"Living well is the best revenge."

"One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters."

"He that is not handsome at 20, not strong at 30, nor rich at 40, nor wise at 50, will never be handsome, strong, rich or wise."
      ---George Herbert, Welsh; Anglican Priest (1593-1633)  

Service with Dignity

There's a lot of talk right now about whether rescinding trade deals really helps or hurts workers.

There's actually another discussion we should be having:  how can we realistically make a service-based industry a better thing for workers?  For one thing, there's no guarantee how many substantial manufacturing jobs we can bring back home.  Secondly, though outsourcing was a big part of the problem, many jobs were replaced by automation/computerization.

It's helpful to look at other examples.  While we cannot be exactly like other countries, we can learn from them.  In Germany, about 71% of the workforce is in service jobs.  Yet,  having a job like this is not taken as a mark of "shame."  In fact, if you see German wait-servers at work, you can see they treat it as a real profession.  (Unfortunately, Germany has resorted to a trickle-down economics type plan. They now have more workers needing food pantries to get by.)

Although politicians can't change our behavior directly, they do seem to exercise outsized influence on people.  Maybe if they came out and talked about our "nameless, faceless" service industry workers, if they reminded everyone of the respect that McDonald's and Wal-Mart workers should have, maybe that would make a difference.

And, once again, dumping supply-side economics would be a good thing.  There are many articles coming out where a few radical, open thinkers in the "1%" are saying the same thing.  They value a stable society and argue that better wages are part of this.  They admit that huge windfalls for the wealthy don't "trickle down."  They remind their audiences that the wealthy need middle-class customers to buy their stuff.  They remind others that, if the middle class isn't stretched so thin time-wise, they can volunteer in ways to make the world a better place.

Some of these thinkers admit where the windfall to the rich goes:  it goes to buying up stock in their own companies.  This artificially raises the price of stock, which gives the CEOs, who get part of their income off their stocks, more money.  One of these enlightened one-percenters pointed out that every Wal-Mart employee could have gotten a raise of over $4000 with the money Wal-Mart spent to buy up  and inflate its own stock.  Finally, Wal-Mart listened, and there have been some pay raises there. Wal-Mart must hustle more to compete with other corporations.  But some consumers are rewarding Wal-Mart by using their services more since they've given raises.