As you’ll recall, last month a 62-foot statue of Jesus burned down after a lightning strike. It happens that this monstrosity is right along the highway I take from the airport when I visit my family in Ohio, so I got to see the skeletal remains of TD Jesus when I was there last week. I was curious about the church’s plans– perhaps after the fire, they’d had an epiphany that there are more worthy uses of $250,000 than reconstructing hideous flammable statuary? Ha! Of course not. Pastor Darlene Bishop brushed off such suggestions, saying that Solid...
Continue reading...Life
No Hipsters in China, Part 2
Via The New Yorker. Goo: Somewhere over the Pacific, Pabst Blue Ribbon began putting on airs. That reliably blue-collar Milwaukee lager, later adopted by unbearable hipsters on the coasts, has turned up in China. And P.B.R., best known in the U.S. for being the cheapest beer on the grocery-store shelf, has—like so many expatriates before it—taken the move as an opportunity to change its image. For a beer, that appears to involve an elegant glass bottle and a fantastically ridiculous price tag. One bottle: forty-four dollars.
Continue reading...Monday Gripe
Story time! I live in a basement apartment. It can be kind of cave-like, but mostly it’s fine, and stays cool in the summer, which has been a big plus given the recent heat. I thought the big downside was the lack of windows, but then last week the apartment flooded, and that was maybe worse. Luckily, I got home in time to unclog the drain outside the back door, and although there was an inch or so of water in the hallway by that time, my roommate and I got it cleaned up and there was...
Continue reading...Juice
Hi internet friends, Man, jet lag sucks. So does not being in California. Being close to both ocean and mountains is just good for my soul, and conversely, arriving at BWI to 100 degree heat plus the usual swampy humidity is not. Anyway, I didn’t keep up so well with the news while I was gone, so rather than snarky commentary, I’ll just share this personal anecdote: Although I am 24, almost 25, I’m often told I look younger. Once, I was in the mall with my mom and we ran into an acquaintance of hers, and...
Continue reading...This Is the Life I Chose or Rather the Life That Chose Me
As this posts, I’ll be at graduation. I’ll be there with them. I’ll applaud and I’ll cheer. It’ll be one of the moments that makes the year worthwhile. One of my favorite kids will leave school, be on his own. I’ll feel almost good about it and I’ll wish him well. In some ways, I’ll be glad he’s finally rid of school, rid of feeling like a kid, rid of childish bullshit he’s had to put up with for the last few years. But mostly, I’ll be scared to death. One of my kids, a a kid...
Continue reading...Yes, this is a Lego printer.
From the YouTube description: “Lego felt tip 110” printer connected to an Apple Mac. This is not a kit you can buy and does not use mindstorms. I designed/built/coded it all from scratch including analog motor electronics, sensors and printer driver, the USB interface uses a “wiring” board.”
Continue reading...Adventures in Hypocrisy
For your daily dose of schadenfraude… If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth watching this video of Indiana Rep. Mark “Morally and Physically Repellent” Souder, the family values-touting Republican who just announced his resignation after admitting his affair with a staffer. In it, the woman with whom he was cheating on his wife interviews Souder about his passionate support for abstinence education. Ha. Real glad he was doing his best to keep teens from engaging in sex outside of the sacred bonds of marriage. The video, which up until yesterday was featured on Souder’s website but...
Continue reading...Baking Case File 1: Cinnamon-Chocolate Cookie Strips
When I was starting college, my dad gave me a cookbook as a present. It is Betty Crocker’s Quick & Easy Cookbook: 30 minutes or less to dinner every night. I was appreciative but skeptical. For one thing, my parents’ cookbook shelf is full of Moosewood tomes, full of lovely vegetarian dishes by the lovely Molly Katzen, who writes things like “Pile up everything in a provocative yet compelling arrangement” in the margins of the recipes. Whereas Betty Crocker seemed too… old-fashioned? Midwestern? Full of recipes like “Cheesy tuna broccoli skillet casserole”? Yes, all that. So I...
Continue reading...Things I Drink and So Should You: The Mint Julep
There’s a woman in my church who wears a proper church crown. I call it that because it deserves the name. It’s a royal blue, straw hat with plastic sunflowers emanating from the brim. She wears it proud, as each year of the 93 she’s been alive has earned her the right to wear it, and nothing could take that crown from her head. I wish we lived in an era where it were not only appropriate but fashionable for women to wear church crowns. Hell, as a pastor, I wish it were fashionable for women to...
Continue reading...National Zoo's panda Mei Xiang not pregnant
It’s official: Mei Xhiang, the lady panda currently in residence at the National Zoo in D.C., is not pregnant. Pandas are notoriously difficult to inseminate and especially more difficult to test for pregnancy, and it was hoped that Mei Xhiang’s artificial insemination in January may have taken hold. But, sadly, it was (yet another) false alarm. Mei Xiang and her partner, Tian Tian are on a ten-year loan from China, and in that time, Mei Xhiang has given birth to one cub, Tai Shan, who has returned to China. The two are expected to be returned to...
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