This 'N That: the Source Edition

From life in person, you know - without that virtual part.Although much of this seems to be ordered over the internet. Which puts us back to using virtual reality to get something real in our hands. Oh well ...

iResQ and Refurbished iPods
Say you've done something like, oh, drop your iPod face down on your tile floor and the glass cracked (cracked in many pieces!). What cha gonna do? Well iResq fixes up iPods and a lot of other things too, such as computers. A new piece of glass? $39 (on sale - do that many people break the glass?) and one day turnaround. The Apple Store sells refurbished iPods for a pretty good price if it isn't worth fixing your iPod.  

UPDATE: iResq was as good as their word. I have never experienced such follow through and I now have "my precious" back. In fact, I now have sent off the famously "washed with the laundry" nano to see if their free diagnosis will find that whatever makes it randomly stop working can be fixed for not too much cash. Yes, I did it the same day that I got back my iPod. That's how good they were.

Dog Treat Warehouse
With three dogs in the house (we didn't plan to have a pack, it just happened somehow) it is no joke when I say that we were spending a fortune buying knotted rawhide dog bones. As well, we were having to scour local sources ... stores just don't offer quantity packs of dog bones all the time. These 8-10" bones are an excellent quality and much less expensive than anything in our local stores. Although where I'm going to stash this giant bag of 30 bones, well, that is a different problem.

Delicious and Wheat Free
A friend's recent discovery that she has wheat allergies sent me looking through recipe archives. I was surprised at just how many recipes are in there that are not dependent on wheat. Of course, they are purely delicious, which is why they are in there in the first place!

The Toffee House
A friend very kindly sent us some of this toffee. I never thought I'd taste toffee better than my mother's but these people did it. Highly recommended. And I like their sense of humor. This was on the little card in the tin:

This toffee came from a recipe that was handed down for generations. (Well, probably. However, we have to admit that it wasn't our family that did the handing down). It's a delicious adaptation of  recipe we found in a magazine. We'd love to impress you with tales of delivering this toffee to the Kings of England or that the Pope has some every morning, but we can't.

All of that aside, we're certain that you'll immediately fall in love wit this tempting confection.

I'll testify to that. You will.

In which we attend a seance, with creepy results!

More of The Uninvited from Forgotten Classics.

5th Commandment: part 1

Requested by some folks here, my ongoing series written for our parish bulletin, part of our occasional series covering the Ten Commandments. We now begin one that is a tough subject in our modern times. It will be a multi-part look at "you shall not kill" as you might expect. Here is part 1.

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Living our faith in the real world
The Fifth Commandment:
You shall not kill.*

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.

Matthew 5:21-22

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2258 “Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” [said Granny Weatherwax]

“It’s a lot more complicated than that…” [said Brother Oats]

“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.” [said Granny Weatherwax]

“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes…” [said Brother Oats]

“But they starts with thinking about people as things.” [said Granny Weatherwax]

Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

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The Hebrew word used in this commandment is ratsach (murder). St. Jerome’s translation of the Hebrew into Latin also used the word “murder” instead of the translation “kill” which we see in the headline above.

This distinction of “you shall not murder” instead of “you shall not kill” is a crucial one. It is what establishes the Catholic Church’s prohibition of taking innocent life. So important is this teaching that mere prohibition is not enough. We are called upon to protect, defend, and nurture life from conception to natural end. Jesus both simplified and expanded upon this teaching when giving the Sermon on the Mount as we see above in the quote from Matthew.

As straightforward as the idea of “not murdering” seems, our society is such that moral and political quagmires are opened every time it arises. Without very careful consideration of the Church’s teachings, the issues this commandment covers are likely to raise modern hackles against what are perceived to be insensitive dictates about just war, euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment, assisted suicide, stem cell research, and more.

In practically every case where someone objects to Church teachings it is through a laudable desire to express compassion and mercy. Those objections generally are concerned with the “quality-of-life.” However, the great danger of trying to judge the “quality” of another’s life is that when a life is judged to be “not worth living” then action must be taken to solve the problem. The only alternative to life is death. This is especially true as governments and institutions become involved in “life issues.”

Bureaucracies have a great tendency to group and categorize situations without taking the time to look closely at each human being involved. People become equivalent to “things.” Things are easy to dispose of.

The Church, on the other hand, has established her teachings with an eye to “sanctity-of-life.” That is to say, the Church knows life is sacred because God created and maintains it. We come from God, we live in relationship with God, and we return to Him when we die. He alone knows us well enough for judgment.

From the knowledge that life is sacred comes teachings which consistently protect all life and which have been called the “seamless garment” of the Church. The seamless garment of life is a reference from John 19:23 to the seamless robe of Jesus, which his executioners did not tear apart. This is the basis for the fact that Catholics cannot protect any life at the expense of other lives.

Clearly, we will be delving into complicated issues as we explore the Fifth Commandment and how we live our faith as modern Catholics. Different issues relating to this commandment will be examined individually in upcoming bulletin inserts

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*Ex 20:13; Cf. Deut 5:17.

Source Materials

• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Evangelium Vitae (1995 encyclical) by Pope John Paul II
• Catholic Christianity by Peter Kreeft

"Be the Monster!" But What is Being Unleashed?

Gaga, on the other hand, is advising the world to embrace the inner monster, and this is a much more daring proposition; our objectifying ourselves as sexual beings might be easier to cop to — in any age — than the admission that we each of us house "inner monsters" of ego, selfishness, rage, manipulation or superior disdain. Lady Gaga has assigned herself the role of monster's cheerleader. She says, "Be the monster! I love your monster!" What she does not say — because she cannot yet know — is where the unleashing of millions of pent-up monsters may lead.

The Anchoress at NPR is enjoyable and insightful as always. Go and read. If you enjoy it, show NPR you do ... by hitting "recommend" or leaving a comment.

Urgent Prayer Request

For a young girl who is making a decision about an unplanned pregnancy. She wants to give the baby up for adoption but is being pressured to have an abortion. Lord, move her to stand up against pressure, to make the decision to love the little life inside her, and send her the support she needs to have her baby and to thrive.

Update: no news, but I will post an update when I know it. Thank you so much for all of the prayers, comments, and personal emails ... which I have forwarded to my friend who is in touch with the situation. Keep praying...

Payton Is a Genius ... I've Always Said So

So is Christopher Guess, of course, Oh, and the U.S. Census Bureau (or whatever they're named). Simply brilliant.



Which reminds me that I read an interesting piece from The Simple Dollar the other day about what a great part time job opportunity it is to be a census worker. Take a look and if you know anyone who needs work, you might want to send them the link.

We did tune in, by accident, during the State of the Union address

I'd forgotten it was on.

It was during the two minutes where the president was saying, "Dammit, Jim, I can't do this by myself! I'm a president, not a miracle worker!"

Although he actually sounded a bit more whiny, more like Scotty sayin', "I cannae do it, Cap'n. The engines, they will nae hold!"

And he said nothing at all about the iPad.

We went on with our original viewing plan ... Futurama.

The Stories So Far: Some Books and a Show!

Some quick looks at the books I've read this year ... (you can see my current reading in the Goodreads link in the sidebar).

• High Spirits by Robertson Davies
  Can't remember where I saw this recommended but these are extremely enjoyable humorous takes on the classic English "Christmas Eve" tellings of subsequent experiences by the first Master of Massey College. Every year he experiences either a ghostly visitation or some other supernatural adventure which luckily happens in time for him to tell it on Christmas Eve. Funny without being over the top. I will probably have to investigate this author's other works after this. (#4-2010)
  
• The Night's Dark Shade: A Novel of the Cathars by Elena Maria Vidal (review copy)
  A spunky heroine, the Cathar heresy, and some swashes being buckled.  I liked this book quite a lot. Vidal managed to combine romance without immodesty, insight into how a truly Catholic girl would have responded to suddenly being confronted by a heresy, and a feel for life back in those long ago times. I especially liked the heroine's confusion over the many similarities of the Cathar heresy and true Catholicism. It is that same confusion that often hits us today when something is not quite right about the philosophy someone is espousing but we can't quite pin it down.
  
  However, this book also felt strangely incomplete in some way which I have pondered a lot, considering I enjoyed the book so much.  It finally occurred to me that this book was like a slice taken from a larger one and we weren't told enough of the whole story. This "snapshot" was so good that we want to know more about the heroine's time in the convent, more about her marriage without having just bits given to us. For reference to any who would like to know what came to mind when thinking of fully satisfying book, I give you: historical fiction-Samuel Shellabarger; romance/mystery-Jane Eyre, Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer; overall good fiction-Rumer Godden.  Also, the typesetting was gigantic. The book could easily have been 100 normal paperback pages if it had been set in a more normal size. Oh, the pain. However, despite all those things, I still liked it.
  
  Recommended for those who like a pure romance, who want to know more about the Cathar heresy, and who like historical fiction. #6
• Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People by Jeffry Pinyan
  Began reading this for a projected project to go in our bulletin per our priest's desire to begin education about the new liturgical translations. Enjoyed it quite well, but the introduction ... Heavens to Betsy, here is the reason people have editors. As far as I can tell this book is self-published and it is good. It is vouched for by the diocese of Metuchen (NJ), but I don't see a professional publisher mentioned which means no professional editor either. The intro is so deep it almost made me skip the entire book, the rest of which is NOT written at that level. Thank goodness. It is not just about the new translation, although I highly recommend it to those who are interested in the reasons for the changes. Pinyan goes deeply into how each part of the Mass is a prayer and that was really enlightening. Highly recommended. #8
  
• Space Prison by Tom Godwin
  I listened to the SciPodBooks reading of this. In many ways this is a unique science fiction book, based largely around a survival story. After pirates hijack an Earth space ship, they dump the "non essential" passengers on a planet on which it seems impossible to survive. The thought of one day attracting and overcoming the pirates keeps the survivors striving to overcome their hostile environment. An absorbing story of several generations and two centuries that is nevertheless fast-paced and interesting. #5
  
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
  How did this author do it? A story about an 11-year-old detective that is a unique blend of Sherlock Holmes, eccentric English country house murder mystery, and Nancy Drew. And it works. Fascinating and wonderful. I say that even though I pegged the murderer the first time there was an appearance. The discovery of why and how and who was entirely enjoyable despite that. (#3)
• The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton
  At the beginning of the 20th century, in detective fiction there was Sherlock Holmes and that was all. There were other fictional detectives, to be sure, but they were only bad imitations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous consulting detective. The sleuths offered by other writers would try to outdo Holmes in eccentricity and in solving crimes that were evermore contrived and convoluted.
  
  But in 1905 a book of mysteries came along that finally managed to turn the Sherlock Holmes idea on its head. The book was The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton. His detective, Rupert Grant, is a Sherlock Holmes-like private eye who investigates crimes and chases crooks with great self-assuredness in his powers of deduction. But he is always wrong. The hero of these stories is not Rupert, but his older brother, Basil Grant, a retired judge. In each case, Basil proves to Rupert hat there has been no crime and no crooks.
  
  Read the entire lecture on this book, of which the above which has been an excerpt, here. This book was a delight from beginning to end, and I'm not really a G.K. Chesterton fan. I listened to the Librivox recording which was wonderfully read by David Barnes. #7.
• Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
  A rereading of this book, prompted by the fact that I misplaced Hyperion and needed some fiction for bedtime. Perhaps should have been called MacGyver Odd. Odd tracks down a strange group of villains who are obsessed with the supernatural and have kidnapped a friend of his in order to make Odd show them ghosts. Although Odd can see ghosts he can't make them manifest to others so this is something of a problem. Practically the entire book takes place in an isolated, burned out casino and Odd spends the entire book figuring out ways to outwit them and rescue his friend. Rereading this made me notice the many small points about faith that Koontz muses about and that added value to the already enjoyable story. #9
  

And now for the show!

District Nine
Most people have probably heard the premise of this movie, which I found fascinating. A huge alien ship suddenly shows up over Johannesburg, South Africa but nothing happens. When the people finally muster the nerve to investigate they find that the aliens aboard are sick and dying because they are simply workers who have been left to die when their leaders ran away. The aliens, called "prawn" are housed in a government camp (District Nine) which soon deteriorates to a ghetto. Shot to look like a documentary, the movie takes place many years later, following a middle manager who has been promoted to lead the effort to move the aliens to a new camp, District Ten, further away from the city. Everyone being interviewed keeps mentioning "before the event" and "before things went wrong" so we are prepared for things to go downhill in some way for the poor fellow. However, I never would have predicted how this manager is caught up in the storyline and the discoveries of the movie.

It is obviously a movie about racism and bigotry, about how we treat the "other," and how the "other" is not as different from us as we would like to think. However, I was very interested by the types of details that were included. For example, the humans and aliens couldn't speak each other's languages but the could definitely understand each other. As we watch this hapless fellow I began to dislike him more and more which was a very odd feeling to have about the movie's protagonist. (I'm trying to write this without giving much away...) However, Hannah said that she found it interesting because she thought that his actions were actually one of the most realistic things about the movie ... that he was acting as a normal human would when caught up in events that were far beyond him. This was an intriguing thought for me. The more I thought about it, the more I saw her point and appreciated the story telling from this point of view. The protagonist is much more of an "everyman" than the usual so-called type we see. He is not too smart, he is something of a bully because he doesn't even know enough to see a larger perspective on his actions, and he is self absorbed ... all somehow in that hapless, nervous way which helps disarm his least likable characteristics. However, he has a true devotion to his wife and he does learn a larger way of seeing the world, both of which lead to his redemption.

I did feel there was a misguided bit of the movie toward the end, an attempt to meld sci-fi action with the rest of the story. However, it did no great harm and overall this is a very good film. Tom hasn't seen it yet and I look forward to viewing it again sometime soon with him.

iPad? Really?

(Insert joke here about the name.)

Saturday Night Live's gonna have a field day with that. What were they thinking? Maybe none of them are women. Or had sisters. Or are married. Or ever got pummeled with one too many tv ads for certain women's products.

Catholic Conversion Stories R Us

George at Convert Journal had a great idea. He'd read lots of fascinating conversion stories and wanted a good way to share them and point to people's blogs. The result? This handy-dandy chart. Take a look around and get inspired. I know that I did.

While you're there also take a look at George's personal blog. It is inspiring as well.

The Fourth Commandment

Requested by at least a couple of people, written for our parish bulletin. At loooong last I have had the time and our bulletin has had the room for the series to begin again.

Living our faith in the real world
The Fourth Commandment:
Honor your father and mother.

The first three Commandments are about honoring God and understanding ourselves in relationship to and with Him. The last seven commandments are about honoring other people and understanding ourselves in relationship to and with them. It is here that God instructs us in what Jesus later summed up so perfectly in John 13:34: “Love one another even as I have loved you.” It makes sense, therefore, that the first of these commandments would begin with our relationship with the people who brought us into the world and taught us to understand it – our parents.

At its most basic, this commandment boils down to two terms that are key to Christian living but tend to challenge Americans greatly, authority and obedience. If we obey our parents, then we are accepting their authority over our wishes in a way that may not always be agreeable. We may be allowing them to make decisions we would rather make for ourselves and feel that they are not qualified to make. Certainly, obeying or even respecting a parent may be irksome no matter what the age. Our first reaction is often rebellion.

It is here we may practice in real life what we often merely give lip service to in our relationship with God. We are offered the opportunity to respect, love, and trust those other people in our lives so much that we relinquish control. At all ages this encourages us to look past the immediate possible annoyance to a greater good, whether that greater good is considering unsolicited advice or something as simple as taking out the trash. In turn, this may help us to reflect upon our relationship with God through those very practices. Do we trust His love and care for us even when our lives are taking turns that we do not understand or, often, appreciate?

Church teachings on this subject have considered such larger issues as citizens’ duty to civil authority and the family as the foundation of society. These too have their place in our meditations, as we see in the examination of conscience below. However, at the heart of this commandment we see the fundamental call of love, both of God’s love for us and our expression of that love as we interact with each other in our families.

It can be helpful to examine our consciences in light of this consideration. The examination below is offered in that spirit. 

Examination of Conscience**: 4th Commandment

•    Do I obey and respect my parents or legitimate superiors?
•    Do I give good religious example to my family?
•    Do I give my children proper food, clothing, shelter, education, discipline and care?
•    Do I actively take an interest in the religious education and formation of my children?
•    Do I educate myself on the true teachings of the Church?
•    Do I pray with and for my children?
•    Do I cause tension and fights in my family?
•    Do I care for my aged and infirm relatives?
•    Do I give a full day’s work for a full day’s pay?
•    Do I give a fair wage to my employees?
•    Do I live in humble obedience to those who legitimately exercise authority over me?

Footnotes

*    Deut 5:16; Mk 7:10
** An examination of conscience is not intended to be a checklist used only in preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation. The purpose is to help souls know what actions or attitudes are sinful and realize the gravity of committing them. This may help in avoidance or in turning away from sin and towards God and joy.

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There’s a pattern in these Commandments of setting things apart so that their holiness will be perceived.  Every day is holy, but the Sabbath is set apart so that the holiness of time can be experienced. Every human being is worthy of honor, but the conscious discipline of honor is learned from this setting apart of the mother and father, who usually labor and are heavy-laden, and may be cranky or stingy or ignorant or overbearing.  Believe me, I know this can be a hard Commandment to keep.  But the rewards of obedience are great, because at the root of real honor is always the sense of the sacredness of the person who is its object.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

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… God designed these human relationships to be a dance between equals playing different roles, not a power struggle between unequals for the same “top” role. It is to be like the Trinity. When God the Son became a man, he revealed to us the Trinitiarian nature of God as a love relationship among three equal Persons who are nevertheless related on an order of authority and obedience. The Son “obeys” the Father in all things. He thus radically changed our understanding of both authority and obedience and corrected our natural misunderstanding. This misunderstanding is to confuse authority with power; and obedience with inferiority, weakness, or servility. The misunderstanding comes from using the world’s point of view instead of God’s. The world treasures power; God treasures goodness. Authority in the biblical sense is not a power word but a goodness word. It means right, not might.

Catholic Christianity by Peter Kreeft

It suddenly occurred to me that "right" and "left" sock patterns means I'll have to pay attention to which foot I'm putting my socks on.

Guess what?

No way.

I have enough trouble just getting dressed in the morning without worrying about which lace pattern on the anklet "faces" the other one.

So the pattern for the "carnation" yarn in the Knit Picks booklet just got tons easier. Guess which pattern I'm not making? Whichever foot has the "sssk" part. (You know, the one I picked to begin with, naturally.) Yes, knitters, a triple slip and then knitting of  three stitches together. I'm tellin' ya, I was looking for a way to get out of that one. It is tortuous getting the left needle through the three stitches after slipping in order to knit them together.

Tortuous.

And I've got the finger-stabbing pain to prove it.

So "other foot" lace pattern, here I come! (By the way, that "toe up" thing is not too bad so far.)

Laissez les bon temps rouler ...

That was a supremely satisfying ending to the Vikings-Saints game last night.

Not only did I have the American's love of seeing the underdog do well but I also had the pleasure of seeing Brett Favre relive history as he made a fatal mistake at the end of last night's game. (Not that I hold a grudge or anything ...)

Not that I have anything against the Colts but I am just so pleased that the Saints finally get their trip to the Super Bowl after being such a losing team for so long.

Woohoo! Go Saints!

Things I've Learned from Flannery O'Connor ... and "The Abbess of Andalusia"

Joy in the face of suffering might seem impossible to achieve, but to avoid gloominess Flannery relied on God's grace -- a grace, she told one correspondent, that came through the sacraments. Writing to T.R. Spivey, a Protestant, she acknowledged that many things that bring Catholics grace -- going to Mass, regular fasting -- are done out of obligation, or become "merely habit." However, she believed that it was better to "be held to the Church by habit than not to be held at all." What's more, she believed that by prescribing such habitual obligations, the Church showed itself to be "mighty realistic" about human nature, since obligations provide needed structure. They also bring opportunities for grace.

Flannery believed there was something we can do to make ourselves more receptive to God's free gift of grace: "You have to practice self-denial," she told Spivey. For her that meant immersing herself in writing: "I never completely forget myself except when I am writing," she wrote to Hester. She also practiced self-denial by giving money to charity rather than spending it on herself. ...

This is a long overdue review which was delayed only by the holidays and my subsequent busy schedule, not by my enthusiasm for the work itself (generously provided by Tan for my review).

Lorraine Murray has done a splendid job of giving us a view of Flannery O'Connor which skillfully reveals the author's spiritual journey through her writing and life. Most of us are at least vaguely aware that O'Connor wrote what is often called Southern gothic stories. As such, her stories often feature the uncomfortable and grotesque, although O'Connor insisted that her stories always have a very Catholic core.

I must admit that I am one of the many who has merely dipped my toe into O'Connor's work and after finding it both difficult and uncomfortable had determined to let it strictly alone. However, this book has changed my mind. Murray does enough explication of various stories as she traces O'Connor's career that I was left interested despite myself in exploring her stories again. Believe me, this is no small accomplishment.

I also was left feeling that Flannery O'Connor and I have much more in common than I ever would have dreamed.

• Flannery delighted in the ridiculous and her descriptions of the priest's St. Patrick day decorations left me feeling that we surely would have agreed on our amusement and dismay over much of the "dumbed down" architecture, art, music, and liturgy that is encountered in the Church today.
• She sparred with her mother regularly while still loving and appreciating her. This is not my situation with my mother at all as we generally agree on many things, but it certainly is helpful to keep in mind when I encounter others who I really like but who sometimes drive me to distraction nonetheless.
• Her generosity to other writers is well chronicled. Lately I have had the honor to be asked for advice in a similar way by those I do not know at all. When I thought despairingly of my busy schedule, I remembered Flannery whose schedule was limited by her physical frailty but never failed to give her best advice and support to others. Thus I attempt to do likewise.
  
• Flannery seems to have had the same duality of feeling that I do about such places as Lourdes. While not overly caring about pilgrimages and steadfastly resisting a well meaning benefactor's donation of a trip to Lourdes, she finally went, viewing the entire thing as a sacrifice. That would have been me to a T. As she wrote, "It is obvious to me that faith has to be shown, acted out."
  
• She never succumbed to self-pity but always presented things with a light-hearted approach. What a great example she is. This is not my tendency unfortunately. However, may I do likewise, Lord hear my prayer.
• A disciplined schedule to accomplish is necessary if you are serious about achieving something. Here I am thinking of Flannery's set time for writing each morning, at a desk that faced a white wall so there were no distractions. That's a lesson that many of us in this twittering, facebooking, emailing, IMing world would do well to remember.
• There is a pure enjoyment that comes to us from nature and the creatures in it which can't be found elsewhere. Flannery's love of her peacocks, chickens, mules, and other animals around the farm is a tonic, especially in a society where we are beginning to hear about Vitamin D deficiencies becoming widespread since we don't get outside enough.
• Hand in hand with nature went Flannery's love of her friends as evidenced through the of letters she wrote and received. I am working my way very slowly through The Habit of Being which is a chronological collection of her correspondence. Her personality shines through with a great sense of humor. We can't be isolated. We need community, friends, family to be complete.
  

 The only thing I was missing in this book was the recommendation of a book that would help in tapping into O'Connor's stories, especially for those of us who are uninitiated into the world of critical reading and symbolism that they seem to require. However, Murray does use some key stories (with spoilers) to make points about O'Connor's spirituality and perhaps that is guide enough.

Highly recommended.

For another excerpt and the realization it gave, please click through.

In which I get suckered into learning something new ... toe up sock knitting

It always has to be "suckered" and that's something I regret. But, there you go ... it's how I roll (or resist rolling, now that I think of it).

I am finally back to working on Rose's afghan which I began ... oh, only two years ago. Yes, knitting is not my passion. It is definitely my hobby. Also, I somehow lost about half of the afghan squares I knit which set me back in the timeline a considerable amount. And I detoured to make about five Baby Bobbi Bears. Not that I flit from project to project or anything...

However, then I saw this adorable Mary Jane style anklet and was suckered into buying the kit. What a deal! Materials and patterns for seven different anklet patterns for only about $30. Interesting looking knitting, small enough to carry around, and fairly quick projects. Though at the rate that I knit I bet I can drag it out for a while.

So far, so good.

The kit arrived yesterday and as I looked through the pattern book I realized with a sinking feeling that these patterns were all ... toe up! I have avoided the toe up sock just because I am perfectly happy with the regular top down sock. I don't know what's wrong with all the people who are constantly complaining that they run out of yarn for the second sock they are knitting? Do they not read patterns? Do they not know how much yarn is in their possession? A careful planner by nature, this has never been a problem for me.

The main mystery of how to cast on in such a way that there isn't a hole in the toe was not (I repeat, NOT) clarified for me in the least by the kit which was written blithely as if we all knit toe up socks every day and can cast on in our sleep. All those charts and not a single illustration of the casting on. Really? Don't y'all at Knit Picks have at least one novice you can shove the instructions at to see how they come across? (I won't even get into the general unclarity of the overall review of the socks. That's beside the point and with much back-and-forth reading I did finally pick that up.)

Giving credit where credit is due, however, I am extremely happy to give extra points for the fact that the lace instructions are both charted and written out line by line. Thank you! I hate those damned charts. Yes. I said damned and I meant it. I don't mind if other people need them but I resent the fact that so many pattern writers cavalierly drop written instructions if a chart is present. I relate to the written word, obviously. So Knit Picks regains the points it lost.

Especially since a quick on-line search sent me to Denise's Toe-Up Socks lesson one. Thank you Denise! Those cast-on illustrations are priceless and I now have an understanding of how there can be no hole in the toe. Quite ingenious, I must say.

January 22 - Day of Penance and Prayer for Life

Per the U.S. Bishops. I was reminded of this by Eric Sammons who will be marching for life tomorrow with his children.

In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass "For Peace and Justice" (no. 22 of the "Masses for Various Needs") should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

If the Saints Wrote Conversation Hearts ...

You might get this from Padre Pio for Valentine's Day ...

See lots more at Acts of the Apostasy. Be sure to check the comments box for some very clever reader contributions as well. Via, that master of humor himself, The Curt Jester.

Easy Smoked Brisket

Grab it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

I suppose it's to Pat Robertson's credit that he just doesn't understand how deals with the Devil work

The Devil sets him straight (speaking through the Minneapolis-Star Tribune).

... The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? ...

Read the whole thing at the link above. Via New Advent who appreciates a good sense of humor.

This is Where We Live

A promotional film 4th Estate Publishers' 25th Anniversary that was produced in stop-motion over 3 weeks in Autumn 2008. Found at lines and colors where they describe it perfectly:

It starts, aptly enough, with a bit of flip book style animation in the pages of a book, and transitions nicely into a walk through the the book world; including nicely atmospheric “night” scenes, in which the darker side of things is displayed.

Charming, imaginative and beautifully done.

It is only 2-3 minutes long so do take a look. Especially pay attention to some of the book covers as time changes from day to night. So clever.


This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.