Did anyone see this:
The Steelers went on to win 38-10 (woo-hoo!). Ward was not penalized on the play, but he has assesed several small fines recently over plays in which no fouls was called.
Mad Men Renewed!
Word on the street is that Mad Men has been renewed for a third season. Unfortunately, there’s no news about the status of series creator Matthew Weiner, who still lacks a new contract with Mad Men‘s production company, Lionsgate.
The Audacity of The Episcopal Church
This is absolutely unbelievable. From BabyBlue:
It’s been learned tonight that Bishop Peter James Lee and the Diocese of Virginia have requested that Christ Church Alexandria deed all their church property personally to the Bishop of Virginia.
A congregational vote is scheduled for this Sunday.
According to the current rector of Christ Church, Pierce Klemmt and Senior Warden, Rawles Jones, “the Diocese has asked Christ Church to quitclaim its interest in the property to the Diocese.” In a letter sent to members of the congregation, they write that “The Vestry has considered this course of action and recommends it to the Congregation.”
This church has land records dating back to August 18, 1747 indicating that it was given to the “Vestry of Truro Parish”. Peroid dot – game over. TEC loses, especially given the way TEC has been losing in the good courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia lately. Am I to believe that the Diocese of Virginia is attempting to take over parish churches… before Judge Bellows has even ruled?
The sheer hubris of these people… it’s almost unseemly. Seriously! When, in all the many centuries of Christianity, did a mainstream Christian church ever actively start kicking out orthodox members? Well, I’m sure it’s happened more often than I remember at the moment… but still. I guess it’s because it just seems so silly that it would happen in this day and age. The Episcopal Church is remaking itself as the “Good News Church” of our times. But to do that, they have to get rid of pesky “ummm, there’s rules here” people like me.
So, essentially, the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church is telling me to a) join the Catholic Church (no thanks); or b) join a “Continuing Anglican” church, of which there are exactly two in a 90 mile radius of me, that might be anything from High Church (Yaaa!) to Low Church (and why not just be a Methodist if you’re gonna go that route?); or c) go Orthodox (not a bad option, really… but dammit, why am I being forced to leave my church anyway?; or d) wait for the GAFCON Gang to get the ball rolling. So I’m guessing that I’ll just wait. For now.
So… come join us at your local Episcopal Church. We’re the “Hatfield and McCoys” church. It’s real Alice in Wonderland stuff over here.
How Cute!
Queen Elizabeth II visited Google’s UK headquarters yesterday, and they created a special Google Doodle in her “honour”:
If you visited Google’s UK site yesterday, you would have seen this:
SONGS I LOVE: “16 Candles”
Back in high school, I was the pretentious twit that had to be “this much more alternative than you”. Remember the first time you heard The Pixies? I was already “done” with them by then. The Replacements? Please – I was into them years ago. The Residents? Yep – been there, done that! Mission of Burma? I’ve already taken my MoB albums back to the store, to trade them in for the “latest and greatest”… except for that one album with the guy wearing the WREK t-shirt on the back – that’s kind of cool.
At any rate, being the “most alternative guy you know” was my badge of “cool” I suppose, pointless though it all was. To keep myself on the cutting edge, I buried myself in a gigantic pile of imported or obscure music magazines, like Melody Maker, NME, Option, and Trouser Press, to name but a few. One of the positives of this was that it really did keep me on the edge for several years. One of the downsides was that magazines don’t actually play music. Before the Internet, you could read about a band in a magazine, and if you wanted to actually hear them, you paid $15 for the LP or CD. Picking a new band using the printed word works well much of the time, but sometimes I’d shell out $18 for an import LP that I really didn’t like.
Such was the case with Danielle Dax. Her 1987 album Inky Bloaters came highly recommended from several indie mags, so I shelled out the $21 for the import CD… only to hate it. But it’s not a “New York Yankees” kind of hate. It’s more of a “Vegemite hate”, in that I’ll still go back to it every so often and think “oh, it couldn’t possibly have been that bad…”. But after ten minutes with Danielle Dax (or biting in to a thick layer of Vegemite on toast), it just wasn’t meant to be… until now.
I stumbled across this song from Blast The Human Flower, her only major label recording. It’s the last song on the disc, and probably a throw-away track… but it’s somehow cool. Have a listen:
[audio:16_candles.mp3]
Facebook and my site are one!
OK, so… as I mentioned a few days ago, I recently signed up with Facebook after being “MySpace Only” for the past couple of years. One of the cool things about Facebook is that you can add an RSS feed to the “Notes” section of your profile. So I could use this site’s RSS feed to automatically “copy” entries I make here into my Facebook account. People that have no idea I even have a site would be able to read anything I post here.
Neat, huh? And that’s exactly what I did. If you’re my friend on Facebook, look for posts from this site as new Notes in my profile. If you have no idea what any of that means, don’t worry: it’s not for you. Also, for some reason, Facebook’s RSS importer kind of sucks, so you might see gibberish characters in Facebook when I post something here that looks perfectly normal.
That Crazy Bittle
So… our “middle cat”, Mimi (a.k.a. Bittle) got up on the kitchen counter last night and got her head stuck in an empty trash bag box. The result was priceless:
Truro Church Wins (Again)
From BabyBlue:
Judge Randy Bellows ruled today that property disputed by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia is indeed held in trust by Truro Church, Fairfax and therefore, subject to the Virginia Division Statute, 57-9.
This property was originally bought by Christ the Redeemer, a mission church-plant of Truro Church. The original mission dissolved and the property was given to the mother church. TEC and the Diocese intervened, claiming that this particular property was not subject to 57-9 but were unable to answer testimony given in court today by the former Senior Warden of Christ the Redeemer (Truro mission) and the current Senior Warden of Truro Church. The judge ruled from the bench that indeed this particular property is held in trust by Truro Church and therefore subject to 57-9.
The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia acknowledged just prior to trial that the Division Statute 57-9 applies to all the other property held in trust by Truro Church.
BREAKING: Madonna and Guy split!
The BBC is reporting that The Sun newspaper is reporting that Madonna and Guy Ritchie will publicly announce plans to divorce “any time now”.
Mad Men: “The Jet Set”
Wow. I really did not like this episode of Mad Men. I’ll explain why later… but first: the recap… which begins right now:
The episode starts off with Roger and Jane in bed at the Sherry-Netherland hotel. Jane is dressed only in a sheet. Jane writes poems about Roger. Roger proposes to Jane. Seriously. I’m still not buying it.
Meanwhile, Peggy leads a meeting about Right Guard deodorant, with Paul, Harry, Sal, Kurt and Smitty in attendance. Paul mentions a study that found that “80% of men say that Right Guard makes them feel more confident at work”. Wasn’t “confidence at work” at part of Right Guard’s advertising later on? At any rate, it’s clear that no one is very interested in working in Don’s absence: the meeting quickly turns to pop culture gossip: Sal asks if anyone saw The Loretta Young Show the previous night; he then says it was “awful” with “the aprons, the nauseating upholstery on the couch”. Upholstery, huh? Smitty asks if anyone’s heard from Paul Kinsey, who is at Ole Miss protesting on behalf of black student James Meredith (this dates the episode to around September 30, 1962). A conversation starts about prejudice but quickly turns to how the event will affect business. Kurt says the he has no idea what’s going on, since he doesn’t have a TV. Harry tells him that he must have a TV for his job. The guys ask Kurt what he does in his spare time instead of watching TV. He says that he goes to concerts, and Smitty mentions that Kurt recently saw Dylan. This sparks an interest in Peggy, who breaks the meeting up to flirt with Kurt, who asks her if she wants to go see Dylan with him.
Don and Pete have made it to Los Angeles. The airline has apparently lost Don’s luggage, so he’s stuck at the pool in a suit:
Pete wants to spend the day at the pool, but Don tells him to get out his list and get to work. Pete kind of mumbles for a few minutes, then Don snaps him to attention with the best line of the episode:
“Do you want to be on vacation, Pete? ‘Cos I can make that happen.” – Don Draper