Various & Sundry: Some really weird stuff, plus some justice and injustice

I think tomorrow I'll have to do a special obit round-up. It's been a good week in death. But let's focus on other things for now, shall we?

So get yourself a nice mug of tea, maybe in one of these upside-down mugs, and settle in.

Hard to take in isn't it? But as the blogger who posted this noted (or at least claims), these mugs are "more stable and more balanced in the hand because of the handles position (being upside down and lower down than normal). This gives a more comfortable pour when drinking due to where the centre of gravity is. They are also more stable in general and less likely to be knocked over. The inverted shape also keeps tea and coffee hotter for longer." If true, then where have they been all my life?

More photos of the creator at work here.

Hungry now? So here's a question I'm sure you've been asking yourself: What's in Prince's Fridge? You will be glad to know someone has answered that question. And it's...an unusual mix of items. There's no photographic evidence (Prince would not allow photographs), but here is an artist's rendering:

Did they make this up? Who knows? But if so, my hat is off to the person who came up with this quote from Prince about his real maple syrup:

“People say U can’t tell the difference, but U know, it’s the real deal. It’s a cut above. It’s about 100 cuts above. This is the only thing that touches my waffles.”

I smell hit lyrics!

Continuing our theme of weird fetishes, let's examine this 12-foot-tall statue of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the coming-out-of-the-lake scene of Pride and Prejudice. No, I am not making this up.

In a more serious mode, now, I thought this satirical list of 15 things black people must do to end racism was truly heartbreaking. And eye-opening. For example,

4. It is the responsibility of the Negro to always dress in a respectable manner. The Negro must, at all times, dress professionally with impeccably pressed trousers and non-threatening white button down shirts. Ties are preferred. The Negro should try to avoid sneakers, sweats, baggy jeans, hoodies, or any other apparel that may constitute a thuggish, frightening appearance or suggest that he may be concealing a weapon or drugs. These types of clothing, however, are perfectly suitable for whites.

Something I'm sure is on people's minds as the jury in the George Zimmerman trial enters deliberations and as the film Fruitvale Station opens in theaters.

I think this story has a much happier ending, though. What do you do if your car is broken into and the thief leaves behind his cell phone? If you're smart, like this woman, you press the speed dial on the miscreant's phone helpfully labelled "Mom."


Justice is served. Home-style.

Various & Sundry: only slightly holy

I hope you're having a wonderful Holy Week. So far for me it's been terrific, very meaningful. Pinterest has played a surprisingly large role in that -- particularly the work of Pastor Joelle Colville-Hanson who does a wonderful job curating religious images and art, sorting them by books of the Bible or particular narratives. Her board for The Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemene is stunning.

The Last Supper of Jesus -- Andre Derain

Source: wikipaintings.org via Pastorjoelle on Pinterest

Here endeth the Holy Week references for today. From here on out, it's odds and ends.

In case you have ever wondered, "Who are these people who buy semi-automatic weapons anyway?" you might be interested in this excerpt from the book Gun Guys: A Road Trip which came out earlier this month. The Author Dan Baum "is both a lifelong gun guy and a Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey feeling like a 'child of a bitter divorce with allegiance to both parents.' In Gun Guys he grabs his licensed concealed handgun and hits the road to meet some of the 40 percent of Americans who own guns." Given the excerpt, I think this would be a good and informative read. This interview with Baum was...a bit shocking, actually. Meaning, he does not support my point of view 100 percent. The outrage!

I appreciated this post about The Art of Puttering that correctly marks the difference between puttering and multitasking. "Puttering, unlike multitasking, is not marked by a sense of urgency. Puttering allows for breaks in the work, for a cup of coffee or even a burst of play." I love puttering.

Here are some pandas, showing how it's done:



Perhaps these are Luke's sympathy pandas for being thumped in the finals of Lent Madness.

Someone from the Lent Madness Stable o' Snark sent me this tweet:

oh @heytoepfer, here's an obit for our obit fan CB. It involves Jesus and a NASCAR driver. sbnation.com/2013/3/26/4149…
— Lent Madness (@LentMadness) March 26, 2013

How right this mystery person was, Laurie. The obit has the classic lede:

"Timothy Wayne 'Tim' Hopkins, 54, went to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Dale Earnhardt to contribute his building and painting expertise to the constructing of many heavenly mansions on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Memphis." 

Fantastic!

Finally, here's a great obituary for you March Madness fans: Bud Palmer, credited with creating the jump shot, died a little over a week ago at the age of 91.

Palmer could remember no eureka moment, although at age 6 he was so small and weak that he had to launch his shots with a leap. He knew he had shot them regularly as a student at Phillips-Exeter Academy in the late 1930s. He realized, he said, that “if I dribble, and stop, and jump, I will have an advantage.”

When he tried out for the Knicks in 1946, it was still so odd that Coach Neal Cohalen thundered, “What the hell kind of shot is that?”

 I can just imagine the Times obit writer thinking, "Jackpot!" when he got this quote to end the article:

As a Knick, Palmer roomed on the road with Sweetwater Clifton, one of the first black players in the N.B.A. He once confronted a hotel manager in Baltimore to demand, successfully, that Clifton be allowed to stay. 

Later, after a few beers in their room, Clifton told his friend, “Damn, for a white boy, you sure can jump.”

Compare and contrast

Last week, I posted a long response to the Kony 2012 viral video.  In it, I suggested a number of questions for you to ask yourself when watching the video.

Yesterday, Ugandan blogger TMS Ruge (whom I quoted in my post) recommended a video by a different organization also working in Northern Uganda, called Hope North.  I cannot tell you anything about this organization itself, but I do ask you to watch the video, which is 10 minutes shorter than Kony 2012, and ask yourself the same questions:

1. How are Africans portrayed? 
Are they victims, villains, or heroes? Do they have power or are they powerless? What do they get to say for themselves? What actions do they ask others to take?


2. How is the West portrayed?
Again, victims, villains, or heroes? Do Westerners have power or are they powerless? What do they get to say about Africa?

3. Who gets to speak? 
Pretty self-explanatory. But also note in what role people are cast when they speak and who gets to interrupt whom.

4. How does this video appeal to your emotions? 
What techniques does it use to heighten emotions? When does it speak to you directly? What does this video tell you about you?

5. What does Hope North get out of this? 
Not assigning any motives here, but what does this organization get if people participate? How does this campaign benefit them?

And I would add the following question:

6. Does watching this video change your image of what's happening in Northern Uganda?
Does it complicate things? Simplify things? Clarify things? Confuse things?



So what do you think?

The masculine world of the Church

The General Synod of the Church of England is debating this week about whether or not women should be allowed to become bishops. Sigh.  And much of the debate is about how to keep the people who don't want women bishops happy.  Deep sigh.  Don't they know by now that they're not going to be happy as long as there are any women bishops?

Meanwhile, here is the U.S. of A., someone named John Piper (I didn't know who that was) said something at some conference recently about how "God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a 'masculine feel.'" This would be more convincing if the goalposts for "masculinity" didn't seem to move whenever women stand on the field.

A couple of examples leap to mind.

Let's start with the color pink (also a newsmaker these days, is it not?). According to an article in the Smithsonian,

a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

Take, also, the flute, which until the last century was a man's instrument. The late Frances Blaisdell, who played with the New York Philharmonic, told the Flutist Quarterly, “I had lots of opportunities because I was sort of a freak, and people couldn’t imagine a girl flutist."

Yeah, so let's have Christianity with a more masculine feel: lots of flute music and pink banners everywhere.

Seems to me that the problem is not that Christianity is becoming feminine, but that men still think standing side by side with a woman makes them less than a man.  Maybe someday they'll get a grip. Or are they afeard someone's going to steal their purse.

What is up with this?

Yesterday, I read this article on Salon.com that says, in essence, that soon after a career path opens for women and more women enter that field, two things happen:

a) Men stop going into that field "as if those subjects were infested with cooties," the writer adds; and
b) the pay for that profession stalls out or goes down.

Man, is that depressing!

I have the feeling this is true in the church. Amazing how until 35 years ago, being a priest was a job women could not do, and now I get the feeling that many people look at clergy work as something that is unmanly. Do you get that feeling as well?

A while back I wrote about a flutist named Frances Blaisdell, one of the first women to play flute professionally in a major symphony, back in the days when women didn't play the flute. The quote that killed me was that her father "was in the lumber business, but his own love was the flute, and he started teaching her to play when she was 5. He wished she were a boy and called her Jim." Can you even imagine now people thinking that the flute is off-limit for girls?

I said then and I will say again: what the heck is up with this? And, more importantly, how on earth do we get over it?

The world of the female flutist

Today's featured obituary is of Frances Blaisdell, "girl flutist," as the headline put it, quotes and all, who was one of the first women to play flute professionally in a major symphony orchestra.

Here's the part that really got me: Her father "was in the lumber business, but his own love was the flute, and he started teaching her to play when she was 5. He wished she were a boy and called her Jim."

OK, how many men in the lumber business do you imagine have the flute as their first love?

I think nowadays most people think of the flute as an almost totally feminine instrument, James Galway notwithstanding. I remember going to a National Flute Association Convention back in the day; it wasn't exactly a world of opportunity for matchmaking, let's just say.

I just find it very interesting how it seems that men and boys abandon things that seem to be tainted with femininity. Boys playing flute nowadays have to deal with all sorts of crap. What is that about?

Wonderful obit, btw. I recommend it.