Various and Sundry, July 1

Well, the obituary highlight of my week--and yours, too, I'm sure--was the life of Norma Lyon, the 'Butter Cow' lady. The obit in the NY Times is the only time I've seen "you betcha" in an obituary. The Grim Reader pointed me to her obituary in the Wall Street Journal, which proclaims her "the most eminent butter sculptor in America" and reveals:

Ms. Lyon used low-moisture, salt-free butter—never margarine—for the bovines, which she built by dabbing softened butter on a wire-mesh armature. She worked inside a glass walk-in refrigerator, kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and took a couple of days to produce a 600-pound cow.

Awesome! But Peeps are still my medium.

In the "whatever happened to..." category, there was also obituaries this week for Randall Adams. Who is Randall Adams, you ask? He was the man whose death sentence was overturned because of the incredible film The Thin Blue Line.

He actually died last October in such obscurity that the word only trickled out to the news media this week. The filmmaker Errol Morris, whom I follow on Twitter, reports, "How did the media find out about the death of Randall Adams? (Michael Rosenthal first told me; Ann Petrone confirmed it; and I tweeted it.)"

His was not a happy life. And the injustice he endured was staggering. The Times obit ends:

At the time his conviction was thrown out, wrongly convicted prisoners could get a lump sum payment of $25,000 if pardoned by the governor. But Mr. Adams was ineligible for the money. He had not been pardoned; his case had been dismissed.

He also did not receive the $200 given to prisoners when they are released on parole or on the completion of their sentences, Mr. Schaffer said. Again, Mr. Adams did not qualify.

A few church-ish articles to close. The first is a spot-on critique of a church culture that revolves around being relevant. "The desire for church to beat pop culture at its own game is a futile one," the author writes.

"If there is one thing our culture does not have in short supply, it’s entertainment. People do not need to get up on a cold Sunday morning, get dressed, get the kids ready and drive to another building to hear a bit of comedy or see a well-produced skit. Diversions devised by the best professional entertainers in the world are easier to procure than that. Amateur hour from some local wannabes who have forgotten their real mission will not win this competition."

Oh yes.

This made an interesting companion piece to the blog entry at the Internet Monastery contrasting Lutheran theology with that of a megachurch. And with this college student's shock and horror upon attending a megachurch.

And finally, Andrew Sullivan's thoughtful reflection upon first visiting a gay bar led to other people's equally thoughtful responses. The common thread: it was like church. And that has something to do with the articles I linked above. I'm just not sure what it is yet.

Perhaps it is that we keep trying to force God to be in the church and force people to be there because we believe we have contained God in there. And then God goes and shows up in the gay bar.

No, there's more to it than that. I shall ponder.

Have a great weekend!