Uncategorized | dual personalities

Guess what’s out on DVD?!

by chuckofish

Season 2 of the best show on TV, Justified, is now available on DVD.

the incomparable Timothy Olyphant

I love this show. The writing and characters are wonderful! Here’s a favorite “prayer” from the first season:

Dear Lord, before we eat this meal we ask forgiveness for our sins, especially Boyd- who blew up a black church with a rocket launcher, and afterwards he shot his associate Jared Hale in the back of the head out on Tate’s Creek bridge. Let the image of Jared’s brain matter on that windshield not dampen our appetites, but may the knowledge of Boyd’s past sins help guide these men. May this food provide them with all the nourishment they need. But, if it does not, may they find comfort in knowing that the United States Marshal Service is offering fifty-thousand dollars to any individual providing information that will put Boyd back in prison. Cash or check, we can make it out to them. Or to Jesus. Whoever they want. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Justified reminds us of how good TV can be. Why aren’t all shows this good?

Season 3 premiers January 17th. Don’t miss it!

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Back at work

by chuckofish

…with a new Snow & Graham calendar, thanks to daughter # 1.

Well, the Christmas Holidays can be very hectic indeed. First we put up all the decorations and then we take them down. We spend months picking out gifts, wrap them and then tear them open. We clean up. We go to the grocery store (a lot). The family gathers and then they disperse once again. Everyone is so busy! Daughter # 1 moved to NYC over the weekend. Daughter # 2 is in Chicago visiting a friend. And the boy moved into a grown-up apartment yesterday. Phew. It was almost a relief to go back to work for some quiet time!

And so, as I endeavor to regain my equilibrium, I offer this well-known quote from the wonderful Robert Louis Stevenson:

“The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”

I plan to do some major league cleaning and sorting and arranging in all my empty rooms. Life’s plain, common work is before me! (And that’s a good thing.)

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January 3, 2012

2012: Let’s think positive

by chuckofish

“Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon.”
–Woody Allen

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January 2, 2012

A new year’s discipline

by chuckofish

Gratitude … goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
-Henri J. M. Nouwen

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January 1, 2012

Feast of the Holy Name

by chuckofish

I was scheduled to be a lay reader this morning, so I had no choice but to go to church, having stayed up until midnight watching 6 seasons-worth of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season finales with daughter #2. This was clearly an awesome and rewarding undertaking, but still entailed staying up way past my bedtime.

The congregation was (not surprisingly) very small this morning. Those who came were treated to a collect that is used only when Sunday falls on January 1 (about once a decade) and the first lesson which is a wonderful New Year prayer:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

Numbers 6:22-27

Happy New Year!

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December 31, 2011

Time to pack up Christmas

by chuckofish

Yes, it all has to go back in the boxes, back in the basement. Sigh. Like Scrooge I will endeavour to “honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

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December 30, 2011

Great Reads of 2011

by chuckofish

The two books I raved about all year and wanted to hand out to people like candy were Karl Marlantes’s fabulous

and Hilary Mantel’s

I haven’t read anything better than these two books in ages. Yes, Matterhorn is a war novel and, yes, it’s unpleasant, but why shouldn’t it be? This book goes way beyond the typical war story; it is wonderfully nuanced and manages to give every point of view. As for Wolf Hall, well, my dual personality introduced me to it (for which I am very grateful) so I don’t have to go into great detail about why it’s wonderful. As I blogged earlier, the book made me love Thomas Cromwell!

Honorable mentions go to two re-reads:

A favorite of mine since middle school, T.E. Lawrence’s

and a more recent find that I just keep going back to, Alistair MacLeod’s lyrical and elegaic

What were your favorite books of 2011?

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December 30, 2011

While we’re being grateful….

by chuckofish

As 2011 comes to a close and we consider all the things we are grateful for (including our wonderful siblings), I’d like to put in a word for church. I’ve never been much of a joiner, but over the last year I’ve not only started going to church — the first Presbyterian Church in Canton — but I was moved to become a member. It has made a big difference in my life. Everyone there is so happy and so friendly; Sundays always help me face the week among my judgmental colleagues. Going to church has reminded me of all the things that are important. May you all find such a home!

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December 29, 2011

Just saying

by chuckofish

Siblings are one of our greatest gifts. Take a moment to be thankful for yours if you are lucky enough to have one or two. As the Rt. Rev. Desmond Tutu said, “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”

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