dual personalities

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October 3, 2025

Evening dispatch.

by chuckofish

Well, happy Friday, again, dear readers. Yes, I did pre-empt my mother’s reminder text about writing a blog post this evening, because, as always, I have put it off to the last minute. By that, I mean my bedtime. It was a rather uninspiring week. A tedious week. Lots of long red lights downtown, traffic on Highway 40, several employee communications and one blood pressure increasing press release. But at least it is Friday.

I have confirmed that this is my last weekend of 2025 with zero plans. For the rest of the year, I have something to do every weekend. I know, I know..

In reality, it’s most DAR-related activities. Okay, maybe the gif is appropriate.

My mother and I considered taking this opportunity to drive to Litchfield, Illinois, home of a Steak-n-Shake active enough to have billboards on the highway declaring the Golden Age of French Fries has arrived. Our road trip would then take us to the Pink Elephant Antique Mall. Instead, I think I am going to sleep in and do chores and maybe hit up the Hobby Lobby for some fall table/mantle decor. Again, the gif is so accurate.

And I saw this on Instagram…

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October 2, 2025

Forget not

by chuckofish

Even as the giant decorative skeletons crop up around town, I am reminded that I better get going on my Christmas shopping! Also we have multiple birthdays coming up in November/December/January, and have I mentioned, a new baby due in early December! Yes, daughter #2 is expecting baby #3. We are all pretty excited about it. The end of the year is always busy, but it will be even more so this year.

Meanwhile I am busy with my continuing home organization projects, bible study homework and the next edition of the Historical Review. My wonderful 89-year old co-editor stepped in for me over the summer, but I am back and have the reins in hand.

This is an interesting article about how “with poignant wisdom and gentle wit, Charles M. Schulz reinvented the form and introduced the nation to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and so many more indelible characters.”

This is good advice: Forget Not His Faithfulness–“Telling and retelling our stories of God’s faithfulness guards our hearts against forgetfulness, and hearing those stories is one of the ways God builds faith in little hearts.”

And here are a couple of photos I found in my archaeological dig in the basement:

BSA Boundary Waters canoe trip circa 2000. It nearly killed the OM but he did it (and so did the boy)!

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October 1, 2025

Another turned page

by chuckofish

It’s October! Zut alors! Last year at this time I was in beautiful Monument Valley with the OM and daughter #1.

Guess I’ll watch The Searchers (1956) this week…

Well, we must “live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” Who said that? Yes, of course, it was Thoreau in “Walden, or, Life in the Woods”.

Earlier in September, we were told by the Missouri Department of Conservation to be “bear aware” when hiking in the woods. So just as a reminder, here is where bears have been sighted in Missouri since 2020:

Yikes! Take care with those bird feeders and barbecues!

Here are Nine Hymn Lyrics You’ve Probably Misunderstood. We sing all these hymns in church. The author suggests that “something that was written 500 years ago can be confusing to a modern audience,” and maybe that is so. If so, “you can learn to sing these words with renewed faith as you come to better understand what they mean!”

And here’s a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke about Autumn:


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September 30, 2025

Burn me down

by chuckofish

Today we salute Marty Stuart, Country Music Hall of Famer, five-time Grammy-winner, and AMA Lifetime Achievement honoree, on his birthday.

As you know, I have been a fan of his since I was about 14 (He was 12.) I have seen him many times in concert.

Enjoy!

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September 29, 2025

Come, ye weary, heavy laden

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? We had blue skies overhead, but it did get kind of toasty watching the bud play soccer on Sunday afternoon!

On Saturday morning daughter #1 and I ventured to Saint Charles across the Missouri River to a DAR cemetery marker ceremony. The SAR Color Guard was there in full regalia to lend support and authenticity to the event. Much appreciated, guys. (Sometimes I do think we live in Mayberry.)

In case you have forgotten, the Battle of Fort San Carlos, was fought on May 26, 1780, between British-allied Indians and defenders of the Franco-Spanish village of St. Louis (Louisiana Territory) during the American Revolutionary War. The garrison, a motley assortment of regulars and militiamen led by Upper Louisiana’s lieutenant governor, Captain Fernando de Leyba, suffered a small number of casualties. A few of the veterans of that battle were buried in Saint Charles. Their graves were later moved to the Saint Charles Borromeo Cemetery in Saint Charles and that is where the marker was dedicated. Lest we forget.

Afterwards we went to old town St. Charles and walked up and down Main Street visiting some “vintique” stores, and ate lunch on the patio of Llewellyn’s Pub, which was delightful.

Meanwhile, I was glad to see that the twins were practicing their BB gun marksmanship in their backyard.

On Sunday I went to church and heard a good sermon on Philippians 1:27-2:4: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.”

We sang “Come Ye Sinners” and I wept from start to finish. The choir was back and in fine fettle and sang “Land of Pure Delight”. Lovely.

And now the inimitable Voddie Baucham has entered into eternity (last Thursday) at the age of 56. It is a lot to process.

Voddie was an American pastor, author and educator. He served nine years as Dean of Theology from 2015 to 2024 at African Christian University in Zambia. Rest in peace, brother.

Well, we go on. Read some history, pet a nice dog. Come to Jesus.

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September 26, 2025

Count It All Joy.

by chuckofish

I met a friend for coffee this morning and rather than leave Mr. Smith in his crate, I left him in the kitchen. Free to roam. And drink some water. And eat his breakfast. But apparently, he was affronted. Because this is the face that greeted me upon my return.

I mean, if looks could kill, right? He seems to have forgotten that just the night before he was enjoying my lap.

Anyway, I had wonderful time in Mahomet last weekend. We braved the spitting rain to see the Little Bulldogs complete three cheers at the Mahomet High School football stadium, hit up two estate sales, AND went to Oktoberfest at the local brewery.

Please note, the perspective is all wrong on this. The stein was legitimately much larger than my hefeweizen. It never ceases to amaze those of us who have lived in grotesquely large cities that you can just go to a place, get a parking spot, and find a table to sit and bask in the live music and outdoor festivities. It was lovely.

This weekend, my mother and I are heading to St. Charles for a DAR event–a patriot grave marker–and we may check out some “vintique” malls while we’re there. I hope to catch up on some chores. And maybe get some fencing to block off access to underneath my deck. Of course, I know the face I’ll get if I do that.

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September 25, 2025

Lest we forget: Laus Deo

by chuckofish

At the top of the Washington monument in Washington D.C., on the East-facing surface, are two Latin words: Laus Deo. “Laus Deo,” translated from the Latin, means “Praise Be To God.” The words cannot be seen from below and they face perpetually to the rising Sun in the east. 

The presence of those two words on his monument may recall, however, the prayer George Washington offered at his first inauguration as the first President of the United States:

“Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United states at large.

And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Amen, indeed!

If you haven’t seen this yet, check it out:

I will leave you with this video of 2 1/2-year old Idabelle’s favorite radio song. She knows all the words and sings along. How I wish I had a video of that!

Yea, though I walk through the valley
I will have

[Chorus]
No fear (No fear)
No fear (No fear)
The mighty power of Jesus is fighting for me here
No fear (No fear)
No fear (No fear)
The light of the world makes the darkness disappear

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September 24, 2025

“The most fraudulent case of false advertising since my suit against the film ‘The Neverending Story’.”*

by chuckofish

Today we remember and toast the great Phil Hartman, comedian, actor, screenwriter and graphic designer, who was born on this day in 1948. Did you know that before he was a TV personality, he designed album covers–including this favorite from my youth.

He was a voice actor extraordinaire:

as well as a sketch comedy star…

We miss him. SNL and The Simpsons have never been the same without him.

On another sad note, Italian actress Claudia Cardinale died yesterday at age 87. I always loved her, especially in Circus World (1964) and The Professionals (1966).

Her delivery of the line, “Go to hell” in the latter film was classic. She was also great in Fellini’s 8 1/2 (1963), Visconti’s The Leopard (1963), The Pink Panther (1963) and as the woman caught in sin in Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

Riposi in pace, bella.

In other news, I love stuff like this: here’s a list of questions that evolutionists need to be able to answer if they want to remain plausible.

And here’s the story of the “watchmaker who forgave her enemies”: the wonderful Corrie Ten Boom. It’s always a good reminder!

Have a good day–hang in there!

*Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman)

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September 23, 2025

Three cheers and a toast

by chuckofish

Well, as of yesterday it is officially fall. It is a little cooler and we have had a lot of much-needed rain and we are grateful.

Today we toast the 219th anniversary of the return of the exploring expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark back to St. Louis in 1806. The people of St. Louis, we are told, “gathered on the Shore and Hizzared three cheers” and rifles were fired in a welcoming volley as they landed their canoes on the levee.

Two years and four months earlier, the band had departed quietly from a gathering point at Wood River, Illinois, for their 8,000-mile expedition through the Northwest. The Corps of Discovery encountered a wide variety of natural landscapes on their trek to the Pacific coast, including rolling prairies, vast rivers, towering limestone bluffs, and rugged mountain ranges. They also encountered hardship, privation, extremes of temperature and climate, danger from Indians, grizzly bears, and a wide range of physical discomforts. Several times they were presumed lost.

The two captains were fetted that evening at a state dinner followed by a grand ball. The rest of the crew were eager to resume civilian life and quickly spent their accumulation of two years’ pay in the frontier village. One can only imagine their relief and joy upon returning.

By the way, the 22 foot tall bronze statue, The Captains’ Return (shown above), depicts the return of William Clark and Meriwether Lewis to St. Louis in 1806. It was commissioned by the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation to mark the bicentennial of the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After its initial placement in 2006, flooding of the Mississippi River often led to the statue being partially submerged with the result that Clark looked as if he was waving his hat as in distress. In 2014, the statue was removed and restored to fix damage from the floods, and in 2016, the statue was returned to the riverfront to a location slightly south and about 17 feet higher than before.  The sculptor, Harry Weber, has thirty-one works displayed throughout the city.

And this is a good opinion piece by Albert Mohler, Jr. about the Charlie Kirk memorial service. As he says, “We will be thinking about this service for a long time.”

(Photo from Pinterest)

Information for this post mostly gleaned from St. Louis Day By Day by Frances Hurd Stadler.

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September 22, 2025

Our hope springs eternal

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Since daughter #1 was out of town and I had no plans of my own, it was a pretty quiet one for me. There wasn’t even a good estate sale to go to!

I did watch some good movies…

Friday night I watched The Natural (1984) and it was great. Just great. I loved everything about it. Robert Redford was perfect as were all the supporting characters–especially Richard Farnsworth with his sad blue eyes.

The cinematography was exceptional, the music was perfect, the direction A+. The script was unusually restrained and, may I say, profound. I cried at the beginning. I cried at the end.

I also watched Tom Horn (1980) which is Steve McQueen’s penultimate movie and a favorite of mine. It also stars Richard Farnsworth.

Directed by William Wiard and adapted to the screen by Thomas McGuane and Bud Schrake from Horn’s own autobiography, it is a sad, serious movie about changing times.

I highly recommend both movies.

We went to church as usual on Sunday; the twins were great. Lottie took good notes–writing down the words she didn’t know for clarification later: “vindicate ungodly”. I hope her dad obliged!

We had a great sermon on Philippians 1:18-26 and a wonderful adult class on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

After church the boy and the twins and I stopped at the kennel to pick up Mr. Smith. He rode to my house with the boy and behaved himself.

(He was a little bedraggled from having played in his water dish.)

When we got home, the boy helped me move some furniture out to the curb where it will be picked up on Bulky Trash Pick-up day. So grateful for that help!

After they went home, I watched the livestream of the memorial service for Charlie Kirk–100,000+ (original estimates of 100K bumped to up to 300,000) people in a stadium and the President of the U.S. plus most of his cabinet and Elon Musk in attendance. Impressive. You can watch it on Youtube.

Yup.

Daughter #2 arrived back from the prairie and she picked up Mr. Smith and stayed for a glass of wine.

Happy Monday–have a good week!

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