Well, readers, January has mercifully ended, and it is now February.
It is 65 degrees here today. I took Mr. Smith on a nice long walk. He deserved it and it was a delight to be outside and not shivering and/or wet. The entire neighborhood was outside also. The playground was overrun with squealing children. An old man across the street stopped me to talk about Mr. Smith. And then he soliloquized on a variety of subjects until I was finally able to say, “Well, we’ve got to keep on our walk…”
I think I failed to mention that several weeks ago I watched a Law & Order episode where a key plot point was the detectives identifying the murderer by his Westie!! The murderer was actually a gun for hire who also lived in the neighborhood and walked his Westie regularly. As if.
Finally, I was trying to find a quote or something to add to this blog post and while rifling through books, I didn’t find a quote, but I did find this. Circa like 1998.
Well, now it is breezy and “spring-like” here in flyover country. I’m not complaining, but, you know, that means the Iris will be popping up only to be crushed by the next inevitable arctic freeze.
Daughter #2 and famille are settling in here for a few days. The movers should arrive in Illinois early next week. Fingers crossed.
I am happy to have more time with everyone.
In the meantime, here are some good things to read.
I could not agree more with this. “Changing songs to remove these kinds of words makes for weak theology and a gutted gospel. When we do this, we’re changing the very nature of God by making him into an image of what we think he ought to be. We’re keeping God’s mercy but removing God’s justice, and when we do that, it ironically makes his mercy completely unnecessary. We’re essentially saying to God, ‘I think your message is a little too rough for this new generation and we really need only to talk about how much you love them because that’s all they actually want to hear.’” Read the whole thing.
This will cheer you up: A Tour of Dolly Parton’s Career-Spanning Closet!
I really could care less about the Super Bowl, but I do like Brock Purdy.
And here’s a poem by Billy Collins: The Only Day in Existence
The early sun is so pale and shadowy, I could be looking up at a ghost in the shape of a window, a tall, rectangular spirit looking down at me in bed, about to demand that I avenge the murder of my father. But the morning light is only the first line in the play of this day– the only day in existence– the opening chord of its long song, or think of what is permeating the thin bedroom curtains
as the beginning of a lecture I will listen to until it is dark, a curious student in a V-neck sweater, angled into the wooden chair of his life, ready with notebook and a chewed-up pencil, quiet as a goldfish in winter, serious as a compass at sea, eager to absorb whatever lesson this damp, overcast Tuesday has to teach me, here in the spacious classroom of the world with its long walls of glass, its heavy, low-hung ceiling.
Last week I watched The Producers (1967) on TCM. You know, the one about a washed-up Broadway producer who devises a plan to make money by producing a sure-fire flop–Springtime for Hitler. It was hilarious. As the producer Zero Mostel is beyond anything else ever. His comb-over is the best/worst in movie history. Gene Wilder is perfect as the overwhelmed accountant. It is silly, silly, silly. I’m not sure what today’s progressive audience would make of it, especially scenes like this:
…but I really don’t care. Everybody is insulted in this movie. Even old ladies.
Mel Brooks won the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay–Written Directly for the Screen–for TheProducers over writers Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes. I think he was a little surprised.
Back when the Oscars were worth watching!
Brooks is an interesting guy. It is noteworthy, I think, that Brooks graduated from high school in January 1944 and was immediately drafted into the Army. He was sent to Europe where he participated in the Battle of the Bulge, joining a battalion that was responsible for clearing booby-trapped buildings and defusing land mines as the Allies advanced into Nazi Germany. He was a real life Shecky Greene in Combat!. At the end of the war he was honorably discharged as a corporal. I bet he felt lucky to be alive. He headed to the Catskills to become a comic and the rest is history.
Sadly, the Hollywood elites of today are unable to make movies like The Producers anymore. They take themselves too seriously as artistesand produce overblown, overly-long messes.Mel Brooks never took himself too seriously and I am thankful.
So watch The Producers–It may be “shocking, outrageous, insulting”–but relax and let yourself laugh. It’s funny.
Well, I didn’t end up driving to Champaign-Urbana, as it turns out daughter #2’s moving truck-full of stuff won’t arrive until next week so…the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. Thank goodness they made it there safely.
Meanwhile Garden and Gun had a link to this back porch concert which introduced me to singer-songwriter Larry Fleet. I really like this song which Morgan Wallen also covered.
Another rainy, overcast weekend filled with busy-ness. When did February become such a busy month?
Among other things, the bud had the Pinewood Derby…
He got the “Spirit of Scouting” medal…
…but his car came in 4th out of 12 in the race, so he missed out on a podium trophy by three-tenths of a second. C’es la vie.
Meanwhile the movers came to daughter #2’s house two days earlier than previously arranged, so they had a last-minute scramble to finish packing the night before.
This gives them more time to drive to Illinois, so it’ll work out.
They left on Sunday and will arrive on Monday, in plenty of time to close on their house on Tuesday.
The OM and I are poised to drive over to help them unpack as soon as we hear when the movers are actually going to arrive (probably Wednesday) with all their stuff. Prayers for traveling mercies all around.
This week our Sunday School class on the Doctrines of Grace (TULIP) focused on Irresistible Grace–“the point at which the things determined beforehand in the mind and counsel of God pass over into time.” Or to put it simply: “He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6) I love this class!
After church the OM went to the Blues hockey game and the rest of us all went to see The Wizard of Oz (1939) on the big screen. (Check out Fathom’s Big Screen Classics series here.) As you know, it is one of my top 5 favorite movies, so I jumped at the opportunity. Wow, to see this great movie as it was meant to be seen was fantastic. The art direction is A++++ and on the big screen you can see every detail. The incidental music is awesome and Judy Garland is perfection. In fact, everyone in it is great.
The bud’s favorite part was the tornado in Kansas and Lottie’s fave was Glinda. We all agreed that Toto reminded us of Mr. Smith through the whole movie. I hope we can talk about it further sometime–they had to rush off to Lacrosse practice!
Today is the birthday of one of my favorite ancestors, John Wesley Prowers, the Colorado cattle king who was an early inductee into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in 1963.
I like to celebrate by watching a really good cowboy movie. This year we watched Red River (1948), one of the best and a favorite of mine. As Roger Ebert wrote, “….’Red River’ is one of the greatest of all Westerns when it stays with its central story about an older man and a younger one, and the first cattle drive down the Chisholm Trail. It is only in its few scenes involving women that it goes wrong.” I have to agree.
John Wayne and Montgomery Clift are perfect as father and (adopted) son. Every time I see it I am so impressed with both of them. And Walter Brennan gives one of his best performances.
I also watched Kevin James’ Irregardless stand-up special on Prime Video. I think he’s funny and he seems really normal. No bad language or vulgarity. No politics. Probably having an old lady like me like your comedy routine is the kiss of death, but oh well.
So it was quite a weekend. What did you do? What did you learn? There’s no place like home!
And this social post was from Thursday morning! Also, who knew the National Weather Service has jokes? But yes, it has been cold, rainy, warmer, foggy, rainy, generally gross for many days now. Poor Mr. Smith hasn’t had a good walk in ages.
I had one of those work weeks where my days were filled with being added to long email chains six hours into the thread that required reading all the way back to the beginning to figure out what the question is. My work week was also filled with excitement like driving to work and having to pull over so the SWAT TEAM could speed past me in the SWAT van to deal with a hostage situation two blocks from my office. I am so glad I get to pay my 1% earnings tax for the privilege of maybe getting murdered on the way, during, or on the way home from work. I also spent several hours today discussing font size, so there’s that.
It hasn’t been all bad. This classic (!) was on TCM (!) this weekend and my mother and I watched from our respective homes, texting each other as if we were watching in the same room.
Yes, he does.
And this made me laugh. Literally my dream folder in fifth grade.
And I guess I should have done this.
Hopefully, the sun will come out next week. Or maybe it is time to stock up on ark building supplies.
Yesterday we were enveloped in a thick fog that was straight out of an old horror film.
(The Wolf Man, 1941)
It brightened up a bit in the afternoon, but not much. There’s rain and more rain on the radar.
Meanwhile my women’s Bible Study starts up again this morning. We are reading the book of Matthew. Since I loaned my softcover NIV to daughter #1 so she would have a smaller tome to carry to her Sunday School class, I had to find something to use for my Bible Study. My ESV Reformation Study Bible is too big to carry around and my chronological Bible is not suitable. So I went searching in my house…I found the RSV Bible that was given to me in 4th grade, which is cheap and kind of falling apart. Check out the inscription:
They used my nickname and spelled it incorrectly! Also, my last name is misspelled! Good grief. I remember at the time, even in the 4th grade, being really chagrined.
I found my mother’s American Standard Version presented to her when she was, like me, 9 years old:
I am not surprised that she received hers in recognition of “excellent work”. I’m sure she took it all very seriously, unlike me, who along with my schoolmates were giggling pains in the neck. I think we actually made our 5th grade Sunday School teacher cry. Mrs. Brinkmeier. I cringe to think of my elementary school depravity.
I found multiple copies of the Book of Common Prayer and a few more Bibles, including this ancient one inscribed to an ancestor, Emmeline Cornwall:
Emmeline too was singled out for her “punctual attendance, good behaviour and attention to her studies at the Sunday School.”
Emmeline’s Bible also includes helpful marginal notes…
“The king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language” (Esther 8:9, ESV).
…and a hand stitched bookmark:
We have not forgotten you, Emmeline.
I found my father’s Oxford University Press KJV, which his Mother had given him, hoping for the best.
Finally I unearthed the study Bible I had used in my small group back in the 1990s, borrowed from and, I confess, never returned to my old church. Maybe I will use it, although it may raise some PCA eyebrows .
Well, remember, a Bible is of no use unless you open it.
So open it already!
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Yesterday we were able to put away the storm gear and venture outside in relatively balmy temperatures in the 40s. Hopefully this weather system will persevere through next week when daughter #3 and DN will make the Big Move to Illinois. As you can imagine, the Move looms large in their lives and three-year old Katie has a limitless supply of questions.
Well, in case you were wondering, Illinois has been a state since 1818.
It is known as the “Land of Lincoln”–an excellent slogan, as they go. Three U.S. Presidents have been elected while residents of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Barack Obama. Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon. He graduated from Eureka College outside Peoria where he was student body president, played football and was president of his fraternity. Although he left Illinois after college never to return, Reagan is a true son of Illinois.
Illinois is a very flat state, lying entirely in the Interior Plains. Its highest point is Charles Mound at 1,235 feet (376 m) above sea level. It is located in the Driftless Area in the northwestern part of the state. At 279 feet (85 m) above sea level, the lowest elevation point in the state is located near Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Champaign is the 10th largest city in Illinois. Because the university and a number of well-known technology start-up companies are located there, it is often referred to as the hub, or a significant landmark, of the Silicone Prairie.
Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan joined forces in 1969 to write the song “Champaign, Illinois”, which Perkins released on his album On Top. This is a very cool, fun fact. Not many towns can say that Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan wrote a song about them.
“Yes, I certainly do enjoy Champaign, Illinois!”
My maternal grandmother was born and raised in Illinois–the Ravenswood neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago. After her mother, Anna Hough, and father, William Carnahan, were married in Colorado in 1889, they moved to Chicago where they lived thereafter and brought up their five children. They helped found the Ravenswood Baptist Church which still appears to be going strong.
The next few days are going to be a stressful time for daughter #2 and her famille as they wrap things up in Maryland and head west. I have no doubt they’ll all handle it with aplomb.
He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” (Genesis 26:22)
Yesterday we woke up to the world covered in a sheet of ice. The neighbor across the street got as far as the end of her driveway before she stopped and just left her car there and retreated into the house.
I had gone to the grocery store preemptively on Sunday, so I just hunkered down (once again) and stayed home. The OM worked from home as did daughter #1 and the rest of the world.
(Zoom calls at home.)
Moving along, today we remember Alexander Korda, the Hungarian–born British film director, producer, and screenwriter, who died on this day in 1956. He founded his own film production studios and film distribution company. He made a lot of good films, including some of my favorites, such as The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The FourFeathers (1939) and The Third Man (1949). Any of them would be worth watching as we toast this notable film producer. Because of his work with Winston Churchill before and during WWII, he was the first British film producer to be knighted.
And here’s a little Shakespeare for a wintery day:
(As You Like It, Act II Scene VII)
Plus, some wise words from C.S. Lewis:
We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” – Mere Christianity
We survived another frigid weekend in flyover country. At least the sun was out. Daughter #1 and I braved the arctic elements on Saturday to go to an estate sale where Lamar gave us our usual good customer discount and made our day. We then went out to lunch at our local pizza place which was hoppin’ with activity.
Later at home I worked on a puzzle I got for Christmas…
And the Amaryllis is blooming! Wowee! What a show!
We went to church–it was almost 10 degrees! Our Sunday School class was on Limited Atonement. We had a lively discussion in our 60s age group. The boy said they also had a lively discussion in their 20-30s age group, but some of them are still working out their salvation with fear and trembling. It is a blessing to be able to go somewhere and have a lively intellectual discussion.
After church we went to our favorite diner for brunch and daughter #1 met us there after her service. We wolfed down our food like starving Presbyterians after a worshipful morning. As Charles Spurgeon said, “There is hardship in everything except eating pancakes.”
We went back to church that evening for our annual meeting, which was pushing it considering the eternal threat of bad weather. But we had a quorum and conducted our business. Our new pastor starts in two weeks!
Meanwhile daughter #2’s daughters continue to enjoy outdoor winter activities to varying degrees…
Ida prefers to play inside and I’m with her…
We are bracing for an ice storm today. Here’s to further hunkering down.
*This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)
dual personalities 