we covet

Now that we actually have a good apartment, I find it extremely funny that Andrew covets all the other appartments in the house. We'll be walking along the side street and he'll say, "Heeeyyy, look at the one in the back! They have a deck!" Or, "Look at the one at the front, they have Chrismas lights!" We've already talked about moving to the apartment behind us, were it to become available. It's a two bedroom. (The othe other bedroom's would be for the cat.) Mind you, I suppose Andrew's coveting of the other apartments is on par with my coveting other people's mail. For the last week (week!) Miss Sonja Little has had mail sitting on the ledge. Does she even live here!? It makes me want to open her mail. Especially on days like today when I didn't get any.

Oh, and hey, we're leaving for BC in only 8 days! Hello snow and hot tubs!

upstairs inspirations

So we moved. Into a place just upstairs of where we were before. We now have a pantry so I feel like a real wife. Other benefits of the new place include a billion more inches of closet space, exposed brick (complete with covered up fireplace), and room to walk between the bed and the dresser. Trust me it's awesome.

We spent the weekend settling in to the new place. I love it so much I was inspired to get up early Sunday morning and make banana bread even before brunch. Then, to use up a large amount of our cabbage in one fell swoop, I made a big pot of borscht. The good kind. If you're looking for the secret Kootenay Dukabor Borscht recipe, here it is below. (And PS, it IS wonderful.)

In other news, can I just say it is REALLY hard to keep secrets - even Christmas secrets - from someone who you love, usually tell secrets to and happen to live with. Gah! Good thing we're doing our little Christmas next week so I don't have to wait too long.

Borsht for Fifty (Mary Hoodicoff)
16 cups water
1/2 lb & 1 tbsp butter
6 cups tomatoes, canned
1 1/3 tsp salt
1 medium beet
1 medium carrot
7-8 potatoes
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 cup chopped onions
8 cups chopped cabbage
1 medium green pepper
1 tbsp dill, chopped fine
2 green onions, chopped fine
black pepper

Fill pot with water and put to boil. In large frying pan, put in 1/4 cup butter and 3 cups tomatoes and let simmer. Into smaller frying pan also put 1/4 cup butter and 3 cups tomatoes and let simmer. Add salt to the boiling water. Chop carrot fine and also chop 1 tbsp beet fine, add the carrots, beets and remaining of whole beet to the boiling water. Peel potatoes and cut in half and add to water saving enough potatoes to make 1 cup diced to add later. Add a little more than half of the cream to the water and continue to boil. Next, add simmered tomatoes from large fry pan to the boiling water and vegetables in pot and continue cooking til the potatoes are cooked but not too soft. In the meantime, put 1/2 cup butter into large pan, add chopped onions and fry til onions are transparent then add 4 cups shredded cabbage. Continue to saute but do not brown. Take cooked potatoes from pot, also the whole beet (beet may be discarded). Add the diced potatoes to pot of boiling water. Mash potatoes, add 1 tbsp butter and the remaining cream. Set aside. Add the remainder of the cabbage to pot and watch closely so it does not boil. Turn off head and slowly add mashed potato mixture, followed by the remainder of tomatoes and fried cabbage and onions. Add chopped green pepper and a dash of black pepper, green onions and dill sprinkled on top.

daughter of an (almost) famous dad

I love that my dad, the man I used to argue endlessly with about such things as politics and the environment (and my curfew...), is now uber involved in saving the world by nuking nuclear waste. See below, or read the full artcle, "Haste to make waste into energy: New high-tech conversion methods are popping up."

A research team in Trail, B.C., for example, designed a facility to clean up hazardous waste from a Second World War plutonium production site in Washington state.

The project is run by an international management group, AMEC Inc., which owns the global rights to a process called GeoMelt. The technology uses temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees to melt contaminated matter that, once hardened, becomes an inert, glass-like solid that can be buried or recycled.

"It is a unique application for nuclear-waste treatment," said Brett Campbell, unit manager at the plant in Hanford, Wash. "We're doing something that no one in the world is doing."

Though the technology was first designed decades ago, it has been evolving and improving since. Now it is commercially available through AMEC, which hopes to attract customers in a variety of sectors.

"It's applicable to a mixed waste stream, not just radioactive [waste]," Mr. Campbell said. For example, he said, it could be used to treat hazardous materials such as asbestos.

John Stephens is senior project manager in Trail and part of the team that designed the Washington facility, which was completed this summer. He said the $90-million (U.S.) project will run over two years, enough time to prove to the U.S. Department of Energy that the GeoMelt technology is efficient before earning a contract to help clean up the site by 2028. He has no doubt it will pass the test.

"It's amazing that there is the technology that can deal with a problem that a lot of people have been agonizing over for 50 years," Mr. Stephens said, referring to the dilemma of what to do with nuclear waste.

"Somebody unlocked Pandora's box and now we can actually put a lid on it."

a miracle: a new post

I have been told by certain people to "Update your stinkin' blog!" but that my "blog doesn't really stink.... except for lately when there's been no updates." Now, I note that that same person is slightly ill with a terrible head cold (ahem, karma?). So, to give said person some reading material, here's a new post.

I feel as though blogging is a little hard right now.... There's so much that's different about life right now, and so much that's the same. It's taken me a while to get back into the swing of things that aren't (a) being with my husband, (b) taking care of general house business, and (c) catching up with people I've missed hanging out with in all the wedding hullabaloo. A short list of random things to get the blog energies flowing again......

1. Since having spare time to, umm, think I've taken up reading again. Right now I'm making my way through The Captive Mind. It's a supercool book that is written in the form of case studies on some prominent artists and writers in the satellite countries in the beginning of the Soviet Bloc. It's interesting to read how, one by one, they submitted their art, and their minds to the Centre.
2. We still don't have a couch (did I even blog about that mess???). But, wonderfully, it's going to facilitate a larger housewarming party than would be possible if we did have a couch.
3. A lesson. If you take your belly-button ring out because it doesn't look nice under your wedding dress, put it back in right away.
4. I watched to movie Casanova, and was pleased to find out that, indeed, there really was a real Casanova, who was even cooler than the one in the movie. Turns out the real guy was soooooo controversial because he was a sexual revolutionary who promoted the idea of "partner-pleasure." (WHAT!! You mean, women can actually enjoy sex??? Scandalous!)
5. I think Halloween is much smaller now then it was when I was little. Mind you...I have gotten bigger.

Still to come:

• Wedding photos (we're still waiting too!!)...although my dear husband has some on his blog.
• Books I can't wait to read
• Adventures in plumbing
• The division of labour

Got married.

Too "busy" to blog. More later.

how to hunt a fruit fly

'Tis the season. Here's some advice for those of you, like me, suffering from a fruit fly epidemic: build a trap. A fruit fly trap is economical and rather fun to build. Plus it makes you look like a friggin' genious/problem solver.

1. Get a jar or large cup.
2. Put a piece of banana at the bottom.
3. Make a funnel from a piece of paper. Ensure that the bottom part is almost closed but not quite. The idea is for the flies to fly in and not out.
4. Put the funnel in the jar so it rests on the rim.
5. Tape the funnel in place
6. Watch.
7. But not too closely. You don't want to scare them away.
   

If it gets too crowded in there, let them loose outside. Just make sure you close the doors and windows first.

does this box match my outfit?

It's moving time!!

On Saturday, Andrew's folks came in from Cambridge to help us with the new place. We measured things up and headed to home depot for some closet storage solutions. Cramming all of two peoples stuffs into a one bedroom place with only two closets is...complex. And since I refuse to give up any articles of clothing, and he refuses to give up any CDs, and we both refuse to part with any books it's not going to get any easier. While Andrew and his dad installed them, I took off the sliding closet doors in the bedroom. It's a good thing I have massive arm muscles muscles or I might very well have died being smushed between the two of them. (I have to work on my technique for next time.) After that, I installed a toilet paper holder and even used wall anchors (Special Tip: ensure they are FLUSH with the wall before installing screws.). All were amazed at my "good eye" for straightness when my line of installation turned out be be exactly level. So, if you're ever looking to hang a picture, you know who to call.

Yesterday, post-church at the meeting house downtown, we dropped off a bunch of boxes at the house, and them came back to my place for more. Andrew noted it was hot that I was moving heavy boxes of books in my nice cream-coloured, pink-flower adorned sundress.

Our new house newly decorated with a wall of boxes, and we sped of to the Family Reunion in the middle of nowhere/somewhere near St. Catherine's. Next year I may bring a box of "Hello, My Name is: _____" stick-on name tags, or suggest a rousing round of The Name Game.

Last night I learned that men with HIV/AIDS can decrease the amount of the virus in their genital secretions by getting circumcized. Although the research is new, this is a promising finding for the developing world.

Also, since Bean's comment on my blog last night I can't stop thinking about these guys and whether or not there might be a position there. Get back to Canada safe Beans, it will be nice to chat with you!!!

no limits to HIV/AIDS

On the first day of the XVI International AIDS Conference here in Toronto, what else is there to blog about but, umm, HIV/AIDS.

To begin, it's interesting. It's interesting that here in Canada AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Early diagnosis combined with treatment that is no more complicated than a single pill a day. Those who have HIV can postpone the development of full-blown AIDS for decades. And those who have AIDS can live into their 80s. Actually, the fact that they're living until they are senior citizens poses a new kind of problem. Time Magazine Online just did this amazing (I mean AMAZING) photographic expose called 'The Greying of AIDS'. It highlights some unique problems that have surfaced only recently...only since AIDS patients have aged to become heart patients, cancer patients, and altzheimer's patients (etc.) all at the same time.

But meanwhile, the situation in underdeveloped countries remains much the same. Avert.org's statistics page provides a frightening reality check. Over 38.6 million people world wide living with AIDS. Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS. In Africa, over 12 million children have been orphaned due to AIDS. By the end of 2005, women accounted for 48% of all adults living with HIV worldwide, and for 59% in sub-Saharan Africa. Half of all new HIV infections worldwide are in people aged 15-24 years old; this equates to around 6,000 every day. In the developing countries there are over 6.5 million people who are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs, while only 1.3 million are receiving the drugs.

And still we cling to the legalities of copyright that prevent cheap generics from being made. And still our government - all Western governments - fails to reach targets for development assistance. And still the US government and the Catholic Church refuses to distribute condoms or participate in safe sex campaigns. And still we hide behind a false hope that incites us to believe that this disease is limited to gay men, to Africa, to drug users. To people who are not us, not like us, not safe like us.

When will we wake up?

progress?

In the next few hours the third billionth cell phone will be produced.

The first billion phones took 6 years to produce. The second billion phones took 2 years to produce. The third billion phones took 18 months to produce.

Learn about the crazy effects of planned obsolesence and technology here.

minor battles

Planning a wedding is hard. It kind of never ends. It feels like it's this gigantic test you have to pass before you deserve to get married. It's like in the early Nintendo games: the bad guys just keep coming, and they get bigger and bigger and Mario and Luigi (I wonder who's who...) just have to keep fighting. Hiring a wedding planner is the equivalent of a warp whistle. Now wouldn't that have been cool.

Except of course that Andrew and I have this crazy idea that we can plan a wedding for under $12,000. (At first is was under $10,000, then under $11,000.............) The thing is, the expenses just can't keep going up. Our bank account just can't accomodate. And so we're always making choices - hard choices. We want to welcome our guests in style and in a way that suits our personality, our relationship and our guests. We want to honour our parents, and joyfully celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime day. We want to respect and love the people who are providing us with their services. And we want to make sure that we're going about the whole process in a way that's please to the Maker of Love Himself.

That's a tall order. Sometimes one or both of us gets a little frazzled. Or we start to think more about The Day than about The Relationship or The God who brought us to it. It's an interesting challenge trying to work on all those aspects simultaneously.

contrary commentary

Interestingly, the CBC show "The Contrarians" did a special on feminism today. After yesterday's post, I'm all about this stuff. Not the "feminist stuff" exactly, but rather looking into the choices available to women, the choices available to families. All this talk about individual callings and passions, and marriage and children...well, it's things to think about. Not that Andrew and I are looking to have children right away. But one day we will. And I want to be aware of my own desires and passions when it comes to my career and my children.

The Contrarians highlighted Professor Alison Wolf of the University of London who recently wrote an interesting article. And granted, she acedemic-alizes the issue, but makes some good points. Her main point is that our society places a higher value on those things that fall within an economic discourse (excuse the term): career, pay raises, salaries, etc.

The plethora of careers available to educated women today is amazing: anything their male counterparts do, women are welcome to do as well. Previously, well-educated, driven women would enter the workforce as teachers, governesses and nurses. Now, women of that description become CEOs, doctors, accountants, professors and lawyers. And as they do so, they have less children. Increasingly, Wolf suggests, our society provides disincentives to childbearing so much so that the disincentives

have become so high for upper-middle income families that the puzzle is not why professional women have so few children but why they have any at all. ...No society until recent times has expected love alone to support the family enterprise. To put it another way, parental love has never cost so much.

Wolf sheds light on the value we place on work done in the home. I agree with her when she notes,

[F]eminists and economists share the blame. For the feminist, unpaid home-based activity is labour performed under the lash of patriarchy. For the economist, unpaid work does not contribute to GNP and so does not exist.

Here we have a problem: we value work that has a dollar sign attached to it, and the work a stay-at-home parent completes doesn't fit the bill. Additionally, kids are getting more expensive. Our continued emphasis on the best education (which aims to create the best kind of productive, self-sufficient individual) mandates high-priced schools, tutoring, additional experiential learning and, throughout the process, the College Fund. Never before has our society seen such a huge inverse relationship between childbearing and education. This is not to say I don't value education, didn't love my undergrad, or am not continuing on the education track. It's merely to suggest that our society somehow has to re-evaluate what we value and find a way to make babies, the home, family and career work a little better.

Wolf notes that she herself was engaged in full time work out of the home while co-parenting her little ones with an also full-time working husband. She notes that she loved her job and was probably much happier working outside of the home than she would have been had she been a stay-at-home-mom. But she asks, "were my children happier because I worked outside the home?" And also, "was society better because I worked outside the home?"

Now those are interesting questions. Our society values a traditional upbringing that rears children with good manners, who listen to their elders, and eventually grow into adults, but we don't value the people who provide that upbrining.

Families remain central to the care of the old and sick, as well as raising the next generation, and yet our economy and society steer ever more educated women away from marriage or childbearing. The repercussions for our futures are enormous, and we should at least recognize this fact. This has brought enormous benefits.

What to do with all this information, I'm not sure. But as societal commentary goes, Wolf has hit the proverbial nail on the head.

women, home, kids and careers OR blog comment gone wild

I commented so much on Sarah's post that I decided maybe I'd post it on my own blog. As a conversation starter, Sarah asks about the ability of women to live their calling and their passions while in a relationship. She writes:

We spoke at length about the desire (emotionally, physically, mentally, socially) to get married ("As old as Eve," she said.) in young women and whether or not they continue with the dreams that they had before they were married. It's a question that isn't very popular to ask because the fear is that women can't do both - they can't be a wife/mother AND follow their calling.

Someone anonymously posted in response articulating the belief that good mothers are those that stay home with their kids. Not that I'm against women staying home with there kids, just think there are so many many options. Oh, heck, just read this.

I a little bit disagree with Anon. First off, the notion that for women, marriage is inseparable from a life of homemaking, babymaking and childrearing is outdated. There are hundreds of other possibilities that allow women the opportunity to pursue a career and a family. And I don't just mean daycare. The father could stay home, while the mother could work. One or both parents could stay home part time. Grandparents and extended families could network to care for children. One or both parents could work from home. A nanny or au pair could be employed. Perhaps Anon hasn't thought of these things, but the ideal of the stay at home mom is a simplistic, in-the-box answer the question of parenting and homelife.

What about those families who simply need two incomes to live moderately above the poverty line? What about those families where the wife is better educated or more experienced and can bring home more money than her husband? What if the woman is called to work outside of the home?

I don't think that the ideal of the mother staying home to parent her children is wrong. But I don't think it's the only answer. (This is where feminist theory has perhaps left us bankrupt…it's aim was originally to create choice, instead it only modified the boundary of what is acceptable and what is not.) God gives women passions and callings just as he gives them to men. Perhaps this means postponing children. Perhaps this means living close to a network of extended family (as was traditional for centuries). Perhaps this means staying home...but not necessarily for the whole of your child's under-18 years.

And just generally, in a relationship (ring or no ring, married or not, and babies or none) is it possible to live your passions and your calling? Absolutely. Of course, the relationship must be healthy and must allow the two individuals (…crashing rivers, anyone?) to truly BE individuals. Sometimes women have this idea of love/marriage as an all-encompassing, all-fulfilling (read: all-consuming) thing. And honestly, it's not, and it shouldn't be. Andrew isn't and never will be absolutely everything because there's a number of other people in my life that fulfill me in different ways: my sister, my mom, my best friends...God. You know. And, for me, there are things I feel God is calling me to do and to be. I'm certain that one day I'll be a mother...and with God's grace I'll be good at it. But I'm also certain that I'll have a career...a life outside of my husband and my children. I think that's the only way that I will feel fulfilled and able to continuously live and give for my family.

So...to add to the confusion...generally, I think you follow your calling.

thinks....

if you wouldn't drive with headphones in, why on earth would you bike with them in.

another science post

I feel like I should be renaming my blog something sciencey........


After the last post, my friend Beans asks, "So why is it lightening outside right now but no thunder??" Lisa, Madam Physics and Master of Other Science-Type Things, can you help? (PS all in favour of Lisa changing her blog name to "Lisa Knits and Does Science" say I.)

earthy goodness lost in translation

“The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet — it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars — that's the Biblical view.” Ann Coulter. Oil good; Dems bad. Jewish World Review. October 13, 2000.

It’s not just dumb Ann Coulter that thinks this way. And that’s a problem. And that has me thinking…thinking about the earth. Maybe I’m becoming a bit of an environmentalist, left-wing hippie. Maybe I always was and I’m just embracing. You know, it’s not just the ginormous, and incessant paper-wasting that goes on at work that gets me. No, it’s much more. It’s cars, and big trucks; the lack of recycling around campus; the lack of locally grown foods in the market (minus whole foods); it’s the dependence on oil; it’s the lack of awareness…of care that is so prevalent. Lately a lot of my spare brain time has been used up by thinking of the earth.

Ann Coulter’s opinion makes me want to puke feels wrong. It feels wrong for me. But it also feels inconsistent with what I know about the Word of God, and the character of God. Excuse me - I'm certainly not a theology student (but maybe working for the theological college is rubbing off), nor do I claim to know a lot about this stuff..... So take this for what it is, and let me know what you think.

First, let's be clear. The verse Ms. Coulter refers to is Genesis 1:28 which actually reads: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." I'm not quite sure how replenish got translated into 'rape' in Ms. Coulter's Bible.

Ok. I think first of all we have to acknowledge that the universe was the work of an all-loving Creator (and yes, you can still believe in evolution and think that). The love of God, in this context, must be extended to include a love for the inanimate, the plants, the animals and people. But nature in all its beauty and glory was created for humans - God saw benefits for humans in nature - therefore we should not be spoiling it. Rabbi Dr. Nahum Rakover, Chair of the World Jewish Congress, writes, "Man's connection to nature can restore him to his original character, to a natural state of happiness and joy."

Why the Jewish lit? I'm not quite sure, but I've been reading a lot of it lately. And while I'm not considering converting (the whole no Jesus thing, you know?) they have some good points. Turns out the Jews have been thinking about this stuff for a long time. Pretty much since Moses came down with those stone tablets. Well...not exatly. But as soon as there were Jewish scholars, it appears there were Jewish environmentalists.

Around 600 BC a Haggadic commentary on Ecclesiastes included the following 'verses': "When God created Adam, he showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him: See my works, how lovely they are, how fine they are. All I have created, I created for you. Take care not to corrupt and destroy my universe, for if you destroy it, no one will come after you to put it right" (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7). And this in 600 BC. The plow had barely been invented, let alone oil dripping tractors and genetically engineered foods!!!!

There's a lot more going on in my head right now. But as my blog posts appear to be running longer and longer (and I run the risk of you not reading this), I'll hold off for now and give you another dose of this earthy goodness later.

Breaking News: Monks too Tired, Birthday Ruined

Hoosier memento

The crazy hot-humid weather has me remembering last summer, and all the fun/crazy things about Indiana. Here's a taste...

1. Showering in heels to avoid killer cockroaches.
2. Shirts that say "Hoosier Daddy?"
   
3. Ass bikes personally fixed with the assistance of the hippies.
4. Riding on assbikes in skirts.
   
5. The random travelling Canadian songwriter who sang us love songs at the fountain.
6. Fun floormates, cool classmates, and amazing friends.
7. Chocolate cake made with sour cream. (Jon: you can do that!?!?!)
   
8. Being known as the crazy Canadian.
9. Celebrating Canada Day in red boxers, a red hat, and temporary tatoos.
10. Celebrating Independence Day more than the Americans.
11. BBQs. Beer.
12. Partying until dawn. Skinny dipping. Spending the day at the winery. And only looking moderatly hung over.
    
13. Chiggers.
    
14. Hicks in pick-ups. (Alternatively, being picked up by hicks.)
    
15. "Volim tebe" and other random foreign words/phrases. (FYI ass-boobi-man means "tool" in tajik).

So to all those Hoosiers out there, I miss ya'! If you're ever in TO, drop me a line.

poverty in discourse

Police shook up the Jamestown Crew this morning (CBC). Over 100 warrants were executed, and 78 arrests made by the Guns and Gangs Task Force. The aim was to limit the flow of illegal weapons from the US into Canada. That and the general make-the-neighbourhood-safer-more-drug-free-and-generally-better goal.
Generally better. What is that?
In part I think we mean - and should state - drug free, and crime free. But I wonder if we can say that without commenting on the other aspects of drugs and crime. If we can't comment on income. If we can't comment on education. If we can't comment on health. If we can't comment on family. If we can't comment on morality.
We can't comment on morality.
It's a problem. We can go so far in in our "war on crime and drugs" but then we must stop. For fear of offense. For fear we offend someone's morality, someone's values, someone's religion. And I get it. I get that it's not politically correct, or welcome. But I keep coming back to the facts.
What are the facts?
There's the teens who have promiscuous sex, who have babies out of marriage, who raise their children alone. There's mothers without education, who work the dead end jobs after school and on weekends just to pay the bills, nevermind activities and field trips.
And there's fathers who don't know they're fathers. And the fathers who pretend they're not fathers, or who escape fatherhood through drugs, or crime, or both.
And finally, there's the kids who cry and are hit, who play amongs needles and condoms. The kids who grow up as burdens, and grow into troublemakers. Denied access to schools, to activities, to resources. Denied access to love.
Communities denied access to love. Not even communities, perhaps. Spaces without either commnity or love. Without family.
I know where I come from. Upper. White. Middle class. Two-income home. Daycare. Education. Health. Love. Accountability. Community. Family. And maybe I can't comment because I don't know, haven't experienced. Not applicable.
Not applicable? I wonder if love, accountability, community and family have to be as dependent on the previous variables as we make them. I know there's brokenness in all communities. But I wonder if there's not some balance to be struck between poverty and support, between the projects and community, between food stamps and family. I wonder what use it is to provide income without accountability, to provoide housing without homes or community, and to provide food without the nourishment of love and family.
And I wonder how much longer we will insist on commenting on the facts of poverty without relaizing it is entwined within issues of family, of intimacy and of morality.

the real civil society

The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying "This is mine" and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murder, how many miseries and horrors might the human race have been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes of filling in the ditches, had shouted to his fellow men,..."the fruits of the Earth belong to all."
--Jean Jaques Rousseau

"Surely this was the Son of God!"

One God. One God in whom all things are possible. All things but one.
"Abba! Take this cup...if there is any other way...but Your will be done." My Son, there is no other way.
It begins with a kiss. It begins with taunting and mocking, beating and striking, stripping and flogging. "Are you the King of the Jews?," perhaps with a sneer.
"I Am. And you will see me on the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Shouting. Yelling. Screaming. "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
An offer of release from Pilate. "CRUCIFY HIM!"
Taunted. Mocked. Beat. Struck. Stripped. Flogged. And at 3:00, crucified. Criminals at the right and left hands of the Son of Man, while soldiers at Your feet lay claim to your clothes. 6:00, darkess. 9:00 death.
And now we wait.

Abby's mailbox

Dear Abby;
On the subject of strange physical anomalies, what do you think it means if a person has a second toe (the 'pointer' of the toe world, if you will) that is longer than the first? Just yesterday I read on the internet that people with longer second toes are much more likely to become werewolves than us folks with more common toe-length distribution. Incidentally I happen to quite like this girl who posesses this attribute. Naturally I'd like to find out the truth before things with this girl get too serious (and more importantly, before the completion of this current lunar cycle). Hrm.
Wondering in Waterloo


Dear Wondering;
I understand your concerns about strange physical anomalies - particularly when they affect those we love, ahem like. There are really a number of intertwined issues here that must be addressed. Let’s see. I should begin by saying that all people are equal under the laws of Canada and the laws of God’s love, regardless of whether they have strange physical anomalies like multi-coloured eyes, or long toes, or split ends. I suggest first treating this girl as an equal and trying to forget about her toe. However, given the recent Wikipedia research showing that such persons are more likely to become werewolves I do suggest that you continue to monitor her behaviour as we approach the changing lunar cycle. Key signs to look for would be longish hair covering the body, pointy ears, and pig-like snout. Avoid contact during this dangerous time, but do call (perhaps use a pay phone so she is unaware of your whereabouts) and ask how she’s doing. Grunting, snarling and growling are noises to watch out for, but could also just be signs of PMS. I also caution you to not make assumptions here, as the research is unclear regarding the ability of females to transform into werewolves at all.
A subsequent issue is in regards to the relationship you and this girl already have. I have some concerns about the chastity issue, considering you have clearly already seen her feet. Remember, women should arrange to wear clothing that never tempts their male friends. I sure hope you haven’t seen this girl in her swimming outfit unless you’re prepared to marry her.
Abby

eye questions

Q: If you have two different coloured eyes, what do they list your eye colour as on your passport and drivers license? For instance, Kate Bosworth. Two different coloured eyes. And clearly she travels a lot, given she's an actress and a model. So she must have a passport.

I suggested that perhaps they used whatever hand you were. So, if you had a right eye that was brown, and a left eye that was blue AND you were right handed, perhaps they would say you had brown eyes???? What do you think?

Also, I wonder what kind of impact this has on people who aren't as famous as Kate. So little multi-eye-colour Jane Doe crosses a border with a green-eyed passport but really has one blue eye too, what do they say? Do they let you pass????

and speaking of cereal boxes

they're a lot less cool now.

tribute to the back of the cereal box...

i hate laundry.
and apparently, i much prefer the handwash, God-dry method to walking the 50 meters to the laundromat. unfortunatly, i don't have a drying rack. so i'm all about the "find random hanging places and use them" method. so...if you come over right now we'll play a game: How many underwears can you find??

. . .

brought to you by Kellogs: how many horses can you find?

in need of a little Robin Hood

ahhh, the joys of neo-liberalism:

"One argument frequently made for public housing is based on an alleged neighbourhood effect: slum districts in particular, and other low quality housing to a lesser degree, are said to impose higher costs on the community in the form of fire and police protection. This literal neighbourhood effect may well exist. But insofar as it does, it alone argues, not for public housing, but for higher taces on the kind of housing that adds to social costs since this would tend to equalize private and social cost."
-Milton Freidman, in "Capitalism and Freedom", p 178

keep trying

FYI you probably aren't from BC if you think Osoyoos is "something like soya sauce."

Refer to this blog entry.

wisdom in the mail

A mom-card arrived in the mail today. Scrawled on the outside over the seal were these words:

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
-Rainer Maria Rilke (as translated by Stephen Mitchell)

Jesus saves

My darling Canucks aren't doing so well. Clearly they need some divine help...

the above and following

The thoughts...are not mine. They came freely to me, and I give them freely away. I have no "intellectual property," and I think that all claimants to such propert are theives.

I am well aware that you cannt give your thoughts to someone who will not take them, and I am prepared for that. I would like to be agreed with, of course, but the rules of publication require me o be willing also to be disagreed with , to be ignored, and even to be disliked. Those who are so moved by this book to disagreement or dislike will take discomfort, I hope, from hearing that some of my readers treat me kindly.

Kindness from readers is something that no essayist (and no writer of any other kind) has a right to expect. The kindness I have recieved from readers I count as the only profit from my work that is entirely net. I am always grateful for it and often am deeply moved by it.

But kindness is not - is never - the same as complete agreement. An essayist not only has no right to expect complete agreement but has certain responsibility to ward it off. If you tell me, dear reader, that you agree with me completely, then I must suspect one or both of us of dishonesty. I must reserve the right, after all, to disagree with myself.
--Wendell Berry

__________________________________
The following has nothing to do with the above.

The lovely Davina reminded me of an operation I recently performed in which her old brain was removed and a new brain implanted. (See here for details.) Fantastic results have been observed. As such, the proceedure* is now open to the rest of the public. Partial brains available too. Please contact for a full listing of services and rates.

*patent pending

staging an investigation

My housemates are right about many things.... On the issue of fishnets, however, I cannot agree. I am of the opinion that, worn right, they can be both classy and sexy. B only wears them on Halloween, while K refuses to wear them at all because they are trashy and for hookers ("prostitutes wear them").

What's the verdict folks? Fishnets: classy, sexy, attractive, hideous, trashy or hooker-esque?

fights, farmers and forms of gas

i'm all for causes...fight the good fight and all that. and i do love farmers. and food/agriculture in general. but i can't help but wonder if driving tractors around queens park isn't a little bit of a waste of gas? especially when the farmers are asking for more subsidies. do they have the money to be wasting gas?

on top of that, it's farm gas. which, although its a pretty colour, it tends to be less pure.

unless, maybe they're burning biodiesel. i'd be ok with it then.

opportunity knocks

i may not know what i'm doing with the rest of my life, but i sure do know i won't be working for Shell.

Commie commissioned poetry

In 1952, the Czech national poet, F. Hrubin, writes this.

Z kominu se kouri
slunce oci mhouri
mhur si oci mhur
kdyby se z nich nekourilo
bylo by nam hur

Now, for those of you who don't speak some sort of slavic language (what, you don't speak Czech!?!?), the translation is as follows.

Smoke from smokestacks runs
squint-eyed is the sun
squint, sun, squint your eyes
if it were not for the smokestacks
worse would be our lives

Gotta love Communism.

a cockroach reminds you of...me?

Quite plainly, I was unsure whether to be touched, or disgusted.

Then you recounted the story of how I used to shower in heels due to the pitter-patter of little feet that occasionally graced the presence of our shower. That's cockroach feet, not kid feet. In my opinion, it was only logical. Cockroaches tend to be about two inches long and one inch tall. How better to stay decidedly away from them then to wear three inch heels? Plus, it was kind of hot showering in shoes, if you know what I mean.

So I guess having cockroaches remind people of me isn't the worst thing.

plurality of truth in the singular

Maybe ignorance is bliss. Maybe.

I can remember beliving the creation story. I can remember believing the entire Old Testament. I'm not sure if I would have become a Christian had I not bought in to the whole Bible as is. As truth.

My assumptions have been challenged, but never so much as this year. And never so much as now.

I'm reading a book on Jewish history. Written by an anthropologist who grew up Jewish, who doesn't believe any more, but has renewed at least the practices of the Jewish faith for his children. He writes a convincing account of "actual" Jewish history that better matches the historical record, but not the Old Testament. Interesting. Logically then, we should discount the Bible as a historical document.

And that's when it hit me. Of course we should discount the Bible as a historical document. Instead, we must view it as literary truth. That is, it is the story of a people who were often oppressed by never - even in exile, even when worshipping idols - gave up their God. It is the story of a God who never let them forget Him. The Law, though inspired by God, was written by human hands, many times over, in many different places. The story of the Jews is a story of oppression, exile, unity, rebuilding, and oppression and exile again. And everywhere they went they took the Law of their God, painstakingly copied out by scribes.

And they made mistakes. And they translated it into at least four languages within its first few hundred years. And there were scribes more devoted to the High Priests than to God. And there were High Priests more devoted to Kings. And there were Kings more devoted to money then God. And there were people who followed, wherever they were.

But no matter what, it was the Law. And it was "truth".

But more important than the Law, was the God who had given it to them. The fact that the Jews never gave up their God must be considered a feat in itself. Their God was an idea that was not represented by gold, or wood, and could not be fashioned out of human hands. Their God could not be physically with them, could not be picked up and moved by them. And yet they believed He was always with them. Their God, so great that even saying His name was fearful, was the Most High. And what was His Holy Name? It was El. It was Elohim.

El - the singular God. The presumed God of all gods, the King of kings. And Elohim - the singular proper noun they used when they, with fear and trembling called Him. Elohim - the singular proper noun with a plural ending. When they whispered His name, when they exalted Him, when they thought about Him, when they studied the Laws He had given them, they proclaimed something highly paradoxical: the oneness of Him, and the oneness of His comprehensive all-inclusivity.

The way and the truth and the life. El. Their way and their truth and their life. Elohim.

The Torah, the Talmud, the Bible...truth, ok. But in the end, the most powerful truth, the greatest miracle is the El-Elohim God that never let go of His people

The more Word, the more life;
the more study and contemplation, the more wisdom,
the mores counsel, the more discernment,
the more charity, the more peace.

Do not separate yourself from the community.
Trust not in yourself until the day of your death;
judge not your fellow-,an until you have come to his place.
-Rabbi Hillel


So nice to escape the city, if only for a weekend. So nice to read and think and write. And so good to be back.

geeks and Chinese tweaks

Censorship!?!?!?
Google?????

Check it out (http://zebrowski.blogspot.com).

srecan dan zaljubljenih, love days and i want a romantic tow truck ride

First I want to thank Lisa for corroborating my story that serbo-croatian is, in fact, one of the most terrible and difficult languages out there. So, just in case she doesn't come here to comment, I will share her words: in regards to the phrase "happy love day" (srecan dan zaljubljenih), she says, "Wow. Is that a real language?" And this coming from a speech pathologist. Yes Lisa, yes it is.

Now, in regards to the second order of business, we have my serbo-croatian lesson (lekcija srpski-hrvatski), during which I discovered that they do not in fact have Valentines Day at all. Only they do. See, because they are Orthodox, they don't have Saint Valentine, but instead have substituted Saint Trifun, who, in effect has nothing to do with love at all because that's not what Orthodoxy is about. Really. Because it's a lot about suffering, and dying for causes, you know? And besides, earthly love is fleeting, and no one should celebrate that let alone feel that because he/she should be more concentrated on loving God. But, in the end, the people over in Serbia and Croatia (don't tell them I just grouped them together like that) it's all about corpratism and being like the West, becasue that's cool, so they now have Valentines day, with Saint Trifun, called dan zaljubljenih, which, in actual fact, just means happy love day. I definitley approve...it's much more explicit anyway.

So third, in regards to this Valentines/Trifun/love day, I want to salute all those phenomenal romantic things that seem to be happening to a lot of people these days (see the reference to romantic tow trucks in the title). Sigh...maybe love is in the air.

trapped

A pidgeon got into the subway station at Spadina today. In, and then all the way down to where the trains come. Tricky business at the Spadina station...a lot of flying, and manuvering.

some things are sacred

I understand the rationale behind gym's playing uptempo remixes of popular songs. But the Beatles!?!?! The. Beatles.

Incredible. I thought some things were sacred.