Obama wins convincing victory in Iowa — chicagotribune.com This is my candidate. This is my choice for leader of the free world. This is the man I would be proud to call President of the United States of America. Yes, it’s ridiculous that a year or more of campaigning in just a few “early primary states,” and one night of essentially backroom kibitzing in little meeting halls all over one Midwestern state puts a stamp of approval on just one person in each party, with dwindling hopes for others unless they do well in a small Eastern state. By the…
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I haven’t blogged the big news in great detail yet, but here it is: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the Episcopal Church, is coming to visit St Nicholas in Elk Grove Village, my parish. She’ll be wearing her pointy hat and carrying her curly stick and all, and we’re over the moon about it, and also now the panic is setting in. Father Steve wrote a press release, and I’ll be sending various versions of it out to The Media, and area Episcopal and other churches, and probably to area social service agencies and support groups. The gist…
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We’re just back from our New Year’s visit to David’s parents; we took the new route and once again, it was no faster, but is a lot less complicated. It’s cold, cold, cold, and it snowed all last night and most of today. As we came back, along a long, 2-lane country road that leads to the new extension of I-355, we watched threads of blown snow whip across the blacktop. There are still farms out there, but the blight is already taking root: all kinds of chain restaurants and big-box stores are creeping along, with more construction obviously coming. Still,…
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Web Playgrounds of the Very Young – New York Times LOS ANGELES — Forget Second Life. The real virtual world gold rush centers on the grammar-school set. Trying to duplicate the success of blockbuster Web sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, children’s entertainment companies are greatly accelerating efforts to build virtual worlds for children. Media conglomerates in particular think these sites — part online role-playing game and part social scene — can deliver quick growth, help keep movie franchises alive and instill brand loyalty in a generation of new customers. One of my nieces is really into Webkinz. She breathlessly…
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Because what could possibly be cuter than this? ROFL « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures – I Can Has Cheezburger? [tags]LOL, LOLcat, LOLephant, ICanHasCheezburger[/tags]
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Here’s one version of jolly old Kris Kringle: a cute little white goat with golden horns wishes the whole world a Keroppi Christmas, via Joi Ito’s Web: Merry Christmas [kml_flashembed movie="http://video.sanriotown.com/flaon/us/loader.swf?key=5f1c1545436c043f" width="400" height="300" wmode="transparent" /] And here’s another version, which I also put in a post at the Holy Moly site, seeing as it’s a video of the Feast of St Nicholas as celebrated at Canterbury Cathedral, and we’re actually St Nicholas’ little Episcopal church in Elk Grove Village, IL: [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/bjSAn7piFIk" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /] The video is narrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, also known as “the ABC”…
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Wow! In spite of my sister Timmy’s poor opinion of my housekeeping skillz, the Xmess box is all packed up and sitting in the hall! Where it’s been for the last year. Actually, more than a year. Last year, I hauled it out of the garage sometime in early December, thinking that if I felt like it, I’d get around to putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. But last year was the first one after Mom passed away, and I never did get around to it, although I felt horribly anxious about the countdown to Christmas, and positively in…
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Salt Lake Tribune – As Cottonwood Mall is demolished, firefighters will train in the crumbling buildings As shoppers flood stores in search of last-minute gifts, firefighters already have bagged the perfect present: They got a mall. Through the end of January, the Unified Fire Authority will conduct extensive training exercises in Holladay’s now-nearly-empty Cottonwood Mall at 4835 S. Highland Drive. “It’s a once-in-a-career opportunity to go there and do drills and practices,” UFA Capt. Troy Prows said Friday. “We use structures that are ready to be destroyed for practice.” But rarely do those buildings come so super-sized – with 700,000…
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I’ll never sneer at single-use plastic cups in hotel rooms again. Did you ever wonder whether housekeeping transports all the dirty glasses to the kitchen to be washed in hot, sanitizing water? Well, they don’t, for the most part. At least not the folks who clean your room, they can’t be bothered because they probably have a quota to make by a certain time. A hotel with room service might do better, but you should leave your dirty crockery out in the hall to be collected… but who would think to leave all the used drinking glasses out there too?…
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 There are several “hot spots” in the Episcopal world, where churches or entire dioceses have already split away, or are working towards splitting away. One such is Falls Church, VA, site of one of the oldest and most wealthy Episcopal churches in the country, which became very conservative over the last few decades. Recently, they aligned with the Diocese of Nigeria, overseen by Bp. Akinola. But a significant fraction of the church did not go with them – although they didn’t have control of the property, so they began meeting nearby. The former Falls Church, now a CANA church, is…