• Hot Off The Presses

    Too Bizarre for Movie of the Week

    Jan Broberg Felt’s story could be pitched as a movie, and it would be turned down for not being believable. She was abducted twice as a child by the same man, and was brainwashed by him both times. Now 41 years old, she was about to speak and sign copies of her book at a recent women’s conference in Utah when her now-elderly former abductor tried to crash the meeting. Although he was prevented from entering and confronting her, he ran someone over with his van and was arrested. She’s now an actress who has a recurring character on “Everwood.”…

  • Good and Joyful Things

    Payback’s A Bitch

    There’s always a local angle on national news: The Salt Lake Tribune — Boy Scout decision disappoints LDS Church. You know, if you’re going to support a an organization that discriminates against people, you’d better be prepared to pay for it yourself, rather than expecting subsidies from government or corporate entities that do not discriminate. Waaah, I say. Waaah, waaaah, waaah.

  • Traveling Along, We're Adventurers

    Transarctic: He’s Off!

    Ben Saunders is on his way across the Arctic at last. Strangely, he’s got company, at least for the first few miles. There’s another expedition on the ice, and they were within sight of each other for a while. He contributes a new word: “Shreezing.” It’s that cold up there, people.

  • Connections

    Old Friends

    I heard from an old friend today. Not via email, or voicemail, or textmail… I got an actual card in an envelope with postage. It seems she’s laid up after a foot operation and is convalescing at her parents’ house, and is feeling lonely and out of touch. I was talking about this tonight over dinner with David and Steve – we got together for some good old fashioned American comfort food at the Olive Garden (yes, yes, primitive irony). In a few minutes, I’m actually going to sit down and write a letter to her (or maybe I’d better…

  • Uncategorical Weirdness

    Sindarin Calligraphy

    Today a post in Caveat Lector sent me on a short excursion down memory lane. Dorothea’s husband David is an expert in Sindarin (one of the Elvish languages), and consulted on the Lort of the Rings movies, as cited numerous places (but an interesting place is here.) She reports: We’re hoping he can get the class list in advance, so that everybody can have a Sindarin name as soon as they walk in. This afternoon we picked up some chisel-tip pens (in distinctly un-Tolkienian shades of garish blue, orange, and pink, but they were the only real angled chisel-tip pens…

  • Parish: Holy Moly (ECUSA)

    Church Lady / Web Dominatrix

    A typical Sunday at Holy Moly. We had a substitute priest, as Fr. Lundberg is on the beach in Florida somewhere. Our choir party-piece went off all right (a simple round: “When Jesus Wept”), although I blew the last line of the third repeat. However, I was singing third voice (of four) so I doubt anybody but Scott, the Ineffable Bass, noticed. Bob the organist played a variation on “Hylfrydol” by Ralph Vaughn Williams for the postlude – that seemed to go off well. After the service, he asked me to look into getting a small amount budgeted so he…

  • Home Improvement

    (Yawn)

    I’m going back to bed. I went to bed really, REALLY early (it started out as an afternoon nap). I woke up a couple of hours ago; my back was hurting so much that finally I came downstairs for a sandwich. As much as I liked our mattress when we got it, I have to admit I’m not getting the kind of back support I need out of it. It’s a pillow-top… probably should have gone with something firmer. Dammit. On a related note, we went out and bought a new sofa and chair for the family room. It was…