Paul Newman - R. I. P.

Paul Newman in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof".

From MSNBC News:

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money," has died, a spokeswoman said Saturday. He was 83.

Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman said he had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.

Newman was an all-around classy man. Grandpère and I saw him on Broadway in "Our Town" in 2003, playing the Stage Manager, his last performance in a play. Joanne Woodward was the artistic director. What a privilege.

To the photographers following him and snapping away before the play opened, "You get 60 of these," Mr. Newman quips, "you can trade them in for a Redford."

Mr. Newman said he was drawn to the role because the play's themes resonate with his own thinking, particularly lately: how important it is to notice the ordinary and take pleasure in the everyday.

"The play questions what we do with our time, how we use it, the things that we ought to be looking at, that we forget to look at," he said. "How gloriously special getting through the day ought to be."

These are values that Ms. Woodward, 72, shares. "It's a bang-on-the-head play,'' she said. "You look at this play and you say, 'Yes, of course.'"

Yes, of course.

Nevertheless, Mr. Newman went on to suggest that this limited-run nine-week production indeed had meaning in his long career. "I decided I would not go to my grave without coming back to Broadway," he said. "There is no second reason."

I'm gushing like a starry-eyed adolescent over a smashingly good-looking movie star, but it's not simply that. I greatly admire the grace, dignity, and generosity with which Paul and Joanne lived their lives, despite the often intrusive glare of spotlights.

I extend my sympathy to Joanne and their children and grandchildren.

Ann informed me of the news of his death and has a good word for Paul at her blog.

UPDATE: Here's a nice piece in Slate, titled "He Used His Fame to Give Away His Fortune", about Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children, written by a former camp counsellor.

RC Archbishop Hughes Says, "No"

From The Pew Forum:

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Roman Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has denounced a lawmaker's proposal to pay poor people to undergo sterilization as "an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life."
....

Hughes spoke out in response to a proposal by state Rep. John Labruzzo, a Republican from suburban Metairie, to combat poverty by offering poor women and men $1,000 to undergo reproductive sterilization and vasectomies. In addition, the lawmaker said he is considering whether to propose tax incentives for college-educated people to have more children.
....

Catholic teaching holds that tubal ligation and vasectomy are wrong, because they rob sexuality of one of its main purposes, the transmission of life.

More broadly, the plan "would also constitute a form of eugenics that the church and this country have always condemned," Hughes said.

Hughes is correct about eugenics but wrong about tubal ligation and vasectomy. That's not his business. I wonder if he knows that many in his flock have the surgeries, even without anyone paying them $1000.

Brilliant And Eloquent

"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is — from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to ... to our state," she said.

Sarah Palin in her interview with Katie Couric.

UPDATE: Yard sign from 5 O'clock Shadow at Daily Kos. H/T to Paul, the BB.

Passing Gas Is Against The Law?

From MSNBC News:

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A West Virginia man accused of passing gas and fanning it toward a police officer no longer faces a battery charge.

The Kanawha County prosecutor's office requested that the charge be dropped against 34-year-old Jose Cruz.
....

"The gas was very odorous and created contact of an insulting or provoking nature with Patrolman Parsons," the complaint alleged.

Cruz acknowledged passing gas, but said he didn't move his chair toward the officer nor aim gas at the patrolman. He said he had an upset stomach at the time, but police denied his request to go to the bathroom when he first arrived at the station.

"I couldn't hold it no more," he said.

All right, I'm on record. If I die soon, it's all Lapin's fault. I nearly choked to death from laughing when when I read this. I feel fine now, but I fear that I'm not out of danger, as there could be ill effects from the trauma later.

The Feast Day Of Lancelot Andrewes

Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Bishop of Winchester, was on the committee of scholars that produced the King James Translation of the Bible, and probably contributed more to that work than any other single person. It is accordingly no surprise to find him not only a devout writer but a learned and eloquent one, a master of English prose, and learned in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and eighteen other languages.

From James Kiefer at the Lectionary.

Before the day was done, I had to write about Lancelot Andrewes - and don't you love that extra "e" in his family name? - because I read a wonderful book called God's Secretaries, by Adam Nicolson, on the history of the writing of the King James Bible.

In my humble opinion, the KJB is a literary masterpiece. I'm told by those who know more than I that the translation is not as accurate as later versions, and I believe them, but the literary quality of the language is unmatched by any subsequent translation.

Imagine! A literary masterpiece written by a committee! However, the author says that the masterpiece came forth precisely because of its being written by a committee of scholars.

As Nicolson says:

The translation these men made together can lay claim to be the greatest work of prose ever written in English. That it should be the creation of a committee of people no one has ever heard of - and who were generally unacknowledged at the time - is the key to its grandeur. It is not the poetry of a single mind, nor the effusion of a singular vision, nor even the product of a single moment, but the child of an entire culture stretching back to the great Jewish poets and storytellers of the Near Eastern Bronze Age. That sense of an entirely embraced and reimagined past is what fuels this book.

Thanks be to God for Andrewes and the fellow members of the committee. The KJB served the church well for many a year. Now we have superior translations, but nothing even close to it in quality of expression.

READINGS:

Psalm 63:1-8 or 34:1-8
1 Timothy 2:1-7a
Luke 11:1-4

PRAYER (traditional language)

O Lord and Father, our King and God, by whose grace the Church was enriched by the great learning and eloquent preaching of thy servant Lancelot Andrewes, but even more by his example of biblical and liturgical prayer: Conform our lives, like his, we beseech thee, to the image of Christ, that our hearts may love thee, our minds serve thee, and our lips proclaim the greatness of thy mercy; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

UPDATE: Since I have seen references to Lancelot Andrewes as a "prayer warrior", I have included one of his prayers.

Faith

Coming unto God,
I believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him:
I know that my Redeemer liveth;
that He is the Christ the Son of the Living God;
that He is indeed the Saviour of the world;
that He came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief.
Through the grace of Jesus Christ
we believe that we shall be saved
even as our fathers withal.
I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.

Note: This entry is largely a repost from last year.

McCain Funnies

Stunt Over: McCain To Attend Debate Tonight

After a campaign "suspension" that basically amounted to a head-fake, the McCain camp has come full circle in less than 48 hours, announcing that the campaign is "resuming" and that the debate is on.

From Senator Harry Reid:

Reid: "Presidential Politics Has Not Been Helpful -- It's Been Harmful"

John McCain has not taken a stand on the bailout, "all he has done is stand in front of the cameras," Sen. Reid said at a press conference.

From TPM.

[House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi: McCain’s involvement 'a blip'

“He hasn't been involved in this, and now, as there's some discussion about putting this off, I don't think that we can do that,” Pelosi said on “Good Morning America.”

“I think Sen. McCain's involvement is sort of a blip.”

From Politico via TPM.

A Morning Chuckle

There are less than two months until the election, an election that will decide the next President of the United States. The person elected will be the president of all Americans, not just the Democrats or the Republicans. To show our solidarity as Americans, let's all get together and show each other our support for the candidate of our choice It's time that we come together, Democrats and Republicans alike. If you support the policies and character of Senator Obama, please drive with your headlights on during the day. If you support John McCain, please drive with your headlights off at night. Thank you for your participation.

With thanks to HolyFoolishness.

"Hmmm...."

From StoryPeople:

He just sat in the church looking up at nothing in particular & I whispered, "What are you doing?" & he said, "If Jesus had been a chicken would we have Weber grills all over the place instead of crosses?" & I had a hard time concentrating after that, too.

With thanks to Ann.

More Drama Than Duty?

From Sam Stein, quoting a Democratic congressional staff member, at The Huffington Post on McCain's contribution to the negotiations for a bailout:

But if the party was looking for leadership, it did not find it in its presidential nominee. Sen. John McCain, who on Wednesday said he was leaving the campaign trail to help steer a bailout proposal, may have just exacerbated the problems.

His arrival on Capitol Hill came shortly after the initial compromise was announced. And his presence at a White House meeting later in the day produced more confusion than results. Shortly after McCain convened with the president, Sen. Barack Obama, Treasury Secretary Paulson and congressional leaders, his campaign seemingly criticized all parties involved.
....

"Bush is no diplomat," said a Democratic staffer, "but he's Cardinal freaking Richelieu compared to McCain. McCain couldn't negotiate an agreement on dinner among a family of four without making a big drama with himself at the heroic center of it. And then they'd all just leave to make themselves a sandwich."

Oh no! Say it ain't so!

Thanks to Roger.

A Word From Jane On Johnieb

Don't be alarmed. It's nothing terrible. An MRI and a dead computer is all. Prayers requested for a good report for Johnieb from the MRI scheduled for 3:00 PM tomorrow (Friday).

Please click the link, as Jane has a few more details and also a gorgeous icon by our dear Luis Coelho. You must see it.