HAPPY PRIDE DAY!

OOOO, THAT'S FRUITY!

Don't blame me for the caption.  Blame Ann M on Facebook.

Picture from George Takei on Facebook.

HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS

Grab a cup of coffee

  
 Go out on a  date

  
    Relax at the  beach

    
    Spend some time at the  museum

    
    Dine out at your  favorite restaurant

    
    Take a drive around  town

Not my generation, that's for sure.  I had to laugh the other day when I was at my son's house.  There I was with my two grandchildren, each of us focused on our techie toys.   There was no point in turning off my laptop, because no one would have talked to me anyway.  Well, I could have read a book.

Don't blame me.  Blame Doug.

STORY OF THE DAY - SMILING EYES

She turned to me & whispered, don't you 
just love it when you get so excited you 
forget to breathe? & the thought of her 
smiling eyes still makes me laugh.

From StoryPeople.

JUST SAYING GOODBYE - LEAVING TOWN

To help save the economy, the Government will announce 

next month that the Immigration Department will

 start deporting seniors instead of illegals

in order to lower Social Security

 and Medicare costs.

Older people are easier to catch and
will not remember how to get back home.

I started to cry when I thought of you.
Then it dawned on me ... oh, crap ....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



I'll see you on the bus!


From that rascally Ann.  If Mitt is elected, don't be surprised...

STORY OF THE DAY - GHOSTS OF THE PAST

I'd probably have more trouble with the 
ghosts of the past, she said, if my 
memory wasn't shot to hell.

True!

From StoryPeople.

PLEASE HELP NACC WITH EXPENSES FOR GC12

Support Our Presence at General Convention

by Lionel Deimel

Dear Coalition Supporter,

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition will send our moderator, Malcolm French, and me, our Episcopal Church convenor, to the 2012 General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. The convention begins in less than two weeks. Along with other Coalition members and friends, we will monitor the progress of Covenant-related resolutions and will lobby for The Episcopal Church to take a strong stand against the Anglican Covenant. We will also distribute buttons and brochures to convention bishops and deputies in support of our lobbying efforts.

For the first time, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition needs to solicit financial help in support of our efforts. To date, coalition members have run our operations on a shoestring, and some members have made significant personal sacrifices to enable us to oppose what we believe is a disastrous change in direction for the Anglican Communion.

Our presence at General Convention will be our most expensive undertaking so far, requiring funds for travel, lodging, meals, buttons, brochures, etc. We estimate that this project will cost more than $3,000 US. Your help is urgently needed. Please consider making a generous donation to this important effort.

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition is an unincorporated organization, and contributions are not tax-deductible. However, donations of $25 US or more will be acknowledged with our Yes to Communion button that we will be distributing at General Convention.

By making a donation through PayPal, anyone in the world can contribute to this effort. Note that I, as Episcopal Church convenor, am acting as treasurer, so you will see both the Coalition’s name and my own on the PayPal pages when you make your donation using the button at the bottom of this post.

Thank you for your support,
Lionel Deimel
NACC Covnenor for The Episcopal Church

FATHER RON AND SARAH IN CONCERT

Fr Ron is our priest-in-charge at St John.  Ron and his beautiful daughter Sarah performed a benefit concert with the proceeds from the admission charge going to help rebuild St Matthew's Episcopal Church in Houma, Louisiana.  The church was destroyed by fire last year, and the congregation is raising funds to rebuild.  The building was insured, but the insurance money is not sufficient to cover the cost of rebuilding.

We passed a good time with Sarah and Ron as they performed soul and blues music.  The father/daughter duo make a great team.  Both sing and play guitar, but, in the concert, Sarah was the main singer, with Ron as the main guitarist.  How 'bout Sarah's sassy stance in the photo?

Sarah sang the slow songs like "I Can't Help Falling in Love" and "To Love Somebody" beautifully, but I predict that her forte will be as a blues belter, and I told her so.  The woman standing next to me seemed surprised at my comment.  I think she didn't know what I was talking about, although she was a musician, but Sarah understood my words - or pretended she did - as the great compliment I meant them to be.  I especially liked "Voodoo Shoppe" and "Mean" and...  You know what?  I liked all the songs, and it's hard for me to pick out favorites.  Ron moonlights as a DJ and blogger for WWOZ, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station.

Ron is a regular Renaissance man, for in his priestly duties, he does simple but excellent liturgy, and he gives damned good sermons...and without notes.  We are truly blessed to have him at St John.

Below is the list of songs that Sarah and Ron performed. 


Papa Don’t Preach
Voodoo Shoppe
Snake Bit Love
To Love Somebody
I will Survive
Everyday
Can’t Help Falling in Love
Organ Donor’s March
Little Red Riding Hood
I’ve Been to Memphis
The Only Exception
My Medicine
World of Chances
Oh What a Night
Mean
Jenny (867-5309)

PRAY FOR MARK ADAMS

Mark Adams was the only defendant at the Monday trial of Occupiers who was sentenced to do prison time.  Occupied Bishop George Packard writes:

For as long as I’ve known of OWS there’s been Mark Adams. He's the poster person for this phenomenon coming from somewhere else after his home was swallowed up in foreclosure. There are other parts of his story he should tell you, not me. Those details add fuel to that motor of energy inside him of, “Why not justice? Why not now?” He said to me last week that he “came to join a social movement in Occupy and found a family instead.”

I think that discernment is what makes his representation in Occupy so compelling. When others might be drawing from personal agendas he fulfills what Jesus said of Nathanael in John’s Gospel, “Here is a man of no guile!” (John 1:47) By no design of his, circumstances around him drop pretense…like a court room revealing itself as nothing more than a star chamber so Trinity can collect rents and swagger. 

Even as I prepare to pick up trash at Tompkins Park for my days of community service I still breath the air in freedom but my sweet brother languishes behind bars where he has started a hunger strike “for all those who are unjustly imprisoned.” Even from jail Mark Adams beckons to our better selves.

PICTURES THAT RESTORE YOUR FAITH IN HUMANITY

Interaction between Guatemalan girl and tourist.  Sweet!

Chicago Christians at Gay Pride parade apologize for homophobia in the church

Sign at an awesome bookshop

Villager carrying stranded kittens to dry land during flood Cuttack City, India

See the rest of the pictures at BuzzFeed.  Please click the link; you won't be sorry.

Thanks to Paul (A.)

LOUISIANA ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT ITS BEST

A one and a half minute video clip of Louisiana state Senator Dudley LeBlanc of Vermillion Parish, purveyor of the patent medicine, Hadacol, on You Bet Your Life television show hosted by Groucho Marx.  Alas, according to Wikipedia, by 1951 the company collapsed under a mountain of debt.

Hadacol was a patent medicine marketed as a vitamin supplement. Its principal attraction, however, was that it contained 12 percent alcohol (listed on the tonic bottle's label as a "preservative"), which made it quite popular in the dry counties of the southern United States. 
....

The label on the tonic's bottle clearly stated that the recommended dosage (1 tablespoonful taken 4 times a day) was to be taken "...in a 1/2 glass of water after meals and before retiring". However, some pharmacies in dry counties were known to sell it by the shot-glass and at least one bar in New Orleans' French Quarter was known to sell a "Tassel Cocktail" with Hadacol as an ingredient.

Several popular songs were inspired by Hadacol, including "Hadacol Boogie", performed by Jerry Lee Lewis. 

Video and link sent to me by an old friend.