Posted on December 10, 2012 by Pat Greene

The Red-Headed Menace just suggested that there needs to be Godspell 2: The Islam Edition.

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Posted on December 8, 2012 by Pat Greene

I,  along with many people — most people, perhaps — view Handel’s Messiah as a Christmas piece.  It’s not:  it covers the foretelling of Jesus, his birth, death, resurrection and return.  In fact, the “Hallelujah Chorus” occurs in Part II, which deals with his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, not his birth.

Likewise, I have always thought of the musical Godspell as having an Easter theme.  But, given that it is based on the Gospel of Matthew, it too deals with the entirety of Jesus’ life. All of which is to say, I just realized that “Prepare Ye” is really a Christmas song.

Time to update my holiday playlist.

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Posted on December 8, 2012 by Pat Greene
I found all of these links amusing… thought others might as well:
 
Newbie lawyer forecloses on BofA.  (This was originally reported on in 2011, but I missed it at the time.)
 

And finally, the best…

Monsters are people, too — a report on a scientific paper involving monsters, D&D, and whose lead author is fourteen.

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Posted on December 5, 2012 by Pat Greene

Jon Stewart’s take on Fox New’s coverage of “the war on Christmas.”

Happy holidays.

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Endearments.

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Pat Greene

I call The Rocket Scientist “dear.”

I call the kids “hon” (individually — as a group they are “you guys”), usually with my eyes shut and my hand rubbing the bridge of my nose in exasperation*: “Hon, just because the girl you like can’t hang out with you does not mean it is the end of the world.  Trust me, when you get older you will find plenty of women who are attracted to red-headed athletic guys who can intelligently discuss the differences between materialism and idealism, or give refutations for the teleological explanations for the existence of God.”**

I call Penwiper “sweetheart.” I don’t call Pandora anything; she and I have a truce which consists of us mutually ignoring each other’s existence.

I do not call anyone darling or sugar — not that I have any real objections to the terms, but I just don’t.

I do NOT call anyone anything cute like honey-bunny*** or cutie-pie or snookums.

Because, as I have been saying for years,  I am NOT cute.****

*Usually with the Red-Headed Menace, because although all of my kids can be exasperating, he occasionally turns it into an art form.
**Not actually a real conversation, although I have had very similar ones with him.
***Although, since Pulp Fiction came out, “honey-bunny” has a sort of dangerous, armed coke-addict vibe to it.
****”I am dark… and mysterious… and pissed off.”  Almost Famous.

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Well of course, silly. She’s a *cat*.

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Pat Greene

Penwiper strolls through the living room into the dining room, where I am sitting.

Me:  Good morning, sweetheart.
The Rocket Scientist, from the kitchen: I assume you were talking to the cat, not me.
Me: That’s right — how did you know?
RS:  You never call me “sweetheart.”
Me: True.
RS: Hey, I know where I fit in the hierarchy around here.*

*I asked him if he wanted me to call him “sweetheart,” and he said no, as long as I did not start calling the cat “dear.”

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[Insert own post here.]

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Pat Greene

Calming down, I’ve decided that, while I am still quite angry over the Senate refusing to ratify the UN Disabilities Treaty, calling people names is not productive and is in fact in violation of my values of respecting other people and engaging in civilized political discourse.

So I removed the post.

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Posted on December 3, 2012 by Pat Greene

Today’s words of wisdom from the Red-Headed Menace:

“I looked at the Intro to Calculus section at the back of my Trig book.  It was so cool!  Calculus is the Fantasy Football of mathematics!”*

“Santa is really creepy.  He’s like one of those serial killers from Criminal Minds, without the dead bodies.”

The kid is many things, but boring isn’t one of them.

*Please don’t ask me to explain what he meant by that. I have no clue whatsoever. Then again, I never took Calculus.

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This is for Sarah…

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Pat Greene

Because I promised my friend Sarah… Josh Groban (aka Neil Gaiman’s* younger lookalike) sings Kanye West Tweets.

For a long time, perhaps because of the sort of music he generally sings, I just assumed that Josh Groban would be a really boring person.  Then I saw him in Jimmy Kimmel’s “I’m F***ing Ben Affleck” video, and realized that here was a guy with a well-developed sense of humor.  Every interview I’ve seen with him sense has reinforced that.

Edited to add: And…. then there is this: your favorite Kanye West Tweet hand-stitched and made to order. (Thanks to my friend Cathy for the heads-up.)

*I would like to note that I have just had further evidence that Blogger is by and for geeks:  the text window recognizes Gaiman but not Groban or Kimmel.  Not that I didn’t know this already, I just find it amusing.

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My name is Pat, and I am powerless over…

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Pat Greene

I have just spent time reading over all my “Gratitude Posts.” (See sidebar.)  I feel pretty good.

I write acceptably well, but there tends to be a lot of overlap in the lists.  This is not surprising, since I wrote them at disparate times and without referring to previous iterations.  I am grateful for certain things on an ongoing basis, and it strikes me that while most of the repeated items are pretty significant in the world — my family, art, love, life, the ocean, the color blue — various stripes of Starbucks Venti flavored mochas are not.

It makes me not want even to think about how much money I have given the Starbucks Corporation.

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Unimaginable.

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Pat Greene

There are things in this world which I admit are fully beyond my imagination. I was reminded of them yesterday when talking to my friend Sarah about her trip to Uganda and Rwanda this summer.

In The Book of Mormon, the chief villain is a local warlord who terrorizes villagers. I cannot imagine what that must be like, other than I am positive it would be much worse than Matt Stone and Trey Parker portrayed.  There are so many little details about life in dangerous situations and places that I would never even think of. Sarah told me how, in the cities in Rwanda that she visited, the streets did not have street signs. She asked someone about this, and was told that that was to make it harder for soldiers during the genocide to find the person they had set out to kill.

I would never have imagined that.  There are probably many more details about living in a war zone — or, in the case of Rwanda, genocide — that I don’t know and fall outside my comprehension.

I have been reminded that, while life here is not perfect (especially as a woman), there are ways in which it could be much worse. The jokes about things being “first world problems” ring true: so much of what I face on a daily basis or which troubles me about life in America pales in comparison to living in terror.

Yet even as I type this, I face the fact that there are those who live in their own type of terror in this country. Maybe they do not face murdering warlords, but they do face homelessness and hunger, and lack of medical care. The social safety net is frayed and badly needs mending. Although I am a relatively empathetic and understanding person, I am completely sure that there are details about homelessness that I cannot imagine.  I know it is increasingly easy to become homeless in this country but what it would be like to experience on a first hand basis, especially for the most desperate homeless people living on the streets staggers me.

As we head into the beginning of the season of “goodwill to all men,” I need to think hard about ways in which I contribute to change to make people’s lives better. Charitable contributions* and political action come to mind first, but I’m sure there are other ways if I could think of them.

After all, it is the season of hope, as well.

*Our family contributes through the Combined Federal Campaign (a program for federal workers which deducts charitable contributions from paychecks) to a number of different charities.  Right now, those include Second Harvest Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and Heifer International.  Next year, I want to add Kiva and Doctors Without Borders.

Posted in Social Issues, The World | Tagged | 1 Comment

If you don’t care where you are, you’re not lost

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Pat Greene

Last Tuesday, I went to Grace Cathedral to walk the labyrinth.  Afterwards, I felt calm and centered, and decided to engage in a favorite activity, ignoring Google Maps and just driving around the city. Although I generally really dislike driving in San Francisco if I have to actually get somewhere (what do you mean, you can’t turn left anywhere along Market Street?), just wandering is fun.

In some ways, it is impossible to get lost in San Francisco.  You go long enough in any direction and you hit either a freeway or a waterfront.  As long as you know what to do once you hit the water, and as long as you don’t end up on I-80 and on the Bay Bridge going to Oakland (I’m quite okay with going over the Golden Gate), you’re fine.

I know which way west is from Grace Cathedral, and in any case the sun was low in the horizon.  I took California as far as I could, then cut over onto Geary to Point Lobos Avenue, and made my way to the Great Highway running along the seashore.

The sea was lovely. The sun was low in the sky, obscured by clouds, but with light escaping from behind them.  I have often said that the sea is rarely blue:  the waves were a dull gold, reflecting the muted sunshine in the late-afternoon sky.  At the edge of the ocean, the breakers were white and green.

I rolled down the window and felt the soft, cool, ocean breeze on my face.  The salt air was soothing in my nostrils.

I love the ocean.  I will take any reasonable opportunity to be near to it, even if only for the short while it takes me to drive the Great Highway down to Skyline Boulevard.  I was good:  I did not forsake my obligations at home to drive along the coast for another hour.

As I said, wandering San Francisco is fun.  I hope I can get lost there again soon.

Posted in My life and times, Travel (real or imaginary) | Tagged | 1 Comment

Silver Linings Playbook.

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Pat Greene

In my quest to see as many potential Oscar contenders as possible this year, this evening I went to see Silver Linings Playbook.  I’m not quit sure how I feel about it.

It has been rated quite highly: it got “Must Go” recommendations from both audience and critics on Fandango, a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a solid A from Entertainment Weekly.  And in many places it works.  Jennifer Lawrence is good, but Bradley Cooper is great.  And if there is no Best Supporting Actor nod for Robert De Niro, there is no justice in the world.

But there are other places where it fails to gel.  The relationship between the protagonist, Pat, and his doctor, for example: it was totally unrealistic. And there were other places where the movie felt off-kilter or forced.

So… I don’t know.  Maybe after I’ve thought about it for a couple of days, I can do a proper review.

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Posted on November 30, 2012 by Pat Greene

A post I’d like to point y’all towards: Default to kindness by Ian Welsh.  I heartily agree with what Mr. Welsh has to say.  (Via Mike the Mad Biologist.)

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Posted on November 30, 2012 by Pat Greene

I’ve been thinking about The Book of Mormon more. I’ve decided that whereas one of my favorite movies, Dogma, addresses the question, “What does faith look like?,” The Book of Mormon asks “What is religion good for, anyway?”

They are really tackling similar issues, albeit from slightly different angles.

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