Archive for 7/4/2008 - 1 Tamuz, 5768

I’ve heard the complaints from local fans about how the Cardinals are sucking this year.

No, I’m not arguing that they are playing at their top form.

I certainly like the recent winning streak, but there’s no arguing that they still have a won-loss percentage under .500. How horrible.

We’re so used to the Cardinals doing well that we forget something. There are 6 teams in the National League right now doing worse than them.

Sure, you say, but there are 9 doing better!

OK. As I said. I’m not arguing that the Cardinals are at the top form.

There are lots of places online you can find a list of the team that won the World Series each year, or the pennant. But not a lot of places you can find a list of who finished dead last. I went to Baseball-Almanac.com and looked at the annual standings. Just for the National League.

I only went back to 1982. Three reasons.
1) 1981 is tricky because it was split by the strike.
2) I know what I need to know prior to 1982 from elsewhere
3) The Reds finished last place in 1982 completing the list I hoped to complete. (To be honest, I was surprised I finished it by 1982. I thought I would have to go back further.)

Between 1982 and 2006 here are the current teams in the National League and the number of times they have finised dead last (as measured by won-loss percentage. There were a few ties.)

Mets 2
Phillies 3
Braves 3
Marlins 2
Nationals 1
Astros 1
Reds 1
Brewers 1
Pirates 5
Cubs 3
Padres 3
Dodgers 1
Giants 1
Diamondbacks 1
Rockies 0
Cardinals 0

The Rockies are still a new team. (1993). Give them time.

To find a year where the Cardinals finished dead last? 1918.

That’s right. 1918.

(I don’t have to go back through the standings at Baseball Almanac.com I read this statistic in a St. Louis Cardinals statistical compendium published in 1983 after the 1982 World Series, so since I have gone back to 1982 in my own research, I know it still stands.)

The list above might also give Chicago Cubs fans something to cheer about. The Pirates have been the annual vacuum cleaner more times than them — in the past 25 years at least.

Are you going to be in Collinsville, IL this weekend at the North American Science Fiction Convention, hosted by Archon? (NASFiC doesn’t occur every year…it only occurs when the WorldCon isn’t in North America, and WorldCon is in Japan this year. Archon won the bid to host NASFiC. Should be huge. Should be fun.)

I am.

If you’re there, and are wondering…hey, where’s TransylvanianDutch? (or if you know me offblog, where’s John?) Here’s a list of where I am likely to be. Of course, my schedule is open to change. I’m not a panelist or anything, this is just a list of the activities from the program guide (on the website linked above) that jumped out at me and said: Hey..I’m interesting.

Thursday

1 pm - Graphic Novels and Comics - why we love them (Depending upon how late I wake up Thursday morning and get my *ss down to Collinsville I could miss this)
2 pm - Open Blog Insert Foot (don’t want to miss this tho)
3 pm - Guide to Small Press Publishing
or Torturing Characters
4 pm - early dinner
5 pm - Barri Bumgarner’s Reading
6 pm - Gary Hanak concert
7 pm - How to write realistic violence
8 pm - More to St. Louis Fandom than Archon (not a panelist, but I know several panelists, and there is a distinct possibility I will be talking a bit during the panel, since I am active in local fandom)

Friday

10 am - Is there room for a god in a science fiction universe
1 pm - Writing YA SF/Fantasy
3 pm - Crossing genres
4 pm - Recording your stuff
5 pm - Bardic Concert
7-9pm - Break from NASFiC - drive West to Hartford Coffee Company for open mic
10 pm - Luke Ski concert

Saturday (you’ll notice this is less full. Will probably visit the dealers room, art show, etc on Saturday because the panels looked less interesting.)

10 am - Publishing short stories
11 am - HP Fan Fiction — or maybe an early lunch
12 - SF/F poetry
1 pm - Tom Smith concert
7 pm - Masquerade

Sunday

11 am - Elizabeth Moon reading
12 - Ethics of Self Promotion
2 - Heroes
3 - Preparing a manuscript for submission
4 - Closing ceremonies

Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night I will be in the Filking Room. Filking. Get your mind out of the gutter you muggles! Filk music is Folk music for narrow values of ‘o’. (Most likely etymology is that it was a typo in an early newsletter that caught on). Most filk music is song parody (popular songs with new lyrics written with SF/Fantasy themes) but there is original filk as well. Filks I’ve written.

You can purchase “possessed’ books. Whenever someone walks by, one of the books will start moving towards them and emitting spooky sounds. (Video clip at link)

Only problem is my shelves are so crowded, I’m not sure I want to take up room with fake books just for the gag. But maybe during the month of October.

When I first saw the initial theme (family photos) for the Aug 1 Carnival of Genealogy, I noticed nothing wrong with it. Which is strange, since I have written over the years several blog posts involving copyright issues.

For example

1) When Google was sued for copyright violations,
2) The debunking of Poor Man’s Copyright by Snopes and myself.
3) Elvis Presley entering the public domain in Europe
4) Martha Reeves’ complaint to the FTC about Ebay
5) And my own violation of copyright law regarding photographs back in 2003

So I should have spotted the issues involved, but others did.

So the theme got changed to moral/ethical and legal issues we’ve experienced involving genealogy or genea-blogging.

I haven’t been researching my genealogy or genea-blogging very long. But I can think of one issue I’ve faced. I’m putting together a family website with all of the information I’m gathering from my research. It’s password protected so only family members will be able to access it. However, in listening to a tape recording made of Relative A who passed away several years ago, he made a comment about a dispute he had with Relative B. A dispute he claimed caused him to cease speaking with Relative B.

Relative B is still alive. I’m not sure he knows why Relative A stopped speaking with him – for if he did know, I suspect it was a dispute that could easily have been worked out, as I think Relative A was unfortunately misinformed.

I’ve decided there is no good that can come of putting the information on the website. Or of telling Relative B, since the dispute can no longer be resolved, and it’s even possible Relative A exaggerated a bit on the tape when they said they had ceased speaking with Relative B. It’s possible Relative B never knew Relative A was upset, and if so, I have no desire to inform him now.

It’s on the tape. Several others have copies of the tape if they wish to listen to it. It’s not like I’m burying the information. And it’s the only family dispute of this nature that I am aware of. I knew Relative A well, and the idea he would cease speaking to anyone over anger is surprising – but as I said, if he wasn’t exaggerating, I think he was misinformed about an action Relative B took.

Obviously, I also faced an issue of how much to say in this post.

Hi ho hi ho
It’s off to school we go
With razor blades
And hand grenades
Hi ho hi ho hi ho hi ho

Starting off the StlBloggers Blog Carnival, I came up with the topic of “High School”. Not only is the question of High School a traditional one in some St. Louis circles, this is to be a monthly Blog Carnival, and while school started in September in my youth, it now begins in August for many. Unfortunately, now I have to write something about my own experiences, and it’s my fault.

I’ve already written a lot about my Junior year.
1) My paralysis
2) Heroism and dealing with paralysis
3) And a work of fiction I wrote based extremely loosely on some related events

However, I’m sure some might argue that I haven’t written about my Junior year of high school, but only about four months I spent in a hospital away from high school, and about one high school experience that may or may not be fictional. (Only ‘Celia’ and I know the truth)

I’d write about watching the Challenger explode, but unfortunately, that happened during those four months, so I can’t call that a high school experience either. Those four months are much more memorable than anything else from those four years.

I did spend two and a half years in high school debate, from which I remember only the mantra of Stock Issues: Solvency, Harms, Inherency, Topicality, Significance! (I find it funny that the wikipedia article lists a ‘classroom appropriate’ variation of Solvency, Inherency, Topicality, Harms, Significance. In the 1980s I was certainly somewhat aware of Star Wars, but I was not the Sci-fi geek I am today, and I’m not sure I would have recognized the acronym. Luckily, our instructor found the other order appropriate enough. And I would later work the acronym into a popular open mic poem.)

Senior year I switched from cross-x debate — which I basically sucked at — to some other events sponsored by the National Forensic League, such as original oratory and poetry interpretation. Back then Cross-X was handled separately at my high school from all the other competitions, which were more theatrical in nature, so I ended up switching cliques and hanging out with the drama club. That was fun. There were actually some cute chicks in the drama club. I even won a first-place trophy at one competition.

I ended my senior year by delivering a speech at my high school graduation. I wasn’t valedictorian. Actually, far from it. But anyone with a GPA over 2.0 could submit a speech, and some committee of teachers or administration chose which one they wanted. Mine was chosen. The speech was based on 1987 being the 200th anniversary of the Constitutional Convention. Ben Franklin had a great line at the closure of the convention about the sun engraved on the back of a chair “‘I have, often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at [the sun] without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.” I of course made the parallel to commencement not being an end, but a beginning. Cool? And I got to deliver the speech at sunset. So I am sure some people looked from the sun to me and thought “did you plan this?” and of course, the answer is ‘no.’ But fortuitous events occur.

I think that’s enough about my high school days for now. Hopefully some other StlBloggers have more interesting stories to tell.

On a mailing list a couple weeks ago, we were discussing who had famous relatives. I brought up my questionable oneworldtree genealogy of course.

In the past day a couple newcomers added to the thread. One said he was related through marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln.

I thought about the obvious joke “You’re married to Mary Todd Lincoln?”

But came up with a better response.

“Through marriage I’m related to Jesus. My second cousin, once removed, is a nun.”

Well, she is.

Apparently a poet is putting up a new form of poetry around Manhattan. He is calling himself “Nick Beef” which is a reference to an empty grave next to the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald.

(Click to enlarge)

The words in Beef’s dieku above aren’t just references to chess pieces but to actual moves that can lead to a checkmate.

(source)

more dieku (including one that attacks my 10th cousin)

27 years ago, during the summer of 1980, I read 100 books for the local library reading club.
I found the list going through some boxes tonight.

I know, this is insane, but here’s the list of 100 books. These are the books I read the summer after fifth grade, in order. I think the list may say more about the 11 year old I was than I would want to say, but the scary thing is, I don’t think I’ve changed much.

Doris Gates – Blue Willow
Stewart Graf and Polly Anne Graf – Helen Keller
Judy Blume – Blubber
Jean Craighead George – My Side of the Mountain
Judy Blume – Iggie’s House
Agatha Christie – Curtain
Judy Blume – Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret
Ellen Raskin – The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean, Noel)
Betty MacDonald – Hello, Mrs Piggle Wiggle
Jean Lee Latham – This Dear Bought Land
Betty MacDonald – Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Marguerite Kohl and Frederica Young – More Jokes for Children
Joseph Rosenbloom – The Gigantic Joke Book
Helen Hoke – The Big Book of Jokes
Jack Stokes – 107 3/4 Elephant Jokes
Phillip Orso Steinberg – You and Your Pet Dogs
Lilo Hess – A Puppy for You
Lilo Hess – Life Begins for Puppies
Syd Hoff – Syd Hoff’s Joke Book
Charlotte Baker – ABC of Dog Care for Young Owners
Seymour Simon – Discovering what Puppies Do
Cynthia Overbeck – Tippy the Fox Terrier
Margaret Davidson – Seven True Dog Stories
MacDonald Educational – The Dog Family
Jane Sarnoff and Reynold Ruffins – The Monster Riddle Book
Lynn Hall – Barry the Bravest St. Bernard
Thomas Rockwell – How to Eat Fried Worms
Syd Hoff – How to Make Up Jokes
William Gerler – Riddles, Jokes, and Other Things
Rose Wyler – Professor Egghead’s Best Riddles
Charles Keller and Richard Baker – The Star-Spangled Banana
Marcia Leonard – Cricket’s Jokes, Riddles and Other Stuff
Gyles Brandreth – The Biggest Tongue Twister Book
Frances Chrystie – Riddle Me This
EB White – Charlotte’s Web
Wilfrid Bronson – Dogs: Best Breeds for Young People
Gyles Brandreth – Brain Teasers and Mind Benders
Carl Withers and Sula Benet – American Riddle Book
Maria Leach – Riddle Me, Riddle Me, Ree
Rose Wyler and Eva Lee Baird – Nutty Number Riddles
EB White – Stuart Little
MV Carey – The Mystery of the Invisible Dog
Noelle Sterne – Tyrannosaurus Wrecks
William Cole – Knock Knocks
Joseph Rosenbloom – Doctor Knock Knocks Official Knock Knock Dictionary
William Gerler – A Pack of Riddles
Roy Doty – Gunga, Your Din Din is Ready
Franklin Dixon – The Secret Agent of Flight 101 (Hardy Boys)
Roy Doty – Puns, Gags, Quips and Riddles
Jay Bennett – The Birthday Murderer: A Mystery
William Cole – Knock Knocks You’ve Never Heard Before
William Wiesner – How Silly Can You Be?
Charles Keller – Giggle Puss Pet Jokes for Kids
Charles Keller – More Ball Point Bananas
Barbara Walker – Laughing Together
Marguerite Kohl and Frederica Young –Jokes for Children
Franklin Dixon – The Missing Chums
Franklin Dixon – The Haunted Fort
Marion Meade – The Little Book of Big Bad Jokes
William Cole – Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls
Franklin Dixon – The Mystery of Cabin Island
Franklin Dixon – The Melted Coins
Franklin Dixon – The Secret of the Caves
Lillian Morrison – Black Within and Red Without
William Arden – The Mystery of The Dead Man’s Riddle
Lloyd Alexander – The Cat Who Wished to be a Man
Roy Doty – Pinocchio was Nosey
Sonny Fox – Jokes and Tips for the Joke Teller
Rudyard Kipling – How the Leopard Got his Spots
Roy Doty – Qs and Weird Os
James Haskins – Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron
AA Milne – House at Pooh Corner
Wilson Rawls – Summer of the Monkey
AA Milne – Winnie the Pooh
Sheila Burnford – The Incredible Journey
Ellen Tarry and Marie Hall Ets – My Dog Rinty
Elizabeth Coatsworth – The Cat Who Went to Heaven
Franklin Dixon – The Hidden Harbor Mystery
Franklin Dixon – The Ghost at Skeleton Rock
Franklin Dixon – The Mystery at Devil’s Paw
Franklin Dixon – The Tower Treasure
Franklin Dixon – Danger on Vampire Trail
Franklin Dixon – Hunting for Hidden Gold
Franklin Dixon – The Witchmaster’s Key
Ernest Foster – Abraham Lincoln
Rudyard Kipling – Just So Stories
Allan Ahlberg – The Old Joke Book
Patricia Lauber – Clarence Goes to Town
Jacqueline Jackson – The Endless Pavement
George Selden – Harry Cat’s Pet Puppy
Franklin Dixon – The Masked Monkey
Franklin Dixon – The Secret Panel
Franklin Dixon – The Shattered Helmet
Franklin Dixon – What Happened at Midnight
Franklin Dixon – The Phantom Freighter
Dick De Bartolo – A Mad Look at TV
Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express
Frank Baum – The Land of Oz
Franklin Dixon – The Yellow Feather Mystery
Franklin Dixon – The Secret of Skull Mountain

Genogram of the main characters from the Harry Potter series of books.

(Doesn’t, yet, as I can see, include spoilers for Book 7. But I don’t know when they will update it.)

There are actually several references to genealogy made in the final book.

my lousy record on making predictions continues. (this applies for pretty much everything: elections, sports, or fantasy novels)

I don’t believe that the sins of a First cousin, five times removed should be visited on someone, even if they happen to share your name.

source.

I certainly don’t believe that the sins of a tenth cousin should be visited on someone. As that describes W’s relationship to me, according to One World Tree. (Have I neglected to mention this before when talking about Chaucer?)

In St. Louis it is a common question to ask someone you’ve first met where they went to high school.

Some people claim this is just a way to see if you might have any shared acquaintances — as a means of finding something to talk about. Of course — asking them where they live and work now, as opposed to where they lived 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago might be better for this purpose.

The only thing the question really does well, at least in St. Louis with people who have always been St. Louisans, is classify your parents by socio-economic or religious background. Of course, few people who like asking the question want to admit that that is what it is best for.

I think a better question would be “So, Where did you go to Nursery School.” Not better in the information gleaned, but I would just like to see the reaction on someone’s face as I asked that question.

I went to The Ethical Society. At least, I am told I did. I have no recollection. Interestingly, I live closer to The Ethical Society today than I do to any other school I have ever attended.

Later this month I will write a post about high school. Several other St. Louis area bloggers will be doing so as well. It’s my fault. I started a Blog Carnival at StlBloggers.com, and I made High School the first theme. It seemed appropriate for St. Louis.

I may or may not mention in my blog post that I went to Clayton High.

Five names from various census databases at ancestry.com
Some may think the names sound somewhat familiar.

Louis Malfoy
Scotland, 1871
Age: abt 12

Arthur Weasley
US, 1920
Age: abt 25

Peter Voldemior
US 1900
Age 56

Septima Snape
England 1891
Age 24

Harry Potter (father named James)
England, 1901
Age: abt 1

Update: Changed a couple of the names because I liked them better.

Due to my recent interest in genealogy, you can imagine my glee to discover a recent exposé of the Apple IPhone’s 1983 ancestor, along with a photo album containing pictures of several family members, courtesy of the son of Hartmutt Eslinger, who designed the Apple IIc.

(Yes…this is real. Don’t expect funny pictures. Expect geeky pictures. Though the 1983 SmartPhone has its humor due to age.)

This is my favorite Apple family member. A 1984 wireless phone design they apparently considered…but of course never went through with. I remember the size of the early wireless phones, and consider the people walking around today who look like cyborgs, and I think *damn* this is amazing. 1984?!

And no…the idea of categorizing this under genealogy wasn’t my brilliant idea. It was the brilliant idea of Buzztracker. (Which I am sure did it without the aid of any human mind.) You might note in this link that Buzztracker likes me. I have no idea why, but I’m not going to complain.

Due to Scalzi I learned about the new Bacon-flavored salt that is vegetarian and certified kosher. Also, with a little research, I discovered Betty Crocker’s BacOs is also vegetarian, and certified kosher.

Back when I ate pork, I never liked bacon much, due to the high proportion of fat to meat, and I’m not a big fan of crispy things. But bacon flavoring could be good. I always loved the taste of pork in sausage, pepperoni and canadian ham. Now I’m stuck with BBQ chicken pizza, pineapple, or hamburger. (I don’t keep kosher; I just don’t eat pork.)

If you found the information about my family surname interesting, you might find these blog posts interesting as well. Apparently there’s a “Carnival of Genealogy” where bloggers who blog about genealogy post thematically twice a month. Who knew? (maybe me). My favorite of the bunch so far is Cow Hampshire’s post on the surname: LNU. At first glance it looks like an unusual surname, but it is really quite common!

It seems my blog is the only one of the bunch that is Genealogy only part of the time. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Probably because I am writing posts in this category during the rest of the month, too. At the beginning of the month the theme was on Independence Day, which was the impetus for my post on Independent Thinking.

So some of you who have followed some of the above links and learned the theme for the next carnival, may be expecting that in a couple weeks you will see a family photograph of some sort on this blog. I’ll try not to disappoint.

Last Tuesday (6 days ago) around 7 am (Central Daylight Time) or 1 pm (British Summer Time) I went online and ordered a marriage certificate from the British General Register Office. (The marriage took place in 1902 in the Great Synagogue of London, for those curious.)

It arrived today. And that, in itself, is impressive, because it took over two weeks to get documents from the Missouri Archives, and you know, I’ve driven to Jefferson City and back in one day. And I received a postcard from the Missouri Archives that initially told me it could take up to 8 weeks. It didn’t, but it could have.

So a six day turnaround from London is impressive. But that’s not the most impressive thing.
The receipt that came with the certificate says the “Despatch Date” was July 16th. I double checked my calendar. Yep. Same-day mail.

Now, someone is going to point out that London is six hours ahead of me. But, OK. Let’s say it was 8 am in London, and 2 am here in St. Louis when they mailed it. For it to be sitting in my mailbox at 5 pm when I return from work is STILL BLOODY IMPRESSIVE! There was an ocean to cross!

Last year I purchased 16 books at the Cardondelet YMCA Book Fair. This year’s fair is August 24-29th. I know the month and a half will pass quickly, and I fully expect to be there at 9ish Saturday morning, August 25th.

However, I have only read 2 out of the 16 books I purchased last year. The Rod McKuen and the Einstein. A couple more were replacements for books I either read on loan, or loaned out and never got back. But that leaves 12 unread. Not a good ratio.

After his role on the tv show Friends, and in several movies such as Outbreak and Ace Ventura II, Marcel the monkey retired to Costa Rica. A picture of him was taken when I was down there over the Fourth:

The Dudelsack was once perhaps the most widespread bagpipe in Europe. German-speaking people today still often apply the name generically to all bagpipes, though the correct word is “sackpfife” (literally, sackpipe). An ancient instrument, it is seen - sometimes in considerable detail - in a large number of early paintings including some great masterpieces. At some point, probably in the nineteenth century, it seems to have all but vanished. There exists today only one early specimen, in an Austrian museum, and there is some controversy about how old all or parts of that pipe are. Nevertheless it has been possible to reconstruct the Dudelsack through a combination of study of early paintings and music, and today it enjoys a great revival evidenced by many players and numerous makers. - Source

I have ancestors who were named Dudelsack. They were from Poland/Russia, and not Germany, but as the snippet above indicates, the musical instrument was widespread. I’m not sure if it means they were musicians, instrument makers, or whether someone resembled a bagpipe in a appearance. They changed their name when they entered the US.

It’s a pretty rare name. In the US 1920 census, there were 2 Dudelsacks. Jacob, and his wife, Ida. On the ship manifests from the 1880s-1910s, 30-40 different Dudelsacks arrived in the US. It appears only Jacob kept his name. Jacob must have been extremely proud of his ancestry. I have no idea if I’m related; he appears to have come from Austria, and my Dudelsack ancestor didn’t.

The other possible reason for the ‘disappearance’ is that all the Dudelsacks who arrived in the US suffered massive spelling errors on the various census. It’s not an easy name to spell. At Castlegarden.org, my ancestor is listed under ‘Dudersack’, and a possible brother under ‘Dudelsuck’. In the 1920 census, there is one family of Doodlesseks in Massachussets.

**

I was re-reading a few of my April National Poetry Month posts this morning and came across this poem video by Billy Collins:

Wait a minute, I think I may have misread the headline.

Two Costa Rican Iguanas were sitting on a wall
one said to the other….

Of my father’s eight great-grandparents, seven are buried in St. Louis. The other is buried in Poland. All were born in Poland, Russia or Lithuania, and make up the half of me that isn’t TransylvanianDutch.

I’m 38, and until this month, I’d seen none of their graves. No one in my family knew where they were buried, even though the cemetery is two blocks from the cemetery my father’s parents and grandparents are buried at. And in our lives we’ve all driven past the cemetery countless times since it’s at the intersection of two well-traveled streets. My mother tells me that intellectually she knew they immigrated to the US, but never having met them, she thought of them as part of the old country, and it didn’t occur to her to wonder where they were buried. My father has memories of one, from when he was four, but he too didn’t pursue the information.

I don’t blame either of them. If it weren’t for the information on the internet, I wouldn’t have done the research. Easy access to a little information gives encouragement to search harder for more, but when there isn’t easy access to any information, it appears as a mountain, and not everyone has the energy to climb a mountain. I know I don’t.

I wonder briefly what happened, though, that my great-grandparents, the children of the seven, didn’t pass on the burial sites of their parents. Then I remind myself that the only time I’ve been to my great-grandparents’ graves, is when we buried my grandparents. And while my grandfather died in 1992, and grandmother in 2002, I haven’t been back. If I had children, before now, would I have taken them to their graves? Probably not.

I haven’t forgotten my grandparents. I think about them a lot. And I would have passed on stories — as my parents and grandparents have done. I don’t feel I need to visit their graves to pay them respect.

On the other hand, now that I have visited my great-great grandparents’ graves, I know I will go back. I have no memories of them. The one who lived the longest, died 25 years before I was born. Their gravesites are the only thing I have, beyond the bits of data I’ve collected. And as I collect more data, my interest grows.

I am used to receiving idiotic emails from Donald Wildmon, of the American Family Association. That’s why I got on their email list, so I would receive them. But this one that just popped up in my email box takes the cake.

Let me first explain that the American Family Association is pro-religion in the public sphere. They are usually the first to insist that it is great and wonderful to open Senate hearings with a prayer — and hellishly horrible to suggest we shouldn’t.

They have heard that for the first time the Senate will be opened with a prayer by a Hindu!

On Thursday, a Hindu chaplain from Reno, Nevada, by the name of Rajan Zed is scheduled to deliver the opening prayer in the U.S. Senate. Zed tells the Las Vegas Sun that in his prayer he will likely include references to ancient Hindu scriptures, including Rig Veda, Upanishards, and Bhagavard-Gita. Historians believe it will be the first Hindu prayer ever read at the Senate since it was formed in 1789.

So…are they supporting this under the theory that opening the Senate with any prayer is OK…as long as all prayer is allowed, the government isn’t supporting any particular religion. (I might not agree with it 100%, but it’s a position I respect, and lean towards it more than some of my political allies. I may even be able to find a past AFA email making the argument on another issue.)

No. They are upset, because Hindus (gasp!) believe in more than one god. And that’s just unAmerican!

WallBuilders president David Barton is questioning why the U.S. government is seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god. Barton points out that since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto “One Nation Under God.”

“In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods,” the Christian historian explains. “And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration [of Independence] when they talked about Creator — that’s not one that fits here because we don’t know which creator we’re talking about within the Hindu religion.”

So the AFA wants a country where all the OK religions are tolerated, the not-OK religions are sent to the back of the bus, and they’re not afraid to say it.

Absofreaking unbelievable.

For a Reform Jewish amateur genealogist, this is the ultimate test of one’s religious education:

With the help of this guide, I succeeded.

Line 1: Here is interred
Line 2: Reb Moshe Leyb, son of
Line 3: Ahron Kruvant.
Line 4: Died five days into
Line 5: the month of Tishrei
Line 6: in the year 5672.
Line 7: May his soul be bound in the bonds of life.

5 Tishrei 5672 = Sept 26-27, 1911.

No indication at all of when he was born. Birth dates aren’t as important in the Jewish tradition.

Those of you who have always wondered what my middle initial “C” stood for…the picture above gives you a huge clue.

I’m probably about 20 years late on this joke, but, it is the first time I have heard this explanation.

The ANSI to (life, universe, everything^*) = 42

(i do still prefer the explanation I discovered a couple years ago.)

In a similar vein to the five I came up with last week, here are five more names from various census reports.

1900 Census - Valjean Churchill – Montgomery PA – Age 2
1850 Census – Javert Miller – Stamford CT – Age 9
1870 Census – Cosette Byron – Rome OH – Age 4
1930 Census – Fantine Borges – Tampa Fl – Age 21
1881 Census – Victor Hugo Hitchcock – Leicestershire England – Age 5

Funny or Die dot com

Have you not heard of this website?

“The site is simple. Vote on the videos and decide whether they’re funny or die a fiery death. Videos that get enough die votes go to the crypt where they languish in comedy hell. But ones that reach immortal status shall make people laugh forever…”

There are five rankings:
Immortal
Walking Tall
Kinda Cute
Uh Oh
The Crypt

Now to the point of this post beyond telling you about a source of great comic video clips. (And truthfully, what other reason do you need to visit the site?)

Well…there is this one clip, and both of my acting cousins are in it - along with Kaylee Defer who is in the cast of ‘The War at Home’. The clip contains coarse humor and is **Inappropriate for Work**

It is currently Walking Tall…it would be great, surely, if it became Immortal, but even more importantly, that it didn’t drop to Kinda Cute, or worse. And regardless of how well it does, it’s a chance for anyone curious to see both of my cousins in action, as the younger of the two (the one not in West Bank Story, Will and Grace and Iron Man) has a large role in the clip.

For those who want to browse around, you can go to funnyordie.com and when you are ready, just plug the name ‘Newmark’ into the search engine. Or ‘kaylee’ if you prefer. Or ‘Job Betty’ which are the last two words of the 3-word title of the clip. (Yeah…I did warn you it was not appropriate for work, didn’t I?”) It’s also linked to currently from the front page of the site, but it’s near the bottom of the page, and I don’t know how long it will be there.

Those of you who just want to see my cousin’s clip can follow this direct link. But remember: be prepared for explicit material.