@Steve-Miller what's the name of the place? We haven't been to the Cleveland area in a while, but we'd love to try it if we're up that way.
Posts made by DeweyLOU
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RE: Pho!
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RE: Now THIS is funny (debate related)
That really was hilarious.
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RE: It's been awfully quiet over there....
I still don't participate like I used to, but the new platform makes it much simpler for me to check in periodically. You'll likely find the same.
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RE: Is your car gay?
No self-respecting gay man would be caught dead in my car.
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RE: Japanese Garden Plants
Highly recommended dwarf weeping cherry tree: Prunus pendula 'Pleno-rosea’
https://www.monrovia.com/double-weeping-rosebud-cherry.html -
RE: How Schrödinger’s Cat Got Famous
He's only famous if you open the link.
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RE: Hi there.
@Jodi I d settle for it just being not horrible.
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RE: Stashed away in a museum
Some of the apocryphal stories of Jesus' childhood are a hoot. Think you've had problems with your kids? This is from the Pseudo-Gospel, or Infancy Gospel, of Matthew...
Chapter 26.
And it came to pass, after Jesus had returned out of Egypt, when He was in Galilee, and entering on the fourth year of His age, that on a Sabbath day He was playing with some children at the bed of the Jordan. And as He sat there, Jesus made to Himself seven pools of clay, and to each of them He made passages, through which at His command He brought water from the torrent into the pool, and took it back again. Then one of those children, a son of the devil, moved with envy, shut the passages which supplied the pools with water, and overthrew what Jesus had built up. Then said Jesus to him: Woe unto you, you son of death, you son of Satan! Do you destroy the works which I have wrought? And immediately he who had done this died. Then with great uproar the parents of the dead boy cried out against Mary and Joseph, saying to them: Your son has cursed our son, and he is dead. And when Joseph and Mary heard this, they came immediately to Jesus, on account of the outcry of the parents of the boy, and the gathering together of the Jews. But Joseph said privately to Mary: I dare not speak to Him; but you admonish Him, and say: Why have You raised against us the hatred of the people; and why must the troublesome hatred of men be borne by us? And His mother having come to Him, asked Him, saying: My Lord, what was it that he did to bring about his death? And He said: He deserved death, because he scattered the works that I had made. Then His mother asked Him, saying: Do not so, my Lord, because all men rise up against us. But He, not wishing to grieve His mother, with His right foot kicked the hinder parts of the dead boy, and said to him: Rise, you son of iniquity for you are not worthy to enter into the rest of my Father, because you destroyed the works which I had made. Then he who had been dead rose up, and went away. And Jesus, by the word of His power, brought water into the pools by the aqueduct.
Chapter 27.
And it came to pass, after these things, that in the sight of all Jesus took clay from the pools which He had made, and of it made twelve sparrows. And it was the Sabbath when Jesus did this, and there were very many children with Him. When, therefore, one of the Jews had seen Him doing this, he said to Joseph: Joseph, do you not see the child Jesus working on the Sabbath at what it is not lawful for him to do? For he has made twelve sparrows of clay. And when Joseph heard this, he reproved him, saying: Why do you do on the Sabbath such things as are not lawful for us to do? And when Jesus heard Joseph, He struck His hands together, and said to His sparrows: Fly! And at the voice of His command they began to fly. And in the sight and hearing of all that stood by, He said to the birds: Go and fly through the earth, and through all the world, and live. And when those that were there saw such miracles, they were filled with great astonishment. And some praised and admired Him, but others reviled Him. And certain of them went away to the chief priests and the heads of the Pharisees, and reported to them that Jesus the son of Joseph had done great signs and miracles in the sight of all the people of Israel. And this was reported in the twelve tribes of Israel.
Chapter 28.
And again the son of Annas, a priest of the temple, who had come with Joseph, holding his rod in his hand in the sight of all, with great fury broke down the dams which Jesus had made with His own hands, and let out the water which He had collected in them from the torrent. Moreover, he shut the aqueduct by which the water came in, and then broke it down. And when Jesus saw this, He said to that boy who had destroyed His dams: O most wicked seed of iniquity! O son of death! O workshop of Satan! verily the fruit of your seed shall be without strength, and your roots without moisture, and your branches withered, bearing no fruit. And immediately, in the sight of all, the boy withered away, and died.
Chapter 29.
Then Joseph trembled, and took hold of Jesus, and went with Him to his own house, and His mother with Him. And, behold, suddenly from the opposite direction a boy, also a worker of iniquity, ran up and came against the shoulder of Jesus, wishing to make sport of Him, or to hurt Him, if he could. And Jesus said to him: You shall not go back safe and sound from the way that you go. And immediately he fell down, and died. And the parents of the dead boy, who had seen what happened, cried out, saying: Where does this child come from? It is manifest that every word that he says is true; and it is often accomplished before he speaks. And the parents of the dead boy came to Joseph, and said to him: Take away that Jesus from this place, for he cannot live with us in this town; or at least teach him to bless, and not to curse. And Joseph came up to Jesus, and admonished Him, saying: Why do you do such things? For already many are in grief and against you, and hate us on your account, and we endure the reproaches of men because of you. And Jesus answered and said to Joseph: No one is a wise son but he whom his father has taught, according to the knowledge of this time; and a father's curse can hurt none but evil-doers. Then they came together against Jesus, and accused him to Joseph. When Joseph saw this, he was in great terror, fearing the violence and uproar of the people of Israel. And the same hour Jesus seized the dead boy by the ear, and lifted him up from the earth in the sight of all: and they saw Jesus speaking to him like a father to his son. And his spirit came back to him, and he revived. And all of them wondered.
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RE: Good news for the geezers among us
Well there's that then - although there are days when I can definitely relate to Chas' sigfile.
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RE: Hi there.
Love your home, especially the gardens! So much my style both inside and out.
What's the hosting experience been like?
Also, can't wait to hear more about your upcoming book.
Thank you! The house has had a lot of updates, and still has a long way to go, but it's much nicer than when I first bought it. I've done most of the work redoing the kitchen, bath, and other parts of the house; the gardens are almost entirely the work of LL.
Hosting for us has been almost without exception a wonderful experience. Our only glitch was maybe our first or second guest, who didn't get the message that we're a non-smoking property. They both smoked like chimneys, and we had to do a complete, deep cleaning and ventilation of the place to get rid of the smell after they left. Other than that one experience, it's been great. Some of our guests are extremely private, staying within the guestroom and keeping to themselves, which is fine. But most of them are more sociable, and we'll sit and chat, have some wine, sample bourbons, etc. Just since we started this past September, we've hosted guests from around the country and Europe, along with a few Asian expats as well. We've hosted professional musicians, authors - a real interesting variety. Our most recent guest owned a winery, which was cool. One of our first guests was a former winner on the Moth Radio Hour, and his partner was a classmate of my younger daughter's at the same small university in Switzerland where she did her undergraduate work. They were Chicago cliff dwellers who loved the idea of being able to end the evening toasting marshmallows around the fire ring out back. In any case, it's been a very fun way to meet people and make a little side cash.
We don't do instant bookings. Since this is our home, not an investment property, we want to know a bit about who would be staying in our place before accepting. And even at that, we only book the room for dates when we're actually present/in town, just for a bit of added security. We generally like to be present to welcome a guest and see them off, although we're a little flexible with that, especially if we get a good vibe about the guest. We offer a pretty good array of fruits, yogurt, and other snacks in the guestroom. Local regulations prevent us from actually cooking for a guest. Last month, though, we had some guests in from DC during Kentucky Derby Week, though - who, as you might suspect, pay a steep premium for the room, especially due to how close we are to Churchill Downs - and we told them that each morning, we'd be having a nice hot traditional breakfast at such and such a time, and "if we accidentally made a little extra," they'd be welcome to share it with us.
The book is titled Plausible Deception. Here's the basic plot:
Dan Randolph, a Presbyterian minister, and his violin-making husband Greg Zhu travel to Los Angeles for an international violin makers' convention. Part of the convention is a competition featuring the work of some of the finest violin makers in the world, including Greg. While there, the rare and world-famous Jackson Stradivarius violin is stolen - and Greg is one of only six people who knew it was even at the convention. While trying to help clear Greg of the theft, the two men help the authorities as they try to solve the mystery, safely recover the violin, and return it to its rightful owner before it can disappear on the international antiquities and arts black market.
There's a lot of biographical content, and a lot of the events that are described are based on actual events - although the famous violin was never actually stolen, and the line is intentionally blurry where the biographical/autobiographical bits end and fictional embellishments for the sake of the story begin.
Anyway, I'd better get back to work...
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RE: Asian grocery stores (NTW article "don't call it an 'ethnic' grocery store" )
There are a couple of decent Asian markets here in Louisville, but if you're ever in Toronto, you must go to a TNT market - incredible!
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RE: Hi there.
I was in Auburn, New York, which sat on Lake Owasco. Skaneateles Lake was about five miles to the east, and Cayuga Lake was just a stone's throw to the west. For a while I lived just about midpoints between Owasco and Cayuga, and had the pleasure of boating on Cayuga a couple of times.
The piano is a 1911 Further & Stemmer upright, the same piano we acquired for the girls to take lessons on when they were small. At some point it picked up the nickname "The Antichrist," given by a piano mover who had to move it, at great personal peril, in some really precarious ways in a few different houses. I almost got rid of it when I moved to Louisville, but kept it due to the pleading of Thirty-Two. It was a good call. Even though I no longer play, we have a fairly steady stream of pianists and other musicians, local and visiting, as guests at social gatherings at our place due to LL's musical connections. In addition to friends plopping down to knock out a show tune or two, it's actually had some surprising folks sit down and play it. Just a few weeks ago, this guy was at a musician's reception at our place and played a bit:
https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/william-wolfram/ -
RE: Hi there.
Oh, wow. Not sure where life was the last time I offered any update. Sorry if some of this is old news.
Left CMH in 2014, simultaneously coming out and accepting an interim pastoral gig in the Finger Lakes region of NY, kind of near Syracuse.
Accepted an installed call to a congregation here in Louisville in 2016, where I've been ever since.
Met a wonderful man online in 2013. He was born in Hong Kong, toddlerized in Taiwan, emigrated to Canada as a child. Trained as a systems engineer, worked in the telecom industry before he became a professional violin maker. He's now internationally recognized as one of the top living makers in the world, so there's that. We went through the insane immigration process to get him into the U.S.; he finally moved in very late 2018. We were married, in my church, in March of 2019.
I've been at this wonderful congregation for eight years now. I arrived here just months before the Trump election, and tried my best to help serve and lead this congregation through that era and all the ongoing divisiveness - as well as through Covid, overlapped with the solid year of protest/occupation in the wake of the murder of Louisville native Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many others. Became a kind of "accidental activist" in the social justice movement as a result. At this point, I realize that I've got fewer years in the vocation ahead of me than I do behind me - probably going to hang up the cleats in a few years, but that isn't official or definite yet.
We're living the dream, or some semblance thereof. Continually working on rehabbing our little "double shotgun" house - known affectionately as La Maison Laide - in an eclectic, wonderful, walkable near-downtown neighborhood here in town, and working on its two (perfectly) postage-stamp sized front and rear gardens. We've been enjoying meeting many fascinating beople while renting our guestroom on Airbnb, and we would be deeply offended if any of you traveling this way didn't stay with us. Here's a link to the website we made for the place, along with links to book it:
https://lamaisonlaide.weebly.com/
I've also got a mystery novel about to come out; the publisher is expecting a mid-September to early-October publishing date. And yes, I'd also be deeply offended if you didn't buy a copy of the book, but more on that in the coming months.
When I first started posting in the forerunners to this forum, and the newsgroup that preceded even that, I often spoke about my daughters, referred to only by their respective ages. When I started posting, they were known as Eight and Four. They're now Thirty-Two and Twenty-Eight. Oy.
Also back then, I generally referred to my wife as SWMBO ("She Who Must Be Obeyed"). I obviously no longer need to obey her, but for the record, we still see each other routinely, we're on good terms, and she likes my husband, who for the purposes of forum discussion, I guess I'll refer to as The Luthiest Luthier, or just LL for short.
And some of you might remember that way back in the day, I was very conservative, part of the solid right-wing bloc of members in forerunner forums. If you hadn't noticed, I've also done a complete one-eighty, being about as progressive as is humanly possible, all arising out of my theological studies and trying to live out those beliefs authentically.
So - there's a Decade-at-a-Glance summary of DeweyLOU.
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RE: NYT article "canceled by the Presbyterian Church"
"First they came for the communists..."
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RE: NYT article "canceled by the Presbyterian Church"
@ShiroKuro when I read this article a couple of days ago, I was trying to be as empathetic as possible to the man, who suffered very real loss of relationship with people who meant a lot to him. But the unfortunate takeaway I got from the article - other than it being further evidence of the exclusionary theology and policies of the PCA - is that this man was apparently OK with, or at least willing to tolerate, when other people experienced that same kind of rejection and loss of relationship with beloved people and a church family, until he experienced it for himself. He is far from the first to have been canceled by his denomination, and my more cynical brain cells feel he's being a bit like Claude Rains in Casablanca being shocked to discover gambling taking place at Rick's. My literal prayer is that now personally experiencing it will prove to be a spiritual epiphany for him.
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RE: NYT article "canceled by the Presbyterian Church"
What Big Al said. The PCA is a split-off denomination from the main Presbyterian Church - what is today known as the Presbyterian Church (USA), or just PCUSA for short - of which I'm an ordained minister and pastor. The PCA split off in around 1967-ish, in protest when the main church allowed the ordination of women, rejected the doctrine of scriptural infallibility, and committed to the Civil Rights movement. Today, the PCA still refuses to ordain women and adheres to the concept of scriptural infallibility. They have apparently conceded the correctness of civil rights, but only just in time to turn their efforts against LGBTQ+ people from full participation in the life and leadership of the church.