Life verses

I was going to hit this on a Sunday message last week, but God derailed it for the Christmas message.  And I was going to do it again this moring, especially after hearing a message on why John 3:16 is "the greatest verse in the Bible".  But to be honest, I haven't felt real well today, and I'm not convinced I'll get through this right tonight, but I wanted to have a go at it.

It was messages I heard last weekend as well as the one today that got me thinking about life verses.  Many Christians have that one verse that is their "go-to" verse.  Most of them have one of the famous verses, and almost all of them have one that has application to their lives and how they see their walk.  An encouragement or comfort.  For example, Laurie uses Matthew 10:29-31- ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. ³⁰ But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  It represents God's care over her life, the value He gives it.

I have one as well, but it is important to see how I got there.  As a Catholic in my youth, I never had any doubt about my faith in God.  But the Church added doubt to the equation with concepts like mortal sin and purgatory, and how the works you did would lift your status from purgatory, or else you might need people to light a lot of candles for you after your death.  I could have lived a perfect life (which I didn't) or done amazing works (ditto), but I'd still have that shadow of doubt- what is "good enough?"

In addition there was one particular verse that always prayed upon my mind- Matthew 7:21:

Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.

I could never know whether I was truly being heard, truly repenting, truly being forgiven- or whether I was just crying, "Lord, Lord."  And so I was unassured, even when Jesus assured us that we were in His and His Father's hands, and They would not let go.

But then, friends came into my life with another verse to focus on- Romans 10:9:
 ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.   That was simple assurance- too simple, and it took a long time and many tears before I got to the point that I got on my knees and accepted it.

But once I did, I knew in my soul that, at last, Matthew 7:21 no longer applied.  I was free from the crippling doubt, the wonder about what my "ledger" in heaven read.  It was the life changing moment, and the beginning.  But not my life verse.

You see, I wasn't smart enough to learn how to be that Christian the easy way.  No, I had to do things my way, and get "put on the shelf" by the Holy Spirit- until I was willing to do it His way.  Even that has not been without struggles.  But after each struggle, God has still been there- and I have another experience that has taught me, or I have made it through, and there He was- and is.  Which brought me, at long last, to my life verse- I Samuel 7:12.  But to understand the simplicity of this verse, I have to show you first what had gone before.

⁷ When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. ⁸ They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁹ Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

¹⁰ While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. ¹¹ The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.

So, look what happened here.  A fearful difficulty arose.  They turned to God for help.  They were OBEDIENT to God.  God answered.  The difficulty was solved.  Something of a cycle that happens again and again to the Christian.  And remember how I said, "But after each struggle, God has still been there- and I have another experience that has taught me, or I have made it through, and there He was- and is"?  See how Samuel put it in MY life verse:

¹² Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,^[b] saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Eben-ezer meaning, "Stone of help."  Every difficult time in my life is another stone God has helped me set up.  And if I fear a difficulty ahead, I need only look at the "row of stones" behind me.  It's a pretty long line.

Anyone else out there have a life verse?  Feel free to share!

As the year closes...

I hope no one will take this as an indictment or accusation, or anything but an observation.  It is coming down to the last feeble sputters of this year, and like any other year, it's time for certain statuses on social media, stories in the news media, and posts on blogs.  Some will do "the year in review", like the well done example my friend Juli did on her blog.  Or like a post a friend shared on FB where you put the things you WANT to happen in an empty jar, and open it up at the end of next year.  People will ask if you have a new year's resolution (I've kept one for more than 30 years- never to make another!), or debate how good or bad they thought the year was/think the new year will be.

I think optimism is great; if you end up with the people and places you love still in your life- or at least enough of them- then you shouldn't be too down.  Being appreciative of what you have is a wonderful thing, as well.  Sometimes we all should read a book on Europe in the winter and spring of 1944-5.  Or the Gulag Archipelego ( which I made it about halfway through years ago).  Volunteer at a retirement home or a children's hospital.   Odds are that if you have access to reading this, life ain't so bad.

Me, I don't try to plan out the future.  I don't give myself a list of accomplishments I'd like to do this year.  I just try to take advantage of the opportunities that drift by.  Bucket lists are fine for those with more resources than I to make them come true, so I don't work towards things unlikely to happen. 

 

Drinkin' and dreamin', knowing

damn well I can't go

I'll never see Texas, LA, or

old Mexico

But here at this table, I'm able

to leave it behind

and drink till I'm dreamin'

a thousand miles out of my mind.....

 

 

There are things I'd like to fix about myself, but they aren't the kind of things you make a list of at the beginning of the year and check off your boxes for twelve months.  My battles are each day, sometimes each hour, and it makes no sense to sit back and plan things back at CENTCOM when somebody's got to be in the trenches with an AK. (In case you couldn't guess, political correctness remains NOT one of those things I intend to work on daily.)  There are a lot of you who will read this- perhaps all of you- who know what I mean.  And some of you can still work the daily battles into the long-term plan.  I'm just not wired that way.

 

 

...we had joy, we had fun,

we had seasons in the sun

but the hills that we climbed

were just seasons out of time...

 

 

January was named for the Roman god Janus, who had two faces- one faced to the future, the other to the past.  I think somewhere along the line, I lost that front face.  Especially as I get older, I see the past more often (if not more clearly).  It seems like ever time I open "front-facer's" eyes, I see less and less of the world I knew and more of a world I've no real interest in.  A world where kids talk sexual-innuendo and crime riddled rhymes to a computerized backbeat and call it music.  Where we can spend a six figure check to tear all the trees off a street, narrow the sidewalks, and call it beautification, and tell cops, firemen, and teachers we have no money for them.  Where the thought of marriage being one man-one woman makes you a prude or a homophobe.  Where I should apologize to the Japanese for Hiroshima and forget about Nanking, apologize to Muslims and forget 911, and tell the Israelis they ask too much and forget the Holocaust.

 

 

Where God's name cannot be spoken, lest I offend someone.

 

 

Lovers really fall in love to stay,

stand beside each other come what may

A promise really something people kept,

not just something that they'd say, and then forget

Families really bow their heads to pray

and daddies really never go away

oh, Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days...

 

 

The unfortunate thing about such vision is that one tends to relive their sins over and over.  I find myself the hardest person to forgive, and you never know when some old scar will tear open near as deep as it was at the time.  And so I slowly open the other set of eyes, the "Prometheus" rather than the "Epimetheus", and look to the present, and the future.

 

While surfing around on Christmas Eve night, I stumbled onto Findagrave.com, and the page for the cemetery near my boyhood home.  I saw among its slumberers two old classmates that I hadn't known had died.  I searched for more, and saw the names of older people I'd known as a child and a young man, people I'd hoisted a brew with, people who taught me or fed me, or chaperoned me on class trips.  Sometimes I think the tears I shed for "stars" like Fess Parker or James Arness are just collections of the tears for these people, never let out until it can be in the name of someone I never met.

 

Time moves on, people die.  And when you are 50, they die a lot more often than when you were 20.

 

 

Time, you left me standing there

like a tree growing all alone

the wind just stripped me bare, stripped me bare

Time, the past has come and gone

the future is far away

and now only lasts one second,

one second

Can you teach me 'bout tomorrow and all the pain and sorrow

Running free

'Cause tomorrow's just another day

and I don't believe in

(Time)

I'm walkin'

(Time)

I'm wastin'

(Time)

You ain't no friend of mine

(Time)

I don't know where I'm going,

I must be out of my mind

thinkin' about time...

And if should die tomorrow,

just lay me down to sleep...

 

I can't live the past, I can't see the future- all I can do is each day.  So when the clock hits 12 and revelers drink, lovers kiss, and pundits type out their cute little story about babies born at 12:01:07, I'll be doing what I always do.

 

Watching the video to A Long December about a hundred times.  Cry for those I miss, drink to absent friends.

 

And when I eventually wake up the next day, take some ibuprofin, get some lunch, and watch football.  And fight the day's battles once again, thank God for all I have once again, give Laurie and Scrappy hugs again, and text Happy New Years to the kids.

 

 

There's got to be a morning after

we're moving closer to the shore

I know we'll be there by tomorrow

and we'll escape the darkness

we won't be searching anymore....



Time Machine week 48

Before we start, I want to mention the passing of Fontella (Rescue Me) Bass.  I am currently planning on a Time Machine look at the musicians we've lost this past year, coming next week.

Today is December 28, 1970- and nothing has happened of note for the last two days- or will happen for the next two.  But oh, what happened three days from now!  That was the day that Paul McCartney filed suit to dissolve the Beatles partnership.  It wasn't a step he desired, despite all that had happened this year- he was advised it was the only means at his disposal to prevent financial "guru" Allan Klein from raping what was left of the Beatles' fortune.  Paul had never liked Klein, and in fact refused to sign the paperwork putting Klein in charge.  So Paul began to dig into Klein's manouvering, and found a lot more than what the press and the other Beatles saw as sour grapes because Paul wanted to put his father-in-law John Eastman in charge.  He found a more-than-a-year long stretch that no one at Apple records could produce ANY accounting documents.  He found that, although Klein's contract allowed him 20% of any INCREASE in royalties he managed to negotiate, he was taking 20% of the TOTAL royalties.  And while his claim was tenuous to any royalties on the members' solo projects, he intended to take a cut there as well.  When Paul found out, he directed EMI not to pay any of the royalties from his solo lp to Apple, to put them "on hold" until he found out what was going on.  EMI did this, but gave an accounting of the amount to Apple, and Klein deducted "his cut" from the Beatles' general fund!

It was pointless to explain this to the others, especially with Lennon and Harrison's utopian view of their fellow man.  They learned later, when Klein tried to keep Yoko Ono from recording on Lennon's album, and when his last minute finigling put some of the funds from Concert For Bangla-Desh in limbo for decades- while he sold promo copies of the lp and pocketed the money himself. Then, they too, sued Klein.   Somehow, I don't think either of them went to Paul afterwards to confess what fools they were.

Paul WAS right- who'da thunk it?

Welcome to Time Machine, your weekly time-trip into the world of music how it was, and other interesting tidbits.  This week, a salute to a man who spent 65 years with one woman and 44 years with one record label (Hint, it ain't Gene Simmons), A Where Are They Now featuring a rock'n'roller who retired to become an evangelist (still not Gene Simmons), and a six degrees that meanders its way through Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, George Benson, and Anita Baker (but not Gene Simmons).  Plus a top ten that has NO new entries!  So if you're not too busy celebrating that the world didn't end (or sitting in misery that the world didn't end), climb aboard!

This week's show sponsored by Gene Simmons- JK

This week, a week that we turn over zero % of the top ten, we turn over a fifth of the hot hundred!  However, I'll be mentioning just five of the 21 debuts.  The Osmonds come in at 95 with One Bad Apple.  A worse apple awaits at 94 for you death metal pioneers- Bloodrock's classic D.O.A.  Let Your Love Go comes in at 76- and not the Bellamy Brothers' song from '76, but Bread's totally different single from... well, from this week in 1970.  Gordon Lightfoot comes in at 69 with If You Could Read My Mind.  And at 71, well there's a funny thing about #71.  You see, this holiday marked the first appearances of three Christmas classics- and they all spend their last week of the season on the charts this week.  The Carpenters' Merry Christmas Darling moves up 9 to #41- and that's where it stops after 3 weeks.  The Jacksons' Santa Claus Is Coming To Town shoots up 14 to #51- and that's where it dies after 2 weeks.  And this week, Joe Feliciano spends his one and only week this season with Feliz Navidad at... #61? No, #71!  How's that for weird coinkydinks?

That leads us to one of our smallest hauls of birthday songs we've yet had.  Turning 30, which is of note if you watched the Brian Setzer Orchestra on Fox's NFL pregame this week, are the Stray Cats with Stray Cat Strut, as well as Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf and The Who's Eminence Front.  Turning 35 is Clapton's Lay Down Sally; turning 40 are Lobo's Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend, The Spinners' Could It Be I'm Falling In Love, and the Eagles with Peaceful Easy Feeling.  And wrapping us up with a song that turns 45, Paul Muriat's orchestra with Love Is Blue.  Blow out the candles...

Our big climber this week belongs to Jackie Moore, with Precious Precious moving up 19 to 43. I've a feeling we'll learn a little more about Miss Moore in a couple of weeks. The big dropper was I'll Be There, who can fight off gravity no longer and tumble 33 spots to 47.

Another act we'll probably be hearing more of is our Where Are They Now victim at #50.  Joe Simon is in that spot, with a tune called Your Time To Cry (I haven't listened to this yet, so I'm not sure if he's talking about Judy or not*).  While a bigger name on the R&B chart, he did get 8 tunes into the top 40, including the three that hit #1 R&B- 1969's The Chokin' Kind, 1972's Power Of Love, and 1975's Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor) (which hit 13, 11, and 8 respectively).  The Choking Kind was designed as a country tune, written by Harlan Howard, who also wrote the immortal I Go To Pieces for Patsy Kline.  In the late 70's he bowed out of the music business and went into evangelism, becoming a licenced Bishop (obviously not a Catholic bishop) and running a congregation and a foundation in Flossmour, Illinois.  This spring, he quit putting off a problem breathing and went to the hospital, ending up having life saving quadruple bypass surgery in late March. (*longtime Leslie Gore fans will get that one.)

Oh, YOU know who that miserable little slut Judy is...

We have 6 new members of the top 40 this week.  At 39 we have the male version of Judy, Stephen Stills, with Love The One You're With climbing 10 spots.  Rare Earth moves up 9 to 38 with Born To Wander.  Los Angeles one-hit-wonders Redeye go from 42 to 37 with their hit Games.  Edwin Starr hits the 40 with his unwillingly typecast follow-up to War, Stop The War Now, climbing 9 to #36.  Eternal optimist Curtis Mayfield also climbs 9 to 32 with (Don't Worry) If Ther's A Hell Below, We're All Gonna Go.  And with a bit of irony after that one, the high debut, climbing from 44 to 31, is Lynn Anderson with Rose Garden.

Jeez, Curtis, it ain't THAT bad...

Our lookback falls on someone who was a big hit in the 40s- and has the #27 single this week as well!  Perry Como (first name Pierino) was the first of the horde of Como children born in the US of A.  He became a musical prodigy as a young child, but it was the other talent he was prodigious at that was his first goal.  He set his sights on becoming the best barber in Cannonsburg, PA, and by age 14 had his own shop.  He was soon hiring on, and his specialty was singing to wedding party customers as his boys gave the groomsmen the full treatment.  He was content with this life, marrying the woman he'd be with for the next 65 years, Roselle, in 1933.

Somewhere along the line, he was heard by bandleader Freddy Carlone who offered him a shot as his vocalist.  It would mean leaving his newlywed wife at home and trading a $125 a week job at his Barbershop for a $28-a-week salary as vocalist for Carlone.  He went home to ask his father, whom he thought would smack him upside the head and say, "What're you thinking?"  Instead, his papa told him if he didn't try, he'd never know if he could have made it.  So he tried. 

Shortly thereafter, he got an offer from the Ted Weems band, who offered him $250 a week.  He was going to turn it down out of loyalty, but Carlone told him to go for it.  Weems had just gotten a record deal and a radio show, and the radio guy told him "lose the singer, he sounds too much like Bing Crosby", which Weems promptly said he stays or the deal's off.  However, they did work on his singing style (which Perry admitted it was hard to understand his words on).

In 1942 he quit Weems' band and went home, willing to say, "It was fun, but it's time to get to work again".  While he tried to arrange a place for a new barbershop, he got contacted with a slew of offers- including what proved to be a long-term engagement of a radio- and later TV- show sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes.  Within a week, RCA Victor signed him to a recording contract- and he stayed with them for 44 years.  For their trouble, they got a singer that sold so many records, he asked RCA to stop keeping count, including 48 top 10s and 14 #1s, including his biggest, Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes from 1952.  While his biggest year was 1949- 15 hits, 6 of them top ten, including the #1s Some Enchanted Evening and A-You're Adorable- his hottest period was a July 1945- June 1946 streak that saw him score 12 top tens, 10 top fives, and 3 number ones, including Prisoner Of Love and Till The End Of Time.

His time of constantly being on TV ran from 1948-67.  He retired in 1994 and passed in 2001, just 3 years after his beloved wife.

Perry with two of his great loves- barbering and his son Ronald.

NO songs come into the top ten, so none fall out!

Gypsy Woman slides from 5 to 10 for Brian Hyland.

Badfinger blasted its way into the countdown, hit a wall, and now bounce back from 6 to 9.

The Supremes vol. 2 move up a notch to 8 with Stoned Love.

The Partridges flutter down three to 7 with the former top dog I Think I Love You.

Chicago edges up one to 6 with Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Santana moves up from 8 to 5 with Black Magic Woman.

Dawn shoots up 6 to #4 with Knock Three Times.

And our six degrees contestant is at #3.

Tears Of A Clown, which slips a notch, Was the brainchild of Stevie Wonder and his writing compadre Hank Cosby.  They had come up with the tune, including the circus-like calliope section, but had no words.  They took it to the 1966 Christmas party at Motown, and played it for Smokey.  Smokey took the circus riff and came up with words.  It was an lp cut on their lp Make It Happen, but was never released until summer 1970, when Smokey was considering retirement and Motown UK wanted something to release.  It topped the charts there, and of course did so here as well a few months later.

One of the stand out lyric lines, "Just like Pagliacci did/I keep my sadness hid", he took from another song he wrote, My Smile Is Just A Frown (Turned Upside Down), that was a minor hit for one Carolyn Crawford.  Carolyn's career never really took off, and she spent a couple of years with a group called Chapter 8 in the mid-seventies before giving up.  She was replaced by the much more famous Anita Baker, who of course had her own stardom including the breakout hits Sweet Love and Giving You The Best That I've Got in the eighties.  The second was written by one Skip Scarborough, whose repertoire of love compositions include a song we had in the top ten not long ago, the Friends Of Distinction's Love Or Let Me Be Lonely, along with LTD's R&B hit Love Ballad which George Benson later covered for a top 20 hit, and one of my faves, Bill Withers' Lovely Day.

Sliding into the runner-up slot are the 5Ds with One Less Bell To Answer.

Which means that we have a repeat top dog this week....

....George Harrison with My Sweet Lord!!!!


Next week, we'll look back at who we lost in 2012... along with hopefully some other cheerful and more funny bits.   See you next year!!!

Scrappy liked his Christmas present

What it was:

Something like the bottom one, with a ball on the nose that WAS attached by bungees to the tail.  While the body has held up surpringly well, the brains are pretty much carpet deco and the ball is now a bonus toy.  For a toy bought at Kroger, it has exceeded expectations.  Manufactured in China for Hyper-pet.  Despite appearances, Scrappy gives it five stars.

Christmas Eve is here...

...and in case you weren't among the lucky few that I have e-mail addresses for:

I got my Christmas present last night- 49 minutes after my Sunday 3:30 to midnight shift started, it ended with the "volunteer to go home" sheet being brought right to our area, which immediately became depopulated.  That meant that Scrappy and I had a chance to go for a walk in the gloamin' trying to see those out-of-towner deer that only seem to show up at 2:30 AM to eat chokecherries.

This one's actually from cold, windy Saturday.  Squirrels playing up and down this tree.

On to last night.  The sun was setting...

...the moon was rising...

...and as soon as we got in the woods, the out-of-towners started playing hide and seek.

They hide right where the trail becomes stone, so they have a good view of when to run away.

They'll stop and look from a distance until Boss Moss snorts, then they run away.

I was having to use my low light setting, which makes things much brighter than they actually are.  But last night I learned how to fool with the brightness and contrast to make things a bit more viewable.

See, this one's unfooled with.  Looks like we had a lot of light, right? WRONG.

Anyway, after the first six or so led us a merry chase through the north end of the woods, we emerged onto the back trail where we spotted another three.  They headed down the trail and I assumed they emerged onto the soccer fields.  I was right.

But they knew we were coming, and were just waiting to see us to take off.  I had to try to snap them through the trees, which of course meant the camera wanted to focus on the branches in between us.

See the brats all lined up, just waiting for us to stick our heads out the gap in the woods?  As soon as we did, they took off- along with the rest of the crew who had gathered there without our knowing.

By the time we caught these ass-ends, probably 12-15 deer were stampeding to the south.  I'm guessing they went straight for the swamp, as we didn't see them anymore.

Moonlight on Stony Run.

Moonlight over Stony Run.

See how dark it is here?  That's about how dark the first picture of Scrappy was in real life.  It was a tad darker at this point...

_________________________________________

Next up, the NHFFL All-Star Game is in the books, and the Purple have won their second straight ASG.  The two defensive scores by Da Bears gave them a 41-36 win over the Gold, with that pick six by Peanut Tillman putting them on top to stay.  Chicago ended up with 16 points, while Brandon Marshall and Santana Moss added TDs, RGIII added a pair of scoring passes, and Matt Bryant kicked in 7.  The Goldies got 2 TDs from Eric Decker, singles from Kyle Rudolph and Alfred Morris, and a pair of scoring passes from Tom Brady.  Unfortunately for them, though, the Giants sucked it up again this week, and league leading scorer Lawrence Tynes only got a couple of extra points, while the Pats' D got a measely 4.  So Tynes, who figured so heavily in the Porkchops' ten wins, totalled 2 points in costing his team both the Super Bowl and the ASG.  Better luck next year!

Yeah, like it's MY fault Eli's blown chunks for the last two weeks...

___________________________________________

Speaking of blowing chunks, Lokomotiv sure did Sunday, losing to Magnitogorsk 5-1.  Sergei Plotnikov put us on the board just 21 seconds into the game, but from there on we got outshot 35-15 thefirst and second periods, and by 8 minutes into the third, Curtis Sanford was taking a seat on the bench.  We did hold Malkin and Mozyakin to an assist apiece, but Mats Zuccarelo scored twice.  And of course, everybody ahead of us won, so now we fall to sixth over all, with "Magnita" passing us with the loss.  Next up is a trip to Omsk on Wednesday to face Avangard.


________________________________________

All of which reminded me of the fun of finding who's sucking worst this year.  So last night I assembled the list of the biggest bumblers in hockey right now.  Taking into account scoring differences and schedule variations, I ranked them according to the average margin they get beat by.  Here, then, are the worst teams in the professional top level hockey world.

6- Fassa, Italy Serie A.  Fassa is 5-21-3, trail Val Pusteria in the standings by 46 points, and get beat by an average margin of 2.10.  And they aren't even the worst in their league.

5- Copenhagen, Denmark AL Bank Ligaen.  They would be second if I was ranking them by wins, at 1-20-3.  They trail in their league by 47, and average getting beat by 2.59.

4- TWK Innsbruck, Austria EBEL.  At 3-26-4, they trail their leader by 37 and average getting beat by 2.82.

3- Pontebba, Italy Serie A.  The only team worse than Fassa, they stand at 3-23-3, 55 back, and get beat by 2.93 nightly.

2- Zaglebie Sosnowiec, Poland.  In addition to having a name only a mother could love (or pronounce), they stand at 3-21-3, trail by 56, and get beat by an average of 3.07 goals a game.  But they can't even finish last, as another team folded just 14 games into the season.

1- China Dragon, Asia League.  This should be no surprise to anyone who's ever paid attention to my hockey reports.  Losers of all 19 of their games so far, they trail the leader of the AHL by 63 points and get beat by an incredible 5.53 goals per game- usual score around 7 to 1.5.

And since it wouldn't be fair to mention the losers without the winners, here are the most dominant teams in hockey:

5- Zvolen, Slovak Extraliga.  24-4-5, a 15 point lead, average win margin of 1.61.

4- Val Pusteria, Italy Serie A.  The defending champs are 22-6-1, lead by 8, average margin of 1.69, and of course are 8-0 against Fassa and Pontebba, having outscored them 41-7.  Four of their losses amazingly came in one 5-game stretch.

3- Sanok, Poland.  21-3-3, a 17-point lead, and a margin of 2.14.  They beat the team that folded 5-1 and 9-2 on back-to-back nights.

2- Angers, France Ligue Magnus.  LM doesn't play as big a schedule as most of the others ( or any of the others, actually) so they don't have near the games under their belt.  Still, the Eagle-Owls (I didn't name 'em) are 11-1-2, outscore the opposition by 2.35-  and lead Briancon by a whopping 3 points.

1- Oji Eagles, Asia League.  Oji is 20-2-1, lead by sixteen, and have an average win margin of 2.5.  Amazingly, the China Dragon have played a couple of their best games against them, with Oji only winning 4-0 and 4-2.


Okay, that's it for now.  If you're still here, have a Merry and blessed Christmas.

Sunday message- what is Christmas, and why do we need it?

This is a long and complicated message that I will have to brutally pare down to a managable level.  Fortunately, it really just ties together all the other Sunday messages, so if you look through them long enough- or have read them as we've gone- it shouildn't be too hard to follow.  But it struck me that a person might ask, "What is Christmas for?  Why did we need it?  Why did it have to be done through a virgin birth, or through birth at all?"  Valid questions that in our rush to buy presents and hang up lights, we fail to meditate on.

To answer them, we must start at the beginning.  When Adam was created, he was the most perfect human being who would ever live.  He had two things that no one else outside of Eve will ever have in this life- a glorified, incorruptable, immortal body, and direct access to God.  How do we know he had all that?  Because that's what he lost when he sinned.  He lost access to God, found himself in a corrupted body that he instinctually knew he had to hide (not because his parts were showing, but because they no longer reflected the Glory of God), and he was now subject to disease, hunger, and death.  If he was going to fail, any of us would have failed.  God knew this.  He didn't will it, but He planned for it.

Because if God wanted perfect beings that would never fail, they would have lived in heaven from the start.  Earth was a place that had a potential to be perfect- but was seperate from heaven, so that it could also hold the potential for failure.  God already had beings that could believe because they were in heaven daily- He called them Angels. (And ain't it interesting that some of them fell, as well?)  The point being, He wanted creature that would seek Him through and in spite of faiures.  And He could have saved them right there and then, with a snap of His fingers- but Salvation is not Welfare.  He asked them to work at it.

So first, He gave them a chance to seek Him on thier own.  Despite holy men like murdered Abel, Seth, and Enoch (so great a teacher that he became one of two men to never taste death), man fell and fell until his nature brought him to destruction in the Flood.  Having proved to man that wasn't going to work, he then step by step built a special treatment, tried them in the fires of Egypt that they might perceive both a need for God and His power, and then gave them a Law to follow.  That they were not the equal of even Adam was born out by the fact that they nearly messed up the whole thing before Moses could even bring them the Law.

As Paul would eloquently put it centuries later, the Law was given to prove to man that even with a set of rules, he couldn't make it right with God.  They couldn't even understand them properly.  Commandment #1- I Am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of Egypt.  You shall not have strange gods before Me.  This was not about idols, or else you wouldn't need commandment #2 about graven images.  This was about making God the most important thing in their lives.  The second was about not putting the things that everyone else thought was more important in front of God.  The third was not just about Honoring your parents, but a lesson in respect and responsibility, and how honor means putting the needs of someone else before your own.  And the fourth wasn't just about a day set apart, but why it was set apart.  The Pharisees messed up when they put the part about "no work shall be done" ahead of what should be done- namely, taking care of the first three commandments.  Do I really need to hit the "Thou shalt not"s?

The result of this was that they failed, and as promised, this resulted in the destruction of all but of a remnant of this special people who had witnessed God so clearly and so closely and still rejected Him.  Now we get to the final chapter, and the answers to the questions we asked above.

That final chapter was that God would have to do what men could not.  The problem was sin, and it is important to realize that there are three kinds of sin.  The first was Adam's original failure, the initial rejection of God.  This resulted in his fall to a mortal body, and as a mortal body could not produce the immortal, incorruptable body he started with, it meant that this sin would be passed down to all men through the very act of procreation and childbirth.  From this original sin we get corrupted bodies with their pride, greed, and lust- in other words, all our petty little daily sins (the second category) are part and parcel to this first one.  Now, God showed in the Law that a sacrifice- an unblemished lamb or goat- would suffice to clear out the day to day stain of sins, but would not prevent them from re-occuring because the ORIGINAL sin was untouched, and would lead us into further corruption.  A different kind of sacrifice would be needed here.

And an animal wouldn't do- it would have to be a man.  But not a man from Adam's seed, because that would be a man blemished with the corruption of original sin.  How do you make a man without original sin?  You need a birth without Adam's seed being involved- a virgin birth.

But it would have to be more than a man.  Even Adam in his once-glorified form wouldn't do, since he was flawed enough to have committed the sin in the first place.  No, it would have to be God.  But if God cannot bear sin, how could He become the sacrifice?

He had to be man- subject to all the corruption, disease and hunger, all the lusts and failings- yet able to resist them, because He didn't have that original sin curse.  Thus, Jesus became man, but without man's sin nature.  But in becoming man, He had to give up the attributes of God that made sin anethema, otherwise He could have never borne the sin weight on the Cross.  So Jesus was man without man's sin nature, and God without God's divine nature.

All of that meant that we had to have a Christmas, with a virgin birth in a manger.  For Christmas was the crucible in which a new Being was "created"- human enough to bear the weight of Adam's sin, Divine enough to expiate it.  With His sacrifice, the curse of original sin is lifted- not so much on earth as in the next life- and the second level sins can be forgiven through confession and penance.

And that third type of sin?  That's where all this is still rejected.  So one type of sin you are born with, and get rid of through Christ.  One type you blunder into as a result of daily life, and can go to Him for forgiveness.  And the third you can commit all your life, but it doesn't stick until the end.

Catching up the KHL

Since I'm saving my Christmas card to you all for Christmas Eve (with the exceptions of those who got theirs today), A walk today found nothing but mud, ice, and cold, and the only things I have to rant about today is a pack of simple frustrations even I find whiny, I am left with updating my beloved Lokomotiv team, who comes out of the latest break red hot.

Wednesday was a 2-1 win over tough Traktor.  Artym Anisimov tallied his 10th 13:31 into the first stanza and added an assist on Sergei Plotnikov's 10th at 16:46 of the 2nd.  Anisimov would also make the scoresheet in the next game for a ten-game scoring streak that's so far netted him 8 of his goals and 8 assists as well.  Evgeny Kutnetsov would cut it to 2-1 just 53 ticks into the third (and would go on to net 2 and add a shootout goal in his next game!), but Curtis Sanford held the team from Chelyabinsk off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

That same day, I had to ask Laurie if top-ranked Dynamo Moscow would fire their coach today.  Once again they had a road meltdown.  Facing Sibir, they built up 2-0 and 3-1 leads on goals by NHL lockouts Alex Ovechkin and Nikolas Backstrom- but Sibir tied it and sent it to the shootout, where Ovechkin and Backstrom both got stoned before Arturs Kulda scored to give Sibir the 4-3 win.  In the meantime, fellow lockout Evegeny Malkin got a hat trick in a Magnitogrsk 5-3 win over Atlant.

Friday, our boys played struggling Avtomobilst (5-23-8).  Their Stanislav Zhmakin scored first, but less than 2 minutes later, Anisimov scored unassisted to knot things at 1.  Maxim Trunyov tallied his 4th halfway through the game to make it 2-1 good guys, and Plotnikov and Dmitry Maltsev added third period scores to give us a 4-1 final. The win puts us at 18-9-8, trailing Dynamo (21-6-8) by seven, SKA by three, Ak Bars by 2 and Avangard by 1.  But, it gives us an 8 point lead in our division over Red Army (16-11-7) and thus the second seed in the east.


We are close to the halfway point of the season.  Each conference has four teams that look like they will certainly be in the playoffs.  In the west, that would be Dynamo, St Petersburg SKA, Red Army, and us.  Following these four are a group of six teams just 10 points apart fighting for the other four spots- Slovan, Severstal, Lev, Donbass, Torpedo, and Dinamo Minsk.  After that are the teams that would seem to be in the also ran category- Atlant (9-18-8), Vityaz (6-15-13), Dinamo Riga (9-21-6), and Spartak (7-20-8). 

The situation is much the same in the east.  Ak Bars, Avangard, Magnitogorsk, and Traktor look to be in.  The middle group is a little more defined, with Salavat Yulaev, Barys, Neftekhimik, and Sibir within 5 of each other, and Yugra and Nizhnekamsk trailing at a distance.  Finally the east has two dead-in-the-water teams- Amur (9-23-3) and Avtomobilst.


The All-star balloting is over, and the big winners were the locked-out NHLers.  Our Semyon Varlemov beat out Pekka Rinne of Minsk for west goalie by a slim 26,344-26,204 margin! Malkin rolled up 40,569 votes for the overall lead, 6,838 more than SKA's Pavel Datsyuk.  Ovechkin got third.  The game and its festivities are set for January 12-13.

Time Machine week 47



Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don't they know it's the end of the world....

 

 

Welcome to an End Of The World Time Machine!  Today we're going to celebrate today's impending apocolypse by a special Skeeter Davis salute!  She's getting the where are they now treatment AND a six degrees that will connect her to of the most famous "non-official" college football themes of all time!  Plus my own personal end of the world music list, and a top ten that has a 40% turnover and a new #1!  And lots of exclamation points!  Hurry up and get in before it all ends!

 

 

I do a lot better on this weeks hot 100 debuts- out of 14, I'll mention 5.  Bobby Goldsboro comes in at 88 with Watching Scotty Grow.  Judy Collins' a capella Amazing Grace hits at 80.  The Grass Roots score at 76 with Temptation Eyes.  Coming in at 68 is a song we mentioned a few weeks back as being in the British top 5- Dave Edmunds' I Hear You Knocking.  And at 65, the Jackson 5 hit with their version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

 

 

That brings us to a good crop of birthday songs.  Turning thirty this week are Bob Seger's Shame On The Moon, The Pretenders' Back On The Chain Gang (perhaps appropriate to an end of the world countdown- "And I'll die as I stand here today/knowing that, deep in my heart,/they'll fall to ruin one day/for making us part..."), and Musical Youth with Pass The Dutchie.  Turning 35, ABBAs The Name Of The Game, Raydio in Ray Parker Jr.s first big break with Jack And Jill, and the beautiful Heatwave ballad Always And Forever.  Turning 40 this week are a couple of pairs of oddly matched songs.  One the one hand, you have Christian and Jew (the Doobies' Jesus Is Just All Right and Don McLean's Dreidel), and on the other you have good relationship/bad relationship (Anne Murray's Danny's Song and Edward Bear's Last Song).  Turning 45 are the Beach Boys with Darlin', Boyce and Hart's I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight, and for you Neil Young Decade fans out there, Buffalo Springfield with Expecting To Fly.  Del Shannon hits fifty this week with Little Town Flirt, and hitting fifty-five is the big hit for Tom and Jerry, Hey Schoolgirl.  The sharp among you know this as the first hit single for the duo later known as Simon and Garfunkel.  Blow out the candles...

 

 

Our fast climber this week is, not surprisingly, the Carpenters' Merry Christmas, Darling, which rises 25 to #50.  (Any other week, that would mean a Where Are They Now appearance!)  The big droppers- and there are two- are a pair of tunes falling 32 spots, after  just exiting the top 20.  Two weeks ago, Canned Heat was at #17 with Let's Work Together, and Wilson Pickett was at #14 with Engine Number 9.  This week they are at 54 and 57, respectively.  So there's an end-of-the-world bonus- Big droppers and almost but not quite shoutout in one fell swoop!

 

 

No's time for a where are they now for Ms. Davis.  She started her career as a trio with two other girls (unrelated to her) who called themselves the Davis Sisters.  One of them was prevented from touring, so it became a duet with Betty Jack Davis.  They had a huge country crossover hit in 1953 called I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know.  It spent 8 weeks on top of the country charts, and no less an expert than Billboard's Joel Whitburn named it the #65 country hit of all time.  Unfortunately, as it was climbing, they got into a terrible car accident.  Betty was killed and Skeeter was seriously injured.

 

Skeeter and Betty Jack

 

Betty's sister Georgia joined the act for a time, but in 1956 Skeeter decided to retire to get married.

 

 

She returned as a solo act in a couple of years, and racked up 4 pop and 24 top 40 country hits, including the last to chart, the ironically named #12 from 1973, I Can't Believe It's All Over.  Sometime that year, on her way to the Grand Old Opry, she observed Nashville police dragging in a group of "Jesus freaks", and that night dedicated a gospel song to them.  Shocked by such a blatent display of free speech, the Opry kicked her out for a year and a half.

 

December 15, 1973-Skeeter Davis was suspended by the Grand Ole Opry. As Skeeter said, "Hank Williams got kicked off the Opry for drinkin' too much old wine. Me? I got kicked off for singing about the new wine." What happened was that Skeeter was on her way to the Ryman for an Opry performance when she witnessed the arrest of what were known as "Jesus freaks", which was another name for the young people who were protesting not only in Nashville, but around the country. The arrests enraged Skeeter and on the Opry that night, she expressed her rage and by talking about it, singing about it and weeping about it. When she came off the stage after her performance, she was dismissed from the Opry. Later, a newspaper account of it said, "Her support of the 'Jesus loves you' street people made headlines, made enemies, made for a quick review of the unwritten rules against editorial comments on the Opry. She was stunned when told she was no longer a member." 18 months later, she was invited back to return to the Opry.

She later told an interviewer, " I felt so unloved (when the Opry exiled her)... it seems to me I've been a rebel all my life, too."

Skeeter passed from cancer in 2004 at the age of 72.


We have six top 40 debuts this week.  BJ Thomas avoids more teasing from me by hitting with a short-titled song, Most Of All, up 8 to #40.  Also up 8 is former Monkee Michael Nesmith and the 1st National Band with Silver Moon at 39.  Climbing 7 to #35 is a song I gave a rather dubious mention to when it hiot the hot 100 a few weeks back- Melaine's cover of Ruby Tuesday.  Gladys Knight and the Pips climb 7 also with If I Was Your Woman.  The Bee Gees rocket up 20 places to #34 with Lonely Days.  And Barbra Streisand climbs 8 to #33 with Stoney End.

How to explain this next feature?  I grew up in the sixties.  Between Vietnam, the Bomb, and the ecological collapse, a lot of people thought the world would end at any moment.  Some songs, like Barry McGuire's Eve Of Destruction, talked about it directly.  Others but brushed the subject.  And in my pre-eight-year-old mind, there were certain songs that reminded me of the impending end whether they had anything to actually do with it or not.  Leaving out our theme song for today, this is a "top ten" (based on how much they had this feeling for me) of my "end of the world songs".  Feel free to scratch your head as we go along.

10- Hurdy Gurdy Man, Donovan.  This was actually a later entry into the group.  When you look into who the hurdy-gurdy man was, it kinda creeps you out, like when you learn what "ring around the rosie" was about.

9- Love Child, Supremes.  I mentioned before how I always heard "worn, torn" as "war-torn", and I imagine that's how this got here.

8- Keep Searching (Follow The Sun), Del Shannon.  Songs about sunsets and songs that are the last big hit by an artist both have that kind of pull that drag them here, and this one has both.

7- California Nights, Leslie Gore.  See above.

6- Downtown, Petula Clark.  Long time Fort Wayne residents will get this- everytime I hear this song, I think of Wolf and Dessauers, Hutner's Paris, and the way Christmas used to be.

5- This Guy's In Love With You, Herb Alpert.  I think it's his sad horn here.

4- We'll Sing In The Sunshine, Gale Garnett.  Because it always reminded me of the #1 on the list.

3- Walk On By, Dionne Warwick.  I think it's the horn here, too.

2- Eve Of Destruction, Barry McGuire.  Self explanitory.

1- What The World Needs Now, Jackie DeShannon.  This one's pretty self-explanitory, as well.


We have 4 new top ten songs, so four jump ship. The quartet of droppers are Share The Land (6 to 11), 5-10-15-20(25-30 Years Of Love (7 to 12), I'll Be There (10 to 14), and Heaven Help Us All (9 to 16).

Since there's no connection to the top ten (and thus no reason to interrupt it), we'll do the six degrees next.  The lyrics to The End Of The World were written by one Sylvia Dee, who was memorializing her father's death.  She had other songwriting credits as well, including the lyrics to a song on the Elvis soundtrack Blue Hawaii called Moonlight Swim.  Her Co-writer here was Ben Weisman, who Elvis claime wrote more songs he recorded (57) than anyone else.

Among the credits on Blue Hawaii was Floyd Cramer on piano.  In addition to being one of those in-demand session men, Floyd had some hits under his own name, including the 1960 instrumental Last Date (which, ironically, the King's Are You Lonesome Tonight kept out of the #1 slot).  That song, in ever widening irony, was given lyrics by Skeeter in 1960, and the result- My Last Date With You- also peaked at #2 in 1960.  Boudleax Bryant, half of the husband/wife songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, assisted in these lyrics.  F & B Bryant had a few well known songs to their credit- Love Hurts, which Nazareth covered with great success; several songs for the Everly Brothers, including All I Have To Do Is Dream and Bye Bye Love; and the unofficial theme song for the U of Tennesee, Rocky Top!

Rocky Top, you'll always be... home sweet home to me...

And that brings us to our top ten this week.

Climbing 5 spots to #10 are Dawn with Knock Three Times.

The Ross-less Supremes edge in from 12 to #9 with Stoned Love.  I think this is now the Colorado state anthem...

Up 5 to #8 is Santana with Black Magic Woman.

The high top ten debut is Chicago, up 4 to 7 with a song from the BJ Thomas school, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Climbing a pair to 6 is Badfinger with No Matter What.

Brian Hyland's Gypsy Woman dances down a spot to #5.

Former top dog The Partridge Family's I Think I Love You slips a pair to #4.

The Fifth Dimension moves two to #3 with One Less Bell To Answer.

The Miracles drop a spot to #2 with Tears Of A Clown.

And that means the new #1 song this week is....

George Harrison with My Sweet Lord!!!

Well, if you made it this far and the world hasn't ended, and you wonder why, here's a possible explanation which I shamelessly stole from Facebook...



And now, back to more normal programming...

Which around here means another round of laughing at stupidity.  Before I jump into another wave of Scam comments, heres a little baby I ran into yesterday...

Australian woman gets workers' comp for sex-related injury during business trip

Published December 17, 2012

Associated Press

An Australian court has ruled that a bureaucrat who was injured while having sex on a business trip is eligible for workers' compensation benefits.
The Full Bench of the Federal Court ruled Dec. 13 in favor of the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, and rejecting the appeal of the federal government's insurer, ending a five-year legal battle.
The woman was hospitalized after being injured in 2007 during sex with a male friend while staying in a motel in the town of Nowra, 100 miles south of her hometown of Sydney.
During the sex, a glass light fitting was torn from its mount above the bed and landed on her face, injuring her nose and mouth. She later suffered depression and was unable to continue working for the government.
Her claim for workers' compensation for her physical and psychological injuries was initially approved by government insurer Comcare, then rejected after further investigation.
An administrative tribunal agreed with Comcare that her injuries were not suffered in the course of her employment, saying the government had not induced or encouraged the woman's sexual conduct. The tribunal also found the sex was "not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay" such as showering, sleeping and eating.
That ruling was overturned in the Federal Court in 2012, when Judge John Nicholas rejected the tribunal's findings that the sex had to be condoned by the government if she were to qualify for compensation.
"If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room, she would be entitled to compensation even though it could not be said that her employer induced her to engage in such activity," Nicholas wrote in his judgment in favor of the woman receiving compensation.
In the Full Bench decision upholding Nicholas' decision, Judges Patrick Keane, Robert Buchanan and Mordy Bromberg agreed last week that the government's views on the woman having sex in her motel room were irrelevant.
"No approval, express or implied, of the respondent's conduct was required," they said.
It is not yet clear how much compensation the woman will be paid.
Comcare was on Monday considering an appeal to the High Court, Australia's highest legal authority, Comcare spokesman Russ Street said.
"The issue is a significant one," Street said in a statement. "Workers need to be clear about their entitlements and employers should have an understanding of their responsibilities and how to support their staff."

"I am sorry, I cannot continue to work for the government because my lover tried to play Tarzan with the chandelier and hit me in the face, giving me a fat lip, a bloody nose, a lack of satisfaction, and an excuse for a lawsuit.  All of which has caused me to go into a blue funk that will hopefully be mitigated by getting a huge settlement which I can invest in sitting on my bum the rest of my life."  All of you with chandeliers in your bedrooms, DO NOT ATTEMPT AT HOME!!!

Moving on, let me open up my junk file and see what we might have to amuse us today.
Al Penwasser's "Made In Spain" post (the one featuring Charo's ethnicity) continues to be a prime target, with at least two "comments" a week.  Who knew that a mere title suggesting international manufacture could be so popular.  I chose this one to feature because I know Al will love it:

Excellent goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff
previous to and you are just too magnificent. I really like what you have
acquired here, really like what you are saying and the way in which you say it.
You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it wise.
I cant wait to read much more from you. This is
really a tremendous site.
My website :: Instalación geotermia en Madrid


Coherence: Not real good.  "I have understand your stuff"?  4.
Germaine:  Actually, this is somewhat good, because Al is entertaining while "taking care of to keep it wise".  But is "you are just too magnificent" laying it on a bit thick?  I'll let you judge. 2.
Link:  Geothermic installation in Madrid?  I thought driving to Kendallville was too far for a job. 1.
Score: 2.33.

Next up are a pair from Average Girl (minds outta the gutter, people).  Her posting has been way down due to the utter chaos recently in Canada (or something like that), but she has still found time to be a target.  The first one was sent to a hilarious post from last October about her battle with a certain girdle, and I can only guess that it was sent to suggest a way to win the battle:

bear grylls messer
My webpage > bear grylls messer

Which for those of us that don't speak German, means "Bear Grylls knife".

There, that outta get you out of that damn girdle!

Coherence:  Kind of a non-factor, but since it was in German and sent to an English-language blog, I'll give it a 3.
Germaine: Only if you take it my way. 5.
Link:  ZZZZZZZZ. 1.
Score: 2.67.

The other one was sent to a post where she discussed her travails at promoting her online business.  It almost seemed a serious comment- until you get to the link:

My developer is trying to persuade me to move to
.net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of
the costs. But he's tryiong none the less. I've
been using Movable-type on numerous websites for about a year and am nervous about switching
to another platform. I have heard very good things about blogengine.
net. Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into
it? Any help would be really appreciated!
Feel free to surf my web page lose weight

Coherence:  Pretty good, actually.  Other than having the same trouble I do at not hitting "i"s and "o"s at the same time. 1.
Germaine: in a warped sort of way.  2.
Link:  She'll kill me if I comment. 4.
Score: would be the same as the first contestant, so I'll subtract a point to keep Al ahead. 2.32.

Next up are a pair from the highly entertaining Momto8 blog.  This first one was sent to a post about becoming a grandmother:

Hi are using Wordpress for your
site platform? I'm new to the blog world but I'm
trying to get started and create my own. Do you require any coding knowledge
to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Look at my web site :: Medical Malpractice attorneys
Obviously, the humour in this one is based yet again on the link.  Why would medical malpractice attorneys seek advice on websites from a family blog?  Because she used the word "attorney" in the post somewhere?

Coherence: 1.  Intelligence would have been a 5, but we already knew that.
Germaine: 5.  Absolutely off topic.
Link: 3. Not for itself, but for the reasons above.
Score: 3.00.

The second one was on one of her famous Wordless Wednesday posts.  I think this one is best explained when you check out the post here. 

When some one searches for his required thing, thus he/she wishes to be available that in detail, thus that thing is maintained
over here.
Have a look at my blog post ; vakantiewoningen bodensee
First of all, I think we have to wonder what this person's required thing is, and why he thinks it might be stuck in... well, you saw the picture.  Second, the link is Dutch for "vacation on Lake Constance".  I'm not sure which is more curious: having to use 16 letters to spell an eight-letter word (you silly Dutch!) or a Dutch site wanting you to vacation in Switzerland.

Coherence: Poor.  4.
Germaine: Non-existant. 5.
Link: Unusual. 2.
Score: 3.67.  Nice job!

Next, we go over to JoAnne's Ramblings, and find that malpractice attorneys like her, too.  From a post about her grandson's birthday:

Gday administrator, I just wanted to give you a quick heads
up that your current Link: http://www.blogger.com/comment.
g?blogID=2372897564928472255&postID=6427293591310152339 is being
flagged as a
potentially malicious blog in
my internet browser firefox. I would highly recommend having
somebody look
into it. You could certainly
lose a lot of website visitors due to this kind of
issue. Very best of Luck.
My site Malpractice attorney
Coherence: Good, though he claims the blog is flagged and the link is to a comment- probably his own. 1.
Germaine: No.  A different twist, yes, but germaine, no. 3.
Link:  Maybe they should call it "malpracticing attorneys."  2.
Score: 2.00.

I actually am changing my mind about the other one, but let me give you all a heads up: Post innocent pictures of people in bathing suits on the beach, and porn sites will be watching.

Next victim is Grumpy Old Ken, a gent from Jolly Ol' who is much nicer than his handle suggests.  He wrote a post a while back about courtesy or lack thereof in retail companies called "Nice to be Nice", and ironically got this:

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.


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Coherence: Good for an a-hole. 3.
Germaine: This had as much to do with Ken's post as the anonymous whiner about gun control had on my post a while back.  Not sure exactlt how they thought something like this would attract someone to their website. 4.
Link:  You know the rules. -3.
Score: 1.33, minus two for being rude, so 1.31.

Finally, we get to some of my own.  Here's one from a Sports Tuesday post:

Hi! Your write-up rocks also as being a respectable superb fully grasp!
??
I can??t actually support but admire your blog web site, your web-site
is adorable and nice
My spouse and I stumbled over here various web page and
thought I really should verify factors out.
I like what I see so i am just following you. Appear ahead
to discovering your internet web page yet again.
My web page > http://www.onbored.com/blog/view/341686/exactly-why-iphone-five-will-initial-be-introduced-freely-within-the-market



Coherence: Minimal. They ?? sure li??ke question ?? marks, don't they??? 4.
Germaine: While I like to think my write-ups have a superb fully grasp, I'm skeptical about them being adoreable. 3.
Link: I could care less about free i-Phones. 1. 
Score: 2.67, but I like the other one better since it got a picture put in, so 2.66.

The next one came to a post I did on a Biblical look at bankruptcy:

hello!,I love your writing very much! proportion we keep up
a correspondence extra about your article on AOL? I need a specialist in this house to unravel my problem.

Maybe that is you! Looking ahead to look you.
Here is my web page ways2easycash.com

Coherence:  What's that?  I wonder if "proportion" was supposed to be "perhaps".  Damnyouautocorrect! 3.
Germaine: Depends on the problem needing unravelled.  Perhaps a playful kitten will do. 2.
Link: Certainly germaine, but not amusing. 1.
Score: Another 2, which I will bump up to 2.01.  Sorry JoAnne!

Which about wraps us up for this week, other than a couple of scam-mails, one of which thinks Sensa can make me look great naked (perhaps if you are a very hungry Lion), and another that was a version of the standard "I have millions of dollars and am dying of brain cancer, let me send some money to you" story, only it was in French.  The google translate version goes like this:

Hello

I apologize for this intrusion, I called Blackthorn LACROIX born November 6, 1963 a native of France.
Assistant in the office of the Interior Ministry of Benin near the FRANCE where I served for 9 years. I have you
contact of this kind because I want to do something very important. It will seem a little suspect though
true that you do not know me and I do not know you. I suffer from brain cancer which is in phase
terminal, my doctor just informed me that my days are counted because of my health condition deteriorates. By
that Dr. Ball justifies me now settled in my brain cage, I have this disease for more
4 years. I am a widow and I have no children.
I plan to donate all my possessions. I almost sold my business with a company
export wood from Canada where I live almost 30 years, part of that money will be paid a different
associations, and centers for orphans and the homeless. I do not know in what field of work you
exercise but I would help you. I have now in my personal account account blocked, the sum of 1
Million euro (one million euro) that I keep for a construction project. I'll give you that grated
money that can help you in your business, I beg you to accept this because it is a gift that I did and it
without asking anything in return.
I suffer a lot and I am very afraid, I can almost not sleep at night as during the day because I do not want
to die without having donated all the money otherwise I think it would be a mess.
Please contact me as soon as possible if you agree beings for my offer.
The peace of the Lord be with you.
I leave you my email so you can send me your news on this topic:
prunellelacroix@yahoo.fr

Good Understanding
Mrs. Prunelle LACROIX

So, my questions are:
- what is a brain cage?
- I know a cold can "settle in" certain places.  Cancer can too?
- Why not just give it ALL to homeless and orphans?
- "so you can send me your news on the topic?"  This just in...

And that wraps up another show! Congrats to Momto8 and her Dutch travel agent for the win.