As number 1,000 aproaches...

...I thought I would look back at what I did for my other "milestone posts."  Rather than clutter the upcoming anniversary post, I thought I'd share what I found beforehand.

#100- May, 2010- Step Into My Time Machine, (volume 1) week 5

I had actually written a post for number one hundred, combining a prayer for what I would say with a sermon I attended that Sunday.  Unfortunately, I wasn't attentive enough in my counting, and ended up posting it at #99.  The actual 100th post was the fifth-ever Time Machine installment, which was prefaced by a grumble about the massive OT onslaught at work.  The number one song that week in 1975 (where volume one started) was Ace's How Long.  And, as often the case back then when no one was listening, there were no comments.  In fact, if you subtract two comments from my son and one from a nephew (as well as a handful from my friend who thinks her entire internet connection will dissolve if she gets a google account so she can comment on the blog instead of e-mail), I didn't get a legit comment until post #103!

#200-October 2010- #200-Why God Allows Atheists

By this time, we had waged the epic three-way battle over atheism on the post "What Government Is For", as well as a few other confrontations.  So for a 200th episode (which I actually counted right this time) I came up with 9 very good reasons why atheists are allowed to exist on a planet created by a God they refuse to believe in.  They included:  for God to have mercy, it can't be for everyone; to shake believers from complacency; Force us to confront our doubts; challenge our Biblical knowledge, faith, ability to pray for all men, and our actions in dealing with them; to show that God does what He says (as in the blinding of the disobedient); and to force us to study science and nature with an OPEN mind (not the "free-thinking mind that tells us we MUST exclude God from the discussion).  In hindsight, I should have included the Parable of the wheat and the tares as well.  Again, no comments.

#300- February 2011- Finally The Snow's Gone! Let's Walk!

As you might guess, a picture post (with the old, not-so-good camera) featuring a trek from Scrappy's landing and down through the woods.

The story featured Scrappy falling through this section of ice moments later.  However, the joy of the day was short-lived, because two days later I posted this:

Two commenters appeared on this one- Amy from the Fourth Frog Blog, and the inimitable Bobby G., plus a reply to both.

#400- June 2011- Harrison Square, One More Time

One of my favorite things to bash local government with is the pyramid scheme known as the Harrison Square Project, from which by now we were to have a ballpark, luxury condos, a shopping center, and a re-vitalized downtown, each of which was magically supposed to pay for each other.  You can track the success of the masterminds of this boondoggle, Barry Real Estate, on google because we aren't the only community they screwed failed to deliver on their promises in, but I can tell you so far, of all that was promised, we have the ballpark and a ped bridge from the Embassy theatre to the Grand Wayne Center, along with a patch of unimproved city lots.  Bobby G. got the sole comment on this one.  He called it "Costaplenty Square".

#500- October 2011- Cassie

Cassie was my last dwarf hamster, who's entrance into our family was the second post of this blog's history.  The 500th marked her passing.  Losing her really broke my heart on DHs- not because of her death, but because she was one of the most devoted, friendly little animals I ever had, and I didn't spend near the time she deserved with her.  It was the closest I ever came to understanding how Christ must have felt, willing to die for a world that really couldn't have given a crap about Him.  I still miss her.  But I can't go back, not yet.  Bob had a comment and a reply, and Mynx gave her sympathy.

#600- January 2012- The Boys In Orsk

Many of you know the Lokomotiv story- how the Russian team I followed crashed with all hands aboard at the beginning of the 2011-12 season, and the team was rebuilt into a squad that played in the Russian high minors (VHL) the second half of that season.  This was the story of their first road trip- and the thunderous reception they got in a small minor league city.  Three comments, from Average Girl, Bragon Dorn, and Mynx- all mentioning that hockey wasn't their thing.  Shame on you, AG, you're Canadian!  By now though, most of you have figured out that this is just one of those things you have to put up with with me.

#700- May 2012- The Great Eighties Countdown, Week 3

The last of my three "great" countdowns was just getting started, featuring songs #260 (Rick Springfield's Don't Talk To Strangers) to #241 (Robbie Patton's Smiling Islands, featuring Stevie Nicks).  Jewels from According To Jewels and, of course, Bob had comments here.

#800- August 2012- Busy Morning At The Bell

A picture post at the bird feeder.

Which ended with this snarky comment:

Yeah, whatever.  Call me when the ground hog climbs up there.

A whopping 10 comments here- 3 were me replying, the others were Alisa, Ms NK Rey, Hey Monkey Butt, Galen Pearl, Al Penwasser, Living Life, and Mynx.

#900- December 2012- Spoprts Tuesday

Other than the headline misspell on my part, the notable part of this post was the headline I cropped from ESPN.Com that day-

Red Sox, 7 others eye Met's Dickey

Not surprising with a sports post, no comments.

-------------------------------------------------

And speaking of sports, here's today's hockey update.

In Germany, Kolner and Berlin pushed their semifinal series leads each to 3-0 after wins today, with Kolner downing Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg 4-2 after earlier 7-2 and 1-0 wins.

In the KHL, Dynamo outlasted Traktor 2-1 in game one of their final series.

In Denmark, former Kalamazoo Wing Peter Asselin scored shorthanded to tie the game, and SonderjyskE beats Frederikshavn 3-1 to tie their final series at a game each.

In the Slovak finals, Kamil Brabanec scored in the shootout to give Zvolen a 2-1 win over Kosice in game one.

And in the UK's Elite League championship game, Missouri-born Jordan Fox scored in OT to erase a furious third period comeback by Belfast and give Nottingham's Panthers their third straight playoff championship by a 3-2 score.  This is the fourth time the Panthers have won the playoffs in the current league's ten-year history, though it is the first time they also won the regular season title as well.  Yes, is the famous Nottingham, and Sherwood Forest lies about 23 miles to the north.


___________________________________

Finally, here's some Sunday walk pics- nothing amazing, I'm afraid.

First new green thing I've seen yet.

Sunday message

This week was about opportunities.  How we see them, how we take them- and it ends in a comic book!

Our first stop was Jeremiah 42.  As we enter, the Babylonians are about to take Jerusalem, and that cowardly bunch in charge of things have been debating running off to Egypt to escape their fate.  In fact, as Jeremiah reveals at the end of the chapter, they've already made up their minds, never mind it was the failure of Egypt to fulfill their trust that put them where they were in the first place.  So they try to get Jeremiah to tell them that God approves their plan, but phrase it as, "Tell us what God says, and we'll do whatever you say."  After ten days, Jeremiah lays out the options- either give up your plan, submit to Babylon, and live; or flee to Egypt where God's wrath will pursue you and take you down no matter where you go.  The opportunity, then was to please God by doing what goes against your instincts and your fear- stand and face consequences.  Of course, some of the group accused Jeremiah of playing politics and declared for Egypt anyway.  Within 20 years, the soldiers of Babylon occupied Egypt.

Second stop this time is in Esther 2.  We've been through the story in Esther 1 recently.  Here, Esther becomes one of the women selected by the King's eunuch to apply for Vashti's queendom.  The key here was that Esther never revealed herself as a Jew because of Mordecai's command, "For Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him." (v 20).  The result of this was that much later, when Haman the Agagite (which means he was a descendant of one of the kings Saul was supposed to kill but spared him) tried to destroy the Jews for his sleight at the hands of Mordecai, Esther had the trump card that saved her people.  Her opportunity was to be placed in an unfamiliar position and wait for God's command. Her willingness and patience fulfilled God's will and plan.

Third reading is in Luke 1, in what we present and former Catholics call the Annunciation.  Mary has just been told by the angel that she is to bear the Messiah- an impossibility to her mind, since she "has not known a man".  Isn't it funny?  Moses had a somewhat less impossible task given to him- to lead the Israelites from Egypt- and he was all, "But I stutter!, But they won't listen to me!  But I don't know your name!"  Isaiah was given the commission as a prophet and cried out, "But I am a man of unclean lips"  Jonah took a ship outta town when the Lord called him to preach to pagan Nineveh.  But Mary, faced with something more impossible, more unbelievable than any of them, did she cry out, or try to decline?  What she DID say was, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word."  Her opportunity was the impossible task.  As you can see, the opportunities the Lord is talking about are rarely comfortable, fall-in-your-lap type things.

Fourth reading takes us to 2 Kings17.  Assyria has conquered Samaria (AKA Israel) and exiled the people.  But now lions have invaded the area and are on a spate of man-eating.  So some bright pagan priest figured out, "The God of this land is pissed, because we don't know His rituals" (paraphrased from v. 26).  Solution?  "Then the King of Assyria commanded, saying, "Send there one of the priests you brought from there, and let him teach the rituals of the God of the land."  Then one of the priests they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord." (vv 27-28)

But despite his best efforts (or in spite of his not so good efforts, since they hadn't exactly curried God's favor before the exile), the priest got them to learn the rituals, but could not tear them away from the gods they worshipped.  So, are we looking at the wasted opportunity of the pagans to know God?  Possibly, but in theme I think we are more called to see the opportunity of the priest, to do God's will though nobody was listening.  As God would tell Ezekiel later, this took the sin off the priest's hands ( and perhaps symbolically, Israel's) and put it on the pagans used to mete out God's punishment.

And that brings us to last night's reading, as I sat on my comic book strewn bedroom floor.  It was Zechariah 1, and one of the two most important opportunities God gives us.  The message herein is very simply contained in v 3, "Therefore, say to them, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts:  'Return to me,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'and I will return to you,' says the Lord of Hosts."  The most important opportunity  the Lord gives to us is repentance.

And the second?  As I sat their meditating, I grabbed a comic book.  It was a Marvel miniseries called The End; and long story very short, the basically evil main character finds a way to capture what he believes is the power of the Almighty.  But once reaching it, no one contests him for it.  He believes that there was never a "god", just disembodied energy there for the taking.  So he takes it, and begins exploring the limits of his new "reality".  As he reaches the very subatomic patterns that all existence is made of, he sees that there is something horribly wrong.  A certain event occurred that is causing the patterns to degrade into chaos, and none of his newfound power, no erasing of what has been, can fix it.  "Now I saw the oblique nature of the trap I had blundered into,"  he tells the reader.  It wasn't that there was no "god", as he thought- but that God had stepped back to give him the opportunity to fix the problem.  Though, of course the character never mentions it as such, he was given the opportunity to move from a state of disbelief to belief on his own- with such guidance as he could accept.  Without this opportunity, none of the others come your way.  And without these last two, the others are meaningless.

But you see, God gives those two opportunities to all of us.  If you don't get it from your youth as Esther, you get it from those who know, like the priest in Bethel.  And if you don't get it from the words of the prophets, as the leaders of Judah did, you'll get it from a comic book, or a newspaper article.  you won't not be given an opportunity.  But you do have to accept it.

Another Saturday night...

...and if you bear with me, I'll have some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.  But first, I shall bore you with hockey.

In today's matches, we saw Tappara win their way into the Finnish finals; however, Jyvaskyla won a 2-1 OT game to stay alive at 3 games to one down to Assat.

Bern survived a 3-goal second period rally to down Fribourg 4-3 and take a 2-0 lead in the Swiss finals.

Lulea got a 2-1 OT win over Farjestads to win their Swedish semifinal and move on to face Skelleftea in the finals.

In Norway, Stavenger rolled over Valerenga 4-1 to take a 2-1 lead in their final series.

In France, Rouen rallied for a 3-1 win over Angers, setting up a final game seven on Tuesday.

And in the UK, Belfast's Craig Peacock had two goals and an assist to top Coventry 5-1 and advance to the winner take all EIHL championship game.  They'll face Nottingham tomorrow, after Canadian Bruce Graham had a hat trick in their 6-3 win over Cardiff.

Which got me thinking about the different nationalities scattered across the various leagues.  I looked up the top ten scorers in each of the leagues I follow (including the NHL).  Canadians took 64 of those spots.  Czechs had 16, but that was skewed by having all ten spots in their own league.  Slovaks made 13, nine of them in their league, followed by Sweden with 12, USA with 10, Finland with 9, Russia-surprisingly- with only 8, Poland with 6 (all in their league), Italy with 4, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark with three, South Korea and Japan (Asia League) with 2 each, and one each from Latvia (in Germany) and Hungary (in France).  Canadians were the leading goal scorers in 9 of the leagues.  The other interesting (to me) thing was a result of the NHL lockout.  The NY Islanders' John Tavares finished in the Swiss top ten- and is currently in the NHL's top ten!


Okay, here's some pictures!

Here's a still taken before the video last night.

Down the street this morning.

 

Noisy blackbird along the canal trail.

Yeah, we crossed this.  Well, at least I did... somebody thought it was better to go through six inches of water and muck and try to pull his daddy into it.

Scrappy vs the Squirrel

It got to be funny- the squirrel attacks the bird feeder, Scrappy goes after the squirrel, squirrel runs away, Scrappy walks away, squirrel comes back.  Here, see for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

In other funny things, I see that now, once he's safely elected, worm  Senator Joe Donnely is now supporting gay marriage.  I wonder if that means he's re-owned the gay son he unofficially disowned during the election.  Speaking of worms, I hope all the alleged Republicans that voted against Richard Mourdock because he ousted their hero Richard Lugar are happy with what they let in.  Good jobs all around!

 

 

And we have our Fourth hockey champion.  KAC Klagenfurt fell behind 2-0 but tied the game on 2 goals by Canadian Tyler Scofield (who exactly matched his regular season point total of 7 goals and 14 points in half the games in the playoffs).  KAC went on from there to take a 5-3 win over first place Vienna to capture the Austrian title from a fifth-place finish.  Klagenfurt, a city of 90,000 near the Slovene border, is the Yankees of Austria with 30 titles now, including 11 straight from 1964-74, and last won in 2009.

 

 

Skelleftea won its way into the Swedish finals today, awaiting the winner of Farjestadt and Linkoping.  Yesterday Traktor (the Meteor guys) downed Ak Bars (the Russian Snow Leopards) for the second straight game to win that series and a date with Dynamo Moscow in the KHL finals.  Another bit of KHL news is the application of Medvescak (the Bears) of Zagreb, Croatia, to the league.  They'll be queuing up behind Milan, Italy, and Gdansk, Poland, as new teams for next year.

 

 

Finally, I'm beginning to lean towards the "Why I blog" topic for that 1,000th post, since I still have only three suggestions for that post.  C'mon, everybody!  Every idea will be considered- except the one you don't send me!

Time Machine #62

The annals of polar exploration are full of tales of both the heroic and the tragic- and sometimes a mix of both.  Thus it was with eager anticipation I set out to learn about Fran Phipps, the first woman to set foot on the North Pole, on April 5th, 1971.  That soon turned to despair as site after countless site told me just that- and no more (except for a handful of foreign sites that had her erroneously reaching the South Pole).  But then I learned yet again, behind every good woman is a good man.  I happened to stumble onto the obit of the Canadian adventuress' hubby, one "Weldy" Phipps.  Weldy, a long time aviator who was a POW in WWII, ran a polar airline called Atlas, which made trips to the pole for medical emergencies for the Eskimos and other such.  And it just so happens that one afternoon, he brought the wife along, and the rest is history.

What she lacked as a courageous heroine she made up as a courageous mother, raising nine children for Weldy.  Weldy, himself, was quite the character, achieving a rescue for himself and a mate in Holland by waving the only white flag he had- his underpants.  He was quite quotable:  After one rough landing, a passenger exclaimed, "You could fly without wings!", to which he replied, "But I couldn't carry cargo!"  Another time, he told a co-pilot, " The problem with passengers is that they are always laughing when they should be praying."

Hey, Sarge?  Whose flag is white with a brown bar down the middle...?

And welcome to this week's Time Machine, where I will attempt- even with the sinus cold to end them all- to top Weldy Phipps with: a "you can't do that" six degrees; the short career of the highest charting British male of the fifties;  the Trashmen who stole a hit; and a new #1!  Seal the hatch and let's roll!

As always, we begin with the hot 100 debuts for this week in 1971, and out of 10, 4 get a mention.  One of them, however, doesn't get a mention here, because it breaks in as the high top 40 debut as well!  Of the others, you have John Lennon with Power To The People at #58, my very bestest group, the Doors, at 79 with Love Her Madly; and one I'd like you to get to know.  With Bee Gee Maurice Gibb producing and playing bass, here is Aussie band Tin Tin with Toast And Marmalade For Tea.





That delightful little tune comes in at 82 this week.


Our birthday songs this week total EIGHTEEN!  Turning thirty, Irene Cara's Flashdance Theme; ZZ Top's breakthrough Gimme All Your Lovin'; U2's powerful New Years' Day; After The Fire's big hit Der Kommissar; and a song longtime AOR-heads might remember- a tune called Why Me?  by the Planet P Project, which was fronted by former Rainbow keyboardist and eventual solo act Tony Carey.  Turning thirty-five:  Patti Smith's Springsteen cover Because The Night; Heart with the appropriately- named Heartless; Seals and Crofts' You're The Love; and Little River Band's Happy Anniversary.  Big week for Australia, eh?

Turning 40:  Elton John's Daniel; Alice Cooper's No More Mr. Nice Guy; and the last top 40 hit for the fabulous Perry Como, a cover of Don McLean's And I Love You So.  Hitting 45, Archie Bell and the Drells with Tighten Up (did you know that Archie's younger brothers included Dazz Band (Let It Whip) lead singer Jerry and late Tampa Bay Bucs RB Ricky?); and the Rascals' A Beautiful Morning.

Hitting the big 5-0, My old boss Lt. Larry's favorite song, Lou Christie's Two Faces Have I; the Beach Boys' Shut Down; and the original The Birds' The Word by the Rivingtons.  Soon afterwards, the nasceant group the Trashmen would find this song and the Rivington's other hit, Oom-Pa-Pa-Mow-Mow, combine the verses and delete the choruses, and make a hit called Surfin' Bird (for which they would be sued and not only end up sharing credit on that song but on another future tune).

Wrapping the birthdays up, the Platters turn 55 with Twilight Time.  Blow out the candles...


The big dropper this week is If You Could Read My Mind, falling 49 spots to pause at 78 on the way out.  The big mover- stop me if you've heard this one- is in the top 40.

That brings us to our Where Are They Now victim, and at 50 this week we have the Impressions with Ain't Got Time.  The Imps are probably best known for the band that gave Curtis Mayfield his start, as well as the hit People Get Ready (which Rod Stewart would cover in 1985).  In 1961, they would hit the charts with the original of a song just recently on our chart via Brian Hyland- Gypsy Woman, reaching # 20.  The group had a series of ins and outs, during which they still hit the pop top 20 10 times and #1 R&B 4 times.  After Mayfield went solo, though, they fell on hard times, save for a flurry of hits in 1974-5.  Fred Cash and Sam Gooden are still touring with the group out of the set that were inducted into the Rock and Roll HOF in 1991.  Jerry Butler is a musician and a Cook County, Illinois, Commissioner for about the last 30 years; Richard and Arthur Brooks seem to have dropped off the grid.  The remaining HOFer, Mayfield, died in 1999 from complications from being paralyzed.  He was struck by falling stage lighting in Flatbush in 1991, and recorded his last lp lying flat down.

Next up, our top 40 debuts!  Coming in at 38, up 13 spots, is the vocal group Ocean with Put Your Hand In The Hand.  King Floyd, who just had the top ten Groove Me, moves up 8 to 35 with Baby Let Me Kiss You.  The aforementioned Sir Elton John rises 7 to # 34 with Friends...

Aw, c'mon!  It's been a long time since I've done the duck bit!

Our big mover within the 100 climbs 25 spots to #30- a song called Stay Awhile by a Canadian band called the Bells, who once claimed Music Box Dancer Frank Mills as a member.  And finally, the high debut this week on both the hot 100 and the top 40- the Jackson Five with Never Can Say Goodbye at 29. 


Our lookback was in 1958 this week, and landed a big mover- jumping from 24 all the way to 8!  It was a 13 year old boy from the UK named Laurie London and a song you all know well- He's Got The Whole World In His Hands.  This major hit, which peaked at #2, made Laurie the highest charting British male on the American charts in the decade.  It did not, however, make him a career, as various other ventures flopped and he retired (for the most part) from the music industry at the age of 19.  He's been rather more successful on the business end of things, and currently owns and manages the Ship And Castle pub in Portsmouth, whose website you can visit at your leisure.

Two songs get almost but not quite shoutouts this week:  The Grass Roots peak at 16 with Temptation Eyes, and Chicago's Free peaks at 19.

Likewise, two songs get bounced from the top ten this week.  Bobby Sherman Cried Like A Baby but still got shoved from 10 to 11, and One Bad Apple fell from the tree and rolled all the way from 7 to 22.

Santana leads off the top ten, climbing 3 to 10 with Oye Como Va.

Paul McCartney moves 2 to 9 with Another Day.

Fellow former Beatle George Harrison holds at 8 with What Is Life?

And our six degrees victim is next.

The Carpenters slip a notch to 7 with For All We Know.  Richard Carpenter first heard the song, sung by Larry Meredith, in the Movie Lovers And Other Strangers, and immediately decided to record it.  On the heels of its popularity, it won the best new song Oscar- but at the awards ceremony, the duo were not allowed to perform it because they had not been in a film.  They picked Petula Clark for the honor- and she paid them back by singing it again at a concert just a day or two after Karen's tragic death.

The oboe part was to have been a guitar part- and not just any guitar.  Jose Feliciano was a big fan, and wanted to play on a Carpenters song.  He recorded a guitar intro for the song- but the next day, his agent called Richard and said under no circumstances were they to record Jose's intro.  Thus, the oboe.  Jose was new to fame, only recently having had his big hit with a cover of the Doors' (my bestest group) Light My Fire.  Although the Doors apparently didn't mind Jose's version, a far different story emerged later.  While Jim Morrison was incommunicado, the rest of the band was approached for permission to use the tune for a Buick Opel ad ("C'mon Buick light my fire...").  The rest of the band agreed; but when Morrison found out, he threatened to destroy an Opel with a sledgehammer on worldwide TV if it ever saw the light of day.  Jeez, testy people...

Marvin Gaye knows What's Going On- he's moving up 3 spots to # 6.

Ike and Tina hold at 5 with Proud Mary.

Janis Joplin and her friend Bobby McGee slip a spot to #4.

Which means the Temptations reverse course, climbing back up one spot to #3 with Just My Imagination.

Tom Jones retreats a notch to #2 with last week's top dog, She's A Lady.

And that means that our new #1 this week is....

Yes, the Partridge Family (with Laurie look-alike Susan Dey*) and Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted!!!!!


(*who says I use the same bits all the time?)

That's it for this week!! See ya next trip!

B is for Boofus

I'm kinda skeptical about this...

Okay, so this isn't an A to Z challenge post, but I thought it sounded pretty good.

Actually I only had a couple of assorted things to bring up.  First, we have three entries in the "what shall the 1,000th post be about" contest, and pretty good ones, I might add.  But Scrappy up there will choose by picking a random food item from a group of same to decide which post gets it, so he'd like a few more entries!

Second, our hero had a brief adventure this morning.  Warmer weather talked me into putting the one bird feeder back out, but when we went to let Boofus have his morning outdoors trip, Mr. Raccoon was sitting on the fence considering a raid, with a "Can't you all just go back to bed, please?" look.  Needless to say, our visitor hurriedly left, taking with him a lot of my desire to do the bird-feeding thing this year.

Third, fellow blogger Bobby G.  decided to pre-emptively declare war on North Korea.  I joined in quickly in the name of the Kingdom of Sambonia.  This was my childhood "nation", an empire back then, whose emperor was always the alpha pet (With a cat named Sambo being the first Emperor, hence the name).  In reply to my declaration, Bob replied thusly:

CWM:
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!
That's TWO of us...
(we could be on to something)
I'm dying to see your FLAG!
Well, yes, there was a Sambonian flag, and it looked something like this:

And there you have it, Robert!

Finally, a caller on Rush Limbaugh made an interesting observation on the growing partisan polarization:

" This isn't politics as usual.  It is a cold war, a cold civil war..."

Boy, that not only puts it in a nutshell, but puts in stark relief the need for everyone to back off from the abyss.  Unfortunately, from my POV, we have seen so much of not only lying from this President and his party mates, but the willingness to ignore, accept, or embrace the lie by those who voted for them- in order to protect their sacred cows- that it is hard for me to be the one to trust and step back first.  The problem is, we have obscured the issues that we should be "this far and no farther" on with all the so-called hot-button issues that no one will move on- but maybe shouldn't be a part of the debate at all.  The "experts" remain convinced that these issues are the way to gain support- but really, all they do is radicalize your base.  The caller thought that perhaps the way to break the cycle is for those in the middle- the independents- to stand up as a "fifth column" to move things forward.  Sounds like a plan to me, so get at it!  I'll be right here behind the barricades- hoping to see a parlay flag, but with weapon in hand for the first sign of a lie.

Lotsa Little Bits volume 12

ITEM:  If you didn't hear/read it, Pope Francis' Easter message was truly moving.  Here's a chunk of it:

What a joy it is for me to announce this message: Christ is risen! I would like it to go out to every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.
Most of all, I would like it to enter every heart, for it is there that God wants to sow this Good News: Jesus is risen, there is hope for you, you are no longer in the power of sin, of evil! Love has triumphed, mercy has been victorious! The mercy of God always triumphs!

We too, like the women who were Jesus' disciples, who went to the tomb and found it empty, may wonder what this event means (cf. Lk 24:4). What does it mean that Jesus is risen? It means that the love of God is stronger than evil and death itself; it means that the love of God can transform our lives and let those desert places in our hearts bloom. The love of God can do this!

This same love for which the Son of God became man and followed the way of humility and self-giving to the very end, down to hell - to the abyss of separation from God - this same merciful love has flooded with light the dead body of Jesus, has transfigured it, has made it pass into eternal life. Jesus did not return to his former life, to earthly life, but entered into the glorious life of God and he entered there with our humanity, opening us to a future of hope.

For more, here is a link.  I have been greatly impressed with this new leader so far, not for the greatness of his actions or oratory, but by his focus being where it needs to be.

ITEM:  Not much more hockey to add.  Dynamo took out SKA St. Pete today, and the Muscovites will await the Ak Bars- Traktor winner.  And in Switzerland, Bern topped off a series-tying 4-3 win Sunday with a series winning 4-1 triumph over Zug today to advance to the NLA finals against Fribourg.  The UK Elite league has set the pairings for the semis (which didn't involve the round-robin I remembered). #1 Nottingham plays Cardiff in game one Saturday, followed by #2 Belfast against Coventry.  The winners play for all the marbles Sunday.

ITEM:  Here are the pics you didn't get to see from Saturday's walk, plus some Saturday night visitors:

Scenic views of North Bank.

No, I didn't goose him, we were quite a ways off.  Just caught him in mid-hop.

After two hours of walking, actually willing to sit in one spot for a couple minutes without whining.

Later that night, wanting water and taking the usual crap from us in getting it.

So later that night, Scrappy comes down from bed barking up a storm.  I investigated and found these two.

Yeah, hard to get good "no flash with a tripod" pics when a) no tripod and b) moving targets.  Though they were willing targets- even with Scrappy with me, bellowing as if war had been declared, the only time the pair looked up is when I used the flash.  That fourth picture is the last one going back into the woods as serene as she came out.

ITEM:  Speaking of the doofy dog, he finally got around to eating his "breakfast" at 6:45 this evening.  Guess he's doing a post-Easter fast.


ITEM: Four of my bloggy friends- Miss CB, Juli, DiscConnected, and of course Al Penwasser- are devoting the time and effort to the A to Z Blogging Challenge- where you post a post on a subject with the letter A on the first day, B the next, and so on through the alphabet and/or the month of April.  I thought it was neat that each of them have honed in on a particular subject for this year's challenge.  Miss CB, who works with a vet, is featuring pet health articles; Juli is featuring things she's pinned on Pinterest; DC is doing progressive rock music, starting with a review of Asia's latest lp; and Al claims to be doing a history/geography series, though where it will wander to is anyone's guess.  Will I be doing this?  Of course not!  I like the freedom of posting when I feel like it, and choosing completely random topics.  But those who do earn my everlasting respect for their endurance.

ITEM: Betcha Skippy's loving opening day- 2 Bryce Harper HRs and 7 shutout innings from Strasburg.  Reds are in extra innings and the A's won't start until I'm snoozing so the jury's still out for me.

ITEM:  Luckily you can't get laryngitis in your fingers, because I started sounding like Lauren Bacall sometime Sunday afternoon.  With Laurie starting second shift at that great monolithic corporation with the amusing customers, we're "baching" tonight, so I thinketh that after I hit publish, I shall shower, jammy, Nyquil, and try to hear the ESPN broadcast of whatever game is airing then.  I remember a time in life that opening day meant a radio, a box of HoHos, a couple of pepsis, the latest copy of The Sporting News, and an all-day date.  Of course, I was a schoolboy then, and it was warmer than 35 FRICKING DEGREES outside!!!

ITEM:  With this post, I shall be just 10 away from my 1,000th post!  So, I'll dare you all- leave a comment on what the 1,000th post will be about!  If I get what I deem enough entries, I'll have Scrappy pick the winner and do my level best on it!  How do you beat a deal like that?  So leave comments!  It's all up to you!