ALL THIS FOR A BATTERY!

A couple of nights ago, I took my daughter Brittany to her high school for freshman orientation. You can tell that Ann and I are becoming old farts when our fourth and final child is now entering high school. Anyhoo, that accomplished...

We go back to the van - dead battery, and I know I didn't leave anything on! Long story short, my brother Glen gave me a jump, followed me home in case the van dies on the way home. Successful ride home, but the battery would not hold a charge for all the tea in China. Shut van off - couldn't restart.

Today was the first chance I had to get my battery, so I hit the happy bus trail - ah yes, good old public transit and its sporadic schedules. First time I've taken a bus anywhere in about four years. Before I could buy a battery, I needed to have money. So, it's off to the church to get my paycheck. I hopped a 10:40 bus from the main drag near me, got to downtown Providence by about 11:20.

The next bus I needed to West Warwick from Providence wasn't due in till 12:30, so I went to grab a cheeseburger at the roach coach across the street. I no sooner get there and some guy's looking to buy jewelry off me. The only jewelry I wear is my watch and my wedding ring. The guy says "Hey buddy, got some jewelry ya wanna sell?" "No thanks, I'm good," I reply. "How about that wedding ring? Wanna sell that?" "Nope. Not for sale." "Are you sure? I got all the money you want!" he exclaims, and proceeds to open his wallet and display his wad of bills (could be all ones for all I know). I finally said, "Look man, I'm happily married! This ring isn't going ANYWHERE!" He apologized and backed off.

Got my chizz-burger (was quite good, I must say; I should have gotten the name on the roach coach, but it was well worth the deuce), and finally hopped the 12:30 bus to West Warwick. Got a return timetable off the driver. It was 1:00 when I got off the bus at the CVS right next door to the church. I looked at the return trip timetable - the next bus going back wasn't due to hit the CVS area till 2:05. Collected my paycheck, called my wife from the rectory, then went to the church since I had all this time to kill. Went up and practiced for about a half hour, chatted with the sacristan for about five minutes before I left. Back to the bus stop at about 1:50 in case the bus runs early (it ran ten minutes late instead).

Finally - by 5:00-ish (big stress on the "ish"), with some help from my wife and my son, we got the battery on and the van fired right up. Hopefully it stays that way!

Lesson for all you bus stop peddlers:

MY WEDDING RING IS NOT FOR SALE!

Peace,
BMP

THE LAST GAME SHOW I REMEMBER...

...to use ORGAN MUSIC regularly during the game:

Concentration, hosted for eons by Hugh Downs, then for the last couple of years by Bob Clayton.



Peace,
BMP (somewhat of a classic game show enthusiast)

SOME OF MY FAVORITE 4th AND 5th GRADE MEMORIES...

One of my old classmates in grade school got me into Baseball Super Freaks. These were some of the most hifreakinlarious stickers, some even funnier than Wacky Packages, that my childhood allowance could buy.

Thanks to David W. at Quasi-Intersting Paraphernalia Inc. (a blog), one can get a glimpse of THE ultimate collection that I couldn't stop LMAO over!

Here are a few of my favorites. Go see David W. for the rest. BTW, I saved my absolute favorite for last!

Peace,
BMP

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM MASSACHUSETTS WHEN...

Another one sent to me by Rich that I couldn't resist. Snarky remarks mine. Some of these pertain to us Rhode Islanders as well.

You know you're from Massachusetts when...
1. The Red Sox World Series win was, and will always be, one of the greatest moments in your life.
1A. The playoff win over the Yankees after being down 3 games was bigger than the Series win.
(As much as I like #1, #1A DEFINITELY holds true.)
2. The guy driving in front of you is going 70 mph and you're swearing at him for going too slow.
(In RI, it's swearing at the guy in front of you for doing merely the speed limit, or 10 under.)
3. When ordering a tonic, you mean a Coke. (That threw me a curve in my Berklee days.)
4. You went to Canobie Lake Park or Water Country as a kid.
5. You actually enjoy driving around rotaries. (I get the biggest kick out of the dame in the GPS who blatantly says "roundabout" when she means "rotary".)
6.. You do not recognize the letter 'R' as a part of the English language.
7. Your social security number starts with a zero. (Zip codes too!)
(#'s 6 and 7 also pertain to Rhode Island.)
8. You can actually find your way around the streets of Boston.
9. You know what a 'regular' coffee is. (Same as RI)
10. You keep an ice scraper in your car year-round. (I keep one in my personal van because I forget to remove it when winter is done. I keep one in my Schwan's truck as a "CSM's Secret Weapon" - I use it to grab hard-to-reach products.)
11. You can tell the difference between a Revere accent and a Dorchester accent.
12. Springfield is located 'way out west.' (The RI version is that going to Providence from Woonsocket and vice versa means you have to bring your luggage.)
13. You almost feel disappointed if someone doesn't flip you the bird when you cut them off or steal their parking space. (I guess that means you can't flip'em back!)
14. You know how to pronounce the names of towns like Worcester, Billerica, Gloucester, Peabody, and Haverhill. (You can tell a non-Rhode Islander when people pronounce "Pawtucket" as it is spelled. The proper RI pronunciation is "P'tucket", like in "P'sghetti".)
15. Anyone you don't know is a potential idiot until proven otherwise. (To me, that's the other driver.)
16. Paranoia sets in if you can't see a Dunkin Donuts or CVS Pharmacy within eye shot at all times. (Not me. I don't drink coffee. Maybe an occasional orange coolata or an ultimate chocolate milk from the cooler.)
17. You have driven to New Hampshire on a Sunday just to buy alcohol. (or cigarettes - NH has the lowest state cigarette tax in New England. RI and MA, on the other hand, are duking it out to see who has the worst state cigarette tax in the country. Therefore, the constant cigarette tax hikes are no longer a safety issue. It's a revenue thing, just like many of RI's ridiculously low speed limits.)
18. You know how to pronounce Yastrzemski. (also a RI thing)
19.. You know there's a trophy at the end of the Bean Pot.
20. You order iced coffee in January. (also a RI thing)
21. You know that the Purple Line will take you anywhere.
22. You love scorpion bowls.
23. You know what they sell at a Packie. (also a RI thing)
24. Sorry Manny, but number 24 means DEWEY EVANS.
25. You know what First Night is. (also a RI thing)
26. You know at least one guy named Sean, Pat, Whitey, Red, Bud or Seamus. Bonus: You know how to pronounce Seamus. (I don't know any Seamus, but I do know a Shamus.)
27. McLobster = 3-D McCrap
28. You know at least 2 cops in your town because they were your high school drinking buddies.
29. You know there are 6 New England states, but that Connecticut really doesn't count.
30. You give incomprehensible directions to tourists, feel bad when they drive off, but then say to yourself , 'Ah, screw them.' (My idea of directions is "Just keep going straight. Don't worry about that rock wall at the end. It's not really there!)
31. You know at least one bar where you can get something to drink after last call.
32. You hate the Kennedys, but you vote for them anyway.
33. You know holding onto the railing when riding the Green Line is not optional.
34. The numbers '78 and '86 make you cringe. ('75 also)
35. You've been to Goodtimes
36. You think the rest of the country owes you for Thanksgiving and Independence Day. (...and they DO)..
37.. You have never actually been to 'Cheers.'
38. The words ' WICKED' and 'GOOD' go together.
39. You've been to Fenway Park .
40. You've gone to at least one party at UMass.
41. You own a 'Yankees Suck' shirt or hat. (I don't, but I do own a shirt that says "I support two teams, the Red Sox and whoever beats the Yankees" and a hat with what looks to be the "NY" logo, but it's "YH", which stands for "Yankee Hater".)
42. You know what a Frappe is. (also a RI thing)
43. You've been to Hempfest. (WTF?)
44. You know who Frank Averuch is.
45. You know Frank Averuch was once Bozo the Clown
46. You can complete the following: 'Lynn, Lynn .......'
47. You get pissed off when a restaurant serves clam chowder, and it turns out to be f******' Snows, or worse, Manhattan style. (I don't eat clam chowder. Fried clams, yes. Clam cakes, yes. Clam chowder, no.)
48. You actually know how to merge from six lanes of traffic down to one. (Most Rhode Islanders don't. They back up traffic for five states before the required merge instead.)
49. The TV weatherman is damn good if he's right 25% of the time. (also a RI thing)
50. You never go to Cape Cod,' you go 'down the Cape '. (also a RI thing)
51. You think that Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon are more evil than Whitey Bulger.
52. You know who Whitey Bulger is. (also a RI thing)
53. You went to the Swan Boats, House of Seven Gables, or Plymouth Plantation on a field trip in elementary school.
54. Bobby Orr is loved as much as Larry Bird, Tom Brady, and Ted Williams.
55. You remember Major Mudd.
56. You know what candlepin bowling is. (Although I'm from a state where there are no candlepins, I am a longtime HUGE fan of candlepin bowling. Longtime favorite bowlers are Tom Olszta, Paul Berger, the Morgan brothers - Mike Morgan, and the late Tom Morgan - and the late Stasia Czernicki.)
57. You can drive from the mountains to the ocean all in one day.
58. You know Scollay Square once stood where Government Center is.
59. When you were a kid, Rex Trailer was the coolest guy around.
60. Speaking of which.... You can still hum the song from the end of Boom Town (I very vaguely remember Boomtown. I think I was about three or four years old when I saw it last.)
61. Calling Carrabba's an 'Italian' restaurant is sacrilege.
62. You still have your old Flexible Flyer somewhere in your parents' attic.
63. You know that route 128 is some kind of strange weather dividing line. snow/rain
64. The only time you've been on the Freedom Trail is when relatives are in town.
65. The Big Dig tunnel disaster wasn't a surprise.
66. You call guys you've just met 'Chief' or 'Boss.' (also a RI thing - "Governor" is another one, especially if the person you're calling "Governor" was never involved with politics.)
67. 4:15pm and pitch black out means only 3 more shopping days until Christmas.
68. You know more than one person with the last name Murphy. (also a RI thing - I once had a pastor named "Murphy", and I currently have a customer named "Murphy".)
69. You refer to Savin Hill as 'Stab 'n Kill.' (LOL - never heard of that, but Providence is famous for "stab 'n kill", as well as "shoot 'n kill".)
70. You've never eaten at Durgin Park, but recommend it to tourists.
71. You can't look at the zip code 02134 without singing it. (Ah, yes, from "ZOOM!")
72. You voted for a Republican Mormon as Governor just to screw with the rest of the country.
73 11 pm ? Drunk? It means one thing: Kowloons!
74. 2 am ? Drunk? It means one thing: Kelly's! The one on Revere Beach not the one on Route 1. (You can tell you're NOT from New England when you call it "US 1".)
75. 5 am ? Drunk? It means one thing: You wish you had a blanket in your back seat.
76. You know that P-Town isn't the name of a new rap group. (For those who don't know what P-Town is, it's short for Provincetown, the farthest point on Cape Cod. Sadly, it's the east coast social equivalent of San Francisco.)
77. People you don't like are all 'Bastids.' (In RI, they're simply @$$holes!)
78. You took off school or work for the Patriots first Super Bowl Win Parade.
79. You've called something 'wicked pissa'.
80. You'll always get razzed for Dukakis.
81. Saturday afternoons meant Creature Double Feature with Dale Dorman. (also a RI thing)
82. Sunday mornings meant the Three Stooges on Channel 38. (also a RI thing)
(Note on #'s 81 and 82 - in RI, you can't get the Boston channels anymore. The damn cable company here dropped them a few years back.)
83. You've slammed on your brakes to deter a tailgater. (Nah, my way of pissing off a tailgater is simply doing the speed limit - which for me is rare unless there's a speed trap.)
84. No, you don't trust the Gorton's Fisherman.
85. You know that Papa Gino's usually has a jukebox. (also a RI thing)
86. You think Aerosmith is the greatest rock band of all time (Nah - Raspberries, hands down!)
87. Your town has at least 6 pizza and roast beef shops.
88.. You know at least three Tony's, one Vinnie and a Frankie.
89. 20 degrees is downright balmy as long as there is no wind - then it gets wicked cold.. (also a RI thing)
90. You were very sad when saying goodbye to the Boston Garden .
91. Thanksgiving means family, turkey, High School football, and the long version of Alice 's Restaurant. (the only Arlo Guthrie song I like)
92. You know the guy who founded the Boston Pops was named Athah Feedlah.
93. You know what the Combat Zone is.
94. You actually drive 45 minutes to New Hampshire to save $5 in sales tax. (That's because if you drove to RI thinking you're going to save on sales tax, you're completely out of your cotton pickin' mind. The sales tax in MA is 5%. In RI it's 7%, and our meal tax is 8%. And we have the colossal nerve to talk about "Taxachusetts"!)
95. You've pulled out of a side street and used your car to block oncoming traffic so you can make a left. (also a RI thing)
96. You've bragged about the money you've saved at The Christmas Tree Shop.
97. You've been to Hampton Beach on a Saturday night.
98. Playing street hockey was a daily after school ritual. (also a RI thing, especially north and west of Providence.)
99. Hearing an old lady shout 'Numbah 96 for Sioux City!' means it's time for steak.
100. You remember Jordan Marsh, Filene's, Grants, Bradlees, Caldor, Zayres (I also remember Ann and Hope, Coats Field, Mammoth Mart, Ames, and a truckload of drive-in theaters.)

Peace,
BMP

CHECK-WRITING 101

I just love the way some people write checks. As a CSM for a frozen food company, I see a lot of these. The "Pay to the order of" line, the date line, and the signature line are good. But, when it comes to the dollar amount, some things are just not right.

The little box where you write the numeric amount in dollars and cents often gets confused with dollars and a fraction. For example, if you mean $42.25, the number in that little rectangular box should be 42.25, not 42 25/100 or 42 25/xx. Speaking of which, what the hell kind of denominator is "xx"?

Then there's the legal line - where you have to write the dollar amount in words, you know...

__________________________ DOLLARS

I get a charge out of seeing a legal line looking like this:
Forty-two dollars and 25/100______DOLLARS
OR
Forty-two dollars and 25/XX______DOLLARS

Notice how the word "dollars" is used twice. You don't need to write the word "dollars". It's already written for you. Or, how about this:

Forty-two dollars and twenty-five cents___DOLLARS

HUH???!!! That has about as much intelligence as trying to write a hymn with a three-syllable "stumblings" (cf. "Ashes"). The proper way is this:

Forty-two and 25/100___________DOLLARS

On a lighter side, I've always had the temptation to reduce a fraction like 25/100 to lowest terms.

Forty-two and 1/4____________DOLLARS

If I was to cash a check like that, would someone be smart enough to give you the quarter, or would they be dumb enough to take an extra dollar bill and rip that into quarters and give you one?

UPDATE 4/1/09: Chris C. left a link in the combox to this check that was made payable to Verizon...

This is even better than what I was thinking at one point - use variables ($x+3=15 - solve for x).

Peace,
BMP

I'VE ABOUT HAD ENOUGH...

...of those freakin' financial help scam commercials on the radio!

Until the last month or so, I have never heard so many commercials on the radio that want to help you be debt free, get rich quick, or enhance your sexual stamina! It seems that about 90% of the commercials on just about all the radio stations on my FM dial (except for public radio, which is commercial free), whether it be music or talk, pertain to one of those three things, or some similar outrageous BS! What's worse is the jerk that shouts out the toll-free phone number AT LEAST three or four times at the end of the commercial. It kind of goes like this...

Call now, 1-800-473-5527. That's 1-800-473-5527. Again 1-800-473-5527. Don't forget - that's 1-800-473-5527.

Get's annoying as hell, doesn't it?! To me it's even worse than e-mail spam (at least in my e-mail, spam has its own folder).

BTW, I specifically used the phone number 1-800-473-5527 to point out what these people are really selling. If you look carefully at the letters on your phone dial, 1-800-473-5527 is really 1-800-I-SELL-BS! Now THAT would be a little more honest, don'tcha think?

Peace,
BMP

HOW TO GET THE COPS' ATTENTION

This story, sent to me by my wife Ann, can hit home in so many ways, especially out in this region, where you're bound to get stopped for some petty motor vehicle infraction a hell of a lot quicker than you would for drunk driving, or for B and E for that matter.

Check this one out from Vancouver...

HOW TO CALL THE POLICE WHEN YOU'RE OLD
AND DON'T MOVE FAST ANYMORE.

George Phillips, an elderly man, from Vancouver, B.C., was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me. Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."

George said, "Okay." He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again.

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed. One of the Policemen said to George, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

(True Story) I LOVE IT! Don't mess with old people.

Maybe I should try that!
Peace,
BMP

HOW LOW CAN A MOB GO?

Low enough to trample down a Wal-mart worker to death.

Read'em and weep!

RSCT to "mannoman" on the message boards at Eric Carmen's web site.
Peace,
BMP

WANNA KNOW WHAT GRINDS MY GEARS?

(Title stolen from a Peter Griffin news segment)

Anytime I call certain phone numbers and I hear "For service in English, press '1', para servicio in Español, marque '2'". These are the only two options I'm usually given. What if I wanted service in Polish, or Swahili, or Latin? Those options aren't available! Dang!

Peace,
BMP

HOW THIS WORLD HAS CHANGED FOR THE WORSE

(RSCT and a big wet kiss to my wife Ann)

SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957
Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007
School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to Jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for Traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario
Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957
Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007
Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario:
Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957
Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007
Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957
Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007
Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957
Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007
Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957
Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007
Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957
Ants die.
2007
BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957
In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007
Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Awful isn't it? Sad but true.
Peace,
BMP

GLOW IN THE DARK RECIPE

Here's one my wife passed on to me. Enjoy!
Peace,
BMP

RSCT to Gerald, who moved his Closed Cafeteria over to his new WordPress digs - Standing Athwart History.

William Saletan over at slate.com has a the goods - The city of L.A. passed a city ordinance that outlaws the building of new fast-food restaurants in a large section of the city that a half-million low-income residents call home. Click on either of the links above for the full story.

On a related note, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is passing a directive ordering low-fat Hosts for use at Holy Communion at all of their parishes.

Peace,
BMP

(PS: that last paragraph is NOT a true story, just my idea of a punchline for the real story!) :-P

Finding Emmaus at Knossos

My maternal grandmother was, by trade, a “Kloeppelerin”, a person who made what we call in English “Belgian lace”. The lace isn’t specifically Belgian, of course. That’s simply the name we use for it. My grandmother was Austrian, then Czech, then German, thanks to Versailles and later to Mr. Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”, but’s that’s another story. My grandmother’s work found its way onto the vestments and altar cloths of Roman churches throughout her area. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this sort of lace, it is made with strands of thread wound around wooden shuttles (in German a “Kloeppel”). Each piece of lace will use anywhere from about 10 or so shuttles to countless numbers, depending upon the width and complexity of the piece. Oma taught me the basics of this lace making, and I treasure her lace making pillow (the round bolster which holds the pattern and the lace as it is woven), antique shuttles, and secret pattern cards called “lace letters”, in German, “Kloeppelbriefe”. I can only imagine the spiritual exercise it must have been to work a length of lace destined for an ornate alb or fine altar linens. My mother once gifted a round piece of lace my grandmother made to the Carmelite Nuns in Little Rock. They treasure the work to this day, and use it solely underneath the monstrance when the Sacrament is exposed in their chapel. What an immense honor.

As many know, I am a ferocious knitter. I generally have one project going and several others waiting in my knitting bag. Recently, I started attending regular knitting evenings at our local yarn shop here in Lafayette. I’ve met a wonderful group of knitters just as entranced by fiber art as I. The group are working on a community project afghan composed of 24 12-inch knitted blocks, each different. The blocks are designed by knitters from America and Canada. Together they form “The Great North American Afghan”. Ideally, each knitter has chosen 1 block for the project. Since some blocks still remained unclaimed, I have taken two. I completed my first one, a New Mexican design with taupe and brown pinstripes. Leafing through the pattern book yesterday, I chose my second block to be completed in taupe and purple. At first, I mistook the block for a Greek key pattern. When I got it home and read the interview with the designer, I learned that I had chosen the block of blocks, not realizing.

The block was designed by Anna Zilboorg, an Anglican solitary in Meadows of Dan, Virginia. Contemplating the spiritual dimensions of the Chartres labyrinth, a walk through which was the culmination of medieval pilgrimage, Zilboorg pondered what it may be like to knit such a labyrinth. The center of the maze, Zilboorg points out, is the symbolic New Jerusalem. Upon completion, the designer suggests to walk spiritually through the just-knitted labyrinth, moving one’s finger across the bumpy knitted pathways into the center. What first caught my eye as an homage to Greek design, has turned out in fact to be a complex spiritual exercise.

The designer is very clever, mapping out the pattern of the labyrinth pathways. The instructions themselves are a labyrinth. The entire project is puzzle. Understanding the procedure to the knitting took quiet and meditation, envisioning the knitting in order to wrap the mind around the plan. After quite a time of imagining, the enlightenment set in, and it all made sense. There are hidden concepts in the knitting not described in the pattern but which present themselves as necessary to complete the work. What a joy to unravel this first puzzle. As I embark on this knitting journey, I expect to find more hidden surprises within in the labyrinth. Our spiritual walk is not always an easy one. There are hidden turns and puzzling events we must navigate, but in the end, the reward is great.

As part of creation we ourselves are creators. Our human creativity is proof that we indeed share an image of our own Creator, and through such creation, whether it be the fabrication of objects, painting portraits, playing music, planting a garden, keeping house, etc., we are made to glorify God in our work. In knitting, we usually anticipate the completion of the project. In the case of the Zilboorg labyrinth block, I look forward just as much to the discoveries I will make along the paths during its creation. As the chorale text proclaims: Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan!

A FUEL ECONOMY TIP FROM CHRISTUS VINCIT

If you live on or near a state border, gas up at the cheaper state!

Currently, most Rhode Island gas stations are going $3.99-4.09 a gallon (give or take that stupid 9/10 of a cent you see on the signs). I gassed up in Massachusetts at $3.89 a gallon.

This serves to be even more effective if you're on the Connecticut-Massachusetts line, as Connecticut's gas prices are usually about 20 cents higher per gallon than Rhode Island.

Incidentally, Rich at Catholic Lite mentioned hypermiling in a combox of an earlier post of mine on this topic. It involves good use of your cruise control, if you have one.

Peace,
BMP

THE LATEST BREAKFAST CRAZE

Inspired by Freakies comes a new great cereal:



Coming soon to a blogosphere near you!

Peace,
BMP

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

That famous lean mean reproducing machine, the Duggars, are at it again! I watched this family on TV a few times a few months back. I just learned recently that Michelle Duggar is pregnant for their EIGHTEENTH child, due next January!

One side of me says "How the hell do you manage a family that large?" Of course, I can still remember the first choir I directed. We had a couple in the choir who were the parents of 15 kids.

The other side of me says "You can't say they ain't pro-life, that's fer sure!" (that's a good thing, BTW - I think we all know that).

RSCT to Diane at Te Deum Laudamus.

Peace,
BMP

MORE CEREAL NOSTALGIA

Here are a couple of commercials for a couple more defunct cereals that I used to eat in my youth.

First, from Post, the cereal that finally got me into watching the Pink Panther (and got me to name my cub scouts Pinewood Derby car accordingly):



Now, this next one kind of threw me a curve. It's called "Freakies", and is the first human food I've ever seen by Purina. At first I saw the new cereal with the Purina classic checkerboard logo, I seriously thought it was cat food. But it turned out to be a short-lived, yet great-tasting, cereal.



I've been trying to find some of the first Pebbles commercials (I love Cocoa Pebbles), where Fred and Barney sing "If you put sweet Pebbles in your mouth, you'll never have rocks in your head!"

Peace,
BMP

A COUPLE OF VIDEOS FOR JASON

I found these two commercials on YouTube. First, this one, in light of Jason's rediscovery of Quisp.



Now this one, for Quisp's "sister cereal" of the 1970's, Quake:



Peace,
BMP

Transcending Retro Grooviness!

A friend of mine was shopping at the Youngsville Dollar General on Monday and found a box of breakfast cereal that he knew would wrinkle the time-space continuum which surrounds my fondness for transcending retro grooviness. For a dollar (obviously) at D.G., one can purchase a modest little box of Quaker Quisp. The stuff is a magical flashback to 1972. Quisp aficionados will recall the cereal from the 1970's, and that it had vanished from store shelves some time either in the late 70's or early 1980's. The cereal is now available once again in limited distribution at D.G. stores since the beginning of 2008. As soon as I saw the box, I remembered the original cartoon commercials for the stuff with the little pink alien who was able to fly using the handy propeller built into his head. He's also pictured on the box. I hadn't thought about Quisp in decades. Actually, seeing the box (still the same retro styling, but of course with fresh, new cereal inside) was also a revelation to me too, since when I was a kid, I thought it was called "Crisp". Here's a pic of me in my kitchen transfixed by the sword of retro grooviness holding my newly purchased box of Quisp (my black and white adidas sambas didn't make it onto the picture, but if they had, they, besides the nifty cereal box, would have further proven my discipleship of all things retro and utterly groovy). Ok...time to catch up of tevoed episodes of Scooby Doo.

WHAT OUR GAS PRICES ARE LEADING TO

Former Exxon president Lee Raymond spent part of his $400 million retirement package to acquire Shell. Prices immediately skyrocket.


Numeric prices just weren't high enough anymore.


Plan on spending your "stimulus check" there too.


Not to mention even the mower is cheaper than the gas these days, let alone the sheep.


What if you're unemployed? Then you're screwed!


Yeah, you really don't want to be registered with Mutual or Getty. Multiple mechanics told me a while back that they usually pump bottom of the barrel sludge. In fact, Getty gas clogged my fuel pump once. Never again!


A can like that could sell on Ebay for $5,000. Another $20,000 for the gas in it.


That pump won't get you far, but your car will smell pretty outside.


I have a conversion van. Bad enough. We don't need no steenkin' Hummer.


Usually by the time I get to a quarter tank my wallet's empty.


Little does this kid know Gramps is telling the truth. (BTW, when I started driving, I was paying about 60 cents a gallon for regular leaded and self-serve stations were just starting to make their mark in Rhode Island.)


Actually, they were a one-car family, and dad used the car to go to work, or the track, or the bar, or... never mind.

Peace,
BMP
PS: Pics supplied to me by my wife. Captions by yours truly.