Hey Look It's Snowing

Again.


Somehow I missed the memo that we were supposed to get another 4-8 inches today.


I'm also beginning to think I missed the memo about the White Witch re-taking control of Narnia. . .


Tonight's football game just gets more and more interesting. At least 4-8 inches of snow ought to cushion the Vikings' falls onto the hard tundra that is currently TCF Bank field.


I have also decided that everybody's annoying and dangerous driving habits are at least 10 times more annoying and 100 times more dangerous when there is snow on the road. I've got news for you, people: four wheel drive does not make you immune to the laws of physics nor does it exempt you from the idiot tax.

So to everybody who talks on their cell phone while they drive, or follows too close, or drives in snow without headlights on, or weaves in and out of traffic, or goes too fast for the conditions, or changes lanes without use of a blinker, or cuts across multiple lanes of traffic upon entering a roadway, or runs a red light, or can't be bothered to clear all the snow off their car before they start driving around: knock it off!

My Big Fat Italian Christmas

Ciccone Christmas this afternoon. First time I've been able to make it in five years, I'm pretty stoked.

I've decided to go old school and bring Nana's rum cake. I'm still getting used to baking in this oven, so it looks a little overdone, but I think it will still taste good.

People used to tease Nana and say they could only have one piece, otherwise they might get drunk from the cake. She'd get embarrassed and say "all the alcohol bakes out, it's just the flavor that stays."

For the record: the rum you put in the batter may bake out in the oven, but I'm pretty sure the rum you add to the sauce right before you pour it all over the cake doesn't evaporate that quickly. ;)

Jesus the Liberal Democrat

Spot. On.

Many quotable lines in this, but here's my favorite:

"If this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it."

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Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat
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A Thought for Christmas

Danke schon to Nick, who posted this as a note on his facebook page:

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagon sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
with German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody's imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carolers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest
of Second Comings

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

This is Equal Parts Amusing and Disturbing

So I was thinking about enhancing my last post with a picture of a rebel victory on Hoth, and my internet search turned up this:



Apparently, it began as an April Fools joke on ThinkGeek but is now a real product, due to consumer demand.

It's cute and clever and all but. . .considering I still have to look away whenever Han cuts open the Tauntaun, I just don't think I could ever actually sleep in something like this.




Is it terribly obvious I'm avoiding the two papers I should be working on? ;)

The Great Blizzard of '10 Part Deux

Thankfully I don't have to worry about moving Hermes until this thing ends and plow guy comes back.

But some neighbors were parked on a snow emergency route. They needed to move their car ASAP lest the city impound it.

Fool that I am, I was walking around outside trying to get some pictures of the storm when I came across them.

So I ran home to get my shovel and came back to help.


Every car we successfully got off the emergency route and onto a side street felt like a Rebel victory on Hoth!


Who needs a gym membership when you live in Minnesota? :)

The Great Blizzard of '10

Best line so far in this morning's blizzard coverage comes from Jason Derusha at WCCO. A sedan was trying to turn a corner just outside their downtown studio and got stuck in a ridge of snow in the intersection, thus blocking part of the road and making it even harder for other traffic to negotiate the intersection. Jason's comment went something like this:

Be realistic, people. If you see a ridge of snow on the street and you're driving an Escort, it's not gonna happen. Basically it comes down to, if you're out driving around in this stuff, don't be an idiot.


The next best line comes from the traffic guy, who has made a running joke of throwing shots from the Lowry tunnel into the mix of traffic cam views, as he says "Hey look, I found a place it's not snowing!"


Apparently one gets a little punchy in the 4th straight hour of covering a blizzard. :)


Choral Girl, I know I talked a good game yesterday about blizzards not being able to stop InVocation, but I'm starting to reconsider that position. . .

It Gets Better, Love Pixar

Hat tip to Mary, through whose blog I discovered this video. I share it here for two reasons:

1) Much as I love Bishop Hanson, he is a straight aging white man in a relatively privileged and powerful position. While I am proud he is one of the many who have stood up to say "It Gets Better," I think the message probably rings more authentically true when it comes from those who have lived through the same kind of discrimination and self-deprecation and can honestly say their lives on the other side of that hurt are more fulfilling than they could have imagined as they were going through that hurt. So, I share this because it is a more authentic witness to things getting better.

2) I think one of the great fears in the larger society when it comes to homosexuality is that gay people are out to corrupt children and convert them to the "gay lifestyle." I know in the conversations we had around human sexuality when I was in the parish, there were certainly folks who named this fear. I think this fear stems, not from actual experience, but from lack of known experience of or exposure to actual gay people. To that end, I think this video can help debunk this myth. For if this fear had any basis in reality, then working for Pixar must be the employment pinnacle for gay people, right? I mean, Pixar's target audience is children, and they reach millions of them worldwide every year. If this fear had any basis in reality, given the number of openly gay Pixar employees in this video, I would expect Pixar movies to be loaded with overt and covert recruitment to the "gay lifestyle" . . . and yet, somehow I can't think of any concrete example of this in a Pixar film. So, I also share this video in the hope it will challenge these prejudices and allay these fears.

Learning the Hard Way

Apparently, I misunderstood the snow removal policy where I live.

In my defense, up to this point plow guy's behavior has not been consistent with the policy as it was explained to me, thus contributing to my confusion about when, exactly, plow guy comes to clear things out (and when, consequently, our vehicles need to be out of his way).

Long story short: this past weekend, Hermes the Honda was still sitting in its parking space when plow guy came to clear out the parking stalls. This irritated plow guy to the point that he conducted an experiment in behavior modification, using what psychologists would refer to as "negative reinforcement."

In other words, the bugger plowed me in. The three sides of Hermes he had access to were piled with knee-deep snow (as high as the wheel wells, which to Hermes is the equivalent of hip-deep snow). The thickest pile was blocking the only direction I could possibly go to get out of the parking stall.

It took an hour and a half of non-stop shoveling to dig Hermes out. It had to be non-stop because InVocation had a 5 pm call time in Hastings, and I was due to meet fellow singers for a carpool to Hastings at 4. I discovered plow guy's experiment at 2.

Believe me when I say that by the time I was done, my parking stall was as clear (if not more clear) as if plow guy had plowed it himself.

Believe me when I say that the lesson has been learned, the behavior has been modified, Hermes will never be in plow guy's way again!

Beginning of an SNL Renaissance?

I was just thinking a couple of weeks ago, SNL hasn't sucked as much this year. It's still a far cry from the days Tina Fey was head writer, but it's improving over its most recent iterations.

Then I got my little e-newsletter from Olaf, and found out they've got an Ole in the writing room.

Coincidence? I think not. :)

Now, if they would only let Cookie Monster host. . .

Happy Hannukah!

Because that's what every good Jew wants for their Hannukah dinner, a big fat slice of ham. Ah Wal-Mart, thanks for your corporate sensitivity and your enlightenment of the American public. . . not. Epic fail.


Now here are some dudes who know what they're talking about. Hat tip to Mary for bringing it to my attention. Happy Hannukah to my Jewish brothers and sisters!

Educational Paradigm Shift

Hat tip to the Ed 1 class for pointing me to this youtube video on educational paradigm shifts. Don't want to lose track of it, so posting it here.

Support Your Local Musicians

InVocation concerts this weekend and next.