A Day in the Life

I've missed blogging these last couple of weeks. But the beginning of a new school year has kept me preoccupied and away from this page. Now it's Friday afternoon, and things are fairly quiet around the Honors House. Unfortunately, my mind is pretty quiet as well. I think parts of it are actually napping at the moment. So, the part of me that's conscious is just going to write down a couple of interesting little notes.

Today is August 29. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you (in rather random pieces)--

• Republican presidential hopeful is 72 today, and in addition to celebrating his birthday and the end of this year's Democratic National Convention, McCain has just named Sarah Palin as his running mate. She's the governor of Alaska, and I've never heard of her before. I've always wanted to go to Alaska, so I've nothing against her there. Initial profiles I've read of her suggest that she's potentially an interesting woman. (By the way, this is the first time that I've been aware of myself as older than such folk as Barack Obama, who is 47, and Sarah Palin, who is 44.)
• Former-pop-superstar-turned-unfortunate-famous-freak Michael Jackson is 50 today. Somehow that's difficult to imagine, but I don't know why. I never thought much about it until now, but Jackson and I were born in the same year, 1958, he three months earlier than I. In 6th grade the girls in my class and I would argue over who was better, Michael Jackson or Donny Osmond. I argued for Jackson, they for Osmond. Once upon a time, Michael Jackson was clearly the most famous singer/songwriter/performer of the two. He's still most famous, but, as with today's MTV, music has little or nothing to do with it. (By the way, according to a book I'm reading, Osama bin Laden was also born in 1958, in January, a fact that I'm likely to muse on at some point.)
• Today is the birthday of jazz man Charlie "Bird" Parker.
• It's the birthday of British political philosopher John Locke, many of whose ideas (and phrases) Thomas Jefferson adapted (or plagiarized) for the Declaration of Independence.
• It's the birthday of Ingrid Bergman.
• It's the birthday of Oliver Wendell Holmes. According to my Book of Days for the Literary Year, it was on this day in 1825, Holmes's 16th birthday, that he stood before the examiners of Harvard College and breezed through their tests.
• It was on this day three years ago that Hurricane Katrina made its second US landfall, this time in Louisiana and just after six o'clock in the morning; by this time in the afternoon (3:26), levees were breached and lives were lost--actually and metaphorically.

Church Ladies

I never know if these church bulletin/announcements are real or made up. Certainly we've all read or heard such slips of the fingers or tongues. Anyway, while my brain is otherwise occupied by the beginning of the semester, I thought I'd pass these along as I received them from one of my former professors. Enjoy.

• The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.


• The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water. ' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'


• Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.


• Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.


• The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.


• Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.


• Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.


• Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.


• For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.


• Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.


• The Rector will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing: 'Break Forth Into Joy'.


• Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.


• At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.


• Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.


• Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.


• Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.


• The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.


• Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.


• The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.


• This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.


• Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.


• The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.


• Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.


• The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.


• Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.


• The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday : 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours'.

Dessert by Any Other Name . . .

Lately we've been going to several different functions with church and family and so on. My wife has become popular for the cookies pictured here. They're basic and easy to make--although I don't make them myself. The recipe calls for a little cocoa, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, oatmeal, peanut butter. Mix all these up just right in a big pot and plop them out on some aluminum foil or parchment paper, and it's quite a treat.

Well, they're double "D"--delicious and dangerous! The "easy to make" part is a problem, and then there's the problem of how good they are just laid out on the and setting up. Pour a glass of milk and . . . Wow!

I fondly remember having these cookies in the lunchroom at Walnut School when I was in grades 1-8. And then, lo and behold, I marry a woman expert at making them.

I don't remember what we called them back then, but they're known by lots of names. One traditional name is no-bake cookies. Non-traditional names include cow patties. Of course, worse could be said about them and the way they look sort of like turds and come warm from the pot, but I try not to think in those terms.

When my younger son came along, he dubbed them "chocolate desserts," which is now my favorite name for them. My older granddaughter liked the smell and the basic taste, but she asked that there not be oatmeal or peanut butter. (Wouldn't that be something like fudge?) Anyway, her grandmama reduced the oatmeal to powder in a food processor and used creamy peanut butter instead of chunky. So, the taste remained and the texture became acceptable. My granddaughter wanted to have her own name for the new design, and so she dubbed them "chocolate mocolate"--a fine name for an almost five-year-old.

A couple of nights ago, my cousin was in town, and we wanted some chocolate dessert. A quick stop by the grocery (after band practice at church) to get some sugar and whole milk was all it took. I had a couple with milk and a couple with some red wine. (On the advice of a friend, I've discovered that chocolate and red wine are interesting together.) But I'm trying to lose weight, so the next night, when my wife was going to a meeting, she asked if I wanted her to take the chocolate dessert with her to get them out of the house. I said, "Yes!" They were a big hit at the meeting, and she came back empty-handed.

Thank goodness. (But she's due to make more for a gathering this Sunday afternoon!)