68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-26-12”

  2. I know Chas,

    I’ve definitely seen a pattern to it. It’s probably a conspiracy. But you didn’t hear it from me. Burn this when you’re done reading it, before it falls into the wrong hands. Or worse yet the govt get’s a hold of it.

    😯

    I was never here, and this conversation never happened.

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  10. Good Morning, Y’all!

    Today’s quote…my favorite composer. I wake up to him most days.

    Hope all had a wonderful holiday!
    Conratulations, Peter L.!

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  11. Congratulations Peter + (growing) family. 🙂

    Errands to do today. And I need to buy my Angel Tree gifts this week. I drew a 7-year-old girl who wants a “doll” (no other specifics) and a sweater (she likes pink & purple). Oh, and a tea set.

    Now I haven’t browsed for a doll in a while (and I didn’t like them much myself as a tomboy back in my day — I was much more intrigued with the cowgirl stuff or the sporting goods sections). Help.

    Any suggestions??

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  13. Congrats, Peter and D1!

    Donna, summon your inner girly-girl. With requests for pink and purple, a tea set and a doll, just go find a princess doll and you’ll probably be good. Actually I suspect any kind of doll would be a hit.

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  14. Speaking of Music. We had a Bible Study on the Psalter in our adult Sunday School Class. The elder who taught the class said music and song were the means by which one spiritual being communicated with another spiritual being.

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  15. Thank you Adios & Ajisuun. I have no idea what kinds of dolls are even made anymore for girls that age. I’m still trying to get past the idea that she doesn’t REALLY want a baseball glove. 😉

    Review over at Powerline of Lincoln.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/11/thinkin-about-lincoln.php

    From the post:

    “… (T)he film allows one to reflect on the continuity of the film’s Democratic and Republican parties with their modern counterparts. The Republican Party was founded in the belief that it was ‘the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery,’ as the party platform of 1856 put it. The party’s contemporary concerns about traditional marriage and the promotion of freedom have deep roots in the origin of the Republican Party.

    “Lincoln criticized slavery as embodying the tyrannical principle he called ‘the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it.’ Don’t tell Tony Kushner, but the contemporary Democratic Party is preeminently the party of ‘the same old serpent that says you work and I eat.’ “

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  16. My cousin and I are seeing “Skyfall” tomorrow (she’s already seen “Lincoln,” drat!).

    I’m not a James Bond follower per se, but the film’s received pretty good reviews and we’re going with seeing it in the Imax “experience” version. 🙂 So it should be big and loud with very few slow moments, I suspect.

    And I did see where Amazon is offering a 24-hour online rental (at $2.99) of “Amazing Grace” (2007) which I’d mentioned I had yet to see, so I’m definitely planning on watching that here at home sometime this week.

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  17. Hmm. A cursory check of the toy tea sets I’m seeing online are really too young/babyish for a 7-year-old.

    I’ll keep looking, but is there something anyone knows of that is a *little* more grown-up looking without getting the real deal?

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  21. Chinese embracing … John Calvin? Hmmm.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/may/27/china-calvin-christianity?CMP=twt_gu

    From the article:

    “Calvinism isn’t a religion of subservience to any government. The great national myths of Calvinist cultures are all of wars against imperialist oppressors: the Dutch against the Spanish, the Scots against the English; the Americans against the British.

    “So when the Chinese house churches first emerged from the rubble of the Cultural Revolution in the 80s and 90s ‘They began to search what theology will support and inform [them]. They read Luther and said, ‘not him’. So they read Calvin, and they said ‘him, because he has a theology of resistance.’ “

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  24. Donna,

    Dolls? I’m kinda an expert. I don’t collect them, or play with them, or even much like them. Yet I buy them all the time it seems, and am surrounded by them. Everywhere I look there’s dolls. Who knew that 10 year old girls were such pack rats?

    Here’s just a few.

    Polly Pocket, as mentioned, small, lottsa little accessories to lose.

    Barbie, still popular and 9 million different versions to choose from.

    La La Loopsy, popular, yet stick figurish too.

    Monster High Dolls, yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Monster dolls, but with fashion upgrades.

    American Girl Dolls, lovely era dolls, but expensive.

    My Generation dolls, American girl type dolls at a better price.

    Any Disney Princess dolls, as mentioned. Again, there’s 9 million to chose from.

    There’s alot more too. These are the ones I’m most familiar with.

    🙂

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  26. Thanks for all the doll info AJ. I did like the pocket doll accessories that were available, also the fact that you could by a little set with the doll + “stuff.” I’ll now check out those others.

    I had a Barbie when I was a kid, but I honestly don’t remember playing with her very much and I think she found her way to someone else in fairly short order.

    Alas, my mom was ever hopeful of prying that baseball glove off my hand. 😉

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  30. Drivesguy: I knew of a family that had four children and no grandchildren. Only one of the four married, and they couldn’t have children. Then one other son married fairly late in life, married a woman quite a bit younger, when his parents were in their seventies, and they had one little girl. You better believe that child was spoiled.

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  31. Donna – Unless otherwise specified, I think of a doll as a babydoll. There are probably 9 million of those, too, to choose from. These days, it’s hard to find a plain ol’ doll that doesn’t “do” something. Imagination is not necessary for today’s kids, unfortunately, because the toys direct the play. 😦

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  32. My brother always said that the best way to get back at someone is to give his daughter a Barbie. Then he’ll go broke buying all the accessories!

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  33. Donna, Vision Forum sells 18″ dolls in their Beautiful Girlhood Collection. I personally think they are rather spendy at $75 each and have not purchased any, but they are beautiful nonetheless. They also sell doll dresses in styles that various historic women would have worn: Priscilla Mullins (a Mayflower passenger), Nan Harper (Titanic survivor), Dolley Madison, and Sacagawea, among others. And if you really want to go all out, there are hardback picture books that can be purchased that tell the stories of each of those women and others I haven’t mentioned.

    Here’s a link with those items and other accessories (there is also a tea set):

    http://www.visionforum.com/browse/category/dolls-toys-for-girls-1/

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  34. I’ll be 52 in a few months, and my wife is several years older (not telling) and we don’t see any grandchildren on the horizon. Our youngest child probably will never have children because of an 800 mile trip next to his screaming cousins. That cured him of ever having anything to do with small children. The oldest has a girlfriend that, so far, only wants puppies. We’re so envious of our friends who are constantly telling us about the latest antics of their grandchildren….

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  35. That being said, we sure enjoyed having the boys over for Thanksgiving. We played games, cooked food, and ate too much!

    And our oldest son took us on a hike down into Tallulah Gorge on Saturday. Then he treated us to dinner for our 28th anniversary. 🙂

    Boy were we tired when we got back home. And now my calves are positively killing me. I knew I was out of shape, but this is ridiculous!

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  36. Make It Man, you’re just a little younger than my husband (he’s 51 years and 51 weeks), and no grandchildren are on the horizon for us either. But then, my father was still having children at his age (I was almost two, my little sister a baby, and my youngest brother not yet conceived) and my mother had just had her last at my age. . . .

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  37. Joe B, also pushing sixty with four grown children and only two grands. Two married and two not married. There may or may not be more. One never knows.

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  38. Karen O, that was my first thought, too (a baby doll). Unfortunately, all the back of the card says is “doll” — no specific preference indicated. She’s 7 years old so getting a little on the ‘older’ side for dolls, in my mind, which is why I’m wondering if something like a barbie or princess or pocket doll would fit the bill.

    (The vision forum dolls sound wonderful, but we have a recommended spending limit of $40 overall — which includes the toys & the clothing; I confess that I always ‘cheat’ and wind up going over those limits, however, I can’t help it!; but probably not as high as $75 for a single item.)

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  39. Joe B, my paternal grandfather was born in 1895 and did not get a grandchild until I was born in 1962, seven months, less one day, after he had turned 67. He died in 1990 at the age of 95, on the day his first great grandchild was due (my Arrow #1, who did not arrive until six days later). Although he didn’t get to meet his first great grandchild this side of eternity, he took great pleasure in seeing the ultrasound picture of my son, and marveled at the technology that allowed him to see his pre-born great grandchild.

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  41. Great quote today, AJ. I’ll echo InButNotOf when I say that Beethoven is my favorite composer, too.

    I’ve been playing Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 lately, known better by it’s [not given by Beethoven] name Pathetique.

    Get yourself some culture now, everybody, and watch or listen to this video. 🙂 And if you can’t find 17 1/2 minutes for it (c’mon, I know you can), then at least watch the middle movement, probably the most famous of the movements, starting at about the 7 1/2 minute mark, which is only about 5 minutes in length. But then you’ll miss the fast parts, so how about just listen to the whole thing? You’ll be glad you did…you know you will. 😉

    BTW, that’s not me in the video. I don’t play quite that fast.

    (Understatement.) 😉

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  42. Donna, I believe I had heard a number of years ago that American Girl gave some of their proceeds to Planned Parenthood. I don’t know if that’s still the case?

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  43. The quote: one of our guests this weekend makes the piano sound wonderful. He played for us a lot as it brings him great pleasure to share his gift and us great pleasure to hear it. It brought tears to my eyes and my neighbor was mesmerized. What a blessing.

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  44. Let me kind of clarify the grand children thing. The oldest daughter is nearly 40 and has not even had a serious date. The guys see here as one of the guys. The youngest daughter has spinal bifida and the doctor says that having children could cripple her. She is 35 and the only young man she is seeing is 10 years her younger. Now to my son. I love him dearly, but because he was molested a child by homosexual teenage boy, he has never been able to have any kind of stable relationship. He is not financially or emotionally stable enough to have children. He likes to stay by himself and work in a solitary environment. So Cindi and I have pretty much resolved that the only grand kids we will every have will be the ones we adopt from other young married couples.

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  45. I agree that — if not specified — a “doll” to me usually means a baby doll. To my daughter as well, although she also likes the American Girl type dolls.

    My daughter would have wanted this (her very favorite doll): http://www.amazon.com/Zapf-Creation-First-Annabell-Sleep/dp/B004GWXLI6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1353969785&sr=8-10&keywords=annabelle+baby+doll

    Although, she rarely used the electronic part of her Annabelle doll (we usually made her turn it off, because it was annoying.) She just liked the look of the baby.

    Something like this would still tickle my daughter (at almost 13):

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  47. I always said the obscene thing about Barbie was not the large bosom, small waist, long legs and big hair; it is that Barbie has everything. Absolutely everything.

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  48. Joe B, we are fairly resigned as well. Our grandchildren are almost never seen as our dil does not want much to do with me and does not want her children to either. Son does what he can and we don’t push it. I doubt if I will have much of a relationship with them. Older grandson and I write letters to each other at times. But as he is only five, there is not a lot said.

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  49. Daughter is in that same position. As far as never going out with anybody. We have met a lot of young women in that same boat. Makes me wonder what is going on with the young men until I think about why her older brother is not married.

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  50. Mumsee – Keep writing those letters, even if he stops responding. I believe that someday, those letters will bear great fruit in your relationship.

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  51. Donna – 7 year olds are savvy enough to ask for Barbies or Polly Pockets or such by name. And there are girls that age who still play with dolls, or like to have one to sleep with.

    I think there are probably a lot of girls who still like their dolls secretly, but are embarrassed to admit it. I knew an 11 year old girl who sheepishly admitted she’d gotten a doll for Christmas – & was happy about it.

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  52. Mumsee @ 4:44: Yes, that is wonderful to hear good live music right in one’s own home. 2nd Arrow was home two days last week, and she sat down at the piano and played some Beethoven and other music she had studied in her high school years. Very moving. Live music played well beats recorded music any day.

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  53. Drivesguy, at nearly 40 I’d never had a “serious date,” and in my case that meant I’d never ever gone out with a man without him clarifying it was “just as friends.” I had a couple of friendships that lasted a year or two, but never a romantic date. To be honest, a big part of that was that I simply didn’t want to enter “the dating scene” and date around. If “courtship” had been in vogue when I was in college, I’d have told people I was interested in that; because I was, but just didn’t know what to call it. I didn’t want a man to date me for a year and dump me and go on to someone else; I wanted him to observe me, like what he saw, and come after me with the intention of getting to know me and marrying me.

    At least two people (one man friend and one female relative) told me that men just don’t like smart women, that they see them as unfeminine, sorry. (And the woman told me that as though she thought I was somehow “using” my intelligence to reel a man in: “I’m smart! See! Pick me! I’m smart, and I know that’s what you’re looking for!” The reality was more simply that I wasn’t going to pretend to be something I wasn’t in order to catch a man. If he liked what he saw, great. If he didn’t, oh well.)

    But at 43 along came the man who is my husband, and everyone who knew one of us agrees that we’re a “perfect” match.

    My mom couldn’t count on me for grandchildren, nor did she need to, since I have plenty of siblings and the married ones seem quite fertile. I married too late to have children myself, but I have two wonderful stepdaughters, and my mom would have enjoyed them had she had a chance to meet them. You may well yet have such an opportunity, step or adopted grandchildren. For me, I’d pretty much given up ever having children, but now I expect someday to have the blessing of grandchildren.

    But I’ve lived long enough to know that different people have different blessings. I never had, and never will have, biological children; but I have a really great husband and really great stepchildren, and wouldn’t trade that for a chance to marry earlier and have a second-rate marriage and children. (If that had been my life experience, I’d have enjoyed that too, but I’m more than content with the life God gave me.)

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  54. As I mentioned a day or two ago, I have read three chapters of Chesterton’s Infidels. Of course, I haven’t got to the “good” part yet, Orthodoxy. In chapters 3, 4, and 5, Chesterton talks about Kipling, Shaw, and H. G. Wells. As he knew all these people, I think they are included as “infidels” he personally knew and had amiable relationships with, but was trying to explain (to them, and to the world at large) how incorrect they were.

    As a child, I read and loved quite a bit of Kipling. Evidently he was a deist, but fairly coy and reticent about his religious beliefs. Kipling supported the British Empire, and the militarism that maintained it. He encouraged his son (and pulled strings to make it happen) to join the military to fight in WW I. Reading this chapter (written long before WW I), there is a lot of irony to contemplate how Kipling’s son died in the war.

    Shaw, of course, was a notorious atheist, Chesterton appreciates Shaw’s consistency and lack of hypocrisy, but he scorns Shaw’s lack of belief in ideals and Shaw’s interest in progress and improving humans. “Mr. Shaw asks, not for a new kind of philosophy, but for a new kind of man.”

    Christ, Chesterton argues, took ordinary humans and ministered to them.

    Then, Chesterton turns to H. G. Wells. I guess Wells represents the spirit of secularism and empiricism. Chesterton seems to find a fatal price in Wells, so he ends the chapter with a paean to weakness, to the strong and proud brought down.

    “The moment Robin Hood [in old tales of Robin Hood] becomes a sort of Superman, that moment the chivalrous chronicler shows Robin thrashed by a poor tinker whom he thought to thrust aside.

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  55. OK, I was in Target today so I took a swing through the doll aisle. Or, I should say, aisles — plural. Wow, I was overwhelmed! I will go back maybe and look for the store’s “american girl” style; but maybe a simple baby doll? Just seems like by 7 girls are starting to be interested in accessorizing and dressing dolls (esp since she also asked for a tea set). I want to get her both and Target also had a large boxed tea set that didn’t look too baby-girl.

    Chas, I agree, Barbie’s sort of annoying. 😉 I did get a laugh over her and the Ken characters in the Toy Story 3 movie, though.

    So I started hauling all the Christmas stuff out of the spare room. I love discovering things that I’d almost forgotten about.

    The mantel is well on its way to being decorated (angels!), I hung the Christmas wreath on the door (it still needs the little battery-operated Christmas light string).

    In the next couple days I’ll tackle the outdoor lights; I’m going multicolor this year instead of plain blue. When did outdoor lights get so cheap? When I was growing up they cost a fortune, it seems. Now they’re brighter (LEDs), use much less energy/electricity and cost a fraction of what they used to per string.

    But the electric candles for the Advent wreath aren’t working (well, 2 of them work). I put in new batteries but suspect the ones not working got corroded as I hadn’t taken the old batteries out when I put them away last year. This set is also somewhat ‘old’ so perhaps they’ve just worn out. But they tend to be expensive, especially when buying them this time of year. So I’ll have to make due.

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  56. Oh, and Target had a few cute doll sets with different themes. Of course I was immediately drawn to the one with the dog grooming shop setting. 🙂

    I’m dtermined to make this anonymous girl, whoever/wherever she may be, after my own image, somehow, someway. 🙂

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  57. Donna, if you bought two dolls would she get both? I am thinking something along the lines of a baby doll and if you have a Tuesday Morning near you they have surplus Madame Alexander dolls. You could get her a play with me doll and a look at me doll–something special she could keep always. ( I am of a certain age and have 70-something Madam Alexander’s)
    As far as a tea set–also something special. If there is an outlet mall close by (and I happen to know there is) go to Oneida or something similar and get her a silver plate tea set. (Chloe’s is still around)

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  59. Ahhh…22 items on my list of things to do today (some of the ordinary, some not), and 22 items checked off! Hallelujah! It’s been a good day with my crew. 🙂

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  61. Success! Okay. Recovered password. Wrote a nice update that was lost in attempt to post. It’s the middle of the night. Will try again tomorrow. Thanks to Karen O for directing me here! Love to all.

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  63. EYG! Greetings!

    Donna, in case this option hasn’t been mentioned yet . . . the only problem with a real “baby” doll is that they don’t have hair to brush. A girly girl would love a doll that has hair that she can brush and style. I wouldn’t be inclined to get dolls with a “story” (Barbie or the heritage dolls) personally, because then the doll isn’t really your “daughter” but a “character.” My sister and I enjoyed Raggedy Ann, but it was our dolls with movable, clothable bodies and brushable hair that got the most play.

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  65. Day 1 of no replies to my comments. How long will it take for me to be discouraged and go away, or become incapacitated and go away, or die and go to Hell and then regret that I did not listen to the wise people here who KNOW that God is real, and Jesus is real, and maybe the Holy Ghost is not a ghost (i.e, real)?

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  66. Gee, Stephen, you’re sounding a little insecure. I’m reading your updates on Chesterton, and enjoying the fact that you seem to be enjoying him. Other than that, though, I’m not sure what to say. Unfortunately, I got that book from the library, and I don’t have it anymore, so I can’t look back over it as you comment. Just for the record, though, the book is called Heretics, not Infidels.

    I liked that you picked out one of my favorite observations from the book when he says, “Mr. Shaw asks, not for a new kind of philosophy, but for a new kind of man.” Of course, it’s not just Shaw who has that mentality, but modern progressives as well.

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  67. Ree, of course I’m insecure. I suspect the average person who lives in fantasy land is probably more secure than the average person in touch with reality.

    You are correct, the book is called Heretics.. As I tell the member of my atheist “flock,” my mind is slipping. I appointed myself dictator; overthrow me as soon as you decide proper. So far they are apparently finding me more entertaining than irritating. At least judging by the Gospels (and who knows how accurate they are about what Jesus said), he had little sense of humor. Though I’ve known a few swindlers and con men in my life and one of my observations is that the most successful told people what they wanted to hear. In that regard, “You won’t die,” and “the meek will inherit the earth” work pretty well, especially if you are speaking to powerless people oppressed under the Romans.

    I’m reading HERETICS as fast as I can bring myself to, though John Barry’s Rising Tide is quite interesting and strongly competes for my attention. He really is a fine writer. He replies to my emails to him and professes to be interested in my comments. What can be more flattering to an insecure person than that?

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