64 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-18-17”

  2. Goodnight Jo.
    I was surprised to see it up already. But not surprised to see Jo.
    The birds are sharing the feeder like friends.
    Hummingbirds would be fighting..

    Good morning everyone.

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  4. Now those look like Northern birds with their feathers all fluffy to stay warm. If they were here, they’d be relaxing on tree limbs or flirting with the boy-birdies and pairing up to build their nests. It’s spring-like already. I didn’t even wear a jacket yesterday. I’m not complaining, but I must eventually have four seasons. I can survive without snow (barely), but I NEED some cold! Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to wait a few more weeks until I go West to visit the kids and grands. Happy happy thought! :–)

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  5. DJ, I noticed your comment last night about NCIS, but I couldn’t tell if you were annoyed or offended about it.

    I don’t remember the term “right-wing” being used in the show, but I might have missed it. There are “anti-government nuts” in real life.

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  6. Debra, what part of the country are you in?

    You’re very welcome to some of the Michigan cold we had in December, although much of January has been mild – 30s and 40s – with lots of rain and very little snow.

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  7. We’ve had four seasons in a week in central NC. Last week this time we were just finishing digging out from snow. This morning, it is 57 degrees, but only supposed to get up to 60. So, we’re there already.

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  8. Kevin I’m in Chattanooga TN. I lived in CT for 20+ years and I do miss seeing snow. I can’t believe 30s and 40s for Michigan! You can see ground—and it’s not even March! But if you have some rain at least you won’t have to worry about drought. Our water table is much closer to normal now after a 6 month slump last year.

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  9. Then Debra’s weather would be about like ours when we lived in Hendersonville, NC
    Just across the mountains. Several songs about Chattanooga.

    Elvera is talking on the phone to her sister in Greenwood, SC. Argaree is three years older and they were close. In passing, I heard Elvera say, “and names you don’t hear anymore, like Essie”. Reminded me of the name of the mother of my best friend as a kid. Bobby Murray’s mother was named Essie. She died before some of you were born. As did the name “Essie”.

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  10. This is floating around FB one friend typed “How about one day?”

    Mother Nature: You cannot fit all seasons into one week.

    ALABAMA: Hold my beer (which is red neck speak for “watch this”. 😉

    Liked by 4 people

  11. Another item from the same group of friends:
    http://faithinthenews.com/why-does-god-allow-us-to-suffer/

    With this comment: “While I was talking about pain, a related tough philosophical question is why an all-powerful God would allow evil to exist. The answer is love. Let me explain: In order to be real, love must be voluntary. It can’t be commanded and it can’t be forced. One can give the appearance of love and make the motions of love, but it isn’t real if you don’t choose it. God wants us to love Him and to love our fellow man. But in order to truly love, we must choose it freely, which also means we must have the freedom to choose the alternative, evil and hate. The existence of evil and hate is the price we have to pay for love, but love is so valuable that it is worth that terrible price.”

    (Please note, I did not write the above)

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  12. Must be summer here, school is out. Again. Due to road conditions. I have heard nothing but wind all night though I may have heard a few splashes of sleet this morning. That means it will be icy out for chores this morning! I love weather, of every kind I have seen. I have not seen a tornado and doubt I would love that.

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  14. I have experienced the tiny earthquakes, and though it was exciting, not something I would enjoy in a stronger dose. But weather is weather and geologic events are not.

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  16. Kevin, good question. I wonder sometimes if I notice those themes more or if they really are just much more prevalent in television plot lines. Serious question. Is it just me? Or?

    So, yes, I suppose I felt annoyed since I do have the impression that conservatives — religious and political both — seem to be so often the fall guys and villains in so many television shows in particular (not as much in movies).

    It happens so often on shows like Law & Order that it’s becoming cliche. Seems like it’s rare to see a left wing activist or Muslim terrorist or (fill in the blank) as the “bad guy.”

    So while home-grown U.S. white anti-government nuts certainly do exist, they seem to be disproportionally depicted on screen in my mind. (Or is that just in my mind? — again, serious question, I’ve not done a scientific study and I don’t watch an inordinate amount of television dramas, but do see a few each week).

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  17. We have 3 storms lined up and ready to move onshore over the next 5 days or so, beginning tonight. It’s all good and so long overdue for us.

    I am still bothered by coughing spells, mostly at night, but very strong. Actually debating going back to urgent care about it, but I’ll see how I do today. Nothing I’ve tried, prescription or OTC, seems to resolve it well. I know the coughing (and laryngitis) can hang on, though. It’s been a week and a half for me now.

    (And the laryngitis is a problem at work since so much of what we do requires talking on the phone and yet resting the voice is needed for it to get better.)

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  18. DJ, It’s not just you. I have noticed it for a long time. Add a face southern accent and you know the IQ points are dropping and they are a deranged fundamentalist home grown terrorist

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  20. It’s a more obvious example of what we see in the news media more subtly (and, I’d still argue, more unconsciously many times, giving them the benefit of the doubt): Because the writers, editors and actors mostly come from a similar left-leaning (and stereotypical) world view, that is what’s most consistently portrayed.

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  21. Morning…sky is blue and the temps are warming….oh and the snowplow decided to finally come through at 6:30 this morning….school must have complained about the road condition!
    I caught the cold…sneezing, blowing my nose 24/7….no coughing like husband and hoping this thing passes quickly! Hoping you find relief DJ….these viral things seem to hang on forever!

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  22. The villains used to be rich CEOs who don’t care about people or the environment or someone considered right wing.

    People cannot help but write from their world view. Girls (and women) used to be rescued by the guy. No one would allow that today. The female must save herself and probably the clueless guy, too. Little girls will have learned that they must be independent and not feminine, unless they are very, very sexy.

    Hmmm–probably why we watch very few of these shows anymore.

    We could use more classes that actually teach children how fiction in every media ‘teaches’ them what to believe. Literature classes do this, but I am not sure how much it transfers to other media.

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  23. Good morning! Blue sky, the sun is out!!! Ice storms are done, our road (former skating rink) is sanded!

    And now, with the sun shining in our big east window to the living room, I can plainly see all the dust on the furniture. 😛

    Hubby took the three youngest (all the school-age arrows) shopping with him this morning, so school will get crowded into the afternoon, with them gone this morning, and piano lesson tonight from 7:15-8:30.

    Like I’ve said before, we have lots of variety in our lives — no two days the same.

    Have a blessed one, all.

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  24. Kathaleena, agreed — entertainment media has a powerful influence that’s not recognized, so many messages seeping in through those shows. Those of us who have been around a while — and share a different world view — spot it readily, but others surely don’t.

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  25. The Kid and I were watching a TV show recently I told him, “the neighbor did it.” He was convinced it was the boyfriend as the evidence pointed that way. When it turned out to be the neighbor, he ask how I knew. I told him it was the “church mission” tee shirt the character was wearing.

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  28. When Christian fiction was just beginning to be published again, in the mid- to late 80s, it was predictable in the opposite direction. I noticed that characters were neatly divided into three groups: you had the perfect Christians, the nearly perfect unbelievers (this class of person would be having sex with his girlfriend but he was getting ready to propose, or he would say a swear word occasionally, but basically he had just one flaw that kept him from being perfect), and then you would have the evil dude who swears recklessly and also makes fun of the Christian for being a goody-two-shoes.

    The nearly perfect nonbeliever would get saved during the book, and he’d marry his girlfriend or quit swearing and he was the same recognizable character as he started only “cleaned up” enough to move into group 1. The apostle Paul need not apply; it’s too tricky to take someone from group #3 in group #1 in 300 pages.

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  31. Wasn’t sure where to post this, because it involves both the News and Prayer Thread, so decided on a compromise. Here is the BBC report on the situation in The Gambia: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38662000

    The Gambia’s parliament has extended President Yahya Jammeh’s term, which is due to end on Thursday following his defeat in elections, by 90 days.

    It also approved his decision to declare a 90-day state of emergency.

    Senegalese troops have reportedly moved towards The Gambian border ahead of possible intervention to force Mr Jammeh to hand power to President-elect Adama Barrow.

    Thousands of UK and Dutch tourists are being evacuated from The Gambia…

    At least 26,000 Gambians, mostly women and children, had crossed into Senegal by Monday evening amid fears that violence could erupt, the UN refugee agency said, citing Senegalese government figures.

    “The flow has increased sharply since then,” regional spokeswoman Helene Caux was quoted by Reuters as saying…

    Tourism has become the fastest-growing sector of The Gambia’s economy, and the country, which has a population of about two million, was marketed to holidaymakers as “the smiling coast of West Africa”.

    But many of its citizens are poor and complain of political repression. Some, including the goalkeeper of the national women’s football team, have drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe in the hope of a better life.

    Liked by 5 people

  32. If I wrote a story, my villainous characters would be upper middle class educated white people 😉 Actually, in my vague ideas for a novel someday (too vague to start writing) I would actually have more than one type of villain, if my aim for realism even allows for villains. Painting people as either good or bad is effective in fairy tales, but most people are a mixture of both. In some people, the bad they do far outweighs the good (I’m hesitant to say that some people’s good outweighs their bad, because I’m not sure that is ever correct), but most people do some good and some bad things.

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  36. Chas, I have a relative still living with the name Essie, short for Esther, of course. I don’t think we use the ‘”-ie” contraction ending as a term of affection anymore, which is why such names are disappearing. The Spanish use of “-ito” or “-ita” works in the same way our “-ie” ending does, and I realized, watching films in Hindi, that they add “-ji” to the ends of someone’s name to denote affectionate familiarity.

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  37. My mother, in her childhood, had her name shortened with the “-ie” contraction, and she hated it. She made her family stop using it when she grew up. Only one of my siblings could have her name shortened in that way, the rest of us had too few syllables for contraction. My father uses a cultural contraction of his second name and it has that “-ie” sound, which can also be written as “-y”. Only one of my nieces and nephews has received a lasting contraction of their name, and that was because the name divides easily into two parts.

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  39. My parents gave me a nickname. My legal name is a “y” added nickname for real name. I hate it. I have thought about changing it legally to the full version.

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  41. My dad’s first cousin is married to an Esther, whom everyone calls “Ess.”

    One of my arrows’ first name ends in “ie,” but we often shorten her name to one syllable, dropping off the ie.

    No piano lesson tonight. Student will come tomorrow instead, so our at-home/school activities today can be spread out a little more than packing it into the afternoon, as mentioned above.

    Back to it!

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  42. When Chlosephine-Josephine was a baby and went to day care one of the women used to always wait at the door to proclaim that “Chlo-Bug is heah”

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  44. Elvera’s younger brother was named “Teddy”. On official occasions, he had a terrible time convincing people it wasn’t Theodore, or some such.

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  45. DJ, I think the stereotypes you describe are unfortunately prevalent on TV, but I also think you might be hypersensitive to them.

    Part of the reason I think that was a reaction you posted last year to the season finale of Code Black. I actually went back and watched it a second time to see if I could spot what you were talking about. You seemed to feel that it portrayed a stereotypical bad conservative and good liberal, but there wasn’t anything to tell you which was which, unless you assumed the black guy would be liberal and the white guy conservative.

    Clearly the black guy was the good guy and the white guy was a slimeball. But they were in a primary battle, so they must have been from the same party, which was not named. And I didn’t find any policy discussions or labeling that would tell you either was conservative or liberal.

    As far as NCIS, think back over 13+ seasons – how many episodes have been about white government haters?

    HOWEVER, I certainly won’t argue that there isn’t stereotyping like you described on TV. I gave up Law and Order for that reason. If you’re conservative or religious — or if you homeschool (shocking!) — then you are an intolerant nut job.

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  46. Kim, I’m familiar with the church that won’t pray for the president by name, having lived in Pasadena for quite a number of years. I would never judge the Episcopal church based on them. From your article:

    All Saints Pasadena is legendary as a hotbed of radicalism, but this is over-the-top even for them. The parish’s activism has alternated between alarming and silly: In 2012 All Saints’ made news by hosting an Islamist Convention, months later hosting another event promoted with then-Rector Ed Bacon dancing to stop violence. In 2015, an associate priest on staff at the church serving as vice-chair of the Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board praised employees of the abortion provider for “doing God’s work.”

    While the congregation has, over the decades, carved out a reputation as among the most newsworthy of activist churches, the new policy of refusing to name Donald Trump when they pray lest people are triggered is a new achievement.

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  47. I’m the honorary ‘aunt’ of a little boy with the same name as Chas. His mother was going to name him permanently with the “-ie” short form of the name, but his grandfather objected to permanently giving a child a nickname for their legal name. So, the full name was given to him. Now, when he misbehaves, we roll out the full name. He is quite the handful, so the name gets used a lot. I said to his mother one time, “Aren’t you glad you gave him the full name?” She had to laugh in agreement.

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  48. One of my children was named after his bio dad with the shortened version. When we adopted him, he wanted the full name so he got it. He goes by both. He likes them both.

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  49. There are seven in my family, and only one who uses a shortened form of his name. He used the -ie ending as a child, and I know that only because I once saw it on the back of a photo in my mother’s handwriting. I used the -ie for my little sister when we were really little, and I know that only because of a family story (one I find sad) of that same brother working to break me of the -ie ending by slapping his hand over my mouth when I finished her actual name. The story involved my sister going crying, tattling to Mom because I (using a nickname that was well before my memory) had called her her real name, and not the fuller nickname.

    One of my brothers is named Jeff. Mom didn’t like Jeffrey and didn’t consider it, but she often called him Jefferson, and I think had she thought of it before he was born, she probably would have given him that as his full name. One of my brothers now goes by his middle name (his first name is one that is often mocked in our society), but the rest of us all go by our full first name. A couple of people have called me Sherry, but they seem to have been people who couldn’t remember my actual name. Only one person ever called me Cher, and she continued despite repeated requests that she not do so. “Oh, it’s affectionate; my sister is Cheryl and we call her Cher.” Um, no, it isn’t affectionate if the person in question has asked you several times not to call her that. (To me, I equate Cher with the actress.) My mom was worried that if she named me Cheryl people would call me Sherry, and a couple different people assured her that they knew people named Cheryl who never got Sherry . . . so I never felt as though I was allowed even to consider going by Sherry. Without the actress, I might consider “Cher” cute, and my husband would probably call me that. (I’ve told him he can if he wants to, and I’ll get used to it, but he understands the thing about it not feeling like my name, so he doesn’t.)

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  50. Cheryl, it’s funny what a difference a letter makes. I agree with your mother in not liking Jeffrey (I tend to see a name spelt when I say it), but I don’t mind Geoffrey. The latter is the older spelling – Richard the Lionheart’s second youngest brother was Geoffrey of Brittany. The ‘G’ and the ‘o’ give the name a little more class, perhaps? 🙂 Pronunciation also makes a difference. Living in a bilingual country, there are certain names I prefer with the French pronunciation, like Guy, which is pronounced ‘ghee’ en francais – that is another name which has Medieval roots.

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  52. My grandfather was named Charlie with a Middle name. My uncle was named Charles with the same beginning letter of the middle name So they had similar names and the same initials. My dad got two Biblical names and another uncle got a Biblical middle name. With 12 children there was plenty to choose from. I have my mother’s mother’s middle name so I have told BG that her daughter would have to have my middle name. My dad fed me some unbelievable little story about being named after the place in South Africa where the diamonds come from because I was his little diamond. My left toe!!!
    He had a good friend whose last name was Kimbrell. I would have been Kim either way and don’t think I am not thankful for being a girl!!!!!

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  53. In Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim, the titular character was a boy. I think Kimberly was one of those surnames which became a boy’s first name – probably in part due to the practice of naming children after godparents, and the British upper class habit of calling people by their surnames – and then became a girl’s name. Leigh is another example of that phenomenon. I think Taylor skipped the boy’s name stage to become a girl’s name and then became a boy’s name.

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  54. I have an aunt who would never allow the nickname version of her children. Daniel was always Daniel. Nothing else allowed. It always seemed silly to me, but I would always respect whatever name someone wanted to be called.

    I named my oldest with the idea of the nickname in mind. We almost always call her by her nickname and she uses it even for business purposes. Same with the youngest. She was five when I scolded her at a family dinner using her full name minus the last name. My mom (her grandmother) asked who that was? We got a big laugh out of that. My mom did not hold babies and I would sometimes have nieces or nephews for a bit before I got the news. I think that is sad, but it does make for some humor.

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  55. My sister was named without a middle name and it was a constant problem when filling out forms. Not a good idea at all.

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  56. There is an employee, who works in a store near us, with a generic name. We have discussed a few times which sex this individual is. Sometimes it is difficult to know these days.

    Having a generic name can lead to some humorous situations, too.

    It can also give a heads up to whether or not a phone call is actually a sales person. The same with a nickname vs. actual name. There are some advantages.

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  57. I generally ignore calls and e-mails that start with “Charles”.
    Elvera’s parents had the policy of not giving middle names. The oldest, however was given Annie Lea. And she always went by both names run together Annielee.

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  59. My dad generally disliked boy’s nicknames ending in “-y”, such as my cousins Billy, Bobby, and Kenny, so he made a point of giving names to his boys that don’t have such nicknames. It never occurred to me to ask him if his own nickname bothered him. He was an Andrew and everyone called him Andy except his mother, who made up her own nicknames for everyone.

    He was born in 1928 and had no middle name. That was normal in his immigrant extended family. I’ve met few people in my generation with no middle name.

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  60. There was a boy in my neighborhood when I was growing up whose parents named him Billy. It wasn’t short for anything.

    My youngest has two middle names, which was practiced with some frequency back I’m not sure how long ago. For us, it was a matter of lots of siblings before her who wanted to help name the baby, so she got more names than the others. 🙂

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  64. Names.

    My maternal Grandmother was Esther (pronounced in Spanish with the stress on the second syllable, such that it sounds like Estelle to the untrained ear).

    In our school there are a lot of girls with last names for first names. I don’t care for it, but it a trend that won’t go away for some time.

    Some friends just had a boy last week and named him Onyx Alexander. But you think that’s a black family. No, they are a white couple. They named their daughter Zaria, a variation of Sarah. At first we thought it odd to use the name of a rock, but then Mrs. L pointed out girls named Ruby or Pearl. But Onyx?

    I wonder when Phoebe or Matilda will make a comeback.

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