Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Marauding Baboon Gangs Target Non-English Speakers

A post on Slate’s news summary, “Slatest,” warns of the increasingly aggressive nature of South Africa’s baboons. It seems that more than 400 baboons have organized themselves into gangs and are ransacking cars, causing officials to worry about the threat to tourism in Cape Town during next year’s World Cup. The AP reports that a baboon called “Fred” opened “unlocked doors and jumped through windows to search for food.” Slate continues wraps up its summary as follows: “City officials fear that as monkeys grow more aggressive, non-English speaking visitors will be their first targets. ‘Tourism is going to go through the roof, and this equals exposure to naive people and rich pickings,’ a baboon researcher said. ‘People who stop the car, they're going to get raided.’”

Maybe Caroline and Annie, ESL teachers extraordinaire, can turn the threat of Baboon bias into an international teaching opportunity.

(The AP account, which is quite interesting, describes how city residents have asked for signage in many languages in order to warn tourists about the dangers of these wild animals. Slate omits this part in its summary.)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Is there justice in our land?

Here are two reasons that make me believe that the answer is no:

1. Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the director of Harvard's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, was arrested outside of his home in Cambridge, MA. His crime? He was locked out of his house after a trip to China. The lock on the front door was jammed so he attempted to force the door open. The police responded to a phone call reporting two black men trying to break into a house, arrested him, and charged him with disorderly conduct. There are many things one could write to describe the situation, but Prof. Gates says it best: "There are one million black men in jail in this country and last Thursday I was one of them...This is outrageous and that this is how poor black men across the country are treated everyday in the criminal justice system. It's one thing to write about it, but altogether another to experience it." Read the article in the Washington Post.

2. Gov. Schwarzenegger may be smiling after his budget agreement, but is cutting services to seniors and children a good thing? Yes, California has a bloated budget. Yes, we are living in complex times where the federal, state, and local governments can't meet every need. But should we celebrate cutting access to health care? Is it reasonable to smile when the once vaunted California education system faces massive cuts? See the picture and read the article (LAT)

As the psalmist says, "May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace; may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce;... may there be no cry of distress in our streets! Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!" (Psalm 144: 12-14) I echo that prayer for our state and for our nation.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Overheard Recently on the Train

  1. A man shouted into his cell phone, annoying many people on the train. I heard him clearly through my headphones and over the NPR broadcast. "Girl, I ain't had pig feet in a long time...I weigh 215. How much do you weigh? Girl, you weigh 226? You don't look like it in the pictures. It must be all in your butt." (He laughed. After a while, he hung up and spoke softly, almost tenderly, to a young African American man who sat down next to him.)
  2. A Latino man in his twenties spoke with an almost radio-quality voice to a trio who seemed to be related: a woman in a wheelchair, a man with wispy white hair whose bulldog look made him look like a man playing a villain in an adaptation of a Dickens novel, and their brother in denim and Vans. They had a fascinating conversation about the comfort/discomfort of Vans shoes, the JFK assassination (in 1966), the George Orwell novel "1985," and other things that I wish I could recall. At some point, as I stood to exit the train, the young man looked down at his shoes and said, "Did you shave with Jesus?" Then he said it again, and again, six times in all. The trio looked at him, then at each other.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

"S" Factor Online

Here's the link to the interview with Don E. Miller in Books and Culture (www.booksandculture.com).

Gerardo Marti, a good guy, professor at Davidson College, and former visiting scholar at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, posted his take on the interview here: http://praxishabitus.blogspot.com/. "In the course of conducting a sweeping study of Global Pentecostalism,Don Miller changed," he writes. "He went from being cynical to a sympathetic in his analytical stance. In the process, he proposes that social scientists take into account the ‘S Factor’ in studying religion.”

Monday, July 13, 2009

Career Aspirations (Circa June 2008)

The other night, apropos of nothing, Daniel began to outline his future career. "After I graduate from college, I'll be 22," he said, "And then I'll play baseball." At the end of an 18-year career in the majors he’d hang up his cleats. (He estimated that he'd earn $20 million a season.) Since he will have completed law school in the off season, he will ready to launch his political career. Following terms as governor of California and President of the United States, he would then consider a return to baseball as a manager. "I'll probably retire after that," he said.

A quizzical look appeared on Lucy’s face."Then when will you become a librarian?" she asked.

(Our kids love librarians, especially their Great Aunt Lucia. Lucy is still considering the options. She's not sure whether to become a librarian, an illustrator, a writer, or a teacher.)

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Tonight's Random Quotes

Daniel just stirred in his sleep and said, "Hmmm. Nothing to do."

It was my turn to say goodnight to Lucy. She asked me why it was always "so short" when I said goodnight. "You just pray and then sing, and then it's over. When mom says goodnight, I ask her questions..." She rattled off a list of tough questions, the last one of which was, "Why are we alive?"

The "S" Factor in Books and Culture

At long last, my interview with Donald Miller (the sociologist, not the author of Blue Like Jazz) appeared in Books and Culture. The interview isn't online yet, but check the site in the coming weeks.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Three Great Quotes

I’m trying to get back into the blogging thing. To ease back into it, here are three quotes that have completely blown me away in recent weeks.


Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, on trying to jump start her writing:

“I drank coffee in titrated doses. It was a tricky business, requiring the finely tuned judgment of a skilled anesthesiologist. There was a tiny range within which coffee was effective, short of which it was useless, and beyond which, fatal.”


Carey McWilliams, Southern California: An Island on the Land :

“When the sunlight is not screened and filtered by the moisture-laden air, the land is revealed in all its semi-arid poverty. The bald, sculpted mountains stand forth in a harsh and glaring light. But let the light turn soft with ocean mist, and miraculous changes occur. The bare mountain ranges, appallingly harsh in contour, suddenly become wrapped in an entrancing ever-changing loveliness of light and shadow; the most commonplace objects assume a matchless perfection of form; and the land itself becomes a thing of beauty. The color of the land is in the light and the light is somehow artificial and controlled. Things are not killed by the sunlight, as in a desert; they merely dry up. A desert light brings out the sharpness of points, angles, and forms. But this is not a desert light nor is it tropical for it has neutral tones. It is Southern California light and it has no counterpart in the world.”

(This has to be the definitive word, the ideal form of writing about light in Southern California.)

The Sons of Korah, Psalm 85:10-13

“Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way.”

(Is it me, or does anyone wonder how the Sons of Korah collaborated to write something so beautiful, so hopeful, and so true? And which brother was the editor?)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Playing/Praying

At a recent barbecue, our kids were inside watching the game and I was outside with Joy and Lucas. We were playing some kind of chase/adventure game, of course, and the bad guys were gaining on us. Joy sat in the wagon, holding on as we avoided fallen oranges and leaf piles. Lucas tore around on the tricycle, shouting out instructions. “Watch out! They’re coming” There was a moment of tension as we braced for the onslaught.

Suddenly, Joy had a smile on her face and said, "Jesus help us! The bad guys are going to get us!"

"Lord, please help us!" I said.

Lucas made some explosive noises and then said, "It’s okay, they're gone."

"Thank you Jesus!" I said.

"No, that was me," said Lucas.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Lego N.Y.

This is random, but if you have not seen illustrator Christoph Niemann's Lego art in the New York Times, you have to check it out. Here's the link: I LEGO N.Y.

Here's a sample:

Monday, January 26, 2009

Starbucks Monday

While comparisons are odious, they seem appropriate today at Starbucks. I notice an Asian man in line ahead of me. He is short in stature, dressed in black, lean, muscular, armed to the hilt. His flak jacket, emblazoned with “Los Angeles District Attorney,” gives him a boxy, almost robotic look. Similarly equipped, his companions wait for their coffee with quiet intensity. They are ready for action.

In contrast, I am unfocused and foggy in my blue fleece jacket--a portable blanket. I am equipped with multiple pens, an uncharged I-Pod, bus tokens, a Bible, a software manual, three journals (spiritual, observations, reading), an AM/FM radio, and a digital audio recorder in an old eyeglass case. I am prepared for something, but not until I drink my coffee, pray, and catch the latest on NPR on the way to work