StLouieMoe's Blog about Anything

Sunday, August 31, 2008

The kitty and the Rottweiler

A teacher is explaining biology to her 4th grade students. "Human Beings are the only animals that stutter," she said.

A little girl raises her hand, disagreeing, "I had a kitty-cat who stuttered..."

The teacher, knowing how precious some of these stories could become, asked the girl, to describe the incident.

"Well", she began, "I was in the back yard with my kitty and the Rottweiler that lives next door got a running start and before we knew it, he jumped over the fence into our yard!"

"That must've been scary," said the teacher.

"It sure was," said the little girl. "My kitty raised his back, went 'Sssss, Sssss, Sssss' and before he could say 'Shit!' the Rottweiler ate him!"

The teacher wet her pants laughing.


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The old man and the dog chow at the K-mart checkout line...

One day, an old man was buying a large bag of Purina dog chow at K-Mart for his dog, and was about to check out. A woman behind him asked if he had a dog.

"No ma'am, I'm retired with little to do," he said, almost on queue. "No, I don't have a dog - I'm starting the Purina Diet again. Although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time. I lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms."

"Oh, my," she gasped.

"It's essentially a perfect diet" he said, continuing the story. By this time practically everyone in the checkout line was enthralled with his story. "It works by loading your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eating one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again."

Horrified, she asked, "Did you end up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned you?"

"No," he told her, "It was because I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's butt and a car hit us both..."

The guy behind her about had a heart attack he was laughing so hard, and the management of that K-Mart won't let that old man shop there anymore.


Sunday, August 24, 2008

As stated I was on a Federal Jury the past week, starting on Monday...

Starting on Monday 8/18/2008 - I was on a jury for a Federal Patent Litigation case in the US Federal Court, 8th Circut court, Eastern Missouri district. Judge Charles Shaw, who was appointed to the federal bench in 1993 by then President Bill Clinton, was the judge in the case. Judge Shaw was a gentleman throughout, because these two parties had been battling tooth and nail for the past two plus years in the federal courts over the patent one held for a "self-ligating orothodontic bracket" Orthodontic brackets are manufactured by about 15 different companies servicing the orthodontic dental medical community and have several differing designs. These two companies in question were the only ones, however, who had what are known as "self-ligating" brackets, which are those that are able to hold the orthodontic arch wire closed utilizing a metal clip instead of wire twine or rubber donuts/rubberbands, which makes for ease of use for orthodontists -- they can see more patients and reduce patient time in the chair, etc. Trust me, we were deludged with salesmen from both companies, had to examine sales brocheures, etc., in the process of the trial. I now know more about orthodontic equipment than I ever wanted to. The two companies in question were the plantiff, Orthoarm, a company established to hold the patent in question (actually an ortondontist whose invention this was) whose patent, established in 1997 for self-ligating orthodontic brackets, was the one in question, who had licenced this to GAC, Inc. of Long Island, NY. GAC's InOvation R bracket was the invention in question here, it was self-ligating, meaning it could close off the arch wire slot with its metal clip construction. Forestadent USA, a division of Forestadent GMBH, itself a division of Bernhardt Furster, GMBH, was the defendant in the battle. Forestadent came to market with a similar product in 2005, called the Quick Bracket. This product was deliberated and designed over a three year period since the introduction of the GAC product, and was a result of, according to the plantiff, a failed bracket design which wasnt catching on in the orthodontic community. I sensed a little whiff of the competitive aire there. This happens when all the testimony you receive from one side, outside of expert witness testimony, comes from sales people. Both sides were guilty of this with their first witnesses both being sales people. More on this later....

I was involved in Federal Jury Duty the past week, with Judge Charles Shaw of the E. Dist of MO US Fed courts...

This is Judge Shaw's posting as to when he was nominated and accepted to the Federal Judiciary...

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 22, 1993
DISTRICT JUDGES NAMED
President Clinton announced the nomination today of his choices for four U.S. District Court vacancies: Donetta Ambrose and Gary Lancaster, both for the Western District of Pennsylvania; Wilkie D. Ferguson for the Southern District of Florida; and Charles A. Shaw for the Eastern District of Missouri.
"I am committed to giving the American people a federal judiciary marked by excellence, by diversity and by a concern for the personal security and civil rights of all Americans," said the President. "With these nominations today, we are giving just that to the people of Pennsylvania, Florida, and Missouri."
Donetta Ambrose has been a judge in the Court of Common Pleas in Westmoreland County since 1981. Along with seven years of private practice, Ambrose has served as Pennsylvania's Assistant Attorney General and as the Assistant District Attorney of Westmoreland County. A native of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, where she still resides, Ambrose holds both a B.A. and J.D. from Duquesne University. She and her husband, Raymond, have one child. She is 47 years old.
Gary Lancaster is a U.S. Magistrate in Pittsburgh, a position he has held since 1987. Lancaster previously was in private practice, and served as a regional counsel for the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and as an Assistant District Attorney for Allegheney County. He holds a B.S. from Slippery Rock State College and a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He is 44 years old.
Wilkie D. Ferguson has been a state appellate judge for 12 years. Prior to that, he served as a staff attorney to the Dade County School Board and the Miami Legal Services Program. He was also a state trial judge before being elevated to the appellate bench in 1981. Ferguson, 55, holds a B.S. from Florida A&M University, and a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law. A lifelong resident of Miami, he lives with his wife, Betty Jean Tucker, and their two children.
(more)

District Court Judges
Page Two
Charles A. Shaw has been a state circuit court judge in St. Louis since 1987. Before earning both an M.B.A. and a J.D., Shaw taught elementary school. Along with several years in private practice, he has been an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Missouri. He holds a B.A. from Harris Stowe State College, an M.B.A. from the University of Missouri, and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America. Shaw and his wife, Kathleen Marie Ingram, have one child. He is 48 years old.

I have a son named Charlie AND three cats, so this really caught my eye...

My cat might be a vampire

By Bob Rybarczyk

SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH

08/19/2008

I might be raising a vampire cat.

I don’t understand cats.

I just don’t. I never really have. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched our cats doing something and wondered what in the hell they’re thinking. They think a piece of paper makes a perfect platform for a six-hour nap. They refuse to eat the last few pieces of kibble in their dish, and yet they are all too happy to drink out of the toilet. You get the point.

What surprises me the most is that they seem to keep coming up with new ways to be weird. I’ve only been around cats for the last four years or so, but you’d think four years would be more than enough time to figure out a species that can be amused for days by a pipe cleaner. Nope.

We have two cats in our house, Frisco and Charlie. Frisco is 14, large enough to exhibit his own gravitational pull, and generally disgruntled. Charlie is less than a year old, apparently made of balsa wood and rubber bands, and a complete idiot. They are Fatboy and the Freakshow. The immovable object and the unstoppable force.

Big fat Frisco sleeps 23.99 hours a day. When he’s not sleeping, he’s eating or seeking out a new place to sleep. His hobbies include sleeping and gaining weight. Charlie barely sleeps at all and is about as bright as a slab of poorly cooked liver. He finds everything to be either fascinating or terrifying. There is no middle ground. One second he can be sprinting through the house like he’s being chased by Satan on a scooter, and the next he’ll be lying in your arms waiting for you to rub his belly.

When we first introduced Charlie to Frisco last winter, Frisco spent the better part of a month hiding in the basement. We weren’t sure if he was afraid of Charlie or just really hacked off at us. Eventually they found a way to peacefully coexist. They weren’t buddies by any means, but they made it work.

A few months ago, that all changed. Charlie decided, I guess, that he was tired of avoiding Frisco. Instead, he began assaulting him.

At first, Charlie would simply run up to Frisco and start whacking him in the head or wrestling with him. It seemed like the kind of things kittens do when they want to play. Frisco, being the cranky old man that he is, would want none of it. He’d fight back but would give it a minimum effort. His goal was not to play, but to inflict just enough pain to get Charlie to go away. Unfortunately, despite weighing more than several third-world nations, Frisco is a mediocre fighter. He gets in a good shot once in a while, but for the most part all he does is get Charlie in the mood for more shenanigans.

None of this really seemed all that weird or surprising. Kittens, especially male kittens, enjoy a good whack in the head once in a while. When I was a kid, a crack upside the noggin was a good time.

A couple weeks ago, however, Charlie changed his tactics, and this is the part that has me confused. Charlie, you see, has begun licking Frisco. Now don’t start going all, “Awww, isn’t that adorable,” because you haven’t heard the entire thing. I actually thought it was adorable the first time I saw it, too. I should have known better.

The first time I saw it, Charlie walked up to Frisco as if he were in the mood for a ruckus, but instead of whacking Fat Boy upside the head, he put him in this kitty-headlock sort of grip and began licking Frisco’s head and ears. “Aww,” I said. “Isn’t that…” But before I could finish, Charlie’s mouth opened, exposing his little kitty fangs, and he bit Frisco right in the neck.

This did not go over well with Frisco. Not one bit. He cracked open a six-pack of pain and went after Charlie like he was made out of delicious turkey. If there had been a crowbar nearby, Frisco would have, through sheer force of will, grown opposable thumbs and wielded it like a baseball bat.

Charlie’s fast, and Frisco tires after about two seconds of activity, so the little one was able to get away unscathed. I figured I’d never see anything that stupid again.

Again, I should have known better. The very next day, Frisco was sleeping on the floor and Charlie climbed on top of him, licked his head and ears, and chomped him in the neck. Once again, Frisco raged against the machine. This time, though, Charlie didn’t instantly flee. He stuck around for what he probably thought was a rollicking good time.

Oddly enough, Frisco didn’t really seem all that homicidal. He fought back, but not like before. Instead, he rolled around with Charlie a bit, whacked him on the head a couple dozen times, and chased him away. I didn’t get it.

As the days went by, I saw the same thing over and over. Lick, bite, scrap. Lick, bite, scrap. Frisco had to know that whenever Charlie licked him, a bite in the neck was coming. Right? Frisco’s stupid, but he can’t be that stupid. You’d think that he’d kick Charlie in the chin any time he stuck out his tongue.

And why is Charlie even bothering to lick Frisco in the first place? Does he think Frisco’s going to be fooled by the bizarre display of faux affection? Or does he do it because he finds Frisco tasty? Why bite him in the neck in the first place? Was the usual form of wrestling not entertaining enough?

You see, this is all stuff I don’t understand. Dozens of questions, not one single answer. I’m left to simply wonder. It makes me crazy. I’d give anything to have the cats speak English for even a few minutes, just so I could ask them these things.

Although, you know, even if I could ask them, they’d probably just shrug and say they had no idea why they do what they do. They’d probably ask me why I spend so much time sitting in front of the computer or eating things that don’t taste like dead birds.

Maybe it’s better that I don’t know. I suppose as long as Charlie doesn’t start biting me in the neck, I shouldn’t worry about it.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that Charlie’s a vampire, and that it’s just a matter of time before all of us, Frisco included, become his mindless slaves.

Nah. Vampires don’t drink out of the toilet.

Bob Rybarczyk (brybarczyk@sbcglobal.net) writes stuff. He enjoys things that go boing. His first novel, “Acoustic Kitty,” is now available at several local Borders stores, and he’ll be signing copies at the Sunset Hills location on Sunday, September 14. Look for him on Facebook, and drop him a line to sign up for his handy FringeMail reminder service.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Top Morons of 2008

1.) WILL THE REAL DUMMY PLEASE STAND UP?

AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence.

2.) WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS.

Police in Oakland , CA spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, "Please come out and give yourself up!"

3.) WHAT WAS PLAN B???

An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines, wherein the kidnapper proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

4.) THE GETAWAY!

A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop, and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.

5.) DID I SAY THAT???

Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the phrase "Give me all your money or I'll shoot!"

One of the men in the lineup shouted, "that's not what I said!"

6.) ARE WE COMMUNICATING???

A man spoke frantically into the phone to 911 dispatch:

"My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!" he screamed.

"Is this her first child?" the dispatcher asked.

"No!" the man shouted, "This is her husband!"

7.) NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED!

In Modesto , CA , Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun. Unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket. (bang bang? Hellooooooo!)

8.) THE GRAND FINALE!!!

Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert, an hour east of Bakersfield, CA, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their brand new 22 foot boat, going. It was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power they applied. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted into a nearby marina, thinking someone there may be able to tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working condition The engine ran fine, the out-drive went up and down, and the propeller was the correct size and pitch. So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard.

NOW REMEMBER...THIS IS TRUE.

Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer!


The Blonde's Happy News....

The other day my neighbor, who is blonde, came running up to me in the driveway jumping for joy! I didn't know why she was jumping so excitedly but I thought, 'what the heck,' and I starting jumping up and down along with her.

She said, "I have some really great news!"

I said, "Great! Tell me why you're so happy."

She stopped jumping and breathing heavily from all the jumping up and down, told me that she was pregnant. I knew she'd been trying for a while so I told her, "That's great! I couldn't be happier for you!"

Then she said, "There's more..."

I asked, "What do you mean there's more?"

She said, "Well, we are not having just one baby - We are going to have TWINS!"

Amazed at how she could know so soon after getting pregnant, I had to ask, "How'd you know?"

She said, "Well, that was the easy part. I went to Wal-Mart, and they actually had a home pregnancy kit in a TWIN-pack. Both tests came out positive!!!"


Tuesday, August 12, 2008

how certain special changes in the Bankruptcy law by the GOP back in 2005 have come back to bite them...

With these new bankruptcy rules, pushed through by the GOP with backing by the financial and real estate industries to protect them, had these bankruptcies happened now, we wouldn’t have the following retailers and close to 1,000,000 jobs (counting support companies, vendors, etc.) Sears, K-Mart, Macy’s…

Bankrupt Retailers: Pushed to the Brink

By Pallavi Gogoi - Business Week Magazine (Online)

Mon Aug 11, 8:08 AM ET

On Feb. 19 the electronic gizmo retailer Sharper Image filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As part of its court filing, Sharper Image management committed to its lenders to close 90 of its 184 stores. But within weeks, newly appointed Chief Executive Robert Conway decided to liquidate the rest of the stores. Conway, who is a principal at turnaround specialist Conway, Del Genio, Greiss & Co., reached the conclusion that it would be nearly impossible to secure adequate financing to restock the remaining 94 stores. "We didn't want to delay the process to a point where there would be no value left, and we decided liquidation was the best option. The last few stores closed at the end of July," says Conway.

But the final nail in the coffin for Sharper Image came three years earlier, when U.S. bankruptcy law was revised to add cash payments to utilities and other suppliers, and place a 210-day cap on the amount of time bankrupt companies have to decide whether to keep a lease.

No Time to Reorganize

The rapid dissolution of Sharper Image took many in the bankruptcy industry by surprise. But that chain isn't alone. Several retailers that have filed for Chapter 11 protection (BusinessWeek.com, 7/21/08) since the economy started swooning have unraveled just as quickly: Wickes Furniture closed down its 36 stores. Friedman's is in the process of selling off jewelry and is closing its 377 stores, while Whitehall Jewelers is liquidating its 300 stores. All these companies filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 2008. And in December 2007, Bombay Co. and Levitz closed all their stores.

The new provisions in the bankruptcy law -- pushed primarily by mall owners, suppliers, and utility companies, and signed by President George W. Bush in 2005 -- were intended to shorten the time that a company stays under court supervision. The point was to protect creditors, who sometimes had to wait years for payments while lawyers racked up hefty fees and managers collected big pay packages. "There was a pattern in some bankruptcy courts of granting extensions for as long as the debtor wanted, and that had to be stopped," says Lynn LoPucki, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and author of Courting Failure: How Competition for Big Cases Is Corrupting the Bankruptcy Courts.

Not everyone thinks sick companies should be given a second, or sometimes third, lease on life. Already many retail experts believe that chains overexpanded during the flush consumer spending of the past decade, and that parts of America now have more stores than people to shop at them. Given the track record of some big retailers, even if the latest bunch of troubled companies were to emerge from bankruptcy, they might wind up right back in court a few years later. Bradlees, Tower Records, and FAO Schwarz are among those that have filed multiple bankruptcies in recent years.

Strong Headwinds

All filers are covered by the new bankruptcy law, but the changes were particularly harsh on retailers. For companies that already are short of cash -- and, in the current environment, unlikely to find new financing -- these new provisions in the law can amount to a death sentence. "Liquidity is sucked out of the debtor in a way that it becomes hard to survive," says Lawrence Gottlieb, chair of the bankruptcy and restructuring practice at New York law firm Cooley Godward Kronish, who has represented creditors' committees in the bankruptcies of Sharper Image and Linens 'n Things.

Retailers already face strong headwinds. Consumers' appetite for discretionary purchases has dwindled sharply, and credit conditions are tight. That has led to shrinking sales month after month at most retailers and a string of store closings. Foot Locker (NYSE:FL - News) is closing 140 stores; Wilson's Leather is closing 160; Ann Taylor (NYSE:ANN - News), 117; and jeweler Zales (NYSE:ZLC - News) has closed 105.

For some chains, times are even more desperate, and the drumbeat of retail bankruptcies grows louder by the day. So far this year, 15 retailers with assets of $100 million or more have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, up from seven for all of 2007, according to Bankruptcydata.com, which tracks such filings. On Aug. 4, Boscov's, a department-store chain with 49 stores in the Northeast, filed for Chapter 11, just a week after the 177-store Mervyn's chain in California filed for protection from creditors.

Retail experts wonder what fate awaits these and other retailers such as Goody's Family Clothing and Linens 'n Things, which are already in Chapter 11. According to research tracked by LoPucki, in the 20 years prior to 2005, 41% of the 94 retailers that filed for bankruptcy went out of business. Those that emerged included such well-known outfits as Kmart (NasdaqGS:SHLD - News), Winn-Dixie Stores, and Macy's (NYSE:M - News).

This time around, almost all of the retailers that filed in the first three months of 2008 dissolved quickly. The others face tough choices. Executives from Goody's and Boscov's didn't return calls to discuss their options.

Credit conditions are so tight that lenders are not willing to provide any wiggle room to distressed retailers. Talbots (NYSE:TLB - News), for instance, isn't among the litany of bankrupt retailers. But earlier this year the upscale clothing chain had to extend its payment terms with its vendors to 45 days from 22 days, after Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - News) and HSBC (NYSE:HBC - News) refused to renew lines of credit worth $130 million and $135 million, respectively.

Pressure from Landlords, Vendors

File for bankruptcy, and the pressure now intensifies enormously. Prior to 2005, debtors had 60 days from filing for Chapter 11 to assume or reject a lease. Most of the time, bankruptcy courts would grant repeated extensions that lasted two years or more. Bankruptcy experts argue that gift of time was crucial: They say it takes a minimum of two Christmas cycles before a retailer is ready to put its finances in order and see if its reorganization plan is working.

But mall owners don't like to house bankrupt retailers. An extended, court-run reorganization can hurt the landlord's chance of securing positive financing terms. The real estate industry lobbied successfully for the 210-day cap on how long companies have to assume or reject leases. "Macy's got at least two Christmas seasons, but today if a company files in January, they don't even have until Christmas to decide what they will do," says lawyer Gottlieb.

Even as the lease decision looms, companies have to pay a cash deposit within 30 days to the utility companies that provide gas, electricity, and water to their stores. The purpose of that change was to provide assurance of the filer's ability to pay bills in the months going forward. Previously, just an assurance had been enough.

At the same time, vendors who ship goods to a company in the 20 days preceding a filing can get a priority claim that requires they be paid in full. The 2005 law also put an 18-month limit on how long the bankrupt company has to submit a restructuring plan; previously there was no limit. After the 18 months, creditors or other interested parties can offer their own plans.

Retailers may have stores in multiple locations and hundreds of vendors supplying a variety of items. "Stores immediately lose working capital," says Harvey Miller, a partner and bankruptcy specialist at New York law firm Weil Gotschal. He worked with Macy's in the past and has recently worked with several retailers including Goody's Family Clothing, a 355-store chain that operates in 20 states and filed for bankruptcy on June 9. Miller says Macy's reorganization, which took four years, wouldn't have been possible under the new setup. "In stress situations, you have to analyze by circumstances and not make deals under a formula," he says.

Landlords Say Retailers Overstate Law's Burden

Usually under Chapter 11, stores can sublet the leases to bring in much-required cash. However, most of these lease terms are expensive, because they were drawn up in the past decade when retailers were expanding and consumers' appetite for shopping seemed limitless. Today, not too many retailers are opening up or expanding. It's not surprising that Goody's Family Clothing canceled a lease auction that was to be held in the second week of August for 66 of its stores, after it was able to secure bids on just three of them in a previous auction.

"The rule that was meant to protect landlords is now coming back to bite them, because they will be left with neither stores nor payments," says Weil's Miller.

Landlords say that retailers and their lawyers are making the law look much worse than it is. That's because even though the law set a 210-day cap, it did leave some wiggle room and allowed a bankruptcy judge to grant an extension if the landlord consented.

"Now why wouldn't landlords consent to extend leases, when they know it's difficult to find another tenant?" asks Norman Kranzdorf, chairman of the Bankruptcy Task Force of the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade group that represents mall owners. Besides, he says, landlords are entitled to a smaller claim -- so if a retailer decides to close a store and still has a multiple-year lease outstanding, the landlord can claim payments only for a two-year period rather than for the remainder of the lease as they could previously.

"Sure, retailers don't have the luxury of time as they did before, but it's not that much of a detriment because landlords also lose at the bargaining table," argues J. David Forsyth, a partner at law firm Sessions, Fishman & Nathan in New Orleans, who represents landlords.

Ultimately, though, it's all a question of control, says Elizabeth Warren, law professor at Harvard University. She says that the impact of store closings is bound to be felt across the broader U.S. economy in coming months. "This will have a ripple effect through communities with hundreds of job losses, loss of taxes, and suppliers going out of business," says Warren, who in 2005 testified to Congress against changes to the bankruptcy law. "Bankruptcy is countercyclical -- it is a tool designed to be a cushion during a downturn so that everybody takes a small hit for the short term and emerges stronger for the long term."


Sunday, August 10, 2008

quite interesting...this is why I love NPR...

Preaching The Bruce Springsteen Gospel

National Public Radio

Weekend Edition Sunday,

August 10, 2008

When Jeffrey Symynkywicz preaches at his Unitarian Universalist church, he's often accompanied by music, but it's not the music you might expect. The minister has been a fan of Bruce Springsteen since the beginning of his career, and now he's managed to combine his theological training with his love of Springsteen's music. His new book is titled The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Redemption from Asbury Park to Magic.

In an interview, host Liane Hansen takes Symynkywicz through a few choice Springsteen songs, including the last song on Born to Run, "Jungle Land." Symynkywicz says it's an ethics song about perceived powers and the powers that be. Ultimately, he says, "Jungle Land" gives the sense that the bad guys have won — until that famous last scream from Springsteen.

"That scream is the exhaustion and the pain of living life in this world," Symynkywicz says. "In that scream is a defiance that it's not going to be the last word."

In his years of fandom and research, Symynkywicz has found a few themes in Springsteen. Most of all, he says, Springsteen conveys hope in his songs.

"Springsteen isn't much of a romantic in his music," he says. "He presents life as it is — life in all its grit and all its pain."

Excerpt: 'The Gospel According To Bruce Springsteen'

NPR.org

August 8, 2008

Bruce's Ten Suggestions for Spiritual Living

1. The world has gone awry. The world according to Bruce is often portrayed as a gritty, conflicted, sometimes dark and sinister place. It differs for the particular characters involved in each song, of course, but the darkness is always there on the edge of things or not very far beneath the surface.

2. There is a power within the souls of men and women to transcend the world and to achieve real victories in spite of the world. For every homeless loser who has left his wife and kids high and dry back in Baltimore, there is that good man or good woman who works endlessly at a thankless job to meet his or her responsibilities. People have within them the power to choose to be true to themselves and what really matters.

3. The world is as it is. There is both great pain and great joy in life, Springsteen affirms. Once we have accepted that the pain is part of the deal, then we are free to experience genuine joy when it comes our way.

4. Life without connections is empty and dangerous. Springsteen sings of a stark array of misfits, criminals and losers. But there is always compassion in the portraits he presents, and we sense that the line between winners and losers is a narrow one and that what differentiates the former from the latter are the connections they have with other people.

5. Our stories symbolize something deeper. The great lie of our contemporary, celebrity-crazed culture is that only the rich and famous have stories worth telling. There are almost no celebrities featured in Springsteen's songs. His stories are our stories, and the wisdom (as well as the folly) they contain is ours, too.

6. Life is embodied. Sexuality is intrinsically neither good nor evil, Springsteen implies; here, as in all human ventures, only good soil will produce worthy fruit.

7. It's all about change. If we cling to the past, it withers and dies. If we let it go gracefully and move on to the next stage of our lives, the gifts of the past can continue to bless us.

8. There is no guarantee of success. Sometimes life teaches us lessons about humility and silence and emptiness and pain and unanswered prayers. At those times, we know that our true treasure is the power of our own integrity, and our reward lies in keeping faith with those other decent, down-to-earth, hardworking people everywhere.

9. Hope is resilient. The men and women in Springsteen's songs may win or they may lose, but they seldom abandon all hope. Despair is seldom, if ever, given the final word. It is hope that carries us human ones on the sacred vector toward life's divine possibilities.

10. There is always something more. If Bruce is luminous in his work — shining a light of perception on the horizontal dimension of this earthly life — so he is numinous as well — casting this life we lead in the brilliance of an almost mystic glow; shedding the radiance of discernment on that vertical beam which crashes through the linear plane of existence and points it toward that which is higher, deeper, somehow transcendent.

Excerpted from The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen by Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz. Reprinted by arrangement with Westminster John Knox Press. © 2008.

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission.

Follow this link for the full story and link to the audio version…

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93437259


Saturday, August 02, 2008

what kind of liberal am I...

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My Liberal Identity:

You are a Social Justice Crusader, also known as a rights activist. You believe in equality, fairness, and preventing neo-Confederate conservative troglodytes from rolling back fifty years of civil rights gains.

Take the quiz at http://www.fightconservatives.com/Inside-the-Book/What-Breed-of-Liberal-Are-You.html" style="color:blue;">www.FightConservatives.com

Friday, August 01, 2008

blog quiz ganked from my big bro...

1. What is your occupation? Customer service representative-travel agent systems for a major rental car agency...

2. What color are your socks right now? Black - I only have black socks (its dress code @ work and I dont buy any other color anymore..)

3. What are you listening to right now? George Harrision - Crackerbox palace...

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Chili Mac that I made myself...

5 Can you drive a stick shift? NO - I destroy clutches....

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? who are you Barbara Walters??? Alright, I'll answer - blue....no red...no...AARRGGHH

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My older brother to whom I owe this quiz..

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I didnt get it sent, I swiped it from my brother's blog...

9. How old are you today? 41 years and 5 months.

10. Favorite Drink? Pepsi is my absolute favorite but I dont drink it as often as I used to. Trying to get off the stuff if you know what I mean to lose weight - what I drin, the most nowadays is iced tea - I love iced tea - NO LEMON.

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? I love HOCKEY my friend, going to games, taking in the last true gladiator sport we have (grin!) Its not just that, its fast-paced and interesting. I like it. I also like baseball and football and basketball. My teams are my home town StL teams (Blues, Cards, Rams.) For basketball I usually follow the Detroit Pistons since we dont have a team here...

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? No. I am losing it, however, slowly but surely...

13. Pets? Three cats - insane and totally cute. Love me kitties...

14. Favorite food? I like Americianized Chinese dishes like fried rice and such, however, I can also handle French, Italian, Spanish Tapas, and some Mexican foods...

15. Last movie you watched? Wall-e - thought it was cute, and liked the message it was sending...

16. Favorite Day of the year? Every day I wake up....

17. What do you do to vent anger? I blog about it sometimes, try to talk it out inside my head, I dont normally blow up to the point where things come to blows because I hope I'm a lover and not a fighter...

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? as a very young child it was a yellow stuffed animal kitten and a stuffed snake named Oscar...as I got older, it was a set of cheap plastic dinosaurs that my brother and I played with constantly.

19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? I like spring slightly better, but, they are both nice.

20. What was your first job? Working as a paper boy for the Joplin Globe then the Springfield News-Leader, and then as a telemarketer/operator at the public television station in Springfield/Joplin area..

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Not usually a berry kind of guy....but I like both, as long as they're puree'd I dont like the 'raw flesh' of a fruit for some reason - its the texture...

22. Do you want your friends to email you back? I have friends?? oh, I'm sorry, yes, if they want...

23. Who is most likely to respond? I expect there are some out there who would feel the notion to do something....

24. Who is least likely to respond? to this? drive by bloggers....

26. When was the last time you cried? I been crying a lot lately. The financial difficulties and the stress of all this is definitely starting to get to me.

27. What is on the floor of your closet? lots of crap that I need to throw out, frankly...

28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this? See #22

29. Who is the friend you have had the shortest that you are sending this to? See #22

30. What is your favorite smell? the smell of...victory...no, the favorite odor I have ever experienced is the smell of my wife's hair...

31. What inspires you? right now, Barack Obama,

32. What are you afraid of? I am afraid of not being able to make my bills, mortgage payments (the cars are now paid off but (dont ya know it!?) once you get one paid off the transmision goes out on it!!! (@&#^$* FORDS!!)) I have tried to get second jobs but, because my credit score's plummeted and I interview TERRIBLY, I cant even seem to get something in fast food - and I am desperate to get something to make some extra dough to make bread!!

33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? No spicy, only cheese....

34. Favorite car? One that runs and is paid for and works.

35. Favorite cat breed? Spayed and Neutered are good, but I like Siamese...and tuxedo cats. Two Tux and 1 siamese..that's what I have...

36. Number of keys on your key ring? too damn many.

37. How many years at your current job? 15 years

38. Favorite day of the week? Payday

39. How many states have you lived in? Missouri..that's it...

40. Do you think you're funny? kinda sorta. I think everyone thinks they are...