Tasty.

English muffin and Velveeta. Like an egg mcmuffin without the egg. Probably good with certain kinds of fruit on top of that.

Just FYI.

During Holy Week when I was nursing this cough, I couldn’t understand why I kept getting so drowsy and groggy. Usually I have the opposite problem — daytime cold medicine can make you hyper.

Well… it turns out that I didn’t read the labels well enough.

Since I was desperate, I grabbed some herbal tea from the Yogi brand (which I don’t usually buy). There are various brands of herbal tea which have teas which are supposed to help colds or help breathing and the throat, and most singers drink ’em. Yogi Cold Season tea was advertised on the box as “Supports Respiratory Health”. It had eucalyptus and peppermint, which was all to the good, and it was also supposed to be “warming”, with pleasant herbs like cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves, and licorice. Now, pepper and ginger can be a little irritating to the throat, so I wouldn’t want to drink them on a singing day, but they’re great when you’re fighting a cough. So I grabbed it.

But I didn’t read far enough on the actual ingredient list. It turns out that their Cold Season tea includes a decent chunk of valerian, not very far down. And valerian is well known for helping people fall asleep (although, just like with some antihistamines and with other sleep-herbs like linden, there are people who react to it as a stimulant). It’s definitely an “active ingredient” that you need to know you’re ingesting.

Now, I’ve reported here before that linden works on me as a stimulant (ie, to the point of heart palpitations), probably because we have a ton of linden trees growing in my town and I’ve gotten a little allergic to the pollen. But I’m apparently a total groggy-queen with valerian, at least when I’m taking cold medicine too. We don’t know enough even about regular drugs to always predict this sort of crazy split in reactions, and sometimes people’s reactions change with age. What’s more, there are common brands of herbal sleep tea out there which include both valerian and linden, and other stuff besides… and linden is apparently a common ingredient in home remedies for colds in certain parts of Europe. (Tila, tilia, and tilio are other words for linden.)

I’m not saying people should fear this stuff. (Heck, lettuce is a sleep-herb when concentrated, and we all eat that.) I’m just saying that, just because it’s “natural” and “herbal”, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch yourself. Pay attention, and don’t do anything crazy. Read the labels, even on things like tea — even when you don’t think they would include anything unexpected _to you_.

Oh, and valerian has a strong odor to it. My nose must have been truly dead not to smell it when I was sick, even with all those other strong-smelling herbs in the tea. Keep any valerian-based teas wrapped up in plastic or in a tin, or people will think you have stinky socks in your pantry when the weather turns warm. I spent a lot of time trying to track down that strange under-smell in my kitchen, wondering what had gone bad. 🙂

Ferry, Cross the Mersey

Music video with actual ferry and Mersey.

Via Ghost of a Flea.

Easter. Priests. Confetti. Rifles.

Awright, let’s everybody do a field trip to Spain next year.

Concur.

Lawrence Miles (one of the inbetween Doctor Who novel writers) gets mad at Jar-Jar, explains why, and then points out the most important flaw of the current Doctor Who show.

“….curiosity isn’t a criterion. The Doctor never explores; he just changes the timeline until the universe suits him. The Doctor never discovers; he knows all the answers, so that he can make flip comments without having to think about what he’s actually saying. The Doctor never investigates; he disposes of monsters because he’s the Doctor, and therefore wins by default.”

Yeah, that’s a lot of it. Even though the old Doctor Who show presented us with a very smart, very resourceful, very knowledgeable alien guy, he was always starting at zero when he arrived on a new planet. If he showed up on a planet he knew in a time he knew, what he knew always turned out to be wrong in several respects. If there was a natural disaster brewing, he was just as endangered by it as that non-intelligent space-squirrel back in the bushes. So he had to find out what was going on, had to look, had to talk to everybody.

In practical terms, this meant that every show was a new little drama piece. The same thing obtained for the old episodes of Star Trek. Being smart and knowledgeable meant you might just barely have a chance to survive. It didn’t mean that you could be smug.

If you ever have a feeling that the writers are on the characters’ side, making them always be right (or only wrong in a non-embarrassing way), or if the characters in a show ever become smug without being smacked down by life, there’s not much point watching the show anymore.

Adding a character who’s more smugly right than the other characters doesn’t help the problem. (See GUINAN; see LORIEN until smacked down; see RIVER SONG.)

That Crazy Etymology for the Seven Cities of Revelation

Our buddy St. Beatus of Liebana’s commentary includes a group of etymologies, probably from patristic authors, which aren’t at all like the usual etymological/poetical interpretations of the names of the Seven Churches in the Book of Revelation. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the authors were thinking, because it’s not like Greek or the usual “meanings” at all.

Well, I think the method to their madness is that they interpreted the Greek city names according to Hebrew!

For example, “Smyrna” is supposed to signify “their song”. In Hebrew, “zamiyr” means “song accompanied by an instrument”. “Sardis” is supposed to signify “the beginning of beauty”; “shaphar” is beauty and “dasha” is sprout, beginning. And so on. It seems to be the usual sort of poetic interpretation — not really so much about language as about using language to draw pictures. It would be interesting to find out if this was a non-Jewish Christian thing, or something that the Jewish residents of the cities came up with.

Of course, I’m sure the critical edition tells all about this, and the article somebody wrote about it already, but it’ll be a long time before I can take off enough daytime hours to hit the special collections that are only open 8-5 on weekdays. 🙂

Nooooo… St. Blaise, Pray for Us!

I can’t believe it. That little bit of throat gunk has turned into a lot of gunk. I think it’s just drippage, but… ack! I gotta sing tonight and tomorrow night! I gotta hit high notes! Nooooooo!

I guess it’s a good thing I took off from work today, huh? Lets me nurse my throat and sleep.

Tonight after folks go to bed, we’re supposed to get another 3 or 4 inches of rain. Today we just get thunderstorms. Ouch. Hope the folks down in Cincinnati at the steps keep warm and dry.

UPDATE: Mucinex — St. Blaise’s little helper!

Well, Now I Hope Somebody Gets Video.

Ironic Catholic’s university administrators were incredibly helpful at her until she finally groveled in submission and agreed that, having been invited to the Vatican blog conference (a coup for her university) and having had money thrown at her by her friends and acquaintances, and it being useful for her professional development as a theologian who studies JPII to be there for his beatification, and the last day of classes being no reason to be a freakin’ martyr, SHE HAD TO GO. Heheheheheh. As the LA science fiction club used to say, “DEATH WILL NOT RELEASE YOU!”

Meanwhile, the Crescat got all her airfare and walking around money donated within _three days_. Pretty good, huh?

So Ironic Catholic and the Crescat are going to be teamed up for this sucker, both having an unexpected vacation from job, family, and kid/s. It’s a good thing that Rome is so old and used to shocks, because I’m pretty sure that they will have a lot of fun and pilgrimage too. 🙂 But seriously, it couldn’t happen to nicer people.

Ironic Catholic has a fun book available in both ebook and paper form, so you might want to buy one to keep helping out. See her blog tabs.

So that’s what the Pope was saying on Wednesday morning….

Here’s the transcribed text, translated into English. I wasn’t kidding about all that talk about the will. 🙂

“Then the Lord began to pray. The three apostles – Peter, James and John – slept, but then they woke up and heard the phrase of this prayer of the Lord: “Not my will but thine be done.” What is this will of mine, what is this will of yours, of which the Lord speaks? My will is that I “should not die,” that he be spared this chalice of suffering: It is the human will, of human nature, and Christ feels, with all the consciousness of his being, life, the abyss of death, the terror of nothingness, this menace of suffering. And he more than us, who have this natural aversion to death, this natural fear of death, even more than us, he felt the abyss of evil. He also felt, with death, all the suffering of humanity.

“He felt that all this was the chalice he must drink, that he must make himself drink, accept the evil of the world, everything that is terrible, the aversion to God, the whole of sin. And we can understand that Jesus, with his human soul, was terrified before this reality, which he perceived in all its cruelty: My will would be not to drink the chalice, but my will is subordinated to your will, to the will of God, to the will of the Father, which is also the real will of the Son.

“And thus Jesus transformed, in this prayer, the natural aversion, the aversion to the chalice, to his mission to die for us. He transformed this natural will of his into the will of God, in a “yes” to the will of God. On his own man is tempted to oppose the will of God, to have the intention to follow his own will, to feel free only if he is autonomous; he opposes his own autonomy against the heteronomy of following the will of God. This is the whole drama of humanity. But in truth this autonomy is erroneous and this entering into God’s will is not an opposition to oneself, it is not a slavery that violates my will, but it is to enter into truth and love, into the good. And Jesus attracts our will, which is opposed to the will of God, which seeks its autonomy. He attracts this will of ours on high, to the will of God.

“This is the drama of our redemption, that Jesus attracts our will on high, all our aversion to the will of God and our aversion to death and sin, and unites it to the will of the Father: “Not my will but thine be done.” In this transformation of the “no” into “yes,” in this insertion of the will of the creature in the will of the Father, he transforms humanity and redeems us. And he invites us to enter into this movement of his: To come out of our “no” and enter into the “yes” of the Son. My will exists, but the decisive will is the will of the Father, because the will of the Father is truth and love.”

Self-Defense and the Disabled

Speak softly and carry a big boomstick, and other lessons.

A Middle English Poem

A Modern English version of a Middle English poem. For the benefit of a so-called Christian site, that printed a so-called Christian, who is apparently so sinless that she thinks Jesus only died for the sins of a few government employees in 35 AD. Even the sinless Virgin Mary acknowledged God as her Savior, but this lady knows better than that, sniff sniff. Protoevangelion of Genesis? What Protoevangelion?

Apparently some people still think it’s a good idea to blindfold Jesus and hit Him like a pinata, and tell Him that His mission was useless. Let’s pray for them, as Jesus did.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

Man, have in mind how here before
For thy misdeed, thou were forlorn;
But, mercy to give, now Christ is born.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

In sin thy life, if thou have led,
Amend it now. Be not a-dread,
For He His mercy forth hath spread.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

And though thy sin be never so ill,
For thy sin shalt thou not spill,
Now mercy to ask, if thou will.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

God that died upon the Rood,
For thy misdeed, He shed His blood;
For His mercy is full and good.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

He that thee so dear hath bought,
Mercy, He would that thou sought.
If thou seek, He [de]nyeth it not.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

Mercy is spread on the ground,
Thereto left, for a-stound;
Therefore, thou it seek till it be found.

:: Oh, man, assay, assay, assay,
And axe mercy while thou may. ::

Dawn of the Return of the Sequel of the Story That Won’t Go Away

One of the former priests at my home parish left the parish under decidedly clouded circumstances, admitted to some very skeevy goings-on at the seminary as a teacher (not reported in our paper back then, but easy to find on the bishop accountability site), had his priestly faculties removed, and finally was officially laicized by the Pope in 2006.

Yesterday he was reported to have come back to town, and possibly to have plans to preach. Now today we learn he’s been acting for several years as “Eucharistic Presider” for some dissident Catholic/Episcopal group down in downtown Dayton over at Christ Episcopal. He didn’t even sneak off to some other archdiocese to go be openly disobedient, for goodness’ sake. But anyway, today he resigned from the group.

Naturally we should all pray for him and the little group, and that he will find a good use for his talents that doesn’t involve more temptations or flouting everybody from here to Rome.

UPDATE: The group’s blog doesn’t seem too happy with the whistleblower in their midst. Another instructive priority lesson.

UPDATE: Yup, their blog’s gone. Well, can’t hardly blame ’em.

The Pope Is Speaking Ex Tempore about Something Theology-ish

I happened to turn on the papal Wednesday audience broadcast on EWTN (since I’m awake), and the Pope had broken out of his written talk and was going on and on about some kind of Christological, Trinitarian thing, connected with the will. Unfortunately for me, in Italian. It sounded very interesting and poetic, especially since he was breaking out all the professorial mannerisms and close explanations.

I love it when he does this. It’s usually very interesting, what comes into his head on the spur of the moment. But I can’t follow Italian well enough, especially at 5:15.

So yeah… expect the Vatican webpage transcription for today’s audience to add a few paragraphs. 🙂

(In case you’re ever up at 5 or 6 in the morning on Wednesday, depending on Daylight Savings Time, and see the audience — there’s a longish talk in Italian, and then short summary versions in French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and sometimes other pilgrims’ languages, interspersed by having pilgrim groups named off to the Holy Father, and pilgrim groups waving for the Pope and the folks watching at home. At the end, everybody and their friends and family back home get the papal blessing. Usually the Holy Father does talks in a series, but obviously in Holy Week he talks about Holy Week. Anyway, they usually translate the short summaries first on vatican.va; and then in a week or so, you’ll see the long talks translated into English and the other languages.)

Heh. Kath.net in Austria apparently did a pilgrimage this week in preparation for the beatification. Hilarious to see the expression on the priest’s face who names the German-speaking pilgrims, as he read out “Internetseiten Kath.net”. 🙂

I also saw some nuns from Uruguay who didn’t seem too shy about waving the flag. 🙂

Going back to sleep soon.

Flash Floods and Tornadoes

We had a heck of a lot of weather yesterday. Heck, there were flash floods blocking Patterson Boulevard next to Carillon Park! People got stuck in their cars! They expect more flooding today, because the rain hasn’t stopped (though it’s slowed down quite a bit from its peak), and because water upstream has this strange tendency to move downstairs. Beavercreek got 4.5 inches (an April month of rain around here) in one day, so a lot of main roads were flooded, and there were places flooded that never have done so. Several highways were also flooded, at least for a while, and there were plenty of straight-line winds.

Also, there was possibly a tornado up in Celina. I do not love spring tornadoes.

(And just to make the newscast more cheery, our reliable old local power company is getting bought out by some weird company I’ve never heard of.)