Picks pans and Ship of Fools

For many this may be a regular occurrence, but for me it was manna from heaven. I took the picture above at a KC gas station Saturday. Gas in Kansas City is 30 cents per gallon cheaper than Mayberry. I haven't seen prices this low since well before Katrina. Let us give thanks for happier days ahead.

Pick 1

A bit of serendipity. While under the weather a few weeks back, I became absorbed watching Book TV on CSPAN. Drumming his new book was Curtis Roosevelt, Frank and Elly Roosevelt's grandson. His book Too Close To the Sun tells of life at Hyde Park, growing up in and around the grandparents and fun times with the relatives. More on the book later.

Checking the local library web site for the book, I came across "Too Close to the sun, the life and times of Deny Finch Hatton". You may remember him from Out of Africa fame.

What a guy. While not Robert Redford, apparently he was extremely good looking, charming, brave, rich, and bored by conventional life. He found himself and Karen Blixen in Africa. While there he was a planter, land owner and great white hunter.

Out of Africa was apparently more fiction than fact, but he and Baroness Blixen were great lovers for as long as it was convenient for them. In the current vernacular seemingly he just wasn't that into her, while she was too needy for him. In they end, well you know the story.

It is a pretty good read though.

Pick 2

As a lapsed believer, I feel strongly that my life would be bereft if I were not versed in the Judeo-Christian traditions. My suspicion is that growing up in the bells and smells school left me unable to truly appreciate the richness of other alternatives.

To ease my back into the fold, I rely upon The Ship of Fools http://ship-of-fools.com/

If you are unfamiliar with the Ship, it is an Anglican site which in typically British fashion spares no effort in finding sport wherever possible while offering the Christian message. I especially like the Fruitcake Zone and the Caption Competition.

While all in good fun, I find it hard to miss its more important message.

Pan
Only half a pan, but perhaps more a question.

Has anyone else noted that the ink in the current edition of Garden and Guns smears? Over the past several years even the worst offenders (New Yorker esp) have overcome this needless mess. I hope it is only me.

Its good to be back in full vigor. Let the bontemps rollez.

Toad

Noggin and Natterings

I have no idea how this happens, other than perhaps via the ramblings of an unstructered brain, but what I most enjoy about blogs and bloggers is the unforseen paths they lead me down.

I'm certain you too have been down this lane. You read a blog and like it, follow a link or two of their favorite blogs, read the comments follow a couple of them, you never know where you'll end up, but it's always an hour later.

For instance, I have found several great books, I would have never heard of, this way. Whoever suggested "Thirty Nine Steps" I thank you. Ms. Mindless I thank you for your erudite explanation of not only the photo but derivation of Tuesday's post. I hope the illustration touches upon the subject.

To the many others who have commented publically or otherwise on or about TTMB I am grateful, especially to those who have taken me to task.

But best of all I appreciate the window the blogging community offers to open my mind, clear the cobwebs, learn new things, meet new people and see things I would never have never seen, have access to, or even considered. Ideas that may be out of my cultural or comfort zone, or those which let me offer suggestions or bits of advice on topics I actually know something about.

I'm often amazed by the "glad I was there" kind of feeling that comes from connecting to someone's story.

Picks and Pans

Picks: If you have young boys at your house you probably know this one. Have you ever seen "Back to the Barnyard" on Nick? Young Grandson was over the other day and turned it on. I nearly hurt myself laughing.

Pans: Mrs. T and I have differing views of what to watch on television. My tastes are neither better nor worse than hers, just different.

Thanks to TIVO I was subjected to a round of The desperate (sorry, real) housewives of Atlanta last evening.

Several comments and questions ensue:

1. Am I the only idiot who believes that Kim's secret boytoy is married?

2. Why do I think the only endearing person on that show is NeNe's husband?

3. Do they still have names for girls who trade favors for stuff?

Pan 2: I am a lifelong Anglophile. A pyschologist could probably have a field day attempting to understand why, but let us all agree that I am. Somehow, I came across a copy of the book, "The Anglo files, a field guide to the British" by Sarah Lyall, a New York Times reporter married to an Englishman and living in London. Sounds like mothers milk doesn't it?

I was terribly disappointed with it. Perhaps I am, along with being an Anglophile, also something of a puritan, but I was put out by Ms. Lyall wasting a chapter on the excessive British usage of a "word I can barely type" -her quote. A 4 letter, female perjoritive beginning with ****.

I think one of the few pleasures available to an author, is the privelege of writing what you want to write about. If the word offends, why spend time with it, much less a chapter. Certainly I didn't.

In conclusion, as Dr. Pangloss said, "This is the best of all possible worlds". It's our job to make it so. Enjoy your weekend. You've earned it. As long as you have gotten this far, stop in and say hello.

Toad