3.23.14 … Keep Calm and Keep Walking …

2014 Lenten Labyrinth Walks, Grace Cathedral San Francisco: I get tired of the modifications to this iconic British sign … but I like this one.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Liked · March 20

http://www.gracecathedral.org/lent #lent

Kids These Days: Growing Up Too Fast Or Never At All? : NPR:  As I have said before, I had an idyllic childhood in Brookwood Hills Atlanta.  I heard this  on NPR. I too wonder if we don’t fantasize how much better it was when we were children?

On the cover of the April issue of The Atlantic there’s a picture of a boy who could be 6 or 7. He’s looking to the right toward an adult, whose hand he’s holding. He’s also wearing a helmet and knee pads. And — for further protection — he has a pillow strapped to his torso.

Hanna Rosin says when kids do things that feel risky on a playground, it allows them to conquer a fear and gain independence.

In an interview with All Things Considered, Rosin tells host Robert Siegel that she had long wondered why statistics show that today’s parents both work more and spend more time with their children than previous generations. She says it has to do with the lack of independence people allow their children these days.

“What’s happened now is we’ve swung way too far in the other direction such that we’ve become preoccupied with safety, and that’s really having an effect on the culture of childhood so that we’re stripping children of their independence, of their ability to take risks, which are key to a happy childhood,” she says.

You can read highlights from the conversation below.

via Kids These Days: Growing Up Too Fast Or Never At All? : NPR.

Son Of God Movie, “Diogo Morgado Puts the Carnal in Incarnate But Was Jesus Really A Babe?” The Daily Beast: Speaking of Jesus … With my mom — watching Son Of God at CineBistro at Town Brookhaven.   I found no time to consider whether the actor was a “babe.” Both my mother and I were overwhelmed by the gruesome aspects of the film. We realize that death by crucifixion is by its nature gruesome.

 Son of God is in theaters now! This major motion picture event brings the story of Jesus’ life to audiences of all kinds through compelling …

The Clifton Chronicles series, Jeffrey Archer, book series:  Goodreads | The Clifton Chronicles series by Jeffrey Archer.

Benjamin Franklin, quotes, Will Rodgers, death and taxes:  I like this twist on the Benjamin Franklin quote.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy, 13 Nov. 1789

via Benjamin Franklin Quotes.

Dog,  $1.9 Million, News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com, conspicuous consumption, Tibetan mastiffs: Wow!  Many years ago we had a Saint Bernard.  A friend quipped that we should have named him Thorstein.  I’ll let you figure that one out.

In what might be the most expensive dog sale ever, a property developer paid 12 million yuan—or $1.9 million—for a Tibetan mastiff puppy on Wednesday.

He acquired the one-year-old golden-haired mastiff at a “luxury pet” fair Tuesday in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

“They have lion’s blood and are top-of-the-range mastiff studs,” the dog’s breeder, Zhang Gengyun, told the paper. Another of his red-haired pups sold for six million yuan, he added.

Tibetan mastiffs, which are enormous and sometimes ferocious, bear a passing resemblance to lions—if you squint. They’re now a prized status symbol among China’s elite, causing prices to skyrocket.

via Dog Sells for $1.9 Million | News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com.

Elizabeth Kiss, Rhodes Scholars: Great day to be a Wildcat! Check out #13 …

13. Elizabeth Kiss is an American academic and educator. She is the eighth president of Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts college for women in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, she was the Nannerl E. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. She specialises in moral and political philosophy and has published on a number of topics, including moral judgement and education, human rights, ethnic conflict and nationalism, and feminist debates about rights and justice. As a Rhodes Scholar, she studied for a BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy.

via 13 Famous Rhodes Women — The Rhodes Project.

bloody Mary, garnish:  Garnish, lately, has been getting out of control … This reminds me of the bloody mary I “shared” with my son in Vail.

Garnish, lately, has been getting out of control.

…

“The bacon bloody mary was HUGE and included a stick of bacon that tasted like it was soaked in maple syrup.” in 16 reviews

via Westside Cafe and Market – Vail, CO | Yelp.

 Basset hound clown car, YouTube, kith/kin:  Several people sent this one to me.  I wonder why?  🙂

Basset hound clown car…incredible!

via ▶ Basset hound clown car…incredible! – YouTube.

Is this a dog house, or a clown car?

Watch the video above to see the first Basset Hound “magic trick” you’ve probably ever seen. Just when you think it isn’t possible for any more dogs to appear, another one comes running out of that teeny, tiny, little dog house.

We know what you’re thinking: what sorcery is this?

via Basset Hounds Keep Magically Appearing From This Tiny Dog House And It’s Ridiculous.

Poggio Mirteto, Lenten Abstinence : NPR:

Every year, Poggio Mirteto thumbs its nose at Lenten austerity and instead celebrates the Carnevalone Liberato, or Freedom Festival, commemorating the day it shed the yoke of papal authority in 1861.

The town of Poggio Mirteto fills with costumed revelers during the folk tradition of “Carnevalone Liberato,” a celebration of liberation from the Papal States.

via Tiny Italian Town Thumbs Its Nose At Lenten Abstinence : NPR.

 New Yorker cartoon, Paul Noth, Jackson Pollock, kith/kin: Another one today that reminded me of my son.  Jack taught me  taught me to appreciate Pollock and with whom i love to enjoy sushi. I realize that there is a difference between “appreciating ” Pollock and “liking” Pollock.   Jack did his high school “senior exit project” on Pollock. I learned so much and learned to “appreciate” Pollock.

A cartoon by Paul Noth. Take a look at more cartoons from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/NnSj43

Shooter Jobs, LOL, too soon:  i got reprimanded for reposting this because it was too soon.  It was.  It may always be too soon.  I am amazed at the quick wit of some people.

Shooter Jobs

March 19

10.31.13 … Halloween … What’s Banksy got to do with it … or the Scots, for that matter? … ” when the boundary between the living and the spirit worlds was at its most tenuous” …

Halloween, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (TV Short 1966):

My crazy dad dressed up as the Great Pumpkin (white sheet with giant plastic pumpkin container appropriately cut to fit on his head with a flashlight inside … get the picture) and had my mom drive him around sitting on the hood of our station wagon. I now realize my dad was spot on … via It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (TV Short 1966) – IMDb came out in 1966.  All this took place in our most perfect trick-or-treating neighborhood, Brookwood Hills – Atlanta.

traditions …  When we lived on Sharon Road in Charlotte (1985 – 1993),  we had Hitchcock Halloween with our neighbors.  Tonight we watched  Rear Window for a Throw Back Thursday Halloween!  We missed the Bennetts!

A few other tidbits and ideas for Halloween …

Halloween costumes, Banksy, Art Beat, PBS NewsHour:

Milwaukee resident Jason McDowell dressed as a famous piece of street art by the anonymous artist known as Banksy. The original work is on a wall in West Bank\’s biblical city of Bethlehem. Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images

Pittsburgh resident Tim Notari dressed up as Magritte\’s \”Son of Man\” for Halloween recently. Photo of Notari courtesy of Flickr user Jennifer Murawski and the original \”Son of Man\” from wikicommons

via Can’t decide what to be this Halloween? How about a Banksy | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour | PBS.

A few more costume ideas …

55 Awesome Halloween Costume Ideas | Mental Floss.

pumpkins, jack o’lanterns, Louisville KY, Jack O’Lantern Spectacular:

This year, Reckner has brought his enormous “Jack O’Lantern Spectacular” to Louisville, where he has assembled his largest-ever display — 5,000 carved pumpkins, lining a path that’s a third of a mile long, in the woods of Iroquois Park.

For Reckner, the setting in Iroquois Park is ideal. “This is like a dream come true,” he said. “You walk in the woods at night, it’s an experience — never mind when you put 5,000 pumpkins up there.”

While many of the pumpkins in the show are more elaborate versions of the kind of jack-o’-lantern you might make at home, many larger pumpkins have intricate designs where artists have drawn scenes or faces and then scraped some of the pumpkin flesh away without cutting all the way through, so the design seems to glow from within the pumpkins.

To provide the manpower to carve all those pumpkins, Reckner put out a call to local artists through a Craigslist ad this summer, and interviewed candidates in September.

At the time, artist Edward Cabral was working a job he didn’t much like and was looking for something else. “I was applying to anything that had a pulse and said ‘art,’ ” Cabral said. Even so, responding to a Craigslist ad seemed a bit sketchy. “I was a little leery,” he said.

But after meeting the organizers and hearing their offer — $50 for each pumpkin design and $50 for the carving — Cabral and other artists signed up.

“I’ve been floored by the artists here,” Reckner said. “They’re actually teaching me a few things.”

Page

via Artists make the cut to design thousands of pumpkins at ‘Jack O’Lantern Spectacular’ | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com.

Reformation Day (October 31), October 31 1517,  Martin Luther, 95 theses:

It’s Reformation Day (October 31), when in 1517 Martin Luther (1483-1546) posted his 95 theses protesting the sale of indulgences within the Catholic Church and launched the Protestant Reformation. “For sheer richness and exuberance of vocabulary and mastery of style,” wrote historian Roland Bainton, Luther “is to be compared only with Shakespeare.”

Halloween, Hallowe’en, All Hallows’ Eve,  Celtic festival of Samhain/Samhuinn, Robert Burns’ 1785 poem ‘Halloween’:

Halloween or Hallowe’en takes its name from All Hallows’ Eve, the night before the Christian festival of All Hallows or All Saints Day. But it’s possible to trace its beginnings back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain or Samhuinn, held on 1 November, which marked the culmination of summer and the harvest period with the onset of winter. Robert Burns’ 1785 poem ‘Halloween’ details many of the national customs and legends surrounding the festival, many of them pagan in origin, which had persisted even with the advent of Christianity.

One of the most enduring of these was the Celtic belief that it marked a time when the boundary between the living and the spirit worlds was at its most tenuous, and that the ghosts of dead, including supernatural beings such as witches and warlocks, would be able to walk the earth for this one night of the year. To ward off potentially malevolent entities, large bonfires were lit in communities and it is believed that this practice survives today in the tradition of carving pumpkin lanterns with creepy grimaces. While the use of pumpkins is actually an American invention, in Scotland it has been custom to carve lanterns out of ‘neeps’ or turnips.

via Halloween’s Scottish roots – The Distillery Blog | VisitScotland.