29 November 2006

at first I wrote...

and so it starts...
I've tried this blog thing before and the most difficult thing is keeping up with it, but I would like to try and make a commitment to add to it at least a couple of times a week. Sometimes it might be something important, but most of the time it will probably be just some things that have been on my mind, my life, my thoughts about the state of the world, my distastes, my likes, music, b.s., etc., etc., etc.

I've been reading blogs for awhile now and they are playing a big part in the way civilization is evolving. It's the time of instant response, instant rebuke, and instant interpretation. I wonder, however, if the instantaneousness of this whole thing is allowing for time to reflect on what's being read, yet alone written. Is there anyone who is looking at the signs of what is happening - the semiotics.

Semiotics is an important concept of study. According to Martin Ryder,

"Linguistic and Cultural Semiotics is a branch of communication theory that investigates sign systems and the modes of representation that humans use to convey feelings, thoughts, ideas, and ideologies. Semiotic analysis is rarely considered a field of study in its own right, but is used in a broad range of disciplines, including art, literature, anthropology, sociology, and the mass media. Semiotic analysis looks for the cultural and psychological patterns that underlie language, art and other cultural expressions. Umberto Eco jokingly suggests that semiotics is a discipline for studying everything which can be used in order to lie." (1976, p7). Whether used as a tool for representing phenomena or for interpreting it, the value of semiotic analysis becomes most pronounced in highly mediated, postmodern environments where encounters with manufactured reality shift our grounding senses of normalcy."

Blogging, in a way, is both the means and the end of semiotics. It is manufacturing reality as well as analyzing it. It is art. literature, sociology and mass media all rolled into one. It looks at cultural and psychological patterns, as well as creates them. It is almost oxymoronic.

So, why do I want any part of it? I, like everyone else, have a need to be listened to. The "act" in my life has always been that no one listens to me, so why bother. I've thought myself a failure for that and I'm getting over it. People either listen or they don't. I know longer care. I am going to be inspiring and powerful. As a result - FREE!

and so it starts...


Lately, I've been thinking about going back and reading what I've been writing for almost the last two years. [two years in January!] Above is the very first post I wrote for no matter what....

Looking at it again, I find it interesting, especially the semiotics part. The signs are everywhere to be found, not only in the world but also in this blog. There has been an evolution in what I've been writing and, yet, I sense that I've pretty much stuck to what I set out to do.

There have been changes over the course of the two years. I have turned to a pseudo-Socratic method of asking questions about what I bring up. Lately, I added the what's going on here... weekly post citing headlines from around the world and posing the question, "What is really going on here? I'm including music, video, humor, irony, photos.... I've tried to do more of an ongoing dialogue approach because I readily admit that I don't know everything. [Nor do I necessarily want to know everything. Somethings are better left in the ether!]

Though I'm still can be somewhat of a cynic, I have let more of myself be known to the world than ever before now. It is easier to do this when it's somehow more anonymous and you don't have a stake in losing something or someone. However, I am more at ease with myself and much more confident.

The end of the original post cites how the act I play is no one listens to me, so why bother? I am quite over that. It still pops up now and then, but even in my professional life I have become more demonstrative. It reminds me of something that happened a number of years ago and how incongruent it was with my act.

My mother was always one who thought about other people before herself. She was extremely giving, loving and caring. Catholic and Christian probably more than most regular people. There was one extreme that was part of it though. She worried about what others would think. My father and I could care less.

One Sunday I was over for dinner and a visit. I don't even remember what the conversation was about but she said, "What will the neighbors think?" My father and I, on cue, simultaneously turned to her and said, "Who the fuck cares?"

We both were totally shocked at what we said. Shocked that we did it at exactly the same time and even more shocked that we used the word fuck. Even my father very seldom used that word and it's the only time I remember him saying it in front of my mother. It was also the very first [and the very last] time I ever said it in front of her. It just was never done!

My father never cared what other people said about him. To this day, I really don't care what other people think about me. Yet, on the other hand, I didn't think, and sometimes still don't, that other people listened to me. Ironic.

This blog has helped me realize that people do listen to what I have to say and it's all right that they agree or disagree with it, yet I still don't care about what they think about me. It's there opinion. It's more important what I think about me.


do you find yourself this way sometimes?

just asking...

pander...

the word of the day: pander

verb [intrans.] (pander to)
gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire , need, or habit or a person with such a desire, etc.) : newspapers are pandering to people's baser instincts.

noun dated
a pimp
archaic a person who assists the baser urges or designs of others : the lowest panders of a venal press

ORIGIN late Middle English (as a noun):
from Pandare, the name of a character in
Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (see
Pandarus). The verb dates from the early
17th cent.


Pope Backs Turkey’s Bid to Join European Union

the money quote:

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 28 — Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Turkey on Tuesday armed with a surprise gesture of good will aimed at blunting Muslim anger toward him: he backed Turkey’s long-stalled desire to join the European Union, reversing a statement he made two years ago.


The traditional Hollywood image of a pimp in the US includes a man riding around in a popemobile - I'm sorry - pimpmobile wearing an outrageous outfit that often includes red shoes.

Sound familiar?

just asking...

Source: New York Times: 11/29/06

26 November 2006

what's going on here (part IX)...

Grandmother Blows Self Up in Gaza Suicide Blast

Okay, here's my question. Suicide bombers are promised, what, 71, 72 virgins when they blow themselves up in the name of Allah against the Isrealis. Right? Does this mean she gets 71 male virgins? Or, is she a lesbian? just asking...

Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign

Yes, she may have moved into the neighborhood knowing that there were rules to how her house could look and what was acceptable decoration, but her response that displaying a holiday wreath in the form of a peace symbol is not meant as anti-Iraq and consequently anti-military support is just more hooey to the response from the Architectual Design Committee: He [the homeowners association president] said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Now, I might be way off base here, but doesn't Satan love chaos and destruction and death and war and human suffering? Does this then make the christianists satanists for being against peace? just asking...



awesome, after proofreading the two items above, I realized how well they go together. peace, anti-peace, war, anti-war, christianism, islamism, terror of the minority, terror of the majority aaaannnndddd just plain nuts. what is the world coming to? just asking...


Sources: New York Times, Yahoo! News

25 November 2006

Dancing feet...



Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell [no, not Ginger Rogers in this one] dancing to the music of Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine It is purported to be the greatest dance sequence ever filmed and was done in one take. Amazing foot work and they are almost always in unison. [voice of the narrator - Frank Sinatra!]

Pop music today doesn't lend itself to techniques and grace like this. What do you think?

just asking...

24 November 2006

Light to Unite...

candle231106

Click Here to light a candle for the National AIDS Foundation. Bristol-Meyers Scribb will donate $1 up to $100,000 to the National AIDS Foundation. You can also make a personal donation.

candles lit as of 8:35 pm, November 24, 2006: 51,251

23 November 2006

pure genius...

and beauty.



This is the final portion of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Serge Rachmaninov. It is played by Mikhail Pletnev in this video.

The genius of Rachmaninov comes through in all of his work but this one shines bright. Rachmaninov took a simple Paganini melodic line and played it backward to immortalize an extremely beautiful new melody.

Add to that the almost athletic ability to play Rachmaninov and the exquisite and sheer beauty of the piece becomes a fete accompli of which anyone would be proud. I believe it was pianist Earl Wright who said something to the effect that to play Rachmaninov it would be easier if you had ten fingers on each hand rather than ten fingers total. Watch Pletnev's hands as he switches from simple one finger sections to both hands flying across the keyboard so fast they blur.

This was a great way to start my Thanksgiving Day at 4:30 am. It also brought to mind this exchange* between Miranda and Spock from TOS:

Miranda: The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.
Spock: And in the way our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.


Happy Thanksgiving!

no question..

If you would like to listen/see the entire piece you can go to DIVX or click on the Youtube to find the three parts individually uploaded.

*Source: Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty?

22 November 2006

hhhmmmm....

from my favorite column that I have to read every day -

David M, a Chicago reader, regarding a ruling by government regulators that Welsh Dragon Sausages will have to change its name because the product does not contain dragon, followed by QT readers starting to look differently at Oscar Mayer Sausage and Jimmy Dean Sausage, writes:

"I have just one question: Johnson's Baby Oil?"

This is getting serious.


Source: QT, in the Chicago Sun-Times

it might also answer a lot of my questions. what do you think?

just asking...

19 November 2006

you know what's wrong with gay marriages...

this...




and this...



aren't we all different in our sameness? or are we all the same in our differences?

just asking...

what's going on here (part VIII½)...

Frank Rich (New York Times OpEd) points out what has been obvious this past week...

There’s no panacea to end the civil war that four years of American bumbling have wrought. But the one truly serious story to come out of the election — far more significant than the Washington chatter about “divided Democrats” — is that the president has no intention of changing his policy on Iraq or anything else one iota.

Already we are seeing conclusive evidence that the White House’s post-thumpin’ blather about bipartisanship is worth as little as the “uniter, not a divider” bunk of the past. The tip-off came last week when Mr. Bush renominated a roster of choices for the federal appeals court that he knew faced certain rejection by Democrats. Why? To deliver a message to the entire Senate consonant with the unprintable greeting Dick Cheney once bestowed on Patrick Leahy, the senator from Vermont. That message was seconded by Tony Snow on Monday when David Gregory of NBC News asked him for a response to the Democrats’ Iraq proposals. The press secretary belittled them as “nonspecific” and then tried to deflect the matter entirely by snickering at Mr. Gregory’s follow-up questions.
Source: It’s Not the Democrats Who Are Divided, NYT, November 19, 2006


Mr. Rich goes on to say that the Democrats aren't going to be able to extract the US from the Iraquagmire alone. They are going to need the help of the Republicans. The voters on November 7th, as he & many others aptly point out, said very clearly: IT'S THE WAR, STUPID! The only problem is that Mr. Bush is not only of an addictive personality but borderlines on obsessive as well, the proverbial one track mind.

Sadly, the politics of 2008 are on the minds of most politicians. I fear that there won't be much movement until there is a new president. Everyone is too afraid of gaining/loosing power for their party and themselves. Case in point, as Frank Rich points out, is John McCain who in the past was a voice of reason and sanity:

Don’t count Mr. McCain among them. His call for more troops even when there are no more troops is about presidential politics, a dodge that allows him to argue in perpetuity that we never would have lost Iraq if only he had been heeded from the start.


It's not just a matter of winning in Iraq. It's not only saving face for the country. It's not remaining the world's only super power.

But, does it have to mean another 2,000 American troops killed? 150,000+ Iraqis slaughtered? Another $7 Billion wasted? An additional New Orleans down the tubes? Double the $8.5 Trillion US debt?

just asking...

what's going on here (part VIII)...

O.J. Deal Leaves Sour Taste in Many Mouths

Not just a book on how he would have committed the murders but a 2-hour special on Fox! There is a lot of bad on both sides of the issue, but making money off a murder in any way is not just beyond bad taste it's beneath human. Animals don't celebrate taking a life. When they take a life it's for survival purposes - starvation or protection. Humans take life for emotional reasons, like pleasure, jealousy, hatred, fear. Do you think maybe the ability to think not just puts us apart from the animal kingdom but puts us beneath it? just asking...


Melinda Henneberger: Bush's Pick to Head Family Planning: What Is He Thinking?

The problem is with the basic principle of the post: what makes her believe that there was any thinking involved? just asking...


Blair admits Iraq is 'pretty much a disaster'

duh? ya think? Where's he been the last few years? just asking...


Bush, in Vietnam, Says Change Takes Time

After avoiding going to Vietnam at all costs in a previous life, Mr. Bush's draft number is finally called up. My number was 323, as I recall. My friends weren't as lucky. I readily admit I also had a low probability of going by having a teaching deferment, but I didn't go into teaching to avoid the draft. I had planned on being a teacher since my sophomore year in high school. My Daddy had no sway either. As I sit here and watch it all happening again, without a draft this time, I too am amazed at some of the similarities between Iraq and Vietnam. The US, having successfully waged the first guerilla war for independence from England, repeatedly gets into guerilla wars and looses. If change takes time, Mr. Bush, then why the rush into Iraq? And why the dalliance to get out? just asking...

Alaska Lawmakers Thumb Nose At Court Ordered Gay Benefits and You're Crazy

While you may think that these two don't go together, read a little more carefully. The first headline is saying that the wingers are taking away not just some benefits of a specific group of people but are denegrating citizens of the US. The second is a reference to Kathryn-Jean Lopez at NRO relating to removing condoms from purveyance by adults because Passing out contraception without any deeper context or conversation is degrading and disrespectful — to men and women. Tell me I'm crazy. And so Andrew told her she was crazy. As he goes on to point out, the wingers want to be in every room of our lives - especially the bedroom. Is 1984 just around the corner, even if it was 22 years ago? just asking...



Sources: Washington Post, Huffington Post, the timesonline, Washington Post, 365gay.com, andrewsullivan.com, National Review Online

17 November 2006

let's start the weekend with some fun...



time is fleeting...

kind of a switch from Renee Fleming...

fun? huh?

just asking...

16 November 2006

an important question...

lately we all in the world have been bombarded by many important questions: Who should be our leaders? Is the conflagration in Iraq just? Is the US spinning down into a theocracy? Does nuclear power threaten more than just peace? Is marriage under attack?

But, isn't there a more underlying question? Something along the lines of "What really is important and might be the basis of all these other questions?

What gives meaning to everything else?

Some say religion or god. Some say philosophy. Some say humanity. Some say hope. Some say discovery.

The question I pose is quite simple and was put into play best by Richard Strauss in his opera "Capriccio."

What is more important? The words or the music? The poet or the composer?


I've literally seen hundreds of operas both live and on DVD/tape. Below is what I consider my favorite scene from all of opera featuring my favorite soprano, Renee Fleming. It is the final scene.

The countess confronted by the poet and the composer to make a decision as to what is more important - words or music - poem or composition - writer or musician - wonders why she has to make that distinction. This clip is eery in that the countess is both on stage singing the debate and in the audience watching it. The composer and the poet are also both in the audience. It's a tableau of life watching itself. The original reality?




I used to tell Ronald, "Life's a bitch and then you die." He would laugh hysterically. He died in 1990. I still miss him terribly some times. His death became a defining moment for me. I have not searched for the answers as much as the questions since that moment.

The answers are really unimportant. The questions determine what kind of life I have.

What do you think?

just asking...

15 November 2006

what's going on here (part VII)...

and on and on...

This man is unbelievable!

After calling for bipartisanship, President Bush surprised Senate Democrats with plans to renominate a controversial list of judges – some of whom may be unacceptable even to a few Republican senators.


He's not thumbing his nose at us; he's giving us the finger.

Bush gives the finger...


“It’s an unfortunate signal,” said one senior Democratic Senate aide.


The finger is always unfortunate.

Mr. Bush thinks that he is totally above the law and completely entitled to interpret his mandate as he sees fit.

Excuse me, but when did 48% (2000) and 51% (2004) signal a mandate?

just asking...


Source: Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, November 15, 2006

10 November 2006

beyond belief...

After the 2000 election Mr. Bush made it clear that he considered his vote to be a mandate to do whatever he wanted, even though he lost the popular vote and was given the election by the Supreme Court. [We should have known then that checks and balances was in jeopardy.] He said that he would be the uniter and steer a course as such.

His first days in office made it clear that he would not do what he said. He instantly began a reign of terroir with one self-proclaiming act after another. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead took on new meaning. He viewed his election as giving him the power to change the country, as well as the world.

Now, six years later and after Tuesday's election debacle for the Republicans and wing-nuts, he does the same thing. He tells the country that, again, he would be the uniter he was as governor of Texas. What does he then do? He pushes for Bolton's recess appointment to the U.N. to be verified before the 110th Congress ends. This in spite of both Democrats and Republicans against it. He comes forth with a laundry list of things that he wants enacted before the 110th Congress ends.

This man is truly out of his nut! He sees vote results that apparently the rest of us don't. He gives new meaning to audacious. He reads things in either a vacuum or from an All About Eve perspective. He gives a different spin to Richard Nixon's continual use of the line History will record without even saying the line.

He also is bringing in his father's advisors to help out. The media is almost implying that George 41 put his foot down and may have taken his son to the woodshed. I'm not sure anyone could do that to George 42 and have him take it serious. George 42 seems to be in his own little world. It's a world, as others have pointed out, that is the world of an addictive personality.

People who are alcoholics are alcoholics forever, taking a drink or not. Having lived through it all my life with my father, I recognize the state of not drinking but still not having the realization that you're not drinking. It's like the denial stage in Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' On Death and Dying or in the grieving process. I don't want to see what is going on so I pretend (deny) that it isn't and act the holier than me scene.

I saw the change in my father when he got past the denial stage and into the anger stage. Luckily, for him, the anger was directed inward at how he had hurt the people he loved. When he finally got to the acceptance stage, he became so serene, calm and loving - the way he always could be.

Some addictives never get past the denial stage or take an extremely long time in it. Mr. Bush appears to be one of them. He's placed all of his trust, all of his decision-making and all of his responsibility on other people and other entities. He may have just changed one addiction for another. Power? God? His faith? His place in history? just asking...

As Robin Williams repeatedly says, "Reality! What a concept.



Source: thoughts based on a post in americablog.com today Daddy's men to the rescue, but same old Junior

07 November 2006

freedom...

This has been on a number of weblogs in the last couple of days. One more now...



can we get it back? can we stop it from being attacked? can we make the democracy work?

just asking...

05 November 2006

do those who scream the loudest...

have the most to hide?

just asking...

what's going on here (part V)...

Pastor Dismissed for ‘Sexually Immoral Conduct’

He said that he apologizes for his sexual transgressions. BUT, is he apologizing because they were egregious in the eyes of his religion, because he is a hypocrite, or because he got caught? just asking...

Sex Scandals Not Unusual For Prominent Christian Leaders

Yes, there is a long line of these transgressors: James Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Rev. Henry J. Lyons, Archbishop Eugene Marino, Rev. Terry Hornbuckle, Rev. Ted Haggard are the modern ones, but it goes back far longer. Popes, cardinals, archbishops, ministers.... [There has long been a story in my family of a great-great aunt who was the "housekeeper" for a prominent bishop or cardinal in southern Italy during the 19th century who had four children that lived in the manse with the bishop and her and who looked astonishingly like him.] So, why don't these transgressions meet the scandalous porportions in the eastern religions or more mainstream protestant religions like Anglicanism or Methodism? just asking...

Hypocrites?

David Frum thinks that it is better to be a transgressor than to be gay! Huh? In a nut, he proposes that men like Haggard who choose the "moral highground" of marrying, having children, preaching christian principles and encouraging people to live stable lives is more moral than a man who identifies his orientation and stands for his principles especially if they vilify traditional moral principles. Frum thinks that the former should be regarded as having a kind of virtue because he can seek forgiveness after slipping into sin through prayer. The latter is condemned forever because he will not see the error of his ways and does not ask forgiveness. Again - huh? Why would anyone ask forgiveness for being who they are? just asking...


Nazi 'master race' children meet

All right. Now this may be the answer to all the travails of the world: a group, designed by Hitler to bring about "Lebensborn" or "Font of Life" in order to identify, train and educate the future leaders of the empire. They have met in public for the very first time. Their goal is to support one another in their vilification and prejudice. They also mean to dispell the myth that the lebensbord were all blond hair and blue eyes. They included children from the countries the Nazis conquered. Does this mean that everyone is going to come out of the closet? just asking...


Kanye West Turns Whining Into An Art Form


"F--k this!" Kanye declared on the podium. "[My video for “Touch The Sky”] cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it, I was jumping across canyons and s--t! If I don't win, the awards show loses credibility. Nothing against you [J vs. S], but hell, man." O.K. Let me see if I get this right. Kanye West stormed out on stage at the MTV Europe Awards during the presentation of "Best Video" while winners Justice vs. Simian were at the microphone. He grabbed it and took MTVEurope to task for not giving the award to him because his video cost $1 million and Pamela Anderson was in the video. [It would have lost my vote right then and there.] So, I headed over to Veoh to watch the video. OMG! I should think that West would have wanted it buried. The song itself is horrid. It's bad rap, and that's difficult to say in the genre. Then I went and watched Justice vs. Simian's winning video "We Are Your Friends." Ain't much better, folks, but at least the music had a danceable beat to it. You be the judge. just asking...



or



Sources: New York Times, 365gay.com, National Review Online, BBC News, CB.com, veoh.com, youtube.com

what I'm reading...

I have this habit that I picked up from my father. It's called reading. He constantly had books, multiple books, that he was reading at the same time. I do the same thing. I can be reading anywhere from 5 - 10 books in the process of reading at any one moment.

Here is the current list. It kind of speaks to where my head is from time to time. Some of them have been in process for a while others I recently picked up.


In process:

The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How to Get It Back by Andrew Sullivan



The War of the World by Niall Ferguson



Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman



The One-Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind



Evolution's Rainbow : Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People by Joan Roughgarden


Just finished:

When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom


Waiting in the wings:

Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt



And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey by Studs Terkel


And in process for a long period of time:

Autobiographie Erotique by Bruce Benderson. [I bought this in Paris a year or so ago in it's original French. It hadn't been translated into English yet even though Benderson is from New York. It's slow going for me because of all the idiomatic language and colloquilisms. Even though it's now in English, entitled The Romanian: Story of an Obsession, I refuse to get it until I finish the original French.]


This list is in no way complete. there are piles of books all over the house. These are the ones in reach and current. I have others that I'll get around to eventually.

Reading is the most important thing anyone can do. It is the source of not only information but of pleasure, wisdom, riches, and position. I have been dedicated to teaching reading all of my professional life. When a kid can read, a kid can be/do anything he/she wants to be. If you have children, read to them every day. If you know children, buy them books that will last forever. If you have time, volunteer for a Literacy Program to give someone the gift you already have. It can change a life. Two lives - yours and theirs.

What do you have to loose?

just asking...

04 November 2006

almost full circle...

Most of the time you read about celebrities making statements in the press denying and trying to extinguish rumors that they are gay. Neil Patrick Harris, on the other hand, had to put the kabosh on his being straight:

Actor Neil Patrick Harris Says He Is Gay
By Associated Press

Sat Nov 4, 2:01 AM

br-2286
Aug. 19, 2006 file photo

LOS ANGELES - Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumors to the contrary. "(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris tells People magazine's Web site.

The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexuality because of recent "speculation and interest in my private life and relationships."

Harris stars on the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother." He started on TV as a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series "Doogie Howser, M.D."
Source: comcast.net Entertainment


Well, now. The most avid denialist of gay rumors is probably Tom Cruise. He has sued people alleging if it's true or if isn't that they have had experience with him. I don't think that I believe that they did because they never say how good or bad he is in bed. One would think that this would grab bigger headlines and be news rather than the "he said/she said" content in the tabloids. [Personally, I could give two s****s if TC is gay or not. Except for playing Lestat in Interview with a Vampire I've never been impressed with his abilities. Event with "Interview" it was because he played Lestat as I had read him in the books.]

But, here we have Neil Patrick Harris who, after an article saying that he is straight, going out of his way to say that he is "proud" to say that he is a "content" gay man.

This does not bode well for the wing-nut christianists. Next thing you know, Rosie will be denying that she's from New Jersey. Oh, wait, she's from Long Island. Sorry, Rosie.

What's the world coming to?

just asking...

03 November 2006

Misquoting Jesus...

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."
He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery
where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked
vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go
by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing,
"We missed the "R" ! We missed the "R" !

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying
uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"

With A choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word was...
CELEBRATE!!!"



Misquoting Jesus is actually the title of a book I've been reading. It talks about the very thing this joke is about. Who knows what the Bible actually said at the beginning? A perfect example that is happening right now is the christianists taking and quoting chapter and verse out of context. It's just another version of Misquoting Jesus. Click on the post title to find out more about the book.