The Library Blond

This has been around for a while. It's still one of my favorites.

Things Kids Say

Wes, reading a menu at a mexican restaurant, pronounced "fajita" phonetically, with the hard 'j' and a long 'i'. Maybe it's just me, but that cracks me up.

Griffin continues to pronounce the word 'motorcycle' as "murder-cycle". Smart kid. I'm not going to correct him. He also says 'finger' with a 'th' at the beginning: "thinger".

"A Nation of Idol Contestants"

That title is not mine. I stole it from Tom Neven. Below is a link to his excellent post over at Boundlessline.org.

In it he summarizes, "We're in danger of becoming a nation of Idol contestants, wanting a quick ride to the good life without the hard work and patience to actually earn it."

Then this zinger about the President: "What else could explain the election of a callow, inexperienced president who ran as a messiah but has been proved in the past few weeks to have feet of clay—"

Wow.

Tom then closes with: "Let's see American Idol for what it is: ephemeral fizz that within weeks dissipates into the essential nothingness that it is."

http://www.boundlessline.org/2009/02/american-idol-and-flight-1549.html

Don't Forget

Men, don't forget tomorrow is Valentine's Day. You still have time to get her something nice.

Oh, and don't fall for that, "Let's don't get anything for each other" line. It's a lose-lose deal. Even if you believe that she means it, get a fall-back gift just in case. If she springs something on you, you'll have something for her. If not, save it for her birthday.

Don't let this happen to you.

Ghosting

Ever feel like someone's following you? Check your six -- it might be Hamish & Andy.

Hang with this video. It gets fun at about 2:00.

Double Dip

First of all, credit for this post goes to Boundless Line, where the author, Motte Brown wrote about a bit he heard on the John Tesh show about double dipping.

John Tesh got his info from the show "Food Detectives" from Food Network. Here's the summary from Tesh's page:

Food myth #1: Double dipping transmits germs. That’s TRUE. In an experiment that involved food technicians double-dipping, and even triple-dipping a bag of potato chips, scientists found the results disturbingly dirty. All it takes is one single bite to transfer more than 10-thousand bacteria from the mouth back into a bowl of dip.

Arguably, Seinfeld is responsible for bringing both the act and the term "double dipping" to the mainstream of social and cultural debate. Here's the scene from episode #59, "The Implant", from February, 1993:



As Timmy illustrates, once again Seinfeld proves to still be culturally relevant, prophetic, and accurate.

Incidentally, Seinfeld Episode #59 also gave us Teri Hatcher (who later would play Lois Lane and a Desperate something-or-other) delivering the classic line: "They're real, and they're spectacular."

But that's another blog topic...

BBall Trick Shots

How about two three-point shots at the same time, one from each hand?
No problem.



(I guess even millionaires over 6 feet tall have trouble finding sweatpants that are long enough. I can relate.)

Watch Your Tracts

We were riding in the car the other day when, from the back seat, my 9-year–old asks “Dad, what’s lust?”

"An interesting question", I think to myself. He probably heard it from a bible verse or something. So, I give him a definition like “It means wanting something really bad --So bad that just wanting it becomes a sin.”

“Ok”, he replies. Good. He’s satisfied with the answer. Moving on now.

Later that day, on the return trip, I get this one. “Dad, what’s shacking?”

HUH? “You mean a ‘shack’, like a small house?”

“No,” he says, “shack-ING", emphasizing the last syllable, "Shacking. What is it?”

I look at my wife. She's in the front seat, wearing the ‘No more network TV for the kids’ look. She decides to take this one on: “It’s when two people live together, but they are not married to each other.”

“Oh”, he says seriously, with the tone of a 9-year-old who knows something bad when he hears it.

Mom and I look at each other, self satisfied, “Yea, we’re doing something right”, with the mental tongue click and wink.

He’s not done now, though. “What’s gay?”

Quickly, I respond with “It means ‘happy’. Where are you getting these questions??”

“Oh,” he matter-of-factly replies, “it’s just a book I’m reading.”

Then he launches the real zinger: “What’s HO - MO - sex - u - ality”, he sounds out, impressively.

That’s it. “WHAT ARE YOU READING?” The truck swerves as I look over my shoulder at my son.

“Dad! It’s just this comic book that I got at church”. As if either the words ‘comic book’ or ‘church’ would excuse any impropriety in owning such an interesting book.

There it was, in his sweaty, little, inquisitive hands. A Chick comic.

Now, if you’ve grown up in little, conservative, evangelical churches like myself, you will probably remember Chick tracts (maybe your church still has that little wire stand in the foyer, chock full of Chick tracts). Perhaps you remember them fondly because you haven’t seen one since you were a kid. Or, maybe these tracts scared you (Remember “This Was Your Life”, where they beamed all the bad deeds you did in life on a big-screen TV for all of heaven to see?). These tracts seem innocent enough --at least I used to think they were. Now, through an adults’ eyes, I see them a bit differently.

Needless to say, the Chick tract collection will be sequestered until we can read and approve them. Or, maybe I will just toss the whole lot… In fact, I know I will. I now hate Chick.

So, thanks Jack Chick for introducing some more wasn’t-quite-ready-to-have-to-explain-that-to-my-kids vocabulary to our household. Between you and the lady down the street, I won’t have to worry that my kids will grow up ignorant of all the ills of this world, or the FCC’s seven forbidden words.

Getting Catechized

Catechism.

I have always had a knee jerk reaction to that word. I associated it with the Catholic faith -- that the Catechism was something Catholics read, sort of their rulebook.

Who knew that the word simply means "instruct" or "teach"?

Anyway, I'm starting a study of a Baptist Catechism that is based on the Westminster Catechism. I wrote about it over at Gloria Dei.