Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Maus by Art Spiegelman

  Graphic novels are not something I typically read. The closest I have come as an adult would be several books compiling the work of various newspaper cartoonists.  What piqued my curiosity on this book is that a school board in Tennessee banned this book from the eighth grade curriculum. While a graphic novel, honors received include: The Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and National Book Critics Circle Award. The New Yorker called it “the first masterpiece in comic book history.” The very conservative Wall Street Journal described it as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.”

This is not an easy book to read due to the theme.  It deals with the treatment of the Jews in Poland by the Germans and Poles at the beginning of the World War II.  The main character and his wife end up at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Partly through ingenuity, but mostly Continue reading “Maus by Art Spiegelman”

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Word of the Day – Sangfroid

  • Noun: Sangfroid
    1. self-possession or imperturbability especially under strain
    2. As an aside – sangfroid (sometimes hyphenated) is an English word from French, if you break down the French… sang refers to blood and froid is cold
  • Synonyms:
    1. aplomb
    2. calmness
    3. equanimity
    4. poise
    5. unflappability
  • Usage:
    1. “If you had said, ‘This, too, shall pass,’ I might have scratched your eyes out, recalls Michele, a mother of two from Arlington, Virginia. ‘If you had urged balance and sangfroid, I would have impaled you on the plumber’s helper.'”
  • Encountered:
    1. While on the throne pursuing my daily inspirational reading… in this case Living Life as a Thank You by Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #8,535

yeah I know you did not ask!

Me speaking commandingly to myself, “Job is not done until the tools are put away, David Stephen.”

Me replying to myself somewhat sarcastically, “Sir, Yes Sir, Daddy, Sir.”

Admittedly being orderly and maintaining your tools and equipment are not bad habits to have. However, my father routinely employed a Victorian modality of instruction with his five progeny. It is not a method formulated to foster fond memories.  As he had a successful career, I can only assume that he utilized a different instructional paradigm when imparting information in his capacity as a technical representative for an aerospace company.

My name/names within the family and extended family are a whole other blog posting… but don’t hold your breath.

And so it goes.

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,471

yeah I know you did not ask!

I don’t want to say that I am old, but I remember a time when all supermarkets had bag boys who carried your groceries out for you.  And boys is correct.  It was never a female, and they were generally young.  If you had only 1 or 2 bags of groceries they would carry them out and put them in your car.  If you had a buggy load they wheeled that out for you, and again loaded them into your car.  People may have tipped them, but I don’t remember my mother ever doing so.

For various reasons, today for the first time, I used curbside pick-up.  It was from the pharmacy at the Sam’s Club in Chesterfield valley.  Hmm, I thought as the member of the Curbside Team handed me a bag full of drugs, COVID has brought back bag boys.  Of course this time it is not restricted to males or the young.

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Broadway Bound Concert

Robin aka Señora sings in a couple different choirs.  One is them is the Allegro Choir, a choir for persons of at least 50 years of age.  Sunday they put on a concert using the Parkway Church of Christ for a venue.   Señora is the soprano sitting in front, just to the left of center as you look at the stage.

Enjoy.

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I Taught Señora a New Cuss Word

I taught Señora a new four-letter word.  Well I might have had she been home.  All couples have their origin stories; our tale involves a lot of off-color words.

What got me scandalizing the neighbors Saturday was that one of the rear drive wheels of my new Toro lawnmower came off.  This mower is so new that just yesterday my check to pay off the credit card I charged it on cleared. I had ordered it online from Home Depot as they did not have it in stock at the Chesterfield store.  When I unboxed the mower I was glad to see Continue reading “I Taught Señora a New Cuss Word”

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A Polemic – Which Is the Greater Sin?

I really do not believe in the concept of sin, at least in sin as defined in the Christian Bible.  The idea that there is a god that will condemn the soul of one of his creations to burn in the fires of hell for all eternity for some behavior during their all too short life span is more than I can give credence to. But then I also do not believe in the concept of heaven or hell.  I have no idea if we have a soul or not, the rational part of me believes that death is simply the extinguishing of a light, no big deal.

However, I do believe that there are any number of human behaviors and actions that can be classified as “sins”. For me a sin is any action or behavior that damages another being either physically, mentally or emotionally.  I would also put into the definition harming the environment, the planet, the overuse of resources, basically any unethical behavior that reaches Continue reading “A Polemic – Which Is the Greater Sin?”

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Where’s the Pause Button?

There is a common cliché about your life passing before your eyes just before you die.  If such be true then perhaps my body/mind knows something I don’t know.  The last few months my life in review has been on a never-ending loop.  I ache to stop it, but expressing with the new word Señora taught me eons ago, I keep perseverating on the past.  If I could escape out of my mind I would.  Maybe I have already and I do not know it.

This perseveration likely has more to do with the fact that I just turned 70. I reckon I should be celebrating that I have reached this milestone Continue reading “Where’s the Pause Button?”

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What is a Curmudgeon + a Luddite?

Just to get everyone on the same page here are the dictionary definitions:

Curmudgeon – crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man ( although I would argue curmudgeonry knows no age or gender barriers)

Luddite – (derogatory) a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.

While you can certainly be one without being the other, it is not uncommon to see them packaged together.

All which got me wondering, what would you call such a person?  My initial response was Curd-lite, but that is very close to that awful, but most popular of beers, Bud Lite. I did like the fact that a curd is formed from the souring of milk. I also thought of Crud-lite, but that did not ring in my ears.

Then I thought of Ludgeon or Ludgeonite, either of which are sonorous and roll off the tongue nicely.

There are any number of possible combinations then I realized that there is one existing – old fogey.

And so it goes.

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Quote of the Day – E. M. Forster

“I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of Faith, and there are so many militant creeds that, in self defence, one has to formulate a creed of one’s own. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy are no longer enough in a world where ignorance rules, and Science, which ought to have ruled, plays the pimp. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy – they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long.”  ~~ E. M. Forster

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day