Few churchgoers notice, but all religious services and ceremonies are Theater.
Roman Catholicism stages spectaculars for Christianity, while the hajj at the Al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca is the Super Bowl of Islam.
Mormon Sunday services are barely enlivened by music, while Quaker meetings are a snooze-fest.
On the other hand, black people bring the joy, in the U.S. anyway.
Which brings me to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, putting on his personal Theater act in Washington, D.C., this week. Give me Wright over Billy Graham any time. Wright’s a showman. Whitey's preachers are bores.
Amen.
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29 April 2008
24 April 2008
Rock me, baby
At 3:55 p.m. today, by my Mac’s clock, Reno rocked and rolled through a respectable earthquake.
It’s no fun riding through a ’quaker alone. Everybody’s reaction is subjective, and an earthquake gets the ol’ heart a-pumpin’.
It's silly ... everybody knows it was an earthquake. Unless the building fell on top of you, there's not that much to discuss, but people will discuss how it sounded, if they were seated or standing, what fell or didn't fall.
The 100,000 or so people who felt the 4.4 temblor will chatter about it for days, unlike the 5,000 or so residents of the Mogul-Verdi-Somersett area (between Reno and the California state line), who have rocked and rolled multiple times daily for weeks now.
For them, the thrill is gone, but the danger lingers on. Stress rises.
Today, meanwhile, there were upward of 30 temblors in a two-hour period, including the biggies at at 3:47 p.m. (3.0), 3:51 p.m. (4.1), and 3:55 p.m. (4.4). I felt only the 4.4. Dang this solid ground I sit on.
Not reassuring was a geologist quoted on KUNR FM 88.7 an hour after the 4.4; he said it's unusual for a good-size quake to be followed by larger and larger quakes. Usually the aftershocks are smaller.
Swell.
-30-
It’s no fun riding through a ’quaker alone. Everybody’s reaction is subjective, and an earthquake gets the ol’ heart a-pumpin’.
It's silly ... everybody knows it was an earthquake. Unless the building fell on top of you, there's not that much to discuss, but people will discuss how it sounded, if they were seated or standing, what fell or didn't fall.
The 100,000 or so people who felt the 4.4 temblor will chatter about it for days, unlike the 5,000 or so residents of the Mogul-Verdi-Somersett area (between Reno and the California state line), who have rocked and rolled multiple times daily for weeks now.
For them, the thrill is gone, but the danger lingers on. Stress rises.
Today, meanwhile, there were upward of 30 temblors in a two-hour period, including the biggies at at 3:47 p.m. (3.0), 3:51 p.m. (4.1), and 3:55 p.m. (4.4). I felt only the 4.4. Dang this solid ground I sit on.
Not reassuring was a geologist quoted on KUNR FM 88.7 an hour after the 4.4; he said it's unusual for a good-size quake to be followed by larger and larger quakes. Usually the aftershocks are smaller.
Swell.
-30-
17 April 2008
Wilderness at war
Another battle in a neverending war has begun, with residents of west central Nevada riled up over proposed plans for protecting the land.
Reporter Jeff DeLong (jdelong@rgj.com) writes that, “Environmentalists pushing a proposal to label as wilderness nearly 700,000 acres in Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties said they're just initiating discussions. But residents suspicious of them and federal representatives are mobilizing to block a proposal they said could damage their economy and cherished way of life.”
Some 700 people turned out at a meeting in Smith Valley, most of them against the whole idea. Smith Valley’s population is just over 1,400, so around 50 percent of its residents showed up. That’s a lot of suspicion.
Delong’s report continues: "Basically, the commission has said we don't want wilderness, we don't need wilderness. We'll just see if that sticks," Mineral County Commissioner Jerrie Tipton said, adding that she and others are worried coming changes could affect mining, outdoor recreation and military training, which are all important to the economy.
Well … 15 years to 20 years from now, when there are 150,000 people living in the three counties — up from today’s 61,000 — Tipton’s constituents going to need wilderness, and want wilderness.
Tipton and the others should invest a hundred bucks in gasoline and drive north to the Truckee Meadows, where they can see what off-roaders have done to the base of Peavine Peak, what dirt bikes have done in the hills above Spanish Springs, look at the trash that trashy people dump in the hills because they’re too hillbilly-stupid to find the public landfill.
The lizards are dead or gone, along with the bees, birds and sagebrush.
There’s one thing that every group of people creates, everywhere in the world: a damaged ecosystem.
Nevada needs a little wilderness. Now.
-30-
Reporter Jeff DeLong (jdelong@rgj.com) writes that, “Environmentalists pushing a proposal to label as wilderness nearly 700,000 acres in Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties said they're just initiating discussions. But residents suspicious of them and federal representatives are mobilizing to block a proposal they said could damage their economy and cherished way of life.”
Some 700 people turned out at a meeting in Smith Valley, most of them against the whole idea. Smith Valley’s population is just over 1,400, so around 50 percent of its residents showed up. That’s a lot of suspicion.
Delong’s report continues: "Basically, the commission has said we don't want wilderness, we don't need wilderness. We'll just see if that sticks," Mineral County Commissioner Jerrie Tipton said, adding that she and others are worried coming changes could affect mining, outdoor recreation and military training, which are all important to the economy.
Well … 15 years to 20 years from now, when there are 150,000 people living in the three counties — up from today’s 61,000 — Tipton’s constituents going to need wilderness, and want wilderness.
Tipton and the others should invest a hundred bucks in gasoline and drive north to the Truckee Meadows, where they can see what off-roaders have done to the base of Peavine Peak, what dirt bikes have done in the hills above Spanish Springs, look at the trash that trashy people dump in the hills because they’re too hillbilly-stupid to find the public landfill.
The lizards are dead or gone, along with the bees, birds and sagebrush.
There’s one thing that every group of people creates, everywhere in the world: a damaged ecosystem.
Nevada needs a little wilderness. Now.
-30-
Birds of a (strange) feather
When I left home this morning, three crows, four pigeons and two ducks were chowing down on birdseed under the big tree in my front yard.
I put out that seed for house sparrows, finches, scrub jays, California quail ... I get crows, pigeons and ducks.
Ducks. I live at least a mile away from any body of water; Sparks Marina park is east and Paradise Park is west. I'm on dry land, in a 1950s-era subdivision.
Ducks. Bright-orange webbed feet. Male with glorious satin-green neck. Matching satin-blue chevron on wings of male and female.
Last spring, two males got in a fight — biting, kicking, quacking, feathers flying — in the street in front of my house, while a female ate my birdseed, ignoring the beakacuffs. Saturday, two males walked down the middle of the street, side by side, like human guys out for a stroll. No female in sight.
The pair this morning barely moved away as I restocked the bird buffet, the male grumbling threats. A crow bigger than a housecat sat on the birdbath and cawed at me.
Please, Mr. Hitchcock ... say "cut."
ooo ooo ooo
Candidates spur humorlessness in the screaming heads of cable TV.
It's got to burn McCain; he delivers funny lines but the cable guys don't get it. Clinton throwing back Crown Royal is the best laugh I've had all month; the cablers rolled out the tsk tsk tsk's.
Realization: Diabolical cable-TV managers remove the sense of humor as part of the hiring process. If the humor grows back, the talker is canned, or quarantined. Surgery or chemical castration? Laughstration, perhaps, or humorectomy?
Come on, people! Nothing is 100 percent serious, 100 percent of the time.
Especially politics.
As Roger Rabbit observed, sometimes a laugh is the only weapon we’ve got.
-30-
I put out that seed for house sparrows, finches, scrub jays, California quail ... I get crows, pigeons and ducks.
Ducks. I live at least a mile away from any body of water; Sparks Marina park is east and Paradise Park is west. I'm on dry land, in a 1950s-era subdivision.
Ducks. Bright-orange webbed feet. Male with glorious satin-green neck. Matching satin-blue chevron on wings of male and female.
Last spring, two males got in a fight — biting, kicking, quacking, feathers flying — in the street in front of my house, while a female ate my birdseed, ignoring the beakacuffs. Saturday, two males walked down the middle of the street, side by side, like human guys out for a stroll. No female in sight.
The pair this morning barely moved away as I restocked the bird buffet, the male grumbling threats. A crow bigger than a housecat sat on the birdbath and cawed at me.
Please, Mr. Hitchcock ... say "cut."
ooo ooo ooo
Candidates spur humorlessness in the screaming heads of cable TV.
It's got to burn McCain; he delivers funny lines but the cable guys don't get it. Clinton throwing back Crown Royal is the best laugh I've had all month; the cablers rolled out the tsk tsk tsk's.
Realization: Diabolical cable-TV managers remove the sense of humor as part of the hiring process. If the humor grows back, the talker is canned, or quarantined. Surgery or chemical castration? Laughstration, perhaps, or humorectomy?
Come on, people! Nothing is 100 percent serious, 100 percent of the time.
Especially politics.
As Roger Rabbit observed, sometimes a laugh is the only weapon we’ve got.
-30-
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