The Anglo-file

Picture Pages

2005-06-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I was about to make a long post with many interesting facts and many pics, but the computer shut down just before I published... AARGH! So here's a condensed version:

Fri. 6-17 - Lunch with principal of BCC, Richard Massey, and his wife, Christine...treated us to traditional English food - Branston pickle, pork pie, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs, and treacle. Richard also gave me a book, The Gift of Prophecy in the NT and Today by Wayne Grudem.

Fri 6-17 afternoon - Worked my last time with John Hull... gave me a copy of his book which details his descent into blindness -- On Sight and Insight. It was the first time that I can recall that I've told someone whom I know well 'goodbye' knowing I will most likely never see them again. Sad.

Fri 6-17 - Supper with Gurmakh, one of my students, and his wife (whose name was hard to catch). They are both from Punjab, India but have spent most of their lives in the UK. He converted from Sikhism to Christ 15 years ago at the age of 32. Now he's 47, married to a Christian, and they have 3 Christian kids. He gave me books on how to share Christ with a Sikhs and Hindus.

Sat 6-18 - Lunch with Jon and Su at a great chicken place downtown... said goodbye knowing we'll meet up again.

Sun 6-19 - Church - I was actually allowed to preach one more time and had a novel topic - Fathers - on Father's Day (UK and US). After church went to the preacher's house for a cultural meal... Had many delicious Nigerian dishes wish I can't name and 2 traditional Scottish dishes - Haggis (eaten with mashed potates and yellow turnips, aka rutabagas) and white pudding. I was amazed that I loved it all... don't let your English friends disparage Haggis anymore... its just their way of asserting their superiority... like the BBC.

Sun 6-19 7pm - Turned in the keys to the landlord and tried to finish packing. Depart Monday at 12:30 pm and are slotted to arrive in Nashville at 8:30pm Monday night. See below the pictures for a poem I came across a couple of months ago which seems appropriate at this point... I hope none of my British friends will take it as a jab... the UK is an awesome place in many ways... but home for me is America.

Where the Pahl family will be living - Asbury Overseas Guest House

Our little abode at 13 Clifford Rd - on the right

My path to and from the Uni everyday always involved the blue door and the yellow gate

When I came home on the afternoons I'd often look through the front window and see Helen eating her dinner.

A road I biked/walked/bused almost every day - Lordswood Rd between Bearwood and Harborne

Speaking of Harborne, this mathematically challenged and outdated sign is outside the Harborne Baptist Church.

Also on my daily route... but it does have plenty of cars

Yesterday morning Helen summoned us and we discovered her pacy (pacifier called a 'dummy' in the UK, similar to the older term 'fooler') in backward... something I often do to get her to laugh. I turned it rightways and she promptly flipped it back

The bike given to me by a brother here which now goes to a Nigerian brother here studying medicine.

The back of the Metro newspaper given free everyday on buses and trains. Notice the rage over the purchase of the Manchester United soccer team (the Yankess of the UK) by American Dan Glazer who owns the Tampa Bay Bucs. Isn't it ironic, what with the McDonald's ad at the bottom?

Now, the poem:

"AMERICA FOR ME"
Henry Van Dyke - 1909

'TIS fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings,—
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like home.

I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled;
I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled;
But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day
In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way!

I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack:
The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free,—
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea,
To the bléssed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars!
------------------------------------------------------------

See y'all in the funny paper.

More Stuff I Like About This Place

2005-06-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

In no particular order

2. History - It's hard for non-Europeans to fathom how much of the history we grew up reading is within 'spitting' distance in the UK. Not to mention the fact that this tiny island nation was for quite some time the mightiest power in the world. In fact, if they didn't have such a determination to tax every item known to man the Queen might at this time have almost 300 million more subjects!

3. Way of life - The saying 'There is more than one way to skin a cat' is applicable here. They've got a good thing going over here, and in a tiny amount of space. A quick comparison of England vs. Alabama reveals some important things that one must recognize about England. Alabama (135k square kilometers) covers a greater area than England proper (UK minus Scotland and N. Ireland - 130k square kilometers). Consider the fact that Alabama's population is around 4.5 million people, and England's is 50 million. How can you squeeze so many people into such a little space and not have complete gridlock and pandamonium? They're quite good at it here.

The close proximity of the north to the south and the east to the west means that cross-country travel is not a daunting thought and most Englanders I know have been all over their country.

Aside from the smallness of the nation, it is obvious that the UK has a good thing going economically. Their approach is more American than European (aka capitalistic than socialistic), but it is without a doubt a third way. It is now more prosperous than most of its Western European neighbors (an unthinkable statement 25 years ago, especially for me because I was only 6 at the time). Unemployment is a little lower than in the US (as opposed to 10+ % in Germany and France) and they have universal health care -- a bald-faced two tiered one -- nevertheless this leaves the average Brit without many worries should the worst happen, medically speaking. Of course, the trappings of wealth also abound here as they do in the US, making it absolutely necessary that all Christians spend much time in prayer and meditation over their finances to avoid the traps of materialism and debt.

4. Weather - just kidding.

4. American friendliness - I mean more here than what I've said in previous posts about most people over here tending to like America. I also mean that it is easy to get around here, to figure your way out of trouble, etc., all because you speak the language and tend to think like they do.

With that said, a few remarks I've heard about America from other foreigners here have stuck with me. First, a chap from Iran, whom I met back in February at a bus stop, when he discovered I was American, looked at me and said, "I like America. America is good." He is at the University of Birmingham studying international law, a degree which he plans to use in Iran when he returns later this summer.

Another instance also took place at a bus stop when we (Mary and I) struck up a conversation with a Pakistani woman. BTW, its amazing how having a baby causes people to talk to you who normally wouldn't have bothered. When she recognized our American accents she told us how much she loved America and liked to visit whenever she could.

Now, I didn't prompt these people to say such things, and conversely have not heard any anti-American talk aside from academic settings and the BBC :). This doesn't mean that the US is the darling of the world, but that maybe the hatred we've hear so much about is overblown. Sure, they hate our president all over the world, but they still suck up our culture and habits. And I wonder what surveys would reveal if we went around the world asking people if they had a positive or negative opinion of France. Let's just say I can guess that the numbers would be overwhelmingly negative in England, the US, the Arab world, and even Germany. I'm dragging on now... all this to say that it is 'easy' to be a foreigner here. I suggest that people less-white and less-Anglo than I would agree.

5. The British Sense of Humor - Though Mr. Bean is there equivalent of Ernest P. Worrell (and I like them both), it is amazing the amount of continual wit one encounters here. I can think of at least 4 different radio and TV programs along the lines of 'Whose Line is it Anyway' (which began here, too) that are hilarious. Though I blame British TV for the reality TV plague which has beset American Tele over the past few years, I must admit that they are funnier than we. ~~I mean, they still have a royal family! Isn't that a riot?~~ Oops, I mean isn't Monty Python funny?

BTW, the best bloggers never put this much in one post because they know readers will only scan. If I were more astute, I'd have written a shorte

Winding Down

2005-06-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

With less than 5 days left in our tour of duty, I have started to become reflective on our experience. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of things that have been part of my world here. Tonight I'll list the things I've liked most about England:

1. People - I suppose it is not too surprising, but we've met some great people. I've had opportunity to get to know people through three avenues; 1) church, 2) university, 3) teaching. We've come to appreciate our little congregation of the Summer Lane Church of Christ. Even with the 1 hour bus ride to and from, it was always worth worshiping with them and we'll miss our English, Socttish, Nigerian, Ghanaian, and Malaysian brothers and sisters from the church.

Because I showed up in the winter term, I did not have the opportunity to take lots of classes, and, not having an office, it was difficult to get to know many people in the Theology Department of the University. That said, I have grown more and more appreciative of Mark Goodacre, and I also admire the work of one of the professors I got to enjoy firsthand, that of Prof Sugirtharajah ('Sugi' for us English speakers). I had weekly meetings with Mark, and the only trouble was that we'd normally get wrapped up in talking about everything but my research. I'm an Anglophile and he's an Americophile, so we could talk for hours about the most mundane topics. I'll miss those weekly sessions. But Duke (not to mention the US) will be better off having the Goodacres. And they're moving to my 3rd favorite state!

Probably the most rewarding experience I've had here came courtesy of Birmingham Christian College. The opportunity to teach 2 courses was priceless (though they paid me a little!) and the friendships I've made via BCC will remain long after we leave. Only one of my students was my age (I've since passed him) and his wit, insight, and love for the Lord have made me have a natural affection for Jon Taylor. I know that if Mary and I were here longer Jon and Su would continue to be a regular part of our lives. He's considering an academic career teaching New Testament courses... I can only hope that he'll come and teach at a uni in America!

I should also mention that I've had experiences from all over the Christian religious spectrum. Birmingham Christian College is a bona fide evangelical college. Queen's College (where I have worked as an assistant) is as liberal an institution as I ever care to work for. It trains clergy for the Church of England, Methodist Church, and United Reform Church. I could tell stories about the school... but I want to stay positive here.... My experience with John Hull, professor at Queen's, has been one of those which will continue to shape me for some time. John has been blind since the early 1980's but he has continued his scholarly career in the study of religious education in Britain and mainland Europe now into his 70th year. The most remarkable part of our friendship is the fact that I rarely even think about the fact that he is blind anymore. He is such an enjoyable and wise person that even I have learned to get past the superficial and appreciate his heart. I will miss working with him.

And, as you would expect, the Theology Dept. at the Uni covered a broad spectrum of faiths with scholars from each one. In a similar vein, today I returned the last 4 library books to the Uni library. I reckon that I've read significant portions (if not all) of 50 academic books since January... not a world record or anything, but an immensely rewarding endeavor nonetheless. Now if I could just understand Schleiermacher (a cursory reading of a few internet summaries will indicate so much conflicting information that you'll wonder how one person could be understood so differently on so many subjects... until you read Schleiermacher himself!).

I'll list more things I like about the UK over the next 4 days... stay tuned.

Theological Worldview

2005-06-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

My 'china plate' JT took this quiz on one's theological worldview. My results were similar to his, though mine were closer to those of Jesus.

My results:

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

100%

Neo orthodox

61%

Emergent/Postmodern

57%

Reformed Evangelical

50%

Fundamentalist

43%

Classical Liberal

39%

Modern Liberal

32%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

32%

Roman Catholic

25%

What's your theological worldview?

Do you ever get that feeling...

2005-06-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

Everbody else knows what's going on but you? That was our day yesterday in London.

We boarded our train at Birmingham New Street Station and rode 1 hour 45 minutes to London Euston Station. Having arrived at around 12:30, we knew that we had better get moving. We walked the 2 and a half miles or so over to Westminster Abbey (we being Mary, Helen, and I). Actually, Helen rode while we walked. En route stopped at the Britism Museum to freshen up. By the time we got to Westminster, it was 2pm. We were digusted to discover that the abbey closes at 1:45 on Saturdays. Having seen most everything in that part of town already, we decided to go back to the British Museum and take in some things we failed to see last time and then grab some supper. We enjoyed the amazing pieces in the China section of the museum and spent a few minutes in the Americas.

After that we walked back to the station and treated ourselves to some pasties. Yes, I meant pasties. The singular, pasty, describes a oven-baked pastry usually filled with a meat. The little booth was called the West Cornwall Pasty Co., though I doubt their's are as good as the reknowned pasties of Cornwall. I had a pork and applesauce pasty (delicious!) and Mary had a Chicken Balti pasty (quite good). And by 'quite' I mean something between good and very good. I know some Brits who use quite to mean "only a little". Anyway, after we ate, we decided to go to the British Library, which is close to Euston Station. As misfortune seemed our lot, we arrived at 5:10pm, 10 minutes after the library had closed. So, we spent some time in a neat little bookshop near the station. We loved the books and Helen loved the time to crawl.

Our train departed at 6:30, so we got to the station around six. The platform number for the train was not displayed until 6:20, so we were part of a mad dash to the train to get seats together, which we found and had an uneventful ride home. We arrived back in B'ham at 8:10 and then took the bus home. We walked back into our door a few minutes before nine.

Then I began discover all the things we'd somehow missed in London. BK emailed me to ask if we had been part of the nude bicycle protest through London. No. We forgot our bikes. But we did walk some of the same areas where these people showed their, um, displeasure with oil dependency. I think BK must subscribe to some nude protest newsletter because he's always emailing me about them.

Today I was instant messaging with my niece, Brittany, and she asked me if we saw the Queen. Of course, we didn't, but apparently we somehow missed all the celebrations for Queeny's birthday yesterday(though her birthday was in April).

Then, a few minutes ago, I discovered that the American tennis player Andy Roddick was in London yesterday winning in the Queen's Tournament he has dominated in recent years.

So not only did we miss doing anything we'd planned on yesterday, we also missed chances to be scandalized, aculturated, and to act condescendingly. It figures!

But we did get a few pictures yesterday and today:

Helen and her new friend Ben.

Just to prove to Helen that she has been to Westminster when she gets older and tells us that we never go anywhere cool.

Helen today at play in the church building.

With her friend Elliot (13 months).

Tonight at supper looking for her belly button.

Oddly Enough

2005-06-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

When I view my blog page in Internet Explorer it looks all jumbled, but it looks fine on Firefox. Anyone else notice trouble with IE?

There's lots of articles, etc. that I've been planning on blogging about over the past few days. I decided to bundle them in this post.

Do you love Napoleon Dynamite? Do you love Star Wars? Then you will love this.

Could it be that most people aren't persuadable anymore? I must admit, it seems the older I get the more I have my mind made up about most things before I give them much time. One part of me says that is sad... but the other tells me that I'm simply saving time to reach the same conclusion I would have anyway.

I take back everything I said about the BBC because Jon bought my lunch today. Well, okay, I take away point number 5. But this is worth reading.

The best place to get Fish and Chips in Birmingham is George & Helen's. Mary and I had it for the last time tonight... yummy.

On my way to the aforementioned restaurant tonight on my bicycle, I was approached by a group of 12-13 year old girls who stopped me and asked me to buy them some drink. It took me a second to catch what they were asking (the Brummie accent is brutal). I asked them if they wanted me to buy them some drinks (I thought Coke at first... duh). Their ringleader/spokesgirl said, "We have the money. Will you go to that shop over there and buy it for us?" Of course, I then realized that they wanted me to buy them alcohol. And, of course I refused. I was tempted to take the money and then ride off and give it to charity. Maybe I should have. I'd like to blame this juvenile deliquency on the influence of the BBC on these girls' minds... but the same thing could have happened in the States.

Maybe the only bright spot about the above story is that the girls must have assumed I looked younger than 31 to have asked me? Don't you think?

I must admit that I know my readers well. If I want Mark or Jon to respond, I simply ridicule the BBC. If I want BK to respond, I simply need to mention this Larry King interview with Condi Rice where she relates a story about growing up in Birmingham, AL and says that the right to own guns is a civil rights issue. If I want to get Fat Gorilla to respond, all I need to do is mention a World Cup Soccer match which will have no audience.

And if I want the rest of you to respond, I need to include a few of these:

Sweet potatoes are for wearing and for eating.

Proud of the dress she wore to church last Sunday.

At Edinburgh Castle

In the PJ's Amy P bought for her

With the moms at the big Ferris Wheel in the City Centre

Just reel them in

2005-06-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

Now that I have hooked 2 of the most revered and respected of the Queen's subjects with my closing remarks about the BBC, I simply have to reel them in and take them to the taxidermist and I'll have a trophy.

Did you notice it wasn't my remarks about British education, or the Biblical warrant for the death penalty, but criticism of the beloved BBC that brought their ire?...

I must apologize for the fact that much of my argument, convincing though it is, has been refined from years of debate in America over public funding for the 'arts', PBS and NPR (National Public Radio). In other words, you don't know what you are getting yourself into :-)

1. Quality of programming - I'd never argue that there aren't 'some' quality programs on the BBC. That is beside the point. The question is whether everyone who owns a TV should pay for government subsidized programming, regardless of its content (which I cover in #3). The license fee (tax) which partially pays the enormous cost to have the BBC gives it an unfair advantage over other programming. Which leads to...

2. Competition - The growing number of people with satellite dishes and cable in the UK is evidence that people want a greater variety in their programming. This is classic 'voting with your feet'. If you prefer a government run network where a few bureaucrats decide the the pgramming to that which is decided upon by the people of this great land, then the BBC is for you.

3. Content - Is there really that much on the BBC that warrants the billions of pounds required to keep it running? And is a tax needed to fund creativity and entertainment? I'd of supposed that a nation which produced the likes of Shakespeare and Dickens (without the help of the BBC) would have enough talent to make worthwhile programs. Or, to put it another way, is it inconceivable that the best stuff on the BBC could have been made without government funding?

And the amount of pornography that comes on the BBC over the aerial (antenna) is horrendous. This is what you're (we're) paying for with the involuntary tax. And I don't want to hear any nonsense about desecrating the Koran from a company that thinks that its broadcast of a play with 'Jesus in a Diaper' should be overlooked because it is valid artistic expression. You can't have it both ways.

4. Independence - Can an entity which depends largely on government funds be expected to report objectively? Let me put it another way... when government entities from other countries release news stories, are you the least bit skeptical?

My most recent example is a comparison of the the BBC's coverage of Blair's visit to Washington earlier this week and the UK's EU 'rebate'. The way the BBC, among other British news outlets reports it, Britain is the country that is really concerned about Africa... but George Bush is a tightwad and refuses to help the poor African people. Now, when I first came across these stories I was shocked because the US has long been an advocate of debt relief for African countries (while European nations have opposed it, I might add). But, in an attempt to make Blair look unsuccessful (not their golden boy, Gordon Brown), the BBC never mentions that the US advocates debt relief for more countries than the UK, or that the real difference is over how the money is given to Africa. I am not arguing that America or any other rich nation is doing enough for Africa, really. What I am arguing is that the BBC's rampant anti-Bush and now anti-Blair stance does is keep them from reporting all the facts.

Contrast that with the BBC's tacit acceptance of the government's argument that Britain should continue to receive a 3 billion pound per year rebate from the EU. Now, one might expect some suspicion over the government's supposedly benevolent attitudes to poor countries when it insists that it will demand to continue to receive the rebate PAID AT THE EXPENSE OF POOR COUNTRIES LIKE POLAND AND GREECE. The UK is the ONLY country arguing it should still receive the rebate. Why wouldn't the BBC question Gordon Brown's motives when he says that the rebate is "wholly justified"? Could it be that it has a vested interest in the UK receiving the rebate? Might not a truly benevolent government give this rebate to poorer countries... 3 billion pounds a year more to Africa... where it is really needed? FWIW, a paper outlining Poland's position for the UK to stop receiving the rebate is here.

My point is not to simply pick at the government... it acts in its own (or what it thinks is its own) interest the way America's does (whether I like it or not). But I suspect a little 'fox guarding the hen house' with the BBC and the Labour Party. They despise Blair now but want to be sure that Brown, and thus Labour, still retain power in 5 years. So Gordon Brown is the man who can do no wrong if you watch the BBC. I'm suspicious, okay?

I could cite further examples from the elections in May... if I need to.

Lest one think I don't like it over here (I am an anglophile after all), I'll include this tidbit I came across today in my 'light' (non-research related) reading. It's from Twain's Tom Sawyer Abroad. When Tom, Huck, and Jim are floating over the Sahara Desert in a hot air balloon, Tom explains to them to vastness of the desert... 600 miles wider than the entire US. This impresses Jim and Huck...

I (Huckleberry Finn) says:"Why, I've heard talk about this Desert plenty of times, but I never knowed before how important she was.
"Then Tom says:"Important! Sahara important! That's just the way with some people. If athing's big, it's important. That's all the sense they've got. All theycan see is SIZE. Why, look at England. It's the most important country inthe world; and yet you could put it in China's vest-pocket; and not onlythat, but you'd have the dickens's own time to find it again the nexttime you wanted it. And look at Russia. It spreads all around andeverywhere, and yet ain't no more important in this world than RhodeIsland is, and hasn't got half as much in it that's worth saving.

From Project Gutenberg online text.

Doesn't that make you feel all warm inside?

11 days

2005-06-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

We fly out on June 20th. In a few days I plan to blog about the things which have struck me most about living in the UK. I've got a running list.

A few more Edinburgh details... I was a little apprehensive about being able to rent the car we took because my Alabama driver's license expired in May. However, as I expected, the American convention for displaying dates helped me slip through. In the US, today's date is 6-9-05, but in much of the rest of the world it is 9-6-05. My license expired on my birthday, which is 05-07-05, which to a Brit looks like July 5th. Of course, I didn't say anything about this... they just assumed. BTW, my driving without a legal driver's license over here has parrallels to BK's driving without a license for around 2 years now.

On our trip to Edinburgh, we stayed about 12 miles outside the city in a town called Livingston. I actually had a good idea for once. I noticed a sign for a train station not too far from our hotel, so we drove to it on Tuesday morning instead of to Edinburgh. Parking was free at that station and the train came along in a few minutes. It took less than 15 minutes to arrive in the center of downtown Edinburgh. This was much easier than trying to negotiate Edinburgh traffic and find a parking spot. FWIW, we couldn't buy train tickets at the Livingston station but other folks there said we could buy them from the conductor. Well, he didn't have time to make it all the way into our compartment. So we left the train without having paid a cent or a pence or anything. When we were ready to leave, we only needed single (one-way) tickets back to Livingston. But, of course, we bought return tickets to pay for the morning's ride, too. I wonder how much money the train company loses every year from this stuff.

At the first little shop we entered in Edinburgh, I noticed that a woman paying for something at the register (till) had an Alabama driver's license. She was with another woman and both were from Gadsden. I struck up a conversation. As expected, they were tourists. We heard many American accents, and many Southern ones at that, on our visit to Edinburgh. They must think they own the place.

Though we didn't get to try any, I was glad to hear that our preacher and his wife will be bringing Haggis (picture here) to the cultural dinner our church is having the day before we leave. We'll be bringing biscuits (Southern variety), corn bread, and sweet tea. I wonder what the family from Malaysia/Australia will bring?

When we got home, the first thing I saw on the news was this. The news camera focused on a blood smear on the sidewalk. The incident took place on Tuesday not 4 blocks from our home. Always heartwarming to know. Or maybe heartworming.

I must mention this, too... At church last Sunday we were treated to Kit-Kat Lime candy bars. I hope I'm not the only one to notice the humor (or humour) in it.

One last bleat (which I hope does not offend my ~~Limey~~ British friends). It is my sincere hope that the BBC becomes a defunct organization in the near future. Besides being a waste of taxpayers' money, its news reports are skewed and as shoddy as any I've ever seen. Don't make me provide examples. The sooner the BBC has to actually support itself with its own revenues, the sooner it will have to wake up to the real world. I know, I know... it has some good radio programs and a TV show or two, but the product could be much better. I think most Brits don't like the idea of scrapping the BBC because they can't imagine life without it. But it's not hard for me. And you get used to the commercials.

Back from Edinburgh

2005-06-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

We made it back to Birmingham around 9pm last night from Edinburgh. We rented a car (to make the trip easier on Helen than a long train ride would have been) and drove the roughly 340 miles. Because of a mix up and a little confrontation, Thrifty car rental gave us £20 off the original price and gave us a Renault Clio with a diesel engine. That was a blessing because the little car got around 40 miles per US gallon (45 UK). In fact, we got almost 500 miles off the first tank of gas.

I'll get to what we saw in Edinburgh in a minute. First, I must mention that staying overnight in a hotel with an 11-month-old is not easy. Because we'd kept her up well past her bedtime, and because we were in such a new place, and because we were in the same room with her, Helen would not go to sleep. This is uncommon; she usually goes to sleep for the night rather easily. First we tried to put her down at around 8:30pm, but she could see us through her Pack-N-Play walls, so sleep was out of the question. I moved the PNP and we decided to let her "cry it out," but with people staying in the neighboring rooms, we couldn't do that for long. As her hollering became more and more intense, we relented. Mary got up, looked at Helen, and immediately said, "Well how did you get that way". She was standing up! The first time she had made it all the way by herself (the added frustration helped, I think). It will only be a matter of time before the stand becomes a walk. To finish the Helen story, after about 5 attempts to get her to sleep, Helen finally passed out in the bed with us and none of us slept well.

But we did have a good time in Edinburgh. Besides the beauty of the city and all the little shops, we spent time in Edinburgh Castle (10£ each) and in the Museum of Scotland (free). There is too much in those places to blog about. One attribute of Edinburgh that I did not like, much like London, was the presence of Americans. Now, I tend to like Americans, but over here its nice to be in a city where being an American is somewhat of a novelty. In the tourist cities, no one bats an eye when they hear a Yank speak.

More later today...

But the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them

2005-06-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning to understand how Paul felt trying to get to Bythinia (Acts 16:6-7). I blogged long ago about our first failed attempt to go to Stratford upon Avon. Well, today we figured our odds of actually making it were pretty good because we were travelling with a large group from church. The preacher's wife, Helen, was even kind enough to let us borrow her car. All we had to do was follow in the convoy for the roughly 35 mile trip. After having been in the car for 10 minutes (mostly in traffic) I was starting to get familiar with the car... even adjusted the radio. While we were waiting at a redlight, I noticed that the radio was off, and then I noticed that other dashboard lights were not on. I had a feeling that this did not bode well. And it didn't. When the traffic began moving, I let off the clutch and the car died. I tried to recrank... nothing. The battery was dead. In vain I beat upon the steering wheel to honk the horn so that the folks we were following might see our problem. Unfortunately, the battery was dead AND the horn was not located on the steering wheel. Of course, this all happened in the midst of heavy traffic.

After a couple more attempts at starting the car, I got out and Mary jumped in the driver's seat. I pushed the car about 40 yards and, thanks to a helping hand from a nice guy who then let us cut across in front of him, we turned down a side street and Mary coasted into a parking spot. All of this was too much for Helen, who promptly fell asleep.

After a couple of minutes, my mobile phone rang... the preacher, Mike, wondering where we were. I told him our dilemma and he turned around and was with us in less than 10 minutes. We jumped the car off, but made it less than a mile before it died again. The entire convoy was waiting on us. The guy leading the trip, Phillip, decided we should just call it a day and forget Stratford. Instead, we left Helen (the preacher's wife, not the baby) with the car and the rest of us went to the city centre and had lunch at The Big Wok... a huge Chinese buffet... all Phillip's treat. Helen and Mike have AA coverage (same as AAA coverage without the 'American' part), so they rang them up and a guy came out and fixed the car by the time we finished lunch... broken alternator belt. Mike and Helen were kind enough to let us keep the newly fixed car overnight so we can skip the hour long ride on the bus in the morning for church... 10 minutes in the car.

So, it appears Stratford will have to wait until some time later when we come to the UK. And I should mention that I took Mary's parents for a "fly by" of the place in late March, though all they did was buy 2 British army shirts at a flea market and a book from a bookstore. I hope the Spirit has no problems with our intentions to go to Edinburgh on Monday-Tuesday.

I should mention that Mary and I had a delicious meal last night from Martin's Restaurant, an Indian place just a stone's throw from our house. They delivered some Chicken Masala for me and Lamb Dhansak for Mary. Highly recommended.

Here are some pics from today, and a couple from earlier this week:

Folks from church at the Big Wok:

Helen, the preacher's daughter Roxanne and yours truly at The Big Wok:

Helen trying to stand using the couch:

After toting her favorite towel over to me, she grabbed my leg, tried to pull up and said distinctly, "Da da!". Of course, I picked her up. This is a freeze frame of some video:

Rain, rain go away

2005-06-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

At least until I can get on my bike and ride home. I'm sitting in a university computer lab waiting for a let up right now.

It occurred to me the other day that I committed a classic blogging blunder... misspelling a word. I rarely do much proofreading, so I often find mistakes days later. The most obvious one lately was when I said that Mark Goodace wasn't too discrete with his news of moving to Duke. I should have put "discreet". However, to my credit, discrete is a word, a mathematics one at that (discrete as opposed to continuous). Took many classes in the Department of Discrete Mathematics at Auburn years ago. It changed to the Department of Discrete and Statistical Sciences, and has since merged with the Math Dept (imagine that!).

Well, the sun is out and I hear Helen calling my name.

And, BK, there not your large letters but mine. Looks like you need to brush up on your koine pronouns.

I sprang from my bed to see...

2005-05-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

Why the kid was crying. Early this morning, around 1:20 am, I climbed out of bed and peeked out the window to see where the crying was coming from. From my angle I couldn't see, but Mary could see some people standing in the street from her vantage point. There were 3 people; 2 men and woman. The woman began to yell at one of the men while the other man stood behind her. She repeatedly pushed the young man in front of her and he appeared to be interested in getting past her to the other guy. The crying child was watching this from an open door across the street where, intermittently, a person (grandmother?) would try to convince the woman (mother) to come inside. I watched this scene for about 2 minutes.

Finally, the guy had had enough of the woman's pushing, so he shoved her down and tackled the other guy. This is when I decided to go downstairs and offer 'help'. I slipped on my shoes and a pullover and made my way outside and down the road. Two men, Africans I surmised from their accents, were trying to pry the first guy, whom we'll refer to henceforth as Instigator, off of the second guy, whom we'll call Slim. The Africans were able to get Instigator away from Slim, but the fun was far from over. I stood back probably 15 feet and marvelled at the fact that I understood almost nothing these people were yelling at each other. I suspect we can blame much of it on the booze and/or drugs which was apparent from the slurred speech of the woman and Instigator. Another reason I couldn't understand them is that, in the heat of the moment, our accents are accentuated (nice pun) at high volumes. Thus, I was unable to surmise why these people were fighting. Throw in the fact that I'd been in REM just 5 minutes before, and its not surprising I was clueless.

All appeared to be well, people dispersing and death grips abating when... Slim decided to say something about Instigator's brother. I thought he said, "Tomorrow your brother will be in the nick.' But again, I'm not sure I understood any of it. Anyway, this set Instigator off (though the woman's further shoves probably helped). I asked the Africans if they knew what was going on, but they were as clueless as I. One said, "He might kill him." I asked them to call the police. I also looked toward the door where the screaming kid was and told the adult there to call the cops.

Whatever it was that Slim said, Insitigator was mad enough to resume the death grip for a minute or so on Slim's head. The woman peeled him away, but that only freed Instigator (drunk and/or high I remind you) to go to a nearby construction skip (dumpster) and grab a long stick, perhaps an old piece of moulding. He approached Slim and, thankfully, only threw the stick at him. The stick missed its target. After a little more shouting, Instigator grabbed another stick and began holding it like a baseball bat. Did I mention that I was backing up by now? Slim made a wise choice and decided to run. The woman was screaming bloody murder by this time. As Insigator took off after Slim, approaching the corner of our block, I was seriously hoping that Slim had the sense to keep running. At the moment that Insigator was about to get out of view, a police car pulled up and stopped in the middle of the road. I saw the officers get out and begin to run. It was obvious that they caught Instigator rather quickly but most of this took place just around the corner. Needless to say, someone had obviously called the cops before I showed up.

Another police car showed up and order was restored. I came back inside and talked the whole thing over with Mary who'd watched it all from our bedroom window. Because there was nothing to do but go back to bed, we did. I was awake at least 2 more hours. Certainly not the first incident I've seen between 'juiced up' people. Mary commented that, if this had happened when we first arrived, she and Helen would have been in a hotel across town.

Ba-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding

2005-05-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

What's the hottest song in Great Britain at the moment? Would you believe a mobile phone ring tone? Believe it. Back on January 6th of this year, the day after I arrived here, I remember hearing a guy's phone ring with a crazy "ba ding ding ding...", sort of like a chipmunk doing an impression of a minibike. That was not the last time I heard it, and since then it has been put to a beat with some 80's rap music (can't remember the song) and climbed to #1 on the charts. It's known as the crazy frog (mp3 link, see picture below). I don't know if it's popular in America yet. BTW, the original sound seems to have come from this.

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. (I'll see if I can't scrounge up some charcoal) and a bank holiday here. Schools and universities are out this week here, too, so many, many people here are on vacation (holiday). Because the library is closed and I've read everything I have on my research topic, today will be spent reading Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler. This is my first Cussler book to read, but won't be the last. FWIW, we're going Stratford-upon-Avon with folks from church on June 4, to Edinburgh on June 6-7 via rental car, and back to London June 11 via train. That will probably be the last of our adventures (not counting the flight home, of course). We fly out 3 weeks from today.

If you get a minute, check out Doug Giles advice -- 10 ways to ensure that you are a failure in life. I have linked to his article on the second one. The series begins here. I haven't read this guy's stuff before, and he's a bit wordy for what he says, but his thinking is on this right on target. His 10 ways are:

1. Be a slacker.
2. Blame others.
3. Embrace hopelessness.
4. Follow others mindlessly.
5. Be a wet blanket.
6. Hang out with morons.
7. Be a self obsessed me-monkey.
8. Stand for nothing.
9. Have an “it’s not my job” mentality.
10. Quit when the going gets tough.

It appears articles on the remaining 8 are forthcoming.

Bob's Your Uncle

2005-05-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

The unthinkable happened today in England... it was warm. Yesterday it got so warm that I had to shed my sweater(jumper) on my bike ride home. But today it got up to 80! Don't worry. The high tomorrow is supposed to be around 62 and in the 50's after that. I almost had reason to wear one of the two short sleeve shirts I have here (aside from T-shirts of course).

Speaking of weather... Mary and I were watching the news the other night and the weather--uh--person said we should take a long look at the weather map because it would be the last we'd see of it on the BBC. The next day they changed to a 3-D map. For normal people, this would not matter, but, fortunately the UK has plenty of abnormal people. See where we get it?

I commented about Mark Goodacre's accepting a position at Duke the other day. Well other folks weighed in as well. Of note here is Michael Pahl, a Canadian who teaches at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta (north of Montana). Michael will be bringing his wife and kids over later this year to fulfill his required stay in Birmingham as part of the external PhD program (much as I have done). Michael's supervisor is also Mark Goodacre, and it looks as if Michael's arrival in the UK will coincide nicely with Mark's departure. But, Michael, you and your family are in our prayers. At least he can take comfort in the knowledge that the winter over here will be easier on them than it was us. And it appears that Michael plans to blog his time here... and call it the Anglo-file, too. Here, here!

Mary and I check yahoo every night to see what's on TV. Tonight something interesting is appearing on Channel 5 apparently... The Patriot. At first, I thought it had to be the Steven Seagal one, not the Mel Gibson one. Apparently, the folks at Yahoo couldn't decide so they put this description. FWIW, the Seagal Patriot is on now... don't imagine the Brits care too much for the Gibson one.

Now, for the part most of you care about... Helen pics:

Most fun part of the day: bathtime

Using the mouth keeps the hands free

After bath, her favorite game (with her favorite towel): Where's baby Helen?

The same game at another time and with her coat:

4 More Americans

2005-05-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting to blog about this until I knew he was letting word out. Of course, I figured it would be in a more discrete way than via the internet, but it does save him having to send out a hundred emails. My supervisor here in Birmingham, Dr. Mark Goodacr e, likes me so much that he's following me back to America. He won't make it all the way to Tennessee, but will stop in Durham, North Carolina where he'll be a prof in the religion dept. of Duke University. He and his family will be making the move sometime later this year. Yes, this will affect my research, but thankfully Mark has agreed to continue to be an external supervisor and it will be nice to have him just one state away. Of course he'll still be around 514 miles away, roughly the same distance as Glasgow to Bude (Cornwall) -- see graphical representation below with the Murfreesboro to Durham map rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

Of course, they'll be less than 2 hours to the mountains or to the beach.

I'd like you to submit advice for these soon-to-be Americans using my comments link. I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

27 More Days To Get Knighted

2005-05-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

One of my secret ambitions in coming here was to do something honorable (for my UK friends, "honourable" with the usless 'u') enought to get knighted. Its looking less and less likely to happen... probably because of the whole "Don't blame me, I voted for the House of Hanover" bumper sticker thing.

Thanks to almost all of you who commented about Helen's "Tickle, etc." (didn't know she knew Latin, huh?). I'll handle responses in order:

1. I believe Mary Joyce H. is the most chronologically advanced of all my readers, and for that she gets a bouquet.

2. For Tim B.: I have a Creative Muvo Tx USB 2.o 256 MB mp3 player. It cost around $80 U.S., or around 107 kiwi dollars, including shipping. I highly recommend it. Currently, mine has over 5 hours and 40 minutes of voice record time left on it (even with the 1+ hours of music on it). Perfect for recording classes. Its also a handy memory stick. It looks like this:

3. No, Jon, the picture is of the star of one of my favorite (insert usless 'u' after 'o') TV shows of the 90's, Parker Lewis Can't Lose. If you' ever update your blog you could put in obscure stuff like this.

Tickle, tickle, tickle

2005-05-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun day at church. We had a crowd of around 60, which is the most since we've been here. We enjoyed a fellowship meal afterwards (what we call a potluck back home). We took chili, biscuits, and a pudding pie. The high point of the day was when, in the midst of the congregational singing, Helen belted out her favorite phrase. She has quite a vocabulary for an 11-month-old, but most of all she likes to say "Tickle, tickle, tickle...." especially during that quite time between hymn verses. I thought you might like to hear her say it, so here's a short clip of her favorite phrase said at my prompting. BTW, our little mp3 player makes the best recordings, don't you think?

Back so soon

2005-05-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

To make up for lost time, here I am blogging a few hours after my last post.

I forgot to mention the best "Star Wars" parody I've ever seen which can be viewed here.

I must add this disclaimer - I'm not much on the global advantages of organic farming. Here's an article that lays out some reasons, with the most important part being "Organic food costs more because average yields are 20-50% lower than those from conventional farms. Its inefficiency is highly relevant to the hungry and the poor... In the words of the Indian biologist CJ Prakash, its only contribution to sustainable agriculture will be 'to sustain poverty and malnutrition"' But, anyway, Grocery Store Wars is still hilarious.

Four Noteworthy Things

2005-05-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

1. A UK police officer was recently caught on camera going 159 mph on a joy ride... I mean to "test his high speed driving skills"... and he was cleared of any wrongdoing. I remind you that this is the same place where a camera takes your picture if you go 5 miles over the speed limit and then you receive a ticket in the post.

2. UK residents now have the option of watching TV on their mobile phones. In an odd twist, it seems this technology has been available in France for some time now. Of course, the most advanced feature on my decade old phone is the ability to choose between "jingle bells" and "mexican hat dance" ringtones. I wonder if subscribers to this new TV-mobile will have to pay the TV tax?

3. BK is back from Alabama... obviously time well spent because a) he made significant research progress and b) he effervesces when writing about Auburn University.

4. Today the Annual Jesse Owens Memorial Run took place in my hometown of Moulton, AL. It might be worth bombarding BK's blog with comments to ask him to pressure his dad into actually giving the JO a web presence. I'm about to do my own personal 10k here and will report back with my time. The downside is that they probably won't include my results in the JO. The upside is that I can get the silver platter for top local runner (if I go out and buy it).

FWIW, it's almost 8:40 pm here, but when I finish I'll bet that there will still be a flicker of sunlight. The summer days here are ridiculously long, and by necessity the winter days are short. When we leave in June, it will get dark well after 10pm.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update (10:20pm): The first annual Birmingham (UK) Jesse Owens Memorial Run 10k race was won by yours truly in a time of approximately 43 minutes and some change. The course was not certified, and the poor publicity meant that turnout was low. However, all participants agreed it was a well-run affair.

Auf Weidersehen

2005-05-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Mom and dad are now back home safe in Alabama and they loved all the landscape work my bro-in-law did. Before they left, we all went to Bath. Of course, it is world-renowned for the Roman Baths (and they are awesome), but Bath Abbey and the Royal Crescent were also worth taking in while we were there. The coolest thing at the Roman Baths was the fact that we saw some Auburn people (we could tell by the AU logos) were there, though we never met. Mary and I also ran into 3 AU folks in the British Museum in London. Of course, this goes to show that Auburn produces the kind of people who appreciate history.

Below I'm including some pics from our trip to Powis Castle in Wales, etc.
The view from the castle grounds:

The fam:

A less than commendable attempt at using the timer to capture Mary and me with the castle in the distance:

Helen having a good time in front of some of the flowers:

Helen just after one of her new hobbies, trying to pull herself up with the chair:

An older pic of Helen in mock pigtails:

Mom and Dad

2005-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on all our doings:

1. On Tuesday May 10 - Thursday May 12 Mom and Dad were in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dad said it was hard to find the castle at first because everything looked like a castle.

2. On Friday the 13th (oooh) Mary and I drove to London whilst the grandparents watched Helen. We made passing visits to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament (ie Big Ben), and spent most of our time in the British Museum. One really needs at least a day and a half there to do it any justice. I recommend the Ancient Near East section and Bog Man. Next time we'll do the British Library, where I could spend several years.

FWIW to you Brits, my friend Lew tolf me (via JT) the best way from Birmingham to park and ride into London. Take the M40 which becomes the A40 outside London. Take the Northolt exit and go left past the train station. At the intersection turn left and park at the Swimerama swim baths for less than £3 all day. Brilliant.

3. On Saturday, I took the others on a repeat trip of Wolverhampton and Wales (the same as with Mary's parents in March). In Wales, we went into Powis Castle this time. The gardens alone were worth the price of admission. The castle was awesome and the view breathtaking. Of course, there were several valuable items on display, the most impressive being Bernardo Belloto’s "View of Verona" which is worth £12 million!!! And for you thieves out there, the security is almost nonexistent. Wink, wink.

Powis Castle is the kind of place that most people in the West Midlands/Birmingham area don't know about, yet need to visit because it is only 1 1/4 hours away.

4. On Sunday, we went to the preacher's family's home after church and spent the afternoon. We had a nice lunch of that traditional British meal -- lasagna.

5. Yesterday, Monday, my parents took a bus to London and will be returning tonight. We all plan one more trip... a visit to Bath on Wednesday. Dad was too cheap for the train, so they took a megabus. Cheap but no luxuries. Then mom and dad will be departing on Thursday, and we'll have one more month of UK living.

The weather here right now is about like early March in North Alabama. Thankfully, it has rained very little so mom and dad have been able to see most everything they wanted. They don't know this yet, but my brother-in-law Chris has added tons of grass and landscaping to their yard while they've been away. You Moulton folks make sure to ask them about it when they get home.

And Capes mentions that she has never seen my parents, so here is an old family photo:

That's me on the right, mom to the left of me, my sister in the middle, dad in the traditional Wren male garb to the left of my sister, and on the extreme left is the one of whom we do not speak.

What's Up

2005-05-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Its been too long since I last posted. I need to provide updates to the folks in Moulton on my parents and their visit thus far.

On Sunday after church we all went to our house and ate chili which Mary had made. We pretty much hung out around the house for the rest of the day to let Helen rest.

On Monday morning, mom and dad took the bus to Cadbury World all by themselves. Tell them you are proud of them when we see them.

On Monday afternoon, mom and dad stayed home with Helen while Mary and I went to see the movie The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (£3.95 each). Something rather unique happened at the theater (Brits should read 'cinema') -- we were the only ones in the movie for the entire time. Because I snuck (or is it 'sneaked'?) in my own generic 19p cola (conveniently poured into a 500ml Pepsi bottle), the entire venture was pretty cheap. BTW, I'd recommend the movie to anyone familiar with the book. Of course, it would be impossible to put all of the THGTG in one 2-hour movie, but this was an admirable attempt. It also included a nice mix of British and American actors. But we were never told why the leading actress who played Trillian was American. Ford Prefect was supposed to be a foreigner. The fact that Zaphod Beeblebrox had a quasi-Texas accent was appropriate.

We stopped by KFC on the way home -- mom doesn't like too much adventure when she eats. And the Colonel cooks it over here the same way as back home... but without the biscuits.

On Tuesday morning I dropped mom and dad off at the train station and they departed from Edinburgh, Scotland. I talked to them in the afternoon and they had arrived alright but were still walking around looking for their hotel. Let's hope they didn't have to sleep under a bridge. They will return to Birmingham on Thursday night.

I've done alot of research lately and am hopefully coming to some insightful ideas.

Mary and I plan to go to London on Friday morning and return that evening. Mom and dad will enjoy an entire day with Helen, and she will revel in their undivided attention!

Since I don't get to brag about stuff like this much -- Alabama's unemployment rate is now 4.7%. It is better than almost all of its neighbors: Georgia is at 5%, Lousiana is 5.3%, Tennessee is 5.9% and Mississippi is 7.0%. Florida is ahead at 4.4%. Unemployment in the UK is currently 4.8%.

This and that

2005-05-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

I took mom, dad, Mary and Helen to Warwick Castle today. Since I'd already been, I went into town and took care of some old work... grading papers from last term that were overdue. I also discovered that I tend to be to gracious when I grade papers over here... but giving a 70 for an A just feels so wrong to me! FWIW, most universities use the following scale: A=70-100, B=60-69, C=59-50, etc. A 94 paper in America would be about a 77 here. No one gets over an 85 (regardless of the work or the school) and rarely are grades of 80+ given. But I was able to grade the 3 papers I had and take in some of the town before I "collected" my family at the castle.

I still plan to blog about the election in the near future.

I have the honor of preaching again here tomorrow morning. After the in-laws came all the way to hear me speak in March, now my parents are here for my sermon in May. Odd that.

I turned 31 today. Or so numerous people have told me. My parents have official documents reflecting that 31 is my actual age, but those things can be forged, you know.

I must include a pic from JT's blog. If he created this gif image himself I'm going to go back and change his grade.

Greatest Hits #3

2005-05-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

At BK's behest I gave Alabama Sacred Harp Singers a listen and I'm glad he was so insistent. I seem to recall hearing about this kind of Southern music years back, but today was my first experience. Sacred Harp singers are actually a capella singers singing four part harmony with "shaped" notes. Many in Churches of Christ grew up with the same, but probably never sang like this. The most interesting characteristic of Sacred Harp singers is the fact that, before they sing the first verse, they sing the notes -- "do" or "ra" or "mi" or "fa" - to get the tune engrained. It can be an awesome sound. Its the kind of thing that one can envision getting exposure in a movie and sparking world interest in the art (akin to the renewed interest in bluegrass after O Brother, Where Art Thou? in 1991). So I will be including The Last Words of Copernicus by the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers.

I also decided to include Seven Spanish Angels by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson to give Texas a little credit. Dixieland Delight by Alabama will also most likely make the cut. Keep the suggestions coming in! Remember to identify yourself if you choose to make an "anonymous" comment (even if that sounds completely contradictory).

I have also decided to include snippets of Jerry Clower's and Andy Griffifth's old standup routines for some more Southern flare. Maybe some Foxworthy, too!

My mom and dad arrive around 10am tomorrow morning. I'll be blogging about their exploits after they arrive.

Finally, I wasn't able to catch Jim B.'s prayer on C-Span today so Mary videotaped the broadcast for me. Below is a still shot of the Rev. You know he loved that!

Greatest Hits #2

2005-05-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who have suggested songs thus far. Please keep them coming.

I should be a little more clear about what I am looking for. Both of these guys know American music well. Jon's album collection would make a 58-year-old unreformed hippie living in a commune salivate. He probably knows Dylan better than Dylan does. The Eagles, Baez, Simon & Garfunkel, etc. are out simply because they know them well already. So I have to go for the lesser knowns... ones that are classics but not necessarily known worldwide. That is easier said than done when Lew's dad raised him on American country and bluegrass. With all that said, I've decided to add these songs to the list:

1. The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels - though I suspect that they know it already.

2. Its Midnight in Montgomery by Alan Jackson - mentions Montgomery and Mobile.

3. Paint Me a Birmingham by Tracy Lawrence - not a spectacular song, but they'll get a kick out of the whole Birmingham thing.

4. You Don't Even Call Me By My Name by David Allan Coe - against my better judgment.

5. Walkin' in Memphis by Marc Cohn- though I really don't like the song.

6. The Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton - I'd originally planned to have it on the funny CD (still waiting for suggestions from BK, JSM, etc) but at BK's urging I'll put it on this one. Interestingly, Mary, Helen and I had a great time visiting Jon and Su in Coventry on Monday. We were singing songs to/with Helen and I asked them if they knew the Battle of New Orleans. They didn't, so I sang them a little. Doubt it will become a favorite.

Today is election day here and I consider myself privileged since elections only roll around every 5 years or so, depending on when they powers-that-be call for them. I'll have more to say about this later.

Jim Brinkerhoff leads U.S. Congress in Prayer

2005-05-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

Below is the amalgamation of two emails I recently received:

I wanted to let everyone know that Jim Brinkerhoff will have the honor of opening the United States Congress in prayer on Thursday, May 5 - which also happens to be the National Day of Prayer. This is a big honor and I know everyone will want to watch him live on C-Span. Congress opens every day that they are in session with a prayer - usually by the House Chaplain. Jim will be the guest Chaplain for the day and will have his picture made with the Speaker of the House. Congressman Aderholt will introduce Jim after the prayer.
The current plan for Thursday morning is that the House will go into session at 10:00 am Eastern time. The prayer is the first thing. Following the prayer will be the Pledge of Allegiance and then they will begin one minutes. That is when Congressman Aderholt will introduce Jim. Hope everyone will watch!

As many of you know, Jim B. is one of my fathers in the faith and a dear friend to me. If you can't be near a TV, you can watch C-Span live online at http://www.c-span.org/watch/. Remember its 9am central.

Greatest Hits

2005-05-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

I plan to compile two CDs over the next couple of weeks and I need help from you.

I. I promised my friends Jon and Lew that I'd make them a CD with classic Southern flavor. They both like/love American country/bluegrass/folk music. I'd like you to suggest songs I might want to put on the CD. They already know about Incubus, Blink 182, Herman's Hermits and all those, so stick to country/folk please. I'm concentrating on songs with a geographical flavor. Below I have listed some of the songs I will most likely include:

1. Sweet Southern Comfort by Buddy Jewell - not the best song ever, but certainly reflects the South and, more importantly, Erwin Nichols and Judge Lee of Lawrence County, AL. Everyone with any age on them in LC remembers Judge Lee, and I met Erwin Nichols last fall (autumn). The presence of "Roll Tide Roll" on the song did give me pause.
2. My Home's in Alabama by Alabama - nuff said.
3. Rocky Top by the Osborne Brothers - No, its not the fight song of the University of Tennessee, though they have co-opted it. But my memories are of Coach Andy...
4. Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry - What was it they threw off that bridge?!?
5. Sweet Sunny South by various artists - I encountered this song in a book by Pat Conroy and discovered it is quite old.
6. Mountain Dew by the Stanley Brothers
7. Blue Moon of Kentucky by Bill Monroe
8. Lousiana Man by Bobbie Gentry - I wish she'd of continued singing past the 70's. Turns out that she even had a TV show here in the UK for a while in the 70's. Who'd of thunk it?
9. Feelin' Good Again by Robert Earl Keen - I was introduced to this gem by Kevin Duncan, middle school coach and all around savant.
10. I Saw the Light by Hank Williams - They just need a little exposure.

II. The other CD will be a compilation of the greatest hits of the ridiculous CDs I've sent out to my friends over the past few years. I'd like them to suggest their favorites.

How far is it from Birmingham to Birmingham?

2005-05-01T05:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'll be speaking at a church in Birmingham (Alabama!). My friend J-Dog, a minister at Palisades Church of Christ, a likeminded technophile, asked me to speak via internet conference. Yahoo Messenger will be providing the free audio and video feed. Their service will begin at 6pm Central Standard Time, which is midnight here. Thus, I'm taking one for the team. If you happen to have Yahoo Messenger, I'll be using Mary's ID -- marystrick -- and you would like to tap into the video feed, feel free. I'm afraid that no audio will be available, however, so you will just see me sitting or standing. FWIW, the text I've chosen to speak on is Luke 24:13-35.

Oh yeah, according to this website, it is 4,232 miles from Birmingham, AL to Birmingham, UK.

Pictoral Running Commentary

2005-04-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

I suggest you use these pictures as a visual commentary on BK's latest blog (one of his best, excluding the Langston pics of course).

Okay, that last one is not "technically" related to his story, but I'd of liked to have seen him work it in somehow.

Bits and bobs

2005-04-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

It's an English expression... but immediately intelligble to us Americans.

First, I've been reading alot by/about Austin Farrer today... brilliant. Though his work is more far reaching, he is probably best known for his solution to the synoptic problem - The Farrer Theory, or Markan priority without Q, etc. He was a major influence on Michael Goulder, who was in turn a major influence on my supervisor, Mark Goodacre. I'll post more about Farrer soon.

Second, I should mention another British favorite of mine from my college days: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book by the late Douglas Adams. The book has been made into a movie which has recently come out over here and in the US (I think). IMHO, it is probably the best example of the absurd and hilarious British art of understatement. When my parents arrive in a week we plan to leave Helen with them for a while and go see it.

Third, Mary, Helen, and I went to Cadbury World today (about 4 1/2 miles from our house). Nice tour, but I ate too much chocolate. Mary thinks that Spanish imperialism at least got one thing right - bringing chocolate to the Western world. Interesting facts about the Cadbury's: because they were Quakers they refused to drink or make alcohol, but they made a killing off of the chocolate that was allowed as a substitute among the rich... the Cadbury's were way ahead of their time in seeking decent working and living conditions for their employees... they pioneered 'milk chocolate' and thus most of the chocolate candies we now enjoy. Here's a picture of Helen from the playground.

Fourth, have I mentioned that we have the creakiest house in the entire Western Hemisphere? Last night, when Mary was attempting to sneak upstairs, Helen was awakened. Normally, when she wakes up in the night she cries until one of us comes to get her and last night was no exception. Her hair was the wildest we've ever seen it, so we took this picture:

Fifth, I must acknowledge the comment from Wil from way over there (or up there for most of my readers) in Maine. Many thanks for allowing me to keep my 1 pound 45p, however I'm left in that difficult position of not knowing whether you simply made a believable guess or know what the map represents. I'll have to get an Asian friend to render the verdict. BTW, the Tube is in London, but I promise to use the money on the Centro.

USA vs UK

2005-04-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

Why is it that, whenever you move somewhere new, you're always comparing it to other places where you've lived? While in England, I find myself constantly saying "this is worse than in America" or "this is better than in America," and I sometimes get on my own nerves with it. Why can't I just appreciate a place for what it is? But since I'm doing all this comparing, I might as well let the cat out of the bag about my opinions of the US vs. UK education systems.

When we flew back last Thursday, there was a 17 year old girl in front of us from the UK who'd been attending high school in the US for quite a while. The lady beside her, an American, asked, "Which system is harder?". I was surprised when she said that the US was. It required her to know more about more things and she had to attend school for an extra year. But, before you Americans get puffed up, I suspect that she was on a non-college track. They are big proponents over here of tracking and in continental Europe, so at an early age students are placed in various ability level groups. Most of the students over here do not go to college (they'd say university). I was told that the percentage is now 40%, as opposed to around 33% just a few years ago. If the girl on the plane had been on a more difficult track in the UK, I suspect she would say that the American system was easier. In America, schools tend to do very little tracking and a higher percentage of students enroll in college courses (the last I saw was around 65% -- this article says it was 63% in 2002).

I have a difficult time comparing the US and UK systems at the university level. The students who do attend here are better prepared and thus require less remediation than the average American students. However, students here only attend three years for an undergraduate degree and have shorter school terms. And I'm still puzzled by this summer term of no (new) classes... classes do meet for half the term to review old material for finals in June. My guess is that the average American college grad might come out a little ahead of the average Brit, but I have no data on which to base this. Its like comparing apples and limes (sorry).

Since I'm picking on my British friends again, I'll note two further things I noticed:
1. We were watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (original British version) the other day and a man had the question, "In Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', who was Tiny Tim's father. He knew the answer was Bob Cratchit, but the funny part is why he knew it. It wasn't because he'd read one of the most influential English writers of the Victorian era, but because he remembered it from 'A Muppet Christmas Carol'. How's that for some reverse influence! Creeping Amerinization indeed!

2. I caught a few minutes of a special on the women who brought about modern country music. Of course, Loretta Lynn was included... all the stuff about growing up in the coalmining parts of Kentucky. When they got to Dolly Parton, they said that she was from the same area of Kentucky. Now, anybody worth his spit knows that Dolly is from Tennessee. The funny thing was how they then went ahead to explain all about her building Dollywood in her hometown in Tennessee.

Just for JT

2005-04-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

This post is devoted solely to the Wizard of Coventry... or do you spell it Wisard?:-)... Jon Taylor.

1) Glad to see that we have mutual tastes in fine entertainment.
2) So Thames is pronounced Tems, not Tims, huh? If you were from where I'm from you'd know where my misunderstanding originates. All over the South we have a tendency to pronounce short i's and e's in the same way... out ten and tin come out the same... and it would sound like tea-un to y'all. This habit can really get in the way when speaking a foreign language... it drove my Greek profs batty. I'm sure I never noticed the difference between Tems and Tims because of this habit.
3) Maybe the next prank will be on the English JT.
4) Had to look up what you meant by "Blighty".
5) Would it offend you if I called you a limey?
6) Would it offend you if I called you a slimey?
7) I've got to warn you about the commenter who calls himself "whatusay" (I call him fat gorilla). I'm sure he misspelled "nomenclature" on purpose. In fact, I don't know if anything he says is comprehensible. He is a prof at the University of Tennessee (and, yes, we say it Tea-un-us-see).

8) I'll give £1.45 to anyone who can tell me what this map shows.

Now back to my research...

Let's hear it for AU

2005-04-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

I can't help but mention the incredible draft day on Saturday. Auburn had 3 players in the top 9 and 4 in the first round. Much of this is unprecedented.

The early anglophile in me

2005-04-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

As I sat reading from Origen's First Principles, I noticed that one of the new Dr. Who episodes was on BBC 1 tonight. I was immediately whisked back to my early teenage years when I used to watch Dr. Who on PBS. Though I'd never thought about it before, I was a big fan of two pieces of great British television production before I could drive: Dr. Who and Dangermouse. I didn't actually know much about Monty Python until college (but I can tell you exactly what the Knights Who Say "Ni" changed their name to).

I can't describe all of the intricacies of Dr. Who here, so read this if you are interested. The episodes I am familiar with had Tom Baker as the Doctor. PBS has for a long time been wont to air British programs -- they still show "The Vicar of Dibley" and some others.

Dangermouse came on daily on Nicolodeon during much of my teens, and I still find myself exclaiming from time to time, "Oh Crumbs!". And it was from this cartoon that I learned two important facts: 1) The Thames River is pronounced "Tims", 2) the older telephone booths (I think they call them boxes here, but I'm not sure) are red and look like this. Sadly, I haven't seen any DM on any of the 5 channels we get, though I have seen plenty of red phone boxes. BTW, Dangermouse is now why London is important. And I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to use this line.

So, here I was, a lover of British character before I knew anything about the Mother Country.

On to less important things... because there are no classes offered this term, I'll be spending many hours in the library on my research... 4-5 per weekday is my goal. Someone has tried to explain to me the reasoning behind the lack of classes in summer term, but I have yet to grasp exactly why. I'll have more to say on the comparison on British and American education later.

The Cheerio Incident

2005-04-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

Helen, ponderous before eating cheerios

Easier said than done

Bingo!

Happy Birthday QE5

2005-04-22T02:20:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to be here for Charles and Camilla's big day, but yesterday was the 79th Queen's birthday. Here is a news story listing some of her best quotes. Of course, my favorite was:
"We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep."

And, when monkeys are seriously considered for police work, we can safely say that the prophecies in the "Planet of the Apes" have begun to come true.

And my sleep schedule is really messed up.

The tale of JT

2005-04-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law, Jim, received the following letter from Mary and me yesterday just before we left.

This is the story of JT (Jim’s Toothbrush)

One morning JT awoke in a strange and disturbing place.

His day seemed to be getting better after a quick trip to the toilet

Until the family baby put him in a secret hiding place

He made a quick dash outside but...

he was attacked by some slimy critters

He tried on a disguise

but it turned out to be a bad idea...

a very bad idea...

a very, very bad idea...

Because he understood that he was powerless against such beasts, he decided to make friends by rubbing their undersides… among other places.

Thankfully, he was able to return to his normal home and continue his normal life the next morning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, Okay.... we used a lookalike toothbrush. But imagine how he felt when he first read this, postdated April 18th, time for him to have used his toothbrush for 2 days.

Oh yes, and I'm blogging this from England. More later

Top 10

2005-04-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

We're tying up all the loose ends before we leave. It was nice to see that my university's theology dept. made the top 10 in Britain -- probably because of the quality of its international graduate students.

UPDATE: I fixed the link to the right page... but Dan Majerle is impressive.

Before we leave...

2005-04-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

I need to satisfy some of the peeps.

First of all, to my doctoral supervisor, the most influential scholar I know, the unabashed ABBA fan-- my math was correct. Petrol here is 29p per litre. As little as two years ago it was more like 22p per litre. Just one of the many reasons we Americans have way too many cars.

And to mollify Capes, I include two pictures of Helen from her afternoon nap yesterday afternoon. I had to do some monkeying with the brightness and such so it is not too high quality. Notice the leg lodged between the rails:

Look for pics of the prank on Thursday.

Back in the Saddle Again

2005-04-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

I've decided to hit the blogging again two days before we return to our little abode at Clifford Rd, Bearwood, Smethwick, B67 5HJ, UK. We've had a great time visiting with family and friends all over Tennessee and Alabama. I'll do a quick roundup and then offer some of my faux wisdom.

We've been to Moulton on three seperate occasions. Once for a simple overnight family visit, another for the First Annual Chicken and Egg Festival (I hear they had over 10,000 people!) and worship time with my home congregation, and once to finalize the income tax forms. Mary came apart from me this past weekend to attend a friend's graduation ceremony. Yeah Beka!

I've been to Murfreesboro, our future place of residence, quite a few times. Last Saturday the student center had its Annual Fund Raising Roast Beef Dinner. Around 250 were in attendance and we raised over $15,000 after paying expenses! It was great to see old friends from Winchester there. Mary, Helen and I were introduced again at the dinner, and then again on Sunday morning at our new church, the North Boulevard Church of Christ. I've never been part of such a huge church.... around 1500 people on Sunday mornings!!... and it will take some adjusting to get used to the fact that I'll probably never know every member there. Tonight we three will return to Murfreesboro for a cookout devo on campus designed to welcome us into town. People here are being really good to us. And, in all honesty, we've had similar experiences in Auburn, Winchester, and Moulton. I know lots of ministers who've had bad partings from their former churches... we're extremely thankful to God for the relationships he's given us over the past 8 years we've been in ministry.

We've been to church with Mary's folks on several occasions here in Columbia at the West 7th St Church. They are "in between" preachers so we've heard lessons from various members and visitors. BTW, they've hired a guy from Cullman, Alabama. Is it just me or are these Tennessee churches increasingly dependent on the Yellowhammer State for decent spiritual guidance?

What I've spent my time here doing: resting, reading, brushing up on Greek vocabulary, running, fishing, driving two-lane roads, playing with Helen, watching Napoleon Dynamite with Mary's dad and brother, and catching up on our two favorite TV shows which my dad so kindly Tivo'd for us, Alias and Lost. We're about halfway through March on the shows.

Now on to "ask your friendly know-it-all". I've got put in a blurb about gas... I mean petrol... prices here. The night we landed in Nashville I noticed that the typical price for a gallon of gas was $2.17 per gallon. When we went to Moulton two days later we filled up for $2.03 a gallon. Prices went up 6-10 cents over the next two weeks, but have since gone down to 4 cents in most places because of the sliding price of oil. FWIW, I remember filling up for 78 cents a gallon outside of Atlanta in my early college years (1994 I think). Rather than offer the typical moaning about the high prices, I'll offer three strains of thought on the subject.

1) When we left the UK, most gas was around 82 pence per liter. There are 3.8 liters in an American gallon, so that comes to 3 pounds 12 pence per Am. gallon. To compare prices, we can use the current exchange rate of around $1.90 per pound, which placed UK gas prices at $5.92 per gallon. However, exchange rates don't allows reflect purchasing power, so it might be lest to use $1.50 per pound, the average rate in the 1990's and early 2000's. That comes to $4.68 per gallon. We saw comparable prices in Italy, too. And for my British friends, to give you an idea of American gas prices, we pay roughly 29 pence per liter... ask your grandparents what it was like when they paid those prices.

2) As much as I hate to admit it, the best chance of the U.S. ever becoming less reliant on foreign oil markets (and fossil fuels altogether) is for the energy which we get from them to become so expensive that we seriously seek other fuel sources. The government can encourage this but cannot make us change our habits. Which leads to...

3) I have to admit that higher prices hasn't caused a noticeable change in the way we consume gas. Here's my list of ways to save at least 10% on your gas consumption right now:

slow down - I've been driving slower lately and can tell the difference... but I can't say that most drivers around me aren't still putting the pedal to the metal
turn the A/C down or off... you probably don't need it as much as a you think
buy a lower grade gas... with all respect to certain respected family members, I've never been able to tell a difference in gas mileage between the grades. And spare me the argument that the more expensive stuff is better for the car long-term... my 1991 Accord has 237k miles and has never sniffed anything about 87 grade
don't go into the gas station and buy anything... my average tank must cost less now than it did a year ago because I won't let myself go in and pay over $1 for a coke or some other overpriced bit of refreshment. Now I either take it with me or do without.
coast down the hills if you have a 5 speed
if you have a truck, let the tailgate down
next time, look up the gas mileage info on a car before you buy it... the Stricklands will do so before we ever make a car purchase again. FWIW, our 3 vehicles get an average of about 26 mpg. Accord gets 28, pickup 27, and Maxima 25. Ours are much uglier than the pictures!

You're probably getting used to me typing it, but I promise not to blog about this again!

And tune in later tomorrow for a blog on a special prank Mary and I are undertaking before we leave!!!

Mule Day

2005-04-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

Today is Mule Day in historic Columbia, TN. I ran the Mule Day Kick 5k in a worse time than I expected... though 2 different guys with GPS told me that the course was 3.23 miles, not 3.1, so maybe I did better than I thought.

I've been reading poetry today. Thats alright since the cold weather of the UK decided to follow us to Tennessee. The temp at race time was 45 degrees F, and the high is supposed to be around 53. I thought it was April.

Now I'll make a belated response to BK's musings on Romans 13, justice, and the death penalty.

1) Romans 13 - Like any good historian, BK notes the several evils done by various governments and leaders over the centuries using Romans 13 as a justification. He's right. But that doesn't change the text. And BK hints that he thinks that the text seems to indicate some justification for capital punishment. His problem is with the author, Paul, and not the text (but he admits it freely). His reasoning follows that of much of modern biblical scholarship in creating a sharp distinction between Paul's thinking and Jesus'. However, new insights are being made into this subject, with NT Wright having the best stuff to say about it, IMHO.

2) Justice - No doubt that Jesus was a "turn the other cheek" kind of guy, all the way to his own death. However, from a state perspective, there is a difference between mercy and justice. If you steal my car and I forgive you, the state may or may not have the ability to show mercy. As a Christian, I have an obligation to show mercy and forgiveness to you. However, if you steal my car, and I forgive you but still want my car back, the state would harm me by offering you mercy by allowing you to keep the car. State forgiveness and mercy to one party quickly becomes oppression of another party. The state should follow Jesus' concern for justice, making sure that those who are wronged are not ignored. I firmly believe that, if I am wronged, I can forgive the offender and at the same time expect him/her to face the consequences.
So, in BK's scenario, if I knew without a shadow of a doubt that a certain individual killed a loved one of mine, I believe two things are appropriate. 1) I must forgive and I will spend the rest of my life trying to do it and 2) the murderer should pay with his or her life. The 'eye for an eye' notion which Jesus taught against was what we might call 'vigilante justice' . In the OT, God laid the 'eye for an eye' (henceforth EFE) rule down to make the point that the punishment should fit the crime and NOT EXCEED it. This inherently carries with it an element of justice for the offendee. By Jesus' time, the EFE principal had become an excuse to personal retaliation, ie revenge. This is what Jesus taught against, IMHO. And, on another note, punishment need not be about revenge. Ideally parents punish to change behavior, not to get back at their kids.

And I promise not to blog about this again.

Home

2005-03-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

We made it home last night. Mary and Helen flew with Mary's parents out of Birmingham to Nashville via Newark on Continental. They departed BHX at 1:30 and arrived in Nashville at 10:15, an hour late. Mary said that Helen was happy and excited the entire time. Mary's dad did have to face some questions (for the second time) because his name, William Robinson, is on a no-fly list. I can't help but laugh.

My morning started at 4:30 am. I showered and clothed myself, took a swig of coffee, grabbed my satchel and began the one-hour walk to my bus stop (the local bus wasn't available yet). The Megabus arrived at 6:10 a.m. and I was off to London. I had our recently repaired MP3 player with me and enjoyed many favorites en route. We arrived in London just before 9:00. I stopped at a McDonald's and ate the second Egg McMuffin of my life... nasty. I had some time, so I walked a mile or so and saw Buckingham Palace. I boarded the Tube and made it to London Heathrow by 11:30. My flight didn't leave until 3:40 so I had time to kill.

There was a serpentine line of at least 200 people at the British Airways area. Thankfully, because I had no baggage to check I got to enter the small line, the one with only one person ahead of me. This was only the beginning of my flight luck yesterday. The BA representative told me the flight was booked solid, but she was still able to get an aisle seat for me and my long legs. My gate was at the opposite end of the airport, but that was fine because I was in no hurry and it happened to be right beside the "quiet sitting" area. In this area, no announcements are made and comfortable lounge chairs were provided. There was room for 60 people or so, and only 15 people took advantage of it. So I relaxed well until my boarding time.

This is the best part. When I started to board, the attendant told me that my seat had been changed. I asked if I still had an aisle seat, and he said I'd been upgraded. When I arrived at seat 28J, I discovered I was in the only single business class seat. Now, on BA flights there are 3 classes -- first, business, and commoner (or something). I'd always been a commoner, but yesterday I was in the biggest, most comfortable seat with an infinite amount of legroom. BA flights are nice (everybody gets there own little TV screen with 18 channels!), but the food in business class was even better than the other stuff. I occassionally peeked my head through the curtain to see how the little people were getting on. Our flight took of on time and landed 15 minutes late due to strong headwinds... not bad. I can't complain... this was the second-leg of the ticket I'd only paid $282 for.

I arrived in DC at approximately 6 pm eastern time, puttered about the airport for 3.5 hours and boarded the little United Express flight to Nashville. This flight was as expected and, most importantly, it arrived safely at 10:20 p.m.. After a quick orientation on how exactly to get to long-term parking, I picked up Mary's parents car (Mary's sister Helen picked them up about 15 minutes before I landed) and headed to Columbia, arriving at approximately 11:30 pm.

I watched a little ESPN, slept for 5 hours or so, and then joined everybody else. Our internal clocks are really messed up now, so we were bright eyed at 5:45 this morning. I drove my piece-of-junk trunk into town and got a haircut this morning. Did I mention that I hadn't had a haircut in three months? I felt like Captain Caveman.

This is a beautiful spring day and I will spend much of it outside. I suspect that my blogging will be negligible until we return to England on April 20th.

Easter

2005-03-27T21:38:00.000-08:00

As I suspected, alot of people forgot to "spring forward" here, so I preached to a smaller-than-usual crowd. This is still somewhat counterintuitive... Easter Sunday is always the biggest worship attendance day in the States. I preached on Mary Magdalene's encounter with the resurrected Jesus in John 20. I'd preached this text on Easter in Moulton in the past, but I promise I didn't just use the old sermon. In fact, I don't have access to it right now.

Mary and Helen are still suffering from a tough cold, but Helen is almost completely better and Mary is getting there. They stayed home while we went to church. After church Mary's parents and I went for a fellowship meal at our friends Ricci and Mandy's house. Mandy was just baptized a couple of weeks ago by Ricci (the guy who gave me the bicycle). We had a great time and came home around 5:30, calling it an early night. I needed some veg-time, and took it.

I'm looking forward to coming home on Tuesday, though being here has been a nice reprieve from constant TV coverage of the Jacko trial and Schiavo ordeal that folks in the States must be getting.

Warwick Castle and a rant

2005-03-27T10:07:00.003-08:00

We did Warwick Castle today, with a brief swing through Stratford upon Avon which was of no consequence. While Helen appears to be feeling better, Mary is feeling worse. So once again I took the in-laws. Friday marked the beginning of the tourist season, so ticket prices were up (but worth it... 10.95 pounds for me as a student, 13.95 regular admission). There must have been 2,000 people there, among which I heard several American accents. Aside from the enormity of the castle, the gardens, conservatory, dungeons, and various exhibits were great. The pleasant weather was a bonus, though I must admit that I am growing more and more tired as each night I fail to get enough sleep, what with an ill family and all.

On to other things... BK has blogged about the death penalty and I figured I'd weigh in with my two pence worth. I believe in the validity of the death penalty and that it is endorsed in some form in the New Testament in Romans 13. I think the two main purposes of the death penalty are 1) justice for the victims/victim's loved ones and 2) to serve as a deterrent for those considering murder. A good argument for the death penalty in some cases can be made using the recent case of Brian Nichols, the Atlanta courtroom shooter. He is obviously guilty but, in addition, he was facing life in prison for raping and kidnapping his former girlfriend. If he is found guilty of these crimes and then is not executed for killing four people then he will not be punished for the murders (though we know exactly how he performed them). He is already a lifer. He'll simply get more "life sentences" added on. Will that be justice to the victims' spouses and children?

Now that I have laid this out, I think our current system for capital punishment is broken (and here come two more reasons)... 1) the lag between the punishment and the crime keeps the notions of justice and deterrence far removed and 2) the two-tiered justice system where capital punishment is most often used. It is a well-known fact that poor people don't get the same quality of criminal defense that the rich do (a la O.J.). Many of the accused are poor and ignorant and don't have the first clue how to avoid the death penalty. Add to this the fact that their government-appointed defense is so inept that it misses glaring errors in the case. I don't think that this applies to most of those sentenced in capital murder cases, but enough to raise serious questions (for example-- the story which BK quotes). I think it is appropriate for all state governments to call a moratorium on the death penalty until some things can be looked at and changed.

First, at the least each state should set up a panel of independent judges to review all death row cases. There are not that many on death row in any one state, so this is less burdensome that it might appear... we're talking teens or hundreds here. Many states already have safeguards like these to a certain degree, but probably not enough. The astonishing number of death row inmates who have been exonerated by DNA evidence (which was not available when they were convicted) over the past few years demonstrates the problem. How many innocent people have we executed in recent years? I fear the answer is not zero. Ultimately, the use of better investigative techniques such a DNA examination also lends more credence to the notion of finding the guilty party and thus ultimately strengthens the validity of the punishing the correct person.

Second, if the USA is to be the only major world power which still uses the death penalty then we have an obligation to demonstrate to the world that it can be done in accordance with our founding principles. What this means is that we must be willing to pay the high financial bill that needs to be incurred to adequately defend everyone accused of capital crimes. We must offer good defense lawyers incentives for defending the poor. The problem is that many of the poorest states also have the death penalty and they are the states that can least afford to pay. But no one said that justice is cheap. States such as Alabama can't have their the luxury (bad description) of the death penalty without the obligation of a fair judicial process.

Third, the entire process must be streamlined. I have no idea how to do this, but when a man waits 25 years to die for mudering someone, it is doubtful that the victim's family feels much justice has taken place or that any other potential murderers are encouraged to think twice. The Chinese government can accuse, arrest, and kill an accused criminal within a week... this is obviously wrong. But is it unrealistic to expect the punishment to be meaded out in 5 years or less? It is under current expenditures.

Until steps such as these are taken, I can't endorse the death penalty in the U.S.. But, if other countries are willing to have these and similar measures, I think that they should have the death penalty. And my opinion on this has been the same for over a year now... England hasn't made me soft or anything, My experience watching the evening news in the UK is that a murder will usually get a criminal 7-10 years in jail. That is a mockery of the notion of justice, too.

Cadbury World

2005-03-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

I took Mary's mom and dad to Cadbury World today. They had a good time and brought back mucho chocolato. I had to work on my sermon for Easter tomorrow and Mary and Helen were still ill. For supper we had a delightful meal at a nearby pan-Asian/Indian restaurant oddly named "Martin's Place". One of the owners was our waiter, and when he deduced that Dr. Robinson was an MD he was sure to get plenty of free medical advice. He got some advice on high-protein foods from Mary, too. I sat and smiled. He did give us some free coffee and offered to personally deliver food to our home sometime if we just call and place an order.

This reminds me that I forgot to post about our delectable dinner on Wednesday night only a few blocks from our house. I took the in-laws to Casa Italia for the best outside-of-Italy Italian food I've ever had. Props to my friend Lewis for the suggesting it.

Our preacher just called up and reminded me that "daylight savings time" begins tonight. I wasn't aware that they had such a thing over here and, further, I wouldn't have anticipated it a week before our American one. We'll see if the change affects church attendance.

Save the Wales

2005-03-25T02:04:00.000-08:00

My in-laws and I went to Wolverhampton and over into Welshpool (Wales) yesterday afternoon. We went to Wolverhampton to get a copy of an old family marriage certificate, which the family actually already has. When we discovered that we could not get a photocopy, just a handwritten one, we thought our trip was in vain UNTIL we saw St. Peter's Church on the oldest piece of land in Wolverhampton (since the formation of the community). The church was built in 1425 on land given by the patroness Wulfruna (picture of her statue here) in 994 A.D. The Wolver part of Wolverhampton comes from her name. One of the wonderful things about being here is that one can stumble upon history like this. Almost every region has a church/building/monument/story like this that goes back hundreds, nay thousands, of years.

Welshpool was not disappointing either. The drive into Wales was georgeous. The weather was pleasant, and the landscape picturesque -- picture the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee x 2 with lush green pastures and neat fence rows (and no briars, weeds, or kudzu!). Because of the slow growth of greenery there, pastures look almost manicured. We stopped at the visitor center in Welshpool and found bookd for sale listing burials and baptisms. While we didn't find reference to Dr. Robinson's ancestor, Mary Waring (Warren when she married in England), we did find several Warings listed who were almostly certainly her kin. We bought one of the books and then drove to nearby Powis Castle, which we viewed only from the outside but were impressed by. The farm there has sheep (ewe's had numbers spray painted on their sides and their lambs had the corresponding numbers painted on them, too!) and tiny native deer.

The entire trip took about 7 hours, which was 30 minutes longer than it should have taken except for the fact that I got us lost a couple of times... even did a good re-enactiment of the famous European vacation scene... "Look kids, big ben, parliament."

Distracted

2005-03-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

Mary went with her dad this morning and came back with Muesli cereal... another reason not to take Willie Robinson with you when you shop. I took the (O')Robinsons to the city centre today, specifically to the Bullring. Mary had to stay home with Helen who has yet to shake her cold. Breaks my heart to hear her cough. I pray she gets better soon... and I will not rest well until she does. On the upside, its nice to literally have a doctor in the house. The highlight of the afternoon for me was a traditional English tea time near the canalside with my in-laws.

Mary, her dad and I went out to eat at Old House at Home. We tried Balti for the first time... good... very "Indian".... but certainly worth another go. We concluded our evening with coffee and deep discussion. I don't know what the ladies were talking about, but the men were discussing whether the Western Classics (including Greek and Roman) should be taught in American public schools; Dr. Robinson being for, me being against. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have had those things, but, practically, I don't think they are as important as many claim. Oddly, I think BK would have been on Dr. R's side because he bemoans (as often I do) how lacking his K-12 education was. I think the majority of people who care about that stuff are hyper-educated, like we three (and it is supposed to be "we", not "us"). Needless to say, the point is moot because it ain't gonna happen.

Now for rapid fire:

1) Anytime anyone has nice things to say about me in a blog, I have to give props and 15 bonus points on an essay grade. But Jon, remember that, in America, its not Lew's name that is used to refer to the water closet...

2) What do I say about our dinner with the 5 Koreans and an Irishmen? The boys, 12 and 10, were bored but polite. The parents, Cha (my student) and Yaeshin, were extremely complementary of us and America. Their two-year-old, Esther, was a doll. Rodney, another student, is an experienced missionary with an understanding of America and and great sense of humor and a lovely Irish twang. They all seemed to like the chili, except for the boys who opted for the pizza (of course).

3) Nice to see comments from J-Dog and Fat Gorilla. Finally found a way rouse y'all, huh?

4) For Jenny P., to listen to UA games go to http://www.730ump.com/ and click on listen live.

5) Its Cadbury Museum tomorrow along with pick-up-the-rental-car-time tomorrow afternoon. Oh,the sheer bliss it will be to change gears with no difficulty, to achieve 60+ mph, to have at least some confidence that we will reach desired destinations. Cars are great... gas is bad.

6) In honor or our coming to MTSU soon, they decided to have Bill Cosby come. Y'all shouldn't have.

7) One last pointless rave. We need a decent plural "you" in English. We used to have one -- "ye" -- a la King James Version. That form died, but now we are one of the few modern languages without a plural second-person noun. As conservatives debate whether or not to translate biblical passages as "Brethren" (archaic), "Brothers" (literal but too specific) and "Brothers and sisters" (too much "filling in the gaps"), a strange thing is happening to modern English -- "you guys" is becoming the informal plural "you". This is no good. First of all, it uses the masculine to refer to a mixed gender crowd (which is the opposite of the rest of the English evolution). Second, we Southerners already have a perfectly suitable form -- "y'all", or "yall" for convenience. It suffices. And many of us have a dislike for the yankee "you guys" even though it is more and more common in the South. I became convinced of our need to resist when I noticed many Brits using this phrase!! Now that is too much American TV!! So, let us put away our silly games and agree upon a proper term. I think we can do that, don't y'all?

Greeks bearing Gifts

2005-03-21T22:01:00.000-08:00

The Robinsons arrived today at around 10 am with many goodies... including Mountain Dew. Mary's dad accompanied me to Queen's College and had a look around Edgbaston while I worked for a couple of hours. We walked all the way home (approx. 3 miles), got some fish and chips near our house, and proceeded to consume more grease than should be legal. We plan to have some fun at the city centre tomorrow. Will blog it...

Taught my last "Gospel of John" class today... feel like I know enough about it now to teach it.

I forgot to blog on American sports logos last Thursday. Over the past 2 1/2 months, I have seen 396 New York Yankees caps/shirts (not Yankees fans mind you, just folks who know the NY stands for New York and like it), one Atlanta Braves cap, and a University of Tennessee T-shirt. The UT shirt was worn by a Queen's College student, a woman studying to become an Anglican vicar. I asked her if she liked UT, and she said that she loved Memphis, and the States in general, having returned from a 1-month stay in November. This surprised me mostly because she appeared to be a lesbian. Now, I'll admit that she never said as much, but she seemed to hint at it, and she "looked the part" (though this is certainly debatable). But she made it clear that she'd prefer to live in the States. Could it be because American Anglicans (Episcopalians) allow homosexual clergy while the Church of England does not? I have no idea and admit that I am speculating in ignorance. But, if I am right, her love of Tennessee is particularly ironic.

Now to less controversial issues... I'm now third in my NCAA "pick 'em" pool. I am optimistic on my chances of winning. I picked 10 of the sweet 16. The number one slot is occupied by one C. Smith, who picked 11 of the sweet 16. No. 2 is going downhill slowly, so I'll probably be contending soon. BK has a decent shot according to his potential points remaining, but he only picked 8 of the sweet 16.

J-Dog criticized by pick against UAB. Now that they have finally succumbed, let me lay out 5 reasons to always pick against the Blazers.
1) The UAB football program exists to suck a couple of decent in-state players away from AU and UA, thus diminishing the title hopes of either. For example, I don't doubt that UAB had one defensive back good enough to replace Will Herring. This DB would have had more sense than to bite on the fake reverses UT used to keep the SEC championship game interesting. With its blow out win, AU would have made a decent argument for playing USC.

2) Their fan base is 278 people... oh wait, 277... one just died.

3) One of the 10 lamest mascots in college sports. Its a dragon, not a blazer. This is a blazer.

4) I got a parking ticket from campus police, which I ignored.

5) My favorite Birmingham football team is Aston Villa.

This web really is world-wide

2005-03-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

If you've never thought about it before, let me suggest to you that the internet is, on the whole, a cool thing. Below, I will lay out a few reasons why this is true.

1) As I type, I am listening to the NCAA tournament, specifically Gonzaga vs. Texas Tech. The internet is still such a difficult thing to patrol that I'm almost 100% sure that that the station I am listening to does not have permission to broadcast the tourney over the net. Its one of those "listen live" channels. Now, there are several places where one must pay to listen to the tournament on the internet, but good old WBAL in Baltimore does it pro bono. It was in 2001 that I discovered that there is almost always a station airing for free what others wanted money for. Just last week, I listened to Alabama play on a station in Huntsville's, sight (The Ump), while Alabama's official site wanted me to pay, as did espn.com.

2) Google. Google is the reason that I knew about good old WBAL, and The Ump, and just about every interesting thing I've read on the internet over the past three years.

3) The fact that we are over here right now would almost certainly have been impossible without the internet. First, google helped me find the University of Birmingham and the fact that it offers the External Programme. The internet allowed me to research, apply, and register. In addition, I was able to get approval for my research, communicate at length with my supervisor before committing, and even buy the tickets to get here. Before we arrived, I had a general idea of what rent would be, where we'd need to live, and what the average weather was like. Sure, all of these things could have been done without the net, but the sheer work involved in half of them without the internet would have certainly been enough to quash the thing.

4) Communication. Yahoo IM has allowed our families to keep up with the drastic changes Helen has undergone over the past three months, and allowed her to hear and see her grandparents... all for free. That beats the $1 a minute one would have had to have paid to call here just ten years ago. Come to think of it, the internet has allowed people to price search in such a powerful way that plane tickets are the best example of its power. Tickets to Europe from the U.S. were well over $1000, even over $1500, until the past 10 years or so. I got a roundtrip ticket in January to London for $282 total. Now that is a deal, and yes, I found it on the internet.

5) Back to google. The image search function allows one to find a picture of absolutely anything he could imagine. Just for a test, I'll search for "fat gorilla" and see what happens... 39 results... this is my favorite. Now, I'll try "scott mcelroy". Ouch!! Maybe I accidentally did "fat gorilla" again.

6) Email.

I could think or more, but why don't you read this article on The Advantages of the Internet, written in 1996. Only 9 years old, but already seems quaint. Once again, just found it with google.

I will blog about our truly enjoyable day in the city centre today and all the fun we had last night with our guests later. And Texas Tech just took the lead.

Missing the Madness

2005-03-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

I have this sneaky suspicion that BK is only blogging about the NCAA tournament because he knows that I am being deprived of it. I can, however, blame my weak picks in our little tourney showdown on the fact that I haven't been able to keep up with basketball... to many important things. Here's a link to my picks.

Second, also following BK's lead, I've decided to insert pictures of my baby in my blogs... always helps with the "Aw!" effect. I do wish I could afford the expensive BK camera, though!

Other random thoughts:

I saw a fox in Selly Oak the other day, on the campus of Birmingham Christian College. I think he was flaunting the fact that he can no longer be legally hunted over here. Though he probably is in much greater danger darting among the vehicles.

Spring is in the air here. Today it got up to 62 degrees or so, lots of sun. In fact, here's a pic from my (piece of junk) webcam as I type.

If you look hard enough you will notice (1) Helen in left corner of the couch playing with the dangling ornaments on her favorite coat and providing a distinct play-by-play, (2) the sun shining into the window revealing a beautiful day, (3) Mary coming in from the clothes-line. Our normal clothes dryer has been the radiator, but the past two days have afforded some of nature's dryness.

Tonight we're having more company... students of mine. 5 Koreans and an Irishman. Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke, huh? The 5 Koreans are a student or mine named Cha, his wife and their 3 kids. The Irishman, Rodney, is also a student. He hails from Belfast in Northern Ireland, ie UK, not the nation of Ireland or whatever the technical term is for it.

And why are Chinese phone books so frustrating? So many Wong numbers.

I almost missed St. Patty's day

2005-03-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

Now, there are many reasons why one could pass the entire day of March 17th and not realize that it was St. Patrick's Day.
1. In England, the holiday is about as important as the 4th of July. Because England is not a Catholic nation, nor has its history with the Irish been rosy, there has been almost no hint of it on TV, in stores, in green clothing, etc.. Notable exceptions are in those areas with strong Irish immigrant communities (inner-city Birmingham being one).

2. Having grown up in smalltown Alabama, there were about as many Catholics as there were Jews around, so St. Patrick's Day had almost no significance. Sure, you see the occasional shamrocks, leprechauns, and many folks feel obliged to wear something green, but it doesn't count as a holiday in any sense of the word in Moulton. This also brings me to another sore subject, that of Scots-Irish heritage (which many Southerners claim). Many of these Alabamians descended from Scots-Irish assume that their ancestors were the ones who instituted St. Patty's Day oh so many years ago. I certainly did growing up. Most are ignorant of the fact, as I was, that any Irish heritage they could lay claim was Northern Irish, aka Ulster Scots, aka Scots brought to Northern Ireland thanks to the British, aka the ones that are staunchly anti-Catholic, anti-St. Patrick, and anti-IRA. Even more disappointing is the fact that my Scottish ancestors were almost certainly "lowland Scots" who (a) didn't speak Gaelic, but a dialect close to English (Scots), (b) didn't wear kilts and tartans and all that jazz. Sure, those things have come to be associated with Scotland, but they belong to the Scottish Highlanders. But, what the hay, we Americans have never let a little thing like history keep us from having a little fun. Kind of brings into question the whole "Highland Games" thing, too. I'm tired of looking for any more links on the Scots-Irish immigration to America, so here is a sub-par one.

There are, of course, plenty of Irish Americans around, particularly around Boston but also in just about every corner of America. Many of them keep close tabs with the Emerald Isle. The ties between Boston and Ireland are still so strong, in fact, that the cheapest and most frequent service to Ireland from the U.S. is Aer Lingus airlines from Boston to Dublin (or Shannon). These people are the ones who really get into St. Patty's Day.

It is worth noting, however, that for the most part St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday in Ireland (with SPD being a day to break the fast of Lent), whereas in America it is more of a celebration and an excuse to publicly parade everything ever associated with Ireland. My favorite Irish American who loves to poke fun at his ancestry (and everything else for that matter) is Conan O'Brien. It's almost too good to be true -- his name is Irish, he is Catholic, he is from Boston, he is red-headed. I was reminded today of a thing he did on his show, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, a couple of years ago when he went to Ireland to see the land of his ancestors. He found a small castle on a tiny peninsula in Ireland called "O'Brien Castle". As he stood in front of the castle, wind howling at at least 50 mph in the bitter cold, barely able to stand up, he said, "This is O'Brien Castle... I can't imagine why my ancestors left this place." And this morning, as the winds got up to an ungodly ferocity (as they often do here) I was asking myself the same question. The other incredibly funny thing that Conan did that episode was to go into an Irish elementary school classroom and teach the kids interesting facts like "the most famous Irish American is... Shaquille O'Neal."

But, in all fairness, by the afternoon today was the most spring-like of any thus far. Sunny, a little on the cold side, but good enough to allow Mary, Helen, and me (and every dog around here that needed to relieve itself) to enjoy a walk in the Warley Woods near our house.

Mary's parents arrive in 4 days. We can't wait!

I knew I wasn't dreaming it...

2005-03-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

Today I got into a long discussion about, amongst other things, the English tendency to pronounce an "r" to the end of words that dont' have them -- "ideaR", "AmericaR", and the tendency to not pronounce r's at the end of words - ladder = ladduh, mother = mothah, etc. Because, I know at least one of my English friends will be reading this, I'll take it easy on him!!

But the best thing about it all was the fact that neither of my buddies acknowledged this (as I deemed it) obvious trait of the English. They granted that the "r" at the the end of words was supposed to be soft or silent, but said that they'd never noticed the addition of an "r" at the end of a word. I must have heard the football team "Aston Villa" pronounced "Aston Villar" at least 100 times since being here, but they claimed to never have heard it!! Well, thank God for google. After a little searching, I came across what is termed the "intrusive 'r'". The description is:
This phenomenon is known as intrusive r, and because there is no "r" in the spelling of these words. It is often frowned on by school teachers and others as being "incorrect". The use of intrusive r is so automatic that speakers are usually unaware of it. Generally, if a speaker with a south-eastern accent fails to use the intrusive [r], especially after words like idea or Canberra then it is likely that he/she learnt English as a second language.

And there is also a technical term for the silent or soft "r" - nonrhotic:

A rhotic speaker is one who pronounces as a consonant postvocalic
"r", i.e. the "r" after a vowel in words like "world" /wV"rld/.  A
nonrhotic speaker either does not pronounce the "r" at all /wV"ld/
or pronounces it as a schwa /wV"@ld/.  British Received
Pronunciation (RP) and many other dialects of English are nonrhotic.

Many nonrhotic speakers (including RP speakers, but excluding
most nonrhotic speakers in the southern U.S.) use a "linking r":
they don't pronounce "r" in "for" by itself /fO:/, but they do
pronounce the first "r" in "for ever" /fO: 'rEv@/.  Linking "r"
differs from French liaison in that the former happens in any
phonetically appropriate context, whereas the latter also needs
the right syntactic context.
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxrhotic.html

There are 2 interesting things to note here:
1. The intrusive "r" is usually seen as a sign of a Southern redneck in the U.S. - "I'm going WaRshington D.C. next week." "My mom is from ChicaRgo". Reminds me of home. That's why I was surprised to find it so prevalent here. Note: the intrusive "r" also creeps in around non-Southern areas, too.

2. About the nonrhotic speakers in the southern U.S. - Many people wrongly assume that the Southern accent is non-rhotic... "Miss Scahlett". This accent tends to pervade coastal Virginia, South Carolina, much of Georgia, most of South Alabama, and is present in (wannabe?) aristocratic North Alabamians. It's what I call the "Old South" accent. The one exception I can think of is the word "cuss", a nonrhotic form of "curse". However, we have an old recording of Mary's Middle Tennessee native maternal grandfather preaching (he died before she was born) and on the tape he pronounces the name "Cornelius" (Acts 10) as a charming "Coh-nelius".

One more thing: "Mind the gap" means be careful around the space between the platform and the train. "Pop a cap" means...

Guide to the Media

2005-03-13T14:31:00.000-08:00

Stole this from Oxblog:
THE OXBLOG GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL MEDIA:*

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like the statistics shown in pie charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.

10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country ... or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for.

11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

They call it that Good Ol' Mountain Dew

2005-03-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

As I blogged earlier, on Thursday night we had 4 folks over. One couple consisted of Louise (my student) and her boyfriend Tristan. The other couple was Matt and his fiancee Becky. Much like the last time we had company, we had a great time. However, there was no one present with Jon and Matt's musical ability.

Louise is the only female student in my classes (but she's used to it by now). She works with a children's ministry at a Anglican church in Solihull. Tristan works for a marketing company (not telemarketing), and gets a new company car every and free gas! That's the equivalent of a $20,000 a year raise! He was the major talker of the bunch. He grew up on the family farm in Ireland until he was 10, then moved to England with his family. About 5 years ago his grandparents were getting too old to keep the farm up so they had to sell it-- a travesty considering that it had been in the family for 300 years!!! Tristan was also the reason that we decided to order pizza (he's a very picky eater), but that made it easier on Mary.

Matt has one of the best dry wits I've ever known. He'll be quiet for quite a while, then pipe up with some comment that leaves me rolling. They all admitted that they liked America, and Tristan and Matt gave their reasons. Tristan loves the weather and the cars... plans to honeymoon in the U.S.... fly into NYC, rent a Mustang convertable and drive it to Florida. But Matt's appreciation for the U.S. hit home... Mountain Dew! He said that they had it here until 9 years ago when Pepsi apparently gave up on its potential in the UK. This was a tough blow to Matt and he has yet to recover. However, I assured him that I'd bring some MD back with me.
He said that he and Bex would like to tour the U.S. sometime, but it will probably be in a Winnebago. I'm doing my best to convince every friend I make over here that, if he/she ever comes to the U.S., he/she must visit us in Tennessee. I'm really hoping that they take us up on the offer.

A random thought: Every time I ride the train I see a sign that says "Mind the gap." This demonstrates a major difference in British and American English. They use the word "mind" in its classical-verb-form - "watch out for" or "be careful". That usage is no longer around in the U.S. (at least not the South). Our one holdover is "Mind your manners". The only other verbal usage is, I think, "obey"... "Mind your mother".

Getting lazy

2005-03-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

I blogged a few days ago that I planned to do a half-marathon in Milton Keynes in March. Well, today is the day, but I'm not on my way. There are 2 major reasons for this. (1) Around two weeks ago I discovered that our church is having a Men's Day today, and I felt like I needed to be there. (2) There is no easy way to get to Milton Keynes. By "easy" I mean trip on a bus/train that would take less than 1 1/2 hours and cost less than 20 pounds roundtrip. So I'm off to the Men's Day in a few minutes. We expect men from all over the UK to be there.

I appreciate comments from my friends Lisa and Milan in the metro-D.C. area. Doesn't Milan think its cool that we've been to Milan? And, to Lisa, I expect my readers to be cultured enough to have seen one of the greatest artistic works of the aughts (00's), Napoleon Dynamite, and to recognize the fact that the picture to the right serves only to represent my supremely cultured taste. And I plan to rotate other stupid pictures in, too.

I started this post at around 8am this morning but had to leave to make it to the Men's Day on my bike. Arriving home just a few minutes ago, I discovered (a) my daughter has learned to ooze around the entire room on her belly and back, performing a series of flips, flops, and slides that can't really be called "crawling", (b) three other people have commented on my previous blog and (c) the preacher at Men's Day was Scottish and just as hard to understand as our normal preacher.

Now we're off to the High Street to buy turkey meat, a shirt for Mary, and a thank you card... the usual Saturday afternoon stuff.

I plan to blog about our supper guests last Thursday night later today.

Comments anyone?

2005-03-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

I finally changed the setting so that a potential commenter will not have to register. Don't know why I didn't notice how to do this before.

A moment of silence

2005-03-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Shall we all bow our heads and remember the £170 car that is no more. It is in a better place now... out of my sight and into the junkyard (scrap yard). This is how its demise came about:

On Wednesday afternoon we decided to take a little trip into Wales just to say we'd been there. I bought £9 worth of gas and managed to find third gear as we departed. Shifting from third to fourth was easy, but finding first was impossible. So anytime we came to a stop I faced a dilemma - pop it into second and take off rather quickly (knowing it was remain stuck in second for an indeterminable amount of time) or leave it in third and take off very slowly, riding the clutch hard until I reached 20mph or so. I discovered that leaving it in third was not that bad, so that is where it remained. We opted to go south and west to get to Wales, not the most direct route, but one that avoided the major highways (in case we got stuck in second again!). We drove about 15 miles to a town called Kidderminster and decided that the car was doing fine. Thus, we were ready to do the next 40 miles or so into Wales. On occasion, I'd have to stop while the car was pointing up hill which made it difficult to start off in third, but the little car managed it alright. However, Mary and I did notice a not-so-comforting burning smell whenever we had to do this. I figured it was the clutch and that it had plenty of miles left in it. Oops.

We got about 10 miles outside of Kidderminster (we went 60mph for a while!) and started up a hill. The countryside around was fantastic. About half-way up the hill, I pushed the clutch in to shift down, and the clutch went in.... way in... all the way to the floorboard. I made a split second decision to turn into a long driveway and stop, knowing starting again would be impossible. Mary and I looked at each other wondering aloud, "What are we going to do now?". Thankfully, it was the warmest day we'd had in a long time. I got out of the car and walked toward a nice, large estate on this huge farm. The driveway was about 1/4 mile long. It took a minute, but I found the owner. To make an already-too-long story shorter, after a few calls on his cell phone and two hours of waiting a tow truck showed up. The farmer's name was Ron, and he was incredibly nice to us, letting Mary and Helen stay in the house until the tow truck came. Helen even got to see color TV for the first time since leaving the states.

The guy who drove the truck was really nice, too. He'd been all over Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia back in 1996. His parents are huge Elvis fans (there are an inordinate number of those here, BTW) so they had to see Graceland. Anyway, he dropped us off at the Kidderminster train station and took our car to the scrap yard. We all agreed that the car was not worth fixing. It cost £90 to have the thing towed, and £8 for two train tickets back home. If I'd spent that money plus the £170... I'd of still had a piece-of-junk car. However, I must admit that I had this warm feeling as we boarded the train. I'll never see that car again. It will frustrate me no more. We will have to take the bus to church again, but only twice before we return to the states for a while. When Mary's parents come, we'll rent a car and use it for transportation.

So we've only been half-way to Wales.

I do apologize for those of you who took great delight in laughing at me because of my car. You'll have to find some other stupid decision I've made to mock.

In other news, BK is stirring up trouble in North Alabama again, and the Auburn men actually won a post-season basketball game. Why is it that we dominate Tennessee teams so?

And one more thing about Elvis... his greatest hits CD was released here in January, and Love Me Tender went to #1 here, making him the first artist to ever have a #1 hit for 100 weeks in the UK. So, Elvis is bigger than the Beatles, even in England!!

Imagine my surprise

2005-03-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

When I checked my most recent blog and already had 6 comments. Of course, they were from 2 people, but hey.... 6 is 6. Now, to address them:

BK is a turnip for forgetting White Sauce... that is enough.

Again, let the record show that I didn't claim that BK left out Nesmith's hamburgers altogether, just that he (quote) "didn't give it proper recognition". I emphasize proper. A sidenote at the end of #10 is not proper. I thought PhD students were supposed to read more carefully.

And could it be that I was the one that misinterpreted BK? Did someone else suggest he disliked Alabama? Was it Bobby B.? I must know if BK was only pulling my leg.

Props to Capes for the spellcheck. Now check out this map of American dialects... only somewhat accurate.

Blog War!!! I was miscontrued!! BK must recant!!

2005-03-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, its not that serious, but one of my best friends (the Brits would say "mates", but it sounds a little too weird to most American ears... pity, because it conveys what I mean better than "friend") whose initials are BK interpreted a previous blog of mine as stating that he "disliked" Alabama. Let the record show that my exact wording was "It seems he rather enjoys living on the fringes of the South after having spent his entire life in the Deep South." I chose my words carefully then, and even contemplated elaborating on what I meant. I'm actually glad that he misunderstood my comments because (a) it allows me to ramble on about what it means to be an Alabamian and (b) the misunderstanding an enjoyable top 10 list from BK on the beauties of Lawrence County. So let me explain...

I have never understood BK to dislike or despise Alabama. What I do suspect is that one of the reasons he enjoys living in Gainesville, FL is the fact that it is on the "fringes" of the South. Alabama is 100% pure-dee (never actually had to spell that before) Southern, which means it has both the good and bad elements of the South's history. Politics in Alabama can be particularly frustrating, so I can see why it might be nice to live close but not too close. For this reason, I postulated vis-a-vis (the PhD thing is going to my head) BK's feelings about his homeplace. Having lived "away" in Southern Middle Tennessee for a while, I can relate a little. Of course, BK's other excuse was his hope that he'd get better football and basketball from UF than UA. In fact, one could argue that BK's arrival in Gainesville prompted the mediocrity we've seen from UF of late. Hmmmm..........?

I remember reading a good book called "North Toward Home" by Willie Morris, a Mississippian. At one point, he admitted that, while he was in graduate school "up north", when someone asked him where he was from (noticing his Southern accent), he'd say "North Carolina," simply because it didn't have the same stigma (in his mind) that Mississippi has. I am not suggesting that this is what BK thinks, but I ackowledge that I sometimes wear a chip on my shoulder when it comes to Alabama. It is the place that the entire country views as "backward" (and sometimes for good reason), but I'd rather hear criticism of my home state from other Alabamians instead of outsiders, and certainly not Northerners. One could argue that my adopted state and soon-to-be home, Tennessee, is practically Alabama made over, but there are definite differences. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that Tennessee is only 98.2% Southern. Ouch!! Besides, corn don't grow up on Old Rocky Top.

I know...blah, blah, blah. Enough of my waxing on the finer points of being from Alabama. On to MY top 10 list about Lawrence County (with some overlap with BK):

10. Tennessee River (see BK's #4)
9. Southern accent. I can't tell you how many times I've heard my in-laws bemoan the fact that "we are loosing our Southern accent". And in many places, that is true. But not Lawrence County, AL. I reference Ross Nelson's use of the word "yeller".
8. The flat "I". This might be a subset of #8, and will be difficult to explain in type. But Lawrence Countians are foremost among North Alabamians in their use of the flat, versus dip-thonged, "i". Most Americans pronounce the letter "i" as a dipthong (two vowel sounds together) and it comes out like "ah-ee". If you are from Lawrence County, you don't ever say it that way (though props must go to the Lauderdale County girls Lindsay and Sonya). In LC, "i" is one flat "i". Most country music songs prefer this form. Having married into a family of Middle Tennesseeans, I know that most Southerners use both forms. They pronounce the "i" in "night" different than the "i" in "five". Its obvious that I've thought way too much about this, huh? Anyway, I love to hear the consistent flat "i". For Moultonites reading this, this flat "i" is not easily adopted by newcomers. I reference Ross Nelson's dad, Ken, who did most of his growing up in LC, but still has a touch of South Alabama in him and thus says "light" and "white" different than his son, daughter, and wife.
7. The "finger" wave (not the "one finger salute"). In LC it is customary to acknowledge the presence of an oncoming driver when approaching, but there is no need for a full wave (unless you know the person well). Just raise the pointer finger off of the steering wheel. In some places, they apparently learn it early.
6. Moulton Automotive. BK like the car washes, I like the car fixes. One of the few places where you can trust the mechanic to fix the problem and charge a reasonable price. And a place where I am "the Strickland boy" still.
5. Nesmith's hamburgers. C'mon BK... didn't give it proper recognition. Shame. Shame. A side note that, in N Alabama, you're never far from good barbeque (barbecued pork for you outsiders) and that fine concotion known as WHITE SAUCE (use the flat "i" please). And, by the way, Nesmith's is another place where I am still "the Strickland boy".
4. The variety of terrain. Cotton country, mountains, hills... we've got it all.
3. Jesse Owens Run and Music in the Park. BK listed the festivities in general, but single out the 10k which I've run more than any other (and plan to henceforth... except for '05 of course). Music in the Park is a newer tradition where local bands entertain for free. Its incredibly pleasant on a nice summer night.
2. The small-townness of Moulton. Its not just that everybody knows everybody, but there are alot of good, caring people there. The best evidence is when a loved one dies. Having attended an inordinate number of funerals for a man my age, I've seen how communities react to losing one of their own. I like how Moulton cares... especially with food.
1. I have to concur with BK... Bankhead National Forest. Good for hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, and running... and I've spent a decent amount of time doing all of these things and some others. I left canoeing out on purpose...

I left out anything about lax traffic laws, but I will mention that, when Mary was in labor and we left the house we ran a red light directly in front of a policeman who was so entertained with his conversation that he didn't even bother to see if we had an excuse.

Now I am blogged out.

And the wind will whisper your name to me...

2005-03-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

I came across this site the other day, Skinny's Wav Page, which has many of my favorite songs. I think this is legal because the wav files are low quality and not desirable for burning to a CD or MP3 player. However, if one turns his head away from the computer, he gets a little feeling that he's listening to an old one-speaker radio. I can't figure out a method to Skinny's madness in selecting artists, but he seems to prefer older stuff (90's or earlier), and the "greatest hits" of most artists. When I started blogging a few minutes ago, I was listening to John Denver's "For Baby, for Bobbie"... and morning bells will chime.

I just listened to a fascinating program on the BBC 4 website on "Gnosticism", an entity that can be elusive in definition. The interviewees were Tim Freek (sp.?), Michael Green, and Mark Goodacre. Wait...I'm on Hank Williams Sr. now... and as I wonder where you are, I'm so lonesome I could cry... The irony is that I covered Gnosticism and the Gospel of John in my GoJ class this morning. The new interest in gnostic documents like the Gospel of Thoma s is, in my opinion, a prelude to a coming swell (in certain circles) of disdain for all things "orthodox" in Christianity. Popularized by flimsy stuff like The DaVinci Code, more and more people will assume that the record we have in the biblical gospels is just that of the "establishment", aka the early Catholic church, bent on maintaining power and crushing resistance, so that any version of Christianity from the first few hundreds years of the church is "valid.' Not that this is that new of a notion, but the opinion seems to be gaining steam. Anyway, you'll hear some hint of the potential for this in the BBC piece, and I think you'll also hear a solid rebuttal from Michael and Mark
... now its the Stanley Brothers ...There's an old holler tree down the road here from me...

We ate out for the first time since being here. I know, we've been here for over 2 months, but the desire to keep a control on the budget and Mary's ability to cook have left us reluctant to eat out much. Anyway, we had a good "English" meal. I ate "Cottage Pie" (though mine didn't look that good), and Mary had the traditional "Fish & Chips". Both were enjoyable, and Helen loved the high chair and the onlookers from nearby tables.

And lets close with....
Tennessee, Tennessee, a thousand miles from here...." (Homer & Jethro)

English Tea is NOT Sweet Tea Material

2005-03-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

As I blogged yesterday, we had four folks over for supper last night. I attempted to make sweet tea using English tea bags (I figured that it was brown tea...). Alas, the result was not kind to the tastebuds. English tea has too much of an herbal kick to be good cold and sweet... so down the drain it went. However, the chili made was great and everyboday had seconds. Nothing like chili on a cold night.

Our guests were Jon and his wife Sue, and Lou and his fiancee Hannah. We had great fun eating, talking, listening to music, and enjoying the guys strumming away on on their guitars (no offense, O.P., but Lou has got you beat). I was struck by how many country/bluegrass songs Lou knows. They both knew lots of American music.... Eagles, R.E.M., John Denver, Pearl Jam... and some I'd never heard of. I was also struck by the fact that Helen slept through the entire thing... a remarkable feat considering the fact that our house is inordinately loud. The guys were particularly entertained by the song "I'm my own grandpa" by Grandpa Jones. I'm encouraging Lou to translate it into Black Country dialect, his native tongue, and make himself famous. After the jam session we enjoyed coffee, hot tea, and biscuits (cookies, of course). I loaned my DVD of UHF to Lou (lest he miss out on one genuine piece of Americana). When they were leaving at around 11:30, it began to snow. By 12:30 there was an inch covering everything. So that makes snow on 10 of the past 14 days... but the talk is that we've seen our last.

We've decided that Yahoo Messenger must be one of the greatest inventions of modern man. Today we chatted with my family, and with Amy and J-Dog P. using the voice chat option. Basically, a free phone call, complete with video.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... It seems our friendly neighborhood preacher, William F., had some time to construct a little verse mocking my "2nd gear plight". Here it is:

When the hill,
first I saw.
'Twas quite a thrill,
for me and maw.
But baby Helen,
the back seat queen.
Lay fast asleep,
she didn't scream.
As the hill approaches,
I'm gripped in fear
Will I get this bloomin'
thing out of 2nd gear?

Random Thoughts

2005-03-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

I entitled this post with a nod to Thomas Sowell, American conservative intellectual, whose best articles, in my opinion, are those which he titles "Random Thoughts".

I only discovered on Tuesday that the Brits make a distinction between practice and practise, with practice being the noun and practise the verb. My discovery came when Mark Goodacre was reading a text from Paul out of an American translation which he had printed on his handouts for everyone. His passage was Galatians 5:21, where Paul writes "I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Mark's remark was, "Of course, the correct English spells the verb form with an 's' not a 'c'." He did not say this jokingly, nor did anyone laugh, except for me to myself. One side of me admits that it seems reasonable that the English have a right to determine how to spell things in English. The other side takes solace in the fact that, one day in the near future, they will simply adapt to our form (because it is simpler and because we are taking over the place).

Just when I thought the snow was gone for good... yesterday was a sunny day with a high in the mid-40's... quite pleasant. I thought we'd seen the last of the white stuff, until I awoke this morning to find a half-inch or so covering the sidewalk and road. In fact, today was the messiest day I've had on my bike. Because (a) it was still so cold when I left that the sidewalks were covered the entire way, and (b) it rained "freezing rain" the entire time. And for the record, that is 9 of the past 13 days we've had snow.

We're having 4 folks over tonight -- 2 students and 2 significant others. Mary is making chili, and I plan to try my hand at some sweet tea (though I doubt English tea is the right stuff). Lou plays the banjo and John the guitar, so we... um, they... are going to do some jamming. Helen will love it. And I'll introduce them to one of my favorite bluegrass songs by Grandpa Jones, "The Banjo Am the Instrument for Me."

My friend John Hull, one of the most amazing people I've ever met, was elated today to discover that his personal website had over 640 hits in the past month. I wish I could tell you everything about him, but why don't you visit his site (www.johnmhull.biz), improve his hit count, and see for yourself. Interestingly, there is a chance that Al Pacino's character in "Scent of a Woman" was loosely based on John!!!

Last night on the way to church, I did manage to find 3rd gear for a while. But, alas, any time I got out of 2nd and had to stop, I struggled to find other gears. Because there always seems to be someone behind me, twice I simply popped it into 2nd and drove on. But it was nice to go 45mph again. I am determined to figure out the riddle of my piece-of-junk car.

For those of you who have seen our fat cat Shelly, she apparently has a British twin, who is much like her except (a) she is thinner, (b) she eats people food, (c) she is nice and (d) she meows with a posh English accent. Here are pics 2, 3, and 4.

I've been reading BK's blog. Many things stand out to me. It seems he rather enjoys living on the fringes of the South after having spent his entire life in the Deep South. I have been reminiscing about driving on rural county roads (mostly prompted by the book I am reading, John Grisham's "The Last Juror") . I can't wait to drive the 90-mile stretch from Columbia, Tennessee to Moulton, Alabama without using the interstate again. My favorite stretches are the rolling hills just north of Pulaski, TN, and when I cross the Tennessee River on highway 101 into Lawrence County, AL, my old stomping grounds. Tennessee is not technically the Deep South, but it can lay claim to the Beverly Hillbillies.

And one last hat tip to Capes for her faithful commenting...

Hello 4th Gear

2005-03-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

I made a potentially important discovery last night on my way home from the Men's Bible Study at our church. When I started the car, it shifted into neutral, which is not that surprising. It will sometimes do this, and then I usually find that I can shift into 1st. Last night, I was able to get into 1st. What typically follows is that, when I go from 1st to 2nd, it gets stuck in 2nd. But last night I accidentally shifted from 1st to 4th. It took a minute, but I worked up all the way to 45 mph (!!!), but then I had to stop at a red light. I was able to find 1st again, and things were looking good. But when I purposefully went to 2nd it got stuck again and stayed that way all the way home. I'm hopeful that, the next time it slips out of 2nd, I can go from 1st to 3rd to 4th. If I am able to skip 2nd and find all the others, then we can do more driving trips and less bus/train trips to our destinations.

It would be difficult to describe to you some of the things you see on British TV, but Mary and I have come to like two British programs (our favorite shows over here are American ones). Our favorite Britcoms are "Look Around You" and "World Shut Your Mouth".
"Look Around You" is a spoof of a 1979-like technology show whose plot is to predict how things will change in the future. For instance, the last show, on computers, predicted that by the year 1990 there might be as many as 10,000 computers in Britain. Though I hate to do it, I have to refer you to a "new, state-of-the-art" computer game they mentioned called "Diarrhea Dan" (you can play online).
"World Shut Your Mouth" is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. The entire show is snippets of the host and/or his friends do something completely ridiculous to see what onlookers (who are unaware of the fact that they are being filmed) do. Sadly, it hasn't come on lately and I'm afraid that it might have been cancelled.

And, yes, we got about 2 inches of snow this morning. That makes 8 out of the past 11 days it has snowed here. It is warmer now so much has melted, but I think its supposed to keep snowing all day and dip below freezing in the evening.

Though you're tired of reading it...

2005-02-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, we had snow again today. Actually, late last night a dusting came through and it was still plenty cold enough this morning when I got up at 6:30 for around 1/8 of an inch or so on the road, sidewalks, and cars. The temp was in the low 20's for much of the morning... the coldest it has been since I've been here (or maybe riding on the bike just makes it feel that way).

My Gospel of John class was loads of fun today. I penciled in dates for my class members to come and eat some supper with us. We'll have 5 guests on Friday (3 students and 2 significant others), 4 next next Thursday (Thursday week; 2 students and 2 sig oth), 5 the next Friday (1 student, his wife, and 3 kids), and 2 the next Friday (1 student and his wife) when Mary's mom and dad are here.

There is still question as to whether I have to pay council tax, the local tax that pays for many local gov't services (garbage pickup, police, etc). Students don't have to pay, but, of course, I seem to be in that odd third category because we're only her for 6 months. Anyway, it turns out that they lost the first form I sent in showing my student status, so I have to drive 4 miles or so there (in 2nd gear mind you) just to give them the form that they should already have. But it appears that I won't have to pay. BTW, the tax for us would be 9o pounds per month, or around $170v- hence nothing to scoff at.

One more thing... yesterday I was asked to preach on Easter Sunday morning. They don't make a big to-do here on Easter, as most Churches of Christ don't, but still it is an honor, especially since that is when the in-laws will be here. So they come 4000 miles to hear me preach.

To Stratford... almost

2005-02-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

As I blogged yesterday, I surprised Mary this morning by suggesting that we go to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We debated whether to drive the roughly 60 mile roundtrip or to take the train. We decided to drive to the Snow Hill train station and park the car and take the train. I used the internet to find out what time the train left for Stratford. We drove to the station and parked without much trouble. We arrived with about 8 minutes to spare, or so I thought. The train left at 11:27 and I thought it was going to be 11:37. The next one wasn't arriving for another hour. Not loving thought of waiting for an hour with a baby in tow, we decided just to look around and shop in the city center. Its nice, and busy like you'd expect in a major city. We spent a couple of hours walking and window-shopping, grabbed a bite to eat, and came back home. Not the historical day we'd planned, but fun nonetheless. And, though it is raining, it has not snowed today. There is alot in the forecast. Tuesday looks like a potential day for real accumulation.

Make it 5

2005-02-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right. We've had snow for 5 days straight. Today it was on and off again, and too warm to stick. Snow was not in the forecast, so I don't know what it thought it was doing. Yesterday I sloshed around in the wet stuff for a little over 8 miles. After 5 more miles today, it is tempting to complain. Riding in 35 degree weather while getting soaked and muddy is not what I had in mind when I remarked that I hoped to see lots of snow in England, but the kid in me still loves to see the white stuff (even if it doesn't get me out of school or work).

If the weather improves tomorrow, I hope to surprise Mary with a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. So shhhhhhhh!

Just my style

2005-02-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

As promised, a pic of the snow from this morning (in the Warley Woods near our house... woods means park) and pics of my hermeneutics class here and here. Two guys were missing, presumably because of the weather.

And I came across this today and almost laughed myself into next Arbor Day. I can't seem to find the citation, but will give credit when I do. Actually, it is 2 posts; one telling America that they are once again British territory, and the other America telling Britain it is now the 51st state (even though its obvious they were both written by Brit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brits to the Americans

Dear US Citizens,

In the light of your failure to elect a human as President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up revocation; in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

2. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z'(pronounced 'zed' not zee') and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffix' ise'. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

3. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as like and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed;. There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often. There is no such thing as US English;. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted totake account of the reinstated letter 'u' . You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires; e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as Men Behaving Badly or Red Dwarf will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen;, but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American football;. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football; is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is adifficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host An event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world Beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous inpublic than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. From December 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon - get used to it).

13. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns or lawyers. The fact that you need so many lawyers shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

14. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

15. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Americans to the Brits

An even funnier one....Suggestion: Before reading this one, better to read the previous post "Brits to Americans" first...
***************************************************************

The Supreme Court of Florida has instructed me to post the followingto ensure strict balance in these turbulent times.

DECLARATION OF ANNEXATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AS PART OF THE USA

To the imperialist British colonizers,

In the light of your indecision over joining a common European Currency, your dissatisfaction with the European Union, your bickering with European Governments and the fact that you already almost speak our language and refuse to speak any other European languages, you are to be annexed as a State of America.Your state code will be GB. Zip codes will be assigned to replace your old postal districts. The state capital will be Stratford-upon-Avon which is a lot prettier than London. Princess Diana will be declared a saint. You have already assimilated so much American culture that you are unlikely to notice the transition.

To aid in the assimilation, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. Look up "aluminum" in any good American Dictionary. Check the spelling and pronunciation guide. We discovered it, we named it, you are mispronouncing it. Learn to live with it. You are, of course welcome to your idiosyncratic and illogical place-names such as Edinburgh, if you wanted it pronounced 'Eddinburra' you have spelled it that way in the first place. And as for Lye-cester... You will quit using words such as "fortnight". The correct term is "a two week period". You will learn words such as "credenza", "intern" and "chad".

2. There is no such thing as "UK English". UK English is the relic of a defunct colonialist power which attempted to impose British English linguistic superiority on a nation which has a higher number of English speakers.

3. Your film-makers should learn to distinguish the American and Canadian accents. American accents are not limited to redneck drawls or New York accents. Mainland Americans have more than enough accents to cope with in our own country, so all British dramas will now bear subtitles, especially those made in impenetrable dialects such as Scottish, Scouse or Geordie. To make life easier for mainland America, all British films and TV programs must use American vocabulary and accents; Scotch characters will wear plaid, Irish characters will have shamrocks on them, Welsh characters will not be used since we don't have Welsh Americans, and English characters will wear bowler hats and pinstripes.

4. The British film industry will no longer portray all Americans as cowboys, rednecks, trailer trash or Beverly Hills billionaires. Hollywood will continue to use "Mockney" and "Posh" British accents as this makes it easier for viewers to identify which characters are British. You can have Hugh Grant back. He's a lousy actor and we don't want him either. All British films will be made in Hollywood where the weather and scenery are better. Your film industry is already unable to make a halfway-decent film which doesn't contain a American in the starring role. All American characters should be 'good guys'.

5. You will learn your new national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner". It shall be sung every morning at kindergarten, high school, university and your places of work. Your Union Flag will be hung up any way we wish so stop whining about it being upside down. If there was meant to be a right way up you should have made it simpler. All Union flags will be replaced by the Stars and Stripes over a 12 month period of time.

6. You should stop playing soccer and rugby. There is no need to have two games, one of which is confusingly like Football and one of which is called football but patently isn't real football. If it doesn't require 45 pounds of padding, it isn't football. You should also stop playing cricket. Americans can't understand the rules. If you insist on playing this game which is only played by former British colonies, you will introduce a simplified scoring system, timeouts, colored strips and cheerleaders to make it more interesting. Any match which takes longer than 90 minutes will be declared a draw.

7. In films, as in real life, we decide who the bad guys are. The bad guys are those guys who don't do as we tell them. They are also the guys who attract the biggest audiences into movie theaters. You will cease using the word "cinema". They are "movie theaters". The snippets of forthcoming films are not "trailers" they are "teasers".

8. November 5th is no longer a day for fireworks. July 4th is the appropriate fireworks festival. If you want a big fireworks party on November 5th, we will help you to blow up your Houses of Parliament. You won't be needing them any longer; Disneyland London will be situated there. Hunting with packs of dogs is also banned. Instead, you will go hunting with a pick-up truck, some six-packs of beer, two coonhounds and enough guns and ammo to equip a private militia. There is also no such activity as "caravanning". It is properly called "camping". The thing boy scouts do with tents and bedrolls is called "tenting".

9. Roundabouts will be banned. What is the point of turning left in order to turn right? They are confusing to Americans and are death traps. You will start driving on the right with immediate effect. Most of the world drives on the right already. You will be allowed to turn right on a red light if safe to do so though you must check local county legislation as this is not permitted in all areas.

10. All inter-personal communications between family members, even if resident in the same house, must be through a lawyer. It is compulsory to sue somebody at least once per year - be inventive. It is compulsory to have therapy three times each week and to recover false memories of your childhood which allow you to sue your parents and/or your therapist. Therapy will take the place of speaking to family members. You will be given compulsory courses on how to become dysfunctional. Name your children with surnames or after interesting medical conditions.

11. You will not have guns. In the eyes of Mainland Americans you are wayward children. Children are not permitted to play with firearms unless they have a legitimate reason to do so, i.e. they plan to gun down the entire population of a small town (self-defense) or slaughter every living creature within a mile radius (hunting).

12. We'll tell you who killed JFK when you apologize for "Teletubbies".

Thank you for your time. You can now return to watching bad Australian soap operas.

PS: Regarding WW2: You're Welcome.

Thank you for your co-operation. You will be assimilated.

Make it 4

2005-02-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to about an inch and a half to two inches of snow. In fact, it has been snowing all day. The trouble is that is it about 35 degrees now, so it is all melting and everything is wet, wet, wet. I'll have pics when I can blog from home (including pics of the students in my hermeneutics class).

I'm going to call a mechanic named Max in a little while, who has been referred to me as honest, cheap, and good (my three requirements... not necessarily in that order) to see if he thinks my car can be fixed for less than £100. My first estimate was £120 plus parts, which is hard to justify for a £170 vehicle.

3 days in a row

2005-02-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today was our third day of snow in a row. Monday, as I posted earlier, saw a dusting. Tuesday morning was the best, with about an inch on the ground when we woke up. We tried to video it but somehow managed not to. Today saw yet more snow, with about half an inch or so on the ground when we awoke. It snowed pretty much all day, sometimes intensely, but the temperature was a few degrees above freezing so it didn't manage to stick. I'm hopeful for more tomorrow. Wait... let me take a peek outside to see if there is any... there appears to be a quarter inch or so on cars and bushes, but none on the roads. Apparently much of Europe felt this storm. I'll be sure to post more pics if more snow comes because I know that many in the Southeastern part of the U.S. are in the middle of quit a warm snap and have to experience winter vicariously through us or the news.

We're in the second half of my first term both as teacher and student. In many ways its going too fast. But in many others I want to be back home. Not that we have one, per se, but I still long for N Alabama and/or Middle Tennessee. I will not, however, wish our time here away simply because it will be an experience we will never be able to duplicate.

What is definitely going too fast is the clock tonight... its almost 10:30 and I haven't event typed up my outline for my hermeneutics class tomorrow - subject matter Social-Scientific Criticism and Hermenetics and Culture. I found a good lecture outline on the latter here.

SNOW!!

2005-02-21T17:50:00.000-08:00

It has finally come today. I stopped mentioning when the weatherman (uh... person) predicted snow here because thus far he'd been wrong and I'd been disappointed. The last I saw the snow was to come yesterday, but it waited until today. When I was riding my bike home it was snowing... but the kind of snow I'd never seen before. Kind of like little snow pellets. But it was not sleet. It was too light for that. It was something in between. I would call it "slow", but since that word is already taken, it was "sneet". The sneet came down hard for a few minutes, but eventually dissipated. And I was hoping to build a Sneetman or two.

It wasn't until a little after 5pm tonight that Mary looked out and saw the huge flakes. It is the second hardest snow I've ever been in (the hardest being during a drive through Virginia in March of 2000).

I took pictures. And you get the double pleasure of seeing the snow and MY PIECE OF JUNK CAR! Enjoy (pic #2).

19% of all downloads

2005-02-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

As you know, I like to sometimes get a little philosophical about the British-American relationship, which I will do after I mention 2 things:

1) Capes was right. Mary had her b'day. The trip to Italy counted as my gift. That, and the taxi we took home from the airport instead of riding the train/bus.

2) BK pointed out ties between the Italian town we visited, Aosta, and Valdosta, Georgia. It seems that former governor of Georgia, George Troup, had a plantation named after the Aosta valley in Italy (Val d'Aosta). But my attempts to find out WHY Troup picked that name were fruitless. This, by the way shows a couple of things: i) How great the internet is, 2) How much better it could be if publishers would allow their old books on the internet for free. The answer to why Troup chose the name is undoubtedly tucked away in some book in a library in Georgia, a book that has been read by three people and hasn't been checked out in 15 years. More libraries need to follow Google's cue. And, yes, that would make my research alot easier.

3) Now to the philosophical part. I chose the title of this post as it is because it shows the percentage of all illegally downloaded American TV shows in England. That's right, the English love our TV programs. Number two is not much of a surprise either... Australia. It seems our fellow English speakers can't wait a week to see the newest episode of 24 or CSI, so they download them immediately after they become available on the internet. The fact that the programs are better quality than most of the stuff they have in their countries, and the fact that they are in English is certainly the primary factor for their success. But there is something deeper underlying this trend.

Critics speak of American hegemony, and it exists in many ways. But the truth is that most of the influence of America on culture is soft hegemony... people in other countries like what they see and hear and adopt it. Unfortunately, often times they choose the worse parts of American culture (but thats the stuff of a future post). When I came to England, I did have fears of anti-Americanism, and as I posted before, I have certainly heard some. But, in general, the Brits (and Aussies for that matter) see themselves as more like America than any Western European country. That is a sweeping statement, but the longer I am here the more I believe it. As a result, much of American culture is simply swallowed here. No doubt in the past it went the other way around.

My fears that the Iraq war would make us a target for some undue comments (because we are Americans) were way off. It didn't occur to most Brits to hate America because of the war. Maybe they hate the Bush administration (this is no nearly as prevalent here as I'd imagined, either), but hating America would be unnatural. Sales in McDonald's and Gap weren't affected after the war started (as I've heard that they were in other European countries). In fact, I asked a British friend to name his top 5 favorite movies the other day, and they were all American. And the funny thing is, he'd never even thought about it. He just liked the movies. There are definitely exceptions to this kind of thinking here, but I think it is typical.

In summary, Britain is NOT little America, but she, on the whole, really likes her sister across the ocean. Smarter people than I have said these kinds of things, by the way.

Bonjiorno

2005-02-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

I waited a while to blog anything on Italy so I could reflect a little. Here are my thoughts:

1. Iris and Guiseppe are absolutely wonderful people and terrific hosts. Not only did they give us a free place to say (in the foothills of the Alps), she cooked for us every day, they treated us to meals, and they escorted us into the mountains and into Milan. Who better to see Italy with than an Italian from the area and a Texan fluent in Italian?

2. Some of the pictures I've linked to here include Flat Matthew.

3. We arrived on Monday night on time. It appeared that one of our bags was lost, but not the carseat. Just when we were about to give up, an Alitalia employee buzzed on his the walkie talkie that he found the bag. We found Iris and Guiseppe and loaded up into their spacious car. Helen enjoyed getting to ride in the carseat while in a quiet car again. It took 1 1/2 hours to reach Torregno, their town. Iris prepared a delicious late supper of an Italian ham-cheese-herb platter and Ministrone soup. A prelude to the meals we would be eating.

4. On Tuesday Iris prepared a sweet breakfast, then we took off for the Alps. We got within 10 miles or so of France (close enough for me), and stopped at a restaurant. I tasted my first Italian ravioli... I was blown away by how good it was. It didn't look different than what we get in the states, but it was incredible. The secret, I think, is in the pasta. Italians require good pasta. Mary had another pasta dish that was delightful, too. We spent some time in the car appreciating the mountains from the car, stopped by a nearby castle (there are lots of them), and headed home. The snow covered mountains of Courmayeur (Mont Blanc) will stay etched in my memory. On the way home we stopped at Aosta or Aoste, which has several Roman ruins. I write Aosta or Aoste because it depends on the language, Italian or French. Of course, in that area of northern Italy, they speak a very French dialect of Italian.

5. On Wednesday we went into the nearby town of Biella and saw the duomo and some ruins and just appreciated the town. We got $150 changed into €110 (euros), which was unneccessary because I&G insisted on paying for everything, and, as a result, we still have over €70 left. We went to the supermarket in Biella, similar to America's, and then stopped in a cafe where Mary had her first taste of Italian hot chocolate... thick, chocolatey, and her favorite. We went back to I&G's for lunch (real Italian spaghetti in a cream sauce... mmmmm), then we drove half and hour or so into the mountains to a little village which was literally at the end of the road. There, Mary and I hiked for a little while and Helen enjoyed our hosts' company. We stopped at another cafe and I got some expresso. The village was small and we stuck out as Americans. It was neat to meet an older man whose grandfather moved to the U.S. in 1904... to Fayetteville, AR. This guy's father was actually born in the states, but he came back to Italy. Now the family is split - the descendants of one brother in Italy and the descendants of the other in America. They have lost contact because no one in one family can speak the others' language. Back to a description of the village... beautiful snow covered mountains surrounding, houses hundreds of years old, narrow cobblestone streets, old people on bicycles, shrines to the Virgin Mary strategically placed throughout.

That night, our hosts treated us and Guiseppe's nephew and expectant niece-in-law to real pizza at a restaurant in Biella. It was great. As we left we met two Americans from NY state and shared a little small talk. He does alot of business in NY, Nashville, and Milan. Interesting.

4. On Thursday, we got a late start (purposefully) to Milan because we wanted to spend most of the day seeing the city before our flight at 9pm. The 2 most famous attractions in Milan are Da Vinci's Last Supper and the Duomo (cathedral). We were 0 for 2 because the Last Supper required reservations days in advance, and the exterior of the Duomo was entirely covered for cleaning. Thankfully, we went inside. I have never seen such an impressive cathedral in my life. I'll suspend further comments until I can compare it to some London cathedrals.

We enjoyed more expresso, hot chocolate and conversation until it was time to check-in. We bid I&G farewell and waited for our plane, which departed on time. We got back here on Thursday night at around 11pm. Helen did extremely well, but by the time we were landing in Birmingham she was constantly dropping her head on Mary's shoulder. She has slept much the past 2 days and she is as happy as ever.

It will leave a scar

2005-02-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've held off blogging on my bicycle accident that I had last Friday evening. It was dark, I was leaving Dr. Hull's office... about 1/4 mile out. I crossed an intersection/roundabout and went for the sidewalk. It was a 2-tiered sidewalk, with the first tier being a short cobblestone protrusion, presumably for pedestrians to stand on and watch for cars. The second tier, about 3 inches higher, was the normal sidewalk. I hopped the first tier fine. I was approaching the second at about a 30 degree angle... bad angle... because my front tire popped up on it just fine. The back tire, however, preferred to skim down the side of the other edge. This resulted in the bike pitching left, hard, and slamming me into a brick wall. Actually, I just slid down the wall. Actually, my left forearm just slid down the brick wall. It happened so fast it didn't even hurt... for about 10 minutes. Then the pain of having a layer of skin scraped off started setting in. It has taken until today to "dry up" enough for me to let clothing touch it. So, without further ado... here it is. So sob for me.

I ran 7.6 miles today... the most since I've been here. Trying to get ready for a half-marathon in Milton Keynes in March. Now off to Italy...

Flat Matthew

2005-02-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

We just received a letter in the mail from friends in Moulton. Inside, we found Flat Matthew. The son of our friends, the Namies, sent us a picture of himself dressed as an Auburn football player. Flat Matthew wants us to take him around and see the sights, get his picture in some cool places, and mail them back to 3-D Matthew. Alot of schools are doing this now. We even did it in my youth group in Winchester, TN. Since we'll be in Italy Feb14-17, FlatMatt will see more of Italy than the UK. This will be fun.

Dissed Again

2005-02-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

We weren't invited to the wedding of Charles and Camilla. But I object to royalty marrying anyone from the average citizenry anyway!

Well, we were able to go to church (3 miles), preacher's house (10 miles there, 10 back), home church, abd back home (3 miles)... all in 2nd gear. Our top speed was 35mph, but that was coasting downhill. When we hit a clear road we did hold 30, though. The preacher, Mike, called out there equivalent of AAA (they call it AA, but are they dropping the "American" or the "Association"), who fiddled with the car for a minute and decided something was wrong in the gearbox... go figure... and he couldn't fix it. But at least we know.

We leave for Italy tomorrow, which will most likely mean no blogging for a few days. I'm sure I can squeeze in 1 or 2 before then. I'm doubting that the folks we are staying with have internet access at their house. Not that they aren't sophisticated. He's an Italian who speaks 3 languages, she's an American who speaks 3 (4 if you coun't Texan). I intend to 1) eat real pizza, 2) eat real spaghetti, 3) eat real italian sausage, 4) eat a member of the mafia.

At least its not reverse

2005-02-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

We seem to have encountered the first, er, glitch with the car. I managed to get it stuck in 2nd gear today. It cranks fine, and it will even go in reverse, but it is in 2nd gear when I move forward. I'm hoping that the problem will be no more when we try to go to church tomorrow. But, if we are stuck in 2nd for the time being, its only 3 miles or so to church and I doubt I would have exceeded 30mph anyway.

On the Top 10 movies:
I'm dumping Somewhere in Time and replacing it with Memento. One of the most cleverly crafted plots ever.

To Capes: I wish I had the words to describe exactly what "Napoleon Dynamite" is. I assure you, any review you read of it, good or bad, will not exactly prepare you for the actual thing. Rent it and let it develop. Trad will love... And about Raising Arizona - a top 20 no doubt, but the Coen brothers already took my second place.

BK gave us his list:
with about three minutes of thought, my current top 10 is...

1. Baraka
2. Koyaanisqatsi
3. Schindler's List
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Glory
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Hoosiers
9. Fletch Lives
10. Seven

...but as you can observe, I'm not much of a movie connoisseur.

I'm tempted to point out that one would expect a less than normal list from BK, and even a couple most people has never heard of, a la #'s 1 and 2, but the online reviews of them both seem good, and I doubt my own list qualifies as typical. Who can disagree with Fletch, Hoosiers, or Raiders? Schindler's List was definitely monumental, but I must admit that its subject matter was so intense that I couldn't think about anything else for a couple of days. It troubles the soul. SS Redemption was top-notch. One Flew is just a glimpse into BK's alter ego, and Glory was good... but 10 dollars is alot of money. Seven is more or less poop. I speculate that BK might have the same to say about a few of mine.

It is worth mentioning that at least one American movie comes the BBC channels EVERY night, and most of the time they were pretty big hits in their days. Tonight there is Evil Dead II (?), Joan of Arc ( the one with Dustin Hoffman), Copycat, and Far and Away.

Top 10 Movies

2005-02-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

BK's interest in the top 100 books of all time has gotten me to thinking about my list of best movies. Here's my top 10:

1. Papillon
2. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
3. The Running Man
4. Napoleon Dynamite
5. The Gods Must Be Crazy
6. UHF
7. The Explorers
8. Better Off Dead
9. Real Genius
10. Somewhere in Time

Yep, the last one is sappy. I might amend the last 3 soon. Yes, the list is loaded with 80's movies. I tend to idealize (ise) that decade. I have a theory that every man looks back on the period in which he was 12 years old as the peak of human civilization, assuming he had a decent life, even if he didn't particularly enjoy being 12. So I gravitate toward 1986. But note that two of the movies are older and two are newer, with one being a recent release.

What thinks ye?

And in this corner...

2005-02-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

Of the internet, Clifford Road in Bearwood, Birmingham, UK is the broadband internet service we've all been waiting for. It only took 1 month and 7 days to make it happen!!

Commenter O.P. asks a few interesting questions:

1. Yes, the tv license is similar to a cheap cable bill... except you have to pay it even if you have cable or satellite.

2. There is no law REQUIRING child seats in cars, though they are encouraged and everyone I've met with small kids has one. The fact that there is no law seems odd in this legislative happy place. There all about big brother in many ways, but not when it comes to child seats. Hmmmm? Our baby seat fits fine using the seatbelt. O.P.... do not forget that we drive old cars back home and don't even have latch systems in our cars there. I'd assume new cars here have the latches.

3. Tax is on income, not wealth... so, no, there is not an annual tax on one's possessions. Though there may be a land tax. The minimum income threshold for income tax is £5,000, so I won't have to worry.

£1.43

Vroom....

2005-02-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

Now that I have my insurance and paid my car tax (£60 for 6 months) I am street legal, so I took the car out for a little spin today. It is a little rough on the startup, but fine otherwise. And now it has £11 worth of gas in it (about 4 U.S. gallons), which should last until Mary's parents get here in late March.

Our broadband internet modem should arrive today and hopefully we'll be online very soon. That will mean that I will stop blogging about that problem and get back to more of my experiences over here with the language, people, etc.. I'll post pics of the car when I can.

Yesterday the dept of theology at the Uni of B'ham had our once-a-term seminar. I was able to make most of it after I taught my hermeneutics class. After an interesting presentation by Helen Ingram and some helpful pointers by Mark Goodacre on using Unicode Greek font, I introduced myself to faculty and students and quickly reviewed my research. Incidentally, there were 2 other Americans there(Maryland and Minnesota), one of whom I had already met. We spent a little time comaplining about the high prices and small milk containers in England.

And let me give a shout out to Capes and Tim B. for further comments. I appreciate each and every comment.

Even less than expected

2005-02-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, I did buy a car. Yes, it was cheap. How cheap you ask? £170. That's right, £170. What kind of car could possibly run and cost roughly $320? This one. Okay, I wish mine looked that good, but its a Seat Marbella. With a 843 cc engine and gets around 40 mpg. It seems to run alright, but I've only driven it a mile or so because I have to pay the taxes. I got insurance today for £19 a month so it should be legal by tomorrow.

In a saga that won't end... our DSL modem did not come today as it was due to. Our internet service is supposed to be available tomorrow but that won't do much good without a modem. Mary is in touch with them trying to find out when we can expect it.

Encountered my first true bit of America bashing today. Not that I feel the need to defend everything America does, but when a guy makes a comment like "the healthcare and educational systems in Cuba are better than America" you have to wonder what he's smoking. Of course he was under the impression that the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was banned in America because it was anti-Bush. Where has this guy been anyway? But it is nice to note that our country is apparently the source of all the evils in the world. I guess Saddam was right, we are the great Satan. I'm going to (rhetorically) puke now...

Sorry for that.

£180

2005-02-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

It would be a new record for me... on cheapness. Let the record show that the least I have ever paid for a vehicle is $500 - a 1991 Mazda B22 truckfrom TAC enterprises with 170k miles and no air, radio, comfort, etc. It was a great help when we moved our stuff into storage. Its at the in-laws right now adding to the decor (but runs well). BUT...

I'm looking at a road-legal Fiat Panda for sale for £180, abouyt $350 or so. It supposedly gets about 40 miles to the American gallon (50 British!) and runs fine. I've seen it from the outside, and while its no show car, it is in good shape. And if it runs alright it will be ours. Then we drive to church in 10 minutes instead of riding in a bus for in an hour and we can take our guests to various places here for the prices of gas (as opposed to buying bus and train tickets for everyone). I'm going to try to drive it this afternoon and will report back...

Some of my students are coming over for a visit soon... actually to play various musical instruments for my family's listening pleasure. Get this, one of them plays the banjo... bluegrass style! I can't wait.

And, yes, the Super Bowl did come on here. And yes, Mary and I watched it. And yes, it was over at about 3:20 am. And yes, I had to teach class at 9:00 am. And yes, I sleep-taught (or is it slept-taught?).

Better and Better

2005-02-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

A great guy from church has GIVEN me a mountain bike, and its a good one, too. Of course, her refused any money or even to let me give it back to him when we leave. Praise God, and thank Ricky.
We'll be in Italy from Feb 14 to 17. We should have internet at the house by Feb 10th so using email, etc. will become much easier.

And I'm really considering buying a cheap car... yikes!

Yipee!

2005-02-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

Our bank cards came in today and I've already applied for broadband internet at the house. When we get it blogging will be more frequent and better.

Today Mary, Helen and I will be having tea with the principal (director) of the Christian College where I am teaching. How English of us. I usually have coffee and a bunch of cookies (biscuits).

Next week is week 5, then Readings Week, aka one week vacation.

Blog you very much...

Gotta get back in time...

2005-02-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

In many ways, our little stint here in the UK is like going back in time, not because the English are behind America (in most ways there not, in some ways they're ahead!), but because of the way we are going about it.

Reasons why it (sometimes) feels I've been warped back to 1955:

1. I walk alot, to most everywhere. Today's America is too spread out, lacks public transportation, has cheap gas, takes no care for pedestrians, etc., so that walking is not convenient nor necessary.

2. We buy our food and other stuff from small shops within walking distance of our house. Safeway and the like are mostly like American supermarkets, but tend to be smaller. There is no one place near our house that has everything we need (aka Wal-Mart). Of course, we're going to ASDA on Friday, the Wal-Mart owned biz here.

3. Our little black and white TV. As I've explained in earlier posts, we might be the only people over here who use a B&W TV, but its much cheaper on the TV tax.

4. Our house is over 100 years old... our entire block is... our entire neighborhood is. In fact, 100 years old is just getting broken in over here. I know people who've lived in 300 year old houses (and they weren't historic places).

5. The prices look like American prices from years ago. Let me explain. A candy bar might cost 30 pence or so. There was a time, in my younger years, when you could get a candy bar for 30 cents in America. So I say the price LOOKS like it did years ago. Bear in mind, 30 pence is about 55 cents or so (about what it costs in America now), and no candy bar would have cost 30 cents in 1955. I think you could buy a car for that in 1955. Of course, that was half a years income. Anyway... the numbers in the prices look like they're from 1988 America.

6. We have one telephone, one TV, and very little square footage. Admittedly, there is another phone jack upstairs, but we're too cheap to buy a phone that we'd have to leave over here in 6 months (phones are different in the UK). And the house is big enough for us (mostly because we left 99.86% of our stuff in America).

7. Its cold alot. It was probably cold alot in 1955.

8. Mary cooks from scratch. Why? Because its cheaper. There was a time when most Americans (and Brits) thought like that, but now most people would rather have the time and convenience than the money. Since she has time and we don't want to spend the money, Mary is learning to prepare meals that most of her contemporaries would never attempt.

9. Our health insurance, for all three of us, is only $50 a month. Its a well-known fact that the UK has free universal health care, but not for folks like us who will only be here 6 months. However, since there is not much competition in the medical field, prices are pretty reasonable (compared to the ridiculous costs in the U.S.). So we got insurance for about a 5th of what we pay in the U.S., and that is even with the skewed exchange rate. Don't get me wrong... I'm not convinced that America needs to use the UK model of healthcare. Here are a couple of reasons I can think of: (1) Because UK doctors make about 1/3 what American doctors do, its not as difficult to be a doctor over here and many of the brightest people go into more lucrative fields. (2) The waiting lists. When I say government run healthcare, I mean government run. Example: Say you need non-emergent hip surgery. Because there are only a few hospitals which perform that procedure in the UK, you get put on a waiting list for 6 months. Of course, you can probably manage with a little pain and plenty of medication, and then get your surgery. Why the wait? Imagine you are a surgeon, and have 4 surgeries scheduled in one day. However, the third surgery takes longer than expected and you don't finish until 4:00 pm. You go home at 5 pm, and the next surgery will take 1 1/2 hours. What do you do? I suspect that, because you will make the same amount of money whether you stay late an perform the surgery or you make the next patient wait until the next day, you opt for getting home on time. In America, you would probably perform the surgery taking solace in the fact that you just made $5k more. Thus, in the UK, everyone gets bumped back for this reason and that, and a long waiting list is not uncommon for non-emergencies. On the other hand... research has shown that the Brits live just as long as the Americans. Oh wait, I was writing about 1955, not the infernal medical system...

To conclude, sometimes I feel like Michael J. Fox in the suped-up Delorean. I hear you can get a flux-capacitor on Ebay pretty cheap these days.

Observations

2005-01-31T13:45:00.000-08:00

I always wondered how Europeans did symbols like £ and € without much trouble... its because their keyboards have those keys on them. Novel.

Wisdom on waiting for and riding the bus... This is the kind of stuff that most big city people probably know, but new to me. In fact, the largest city I've ever lived in until now was Auburn, AL (about 45k or so now, but smaller when I moved there in 1992).

An empty bus stop is not a blessing... You might want the quiet time, but what you don't want is to have to wait because you obviously just missed the bus by a minute or so.
The temptation for me to begin walking ahead to the next bus stop (usually 1/4 mile or so) because I am tired of waiting is strong and absurd. After all, I will only (a) miss the bus while I am in transit, or (b) catch the bus and arrive at the exact same time I would've had I waited.
People will always choose an empty seat rather than sit by a stranger.
You see all kinds of people on buses.
95% of people don't want to talk... they just want to sit and ride.
Most bus drivers wouldn't care if you flashed a playing card at them... they'll let you on. Most regular riders buy bus passes and show them, but I have a feeling that many of them are fibbing.
Bus drivers come in all races, religions, ages, and sizes but not genders. I've yet to see a female one here.
When I read on the bus, I get nauseated.
Its cool to sit on the top deck. I relate this to the cool side of Sonic because most of the teens go straight up.
In the UK, instead of school buses, the kids use public buses. This means that, in the morning, its like I'm in 7th grade all over again and can't wait until I am old enough to drive.

That's enough for now. When we move to Murfreesboro, it will be the biggest American city we've lived in, but nothing compared to the over 1 million here in Birmingham, England.

In other news, a kind brother at church has offered to GIVE me his mountain bike!!! He's bringing it today or tomorrow. So I might be riding the bus much less now.

The more I think about it

2005-01-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

I've spent alot of time thinking about where we are right now. Britain is an expensive place to live, but over the past 5 years housing prices have soared, placing first-time home buyers at a 29 year low, and pushing rents up. Fortunately for us, Birmingham is one of the few areas we can afford to live in (or will allow ourselves to afford without spending most of our savings).

We live in a working class city without any major attractions. Don't get me wrong, Birmingham is the 2nd largest city in the UK and has plenty of points of interest, but most don't compare to Stonehenge or Oxford, etc.. But we are centrally located, only 2 hours from London, the same to Oxford, less than an hour to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's old stomping grounds), 2-3 hours to Stonehenge, so we will have to the opportunity to take some of those places in. We also plan to visit Edinburgh sometime, maybe Dublin, and we are most likely going to Italy around Valentine's Day (£30 pounds each, roundtrip from London to Turin and a free place to stay with friends of Mary's family!).

And in other news... if you were afraid that the Scottish are losing their accents, the preacher at our church is a good argument against such a notion. He has the thickest brogue I've ever heard.

And it looks like our debit cards were lost in the post, I mean mail, so we have to order new ones tomorrow... so it will be February10th or so before we can get internet at the house. Why is this so hard?

Still waiting...

2005-01-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

Just got a call from Mary telling me that our debit cards still haven't arrived, which means no internet at home at least until February. Its enough to make a man blog.

I've noticed another peculiar inconsistency that makes for some irony. In America, we send "mail". In the UK, its "post". We both take our mail/post to the "Post Office" (so it would seem that the Brits are right, but wait) ... in America, the "mail" is delivered by the U.S. "Post"al Service, whereas in the UK the "post" is delivered by, drumroll please........... Royal "Mail". So in the US the Post delivers the mail and in the UK the Mail delivers the post.

And, for those interested, go with the Safeway 19 pence cola... its much better than Sainesbury's.

Mary and I plan on going somewhere in the Birmingham area tomorrow and having some fun. But what to do when you have no vehicle and a 7-month old baby? We'll see...

And did you see the story earlier this month on Stanley and his boys?

Confusion

2005-01-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

For some reason, yesterday's post appeared 4 times in my blog. Capes pointed it out, and I deleted the other 3. I hope this doesn't become a problem.

We still haven't received our debit cards. Sigh. More waiting for the internet at home. Sigh.

I was happy to learn (as those from County will be) that the expression where one states a day of the week followed by the word "week" is still alive and well here. For example: Today John Hull told me to put something in his appointment book on Friday week. I stopped him and made sure I understood. I did. My heart was warmed because his was and is the convention in Lawrence County and pretty much all over the rural south. I'm not sure about other places. Its so much better than "next Friday" because that phrase can be ambiguous. So long live "(Insert Day Here) Week"!

I was also excited to find out that the absolute cheapest cola in the world, found at Safeway's in the UK, is diet, i.e. no calories. Those who know me well know that I drink lots of diet "cokes" (lower-case "c"). Its the Bettabuy brand at Safeway, and it costs 19 pence for 2 liters (The Brits say 19p for 2 litres). Even with the skewed exhange rate, that's about 35 cents for a 2 liter. Its not the best tasting but that never stopped me before. The big supermarket here, Sainsbury's also has a 19p cola which I have yet to try.

Coldest Day Yet

2005-01-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

Its cold here, but not quite as cold as it is in N Al and Mid Tenn. They got down into the teens on Sunday night (or so I'm told).

It snowed quite a bit here on Saturday, but was not cold enough to stick. In fact, it is very rare for snow to accumulate to depths over an inch here. It appears that England's island status keeps it climate mild, chilly but mild. I'm going to be real mad if they have snow in Moulton before we get snow here.

We expect our debit cars to arrive today, which will allow us to sign up for internet service at home. Let's hope...

I discovered today that a ubiquitous brand of car here, Vauxhall, is actually owned by GM. Chalk another one up to the yanks. What is annoying is that they don't sell many of the models in the States. My friend John Moxon gave me a ride to the Uni today from BCC and we rode in his Vauxhall. I can't recall the exact model, but it is smaller than a minivan (and better looking), and it gets 35MPG! And it has 3 rows and a high roof. Mary so wants a vehicle with 3 rows whenever we get rid of the Maxima. I wish this Vauxhall model were available in America.

I had an interesting conversation about the English alphabet with my students today. I was curious to know if they learned the song "A,B,C, D... Y and Z, now I've said...". They did know it. Some of them learned it as "Y and Zed" and others "Y and Z". The most interesting thing is that the kids learn the phonemes of the letters in order over here before they get the letter names in order. So they know "Ahh, Buh, Ceh..." in order. My student Jon noticed the difference having grown up watching Sesame Street.

We also discussed the word "toboggan" and its usage. I asked them if they knew the word, and they said it referred to a "sleigh", or sled. I told them that, in the South, it has the meaning of a stretchy winter cap. I happened to have one in my coat, so I showed them, and they laughed. I can't find anything on the origin of this Southern peculiarity, but I did find this humorous article which I've pasted below:

Please don't put a sled on your head
Consider the following e-mail of interest that I received this week:
"Dear Bob,
As a transplanted, retired Yankee (moved from Michigan in 1999) I really enjoy reading your column. I enjoy living in Asheboro and enjoy Southern terminology and accent. However, how in the world did the South ever come up with toboggan as a hat or cap? There is only one definition of toboggan and it is a long, narrow runner-less sled. I would love to hear an explanation of this?" The e-mail was from Richard Najera, who I talked to on the phone later and who turned out to be a really swell guy.
* * *
First, I checked to see if there was any recent scientific data on why we Southerners call a certain kind of cap a "toboggan." I couldn't find any - scientific data, that is - although maybe I can get a research grant to study it. Anyway, just as Richard Najera suggested, the only definition I could find for "toboggan" is "a long flat-bottomed light sled made, usually, of thin boards curved up at one end with, usually, handrails at the sides." Which doesn't sound much like a hat. But which also doesn't stop local folks from telling their kids to "put on your toboggan before you go 'cause it's really cold outside."
* * *
While we're looking into that, let's first address a sorta related subject. Which is that, when we are out riding a toboggan (sled), we do indeed usually wear a hat. A cold weather knit cap, in fact.
Which, as we've already established, is not really a toboggan. Even if we call it that. So, what is that little hat called, then? One answer came from a Canadian acquaintance of mine who tells me that such little knit caps do, indeed, have a name. At least in French, they do. A cold weather knit hat usually worn while out on a toboggan is a toque. Yes, a toque. Which, in English, I guess, would be pronounced "tuke."
* * *
Which gets me absolutely no closer to why we Southerners think a toboggan is a hat. Well ... probably not ... but maybe there is this one thing that might explain it. Perhaps the toboggan/hat quandary is my fault. Or at least I'm to blame for getting it started. Because I do seem to remember one winter back in 1958 when I was age 12 and with a bunch of local kids, who one snowy day, went sledding over on the Worth Street hill. Which is really steep. And, of course, we Southern (as opposed to Northern) kids don't know beans about riding sleds (i.e., toboggans.) So most of us crashed our sleds well before making it to the bottom of the Worth Street hill. Including me.
* * *
Yes, I seem to remember taking a really bad spill that day. And ending up in a crumpled heap. Up to my ears in a snow bank on the side of Worth Street. With my sled on top of my head. And, come to think of it, I do seem to recall at least one passerby pointing my way exclaiming, "Nice toboggan!" He was complimenting my sled, of course. Problem was, I thought he was talking about my toque.

I got better

2005-01-23T15:11:00.000-08:00

I am getting back into the swing or regularly blogging. Just got back from church. This time it was 1 hour to get there, 1 hour to get back. We have to change buses once, but probably almost half that time is spent waiting for buses. But anything is better than last week's 2 hour marathon getting there. In other news:

It turns out that Tim. B is both a Brit and a Kiwi (and a welcome reader, of course). He might have to set me straight on a few things.

I was excited to find out that I will actually be able to watch at least one of the NFL playoff games from today. It scheduled to come on here after midnight on Tuesday (which is, technically, Wednesday), but I don't know if it will be the NFC or AFC championship. I am planning to stay up.

Having mentioned the word "schedule", its interesting to note that I've heard alot of Brits say it like "shedule", whereas us yanks prefer "skedule". My gut feeling is that THEY are saying it wrong. Of course, the German word for English is Englisch and its sounds pretty much like English. I think that the Brits (at least the ones I've heard) are at least inconsistent because they don't pronounce the word scheme as "sheme", but like we do -- "skeme". A quick check at dictionary.com confirms 2 things. 1) The Brits do say "shedule" and 2) the word originally come from the Greek "skidha". Here's what it says:

Meaning from Merriam Webster - sched·ule - Pronunciation: 'ske-jül especially British 'she-dyül Function: noun1 a : a list or statement of supplementary details appended to another document b : a formal list, table, catalog, or inventory2 : a plan that indicates the time and sequence of each element —schedule transitive verb

Etymology from American Heritage - [Middle English sedule, slip of parchment or paper, note, from Old French cedule, from Late Latin schedula, diminutive of scheda, variant of Latin scida, papyrus strip, from Greek skhida, skhed; perhaps akin to skhizein, to split. See schizo-.]

See for yourself.

I also suprise myself by the small amount of attention I've given the inauguration. I didn't see it on TV though it was on over here. I was at work. It amazes me that I spent so much mental energy anguishing over the election and now I barely even keep up with American politics. Probably a good thing.

Step right up!

2005-01-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

Always glad to see when folks post comments to my blogs. As an incentive to continue to do this, I'm going to mention those of you who have posted comments and to encourage others to join in

K. "Capes" Carpenter mentions the 2 other important differences - 1) In the UK, you don't get in line, you get in a que (so its "que up" instead of "line up" 2) They prefer jumper to sweater, though I haven't come across the expression myself.

BTKey mentions that what American baby owners (aka parents) call onesies the Brits call a "baby grower". I'd like to know the rationale.

Tim B. in New Zealand, whom I have never met, says that the Brits do "pick up" people in the airport, but only for, shall we say, a rendezvous. I'd like to know if Tim is a Brit or only a Kiwi who fancies himself as British. Please, do tell.

And here are lots more which I typed the other night and only getting round to posting today:
More Bringlish
I just thought of some more British phraseology which might seem odd to Americans:
1. The use of the a plural verb with a singular noun which describes a collective. The best way to explain is an example. Over here, you might hear something like this on TV:"The government are planning a 5% increase in spending." To an American, the verb "are" jumps out and should obviously be "is". I don't know that I'll ever get used to it.
2. "Me" instead of "my". Of course its informal, but you hear alot of things like, "Crikey, I left me keys in the door." Seems that I've heard that before in movies.
3. Solicitors & Barristers: In America, both of these jobs are covered by a lawyer. Here, if one wants to file a lawsuit, he must first approach a solicitor, who will, if he deems its worthy, take the case to a barrister, who in turn will do the representing in court. A person cannot directly approach a barrister. It must be done through a solicitor.
4. Its impossible to find cookies or french fries. Not that they don't have them, but they are called "biscuits" and "chips", respectively. They might actually have more of a variety of cookies, yet they call them anything but cookies. And the chips thing... when you hear of the English "fish and chips", it means fish and french fries. So what do they call potato chips then? Crisps. (Okay, I've actually seen one package of cookies labeled "sweet cookies", and a certain variety of crisps called "potato chips", but these are aberrations I assure you).
5. The "Loo". Don't make the mistake of asking where the bathroom is because a) you might find yourself in a room with a sink and a bathtub and no toilet(commode), or b) you'll be told that they don't have one because they don't actually have a bathtub in there. If you want a toilet, you ask for a toilet. Unless, of course, you're in an informal situation, when you would ask for "the loo". Its a little more formal than the American slang "the john".
6. Cheeky. Someone who is cheeky is purposefully crossing the line, but in a "cute" or mischievious sort of way. I was told that the cab driver who tried to overcharge me was being cheeky, but he was anything but cute or mischievious in my opinion. I was also told that the cat next door is cheeky because he likes to slip inside when you open the door. Of course, my only exposure to cheeky before I arrived was Mike Myer's character "Simon" in the bathtub telling the audience, "Don't you look at my bum. Don't you look at it... you cheeky monkey."
7. Don't pronounce the "w". We live in Smethwick, on the west side of Birmingham. Of course, its pronounced "Smethick". I did not know this for the first 3 days or so. Once, a lady asked me what my address was. I told her... Smeth-WICK. She said, "SmethICK". I corrected her, "No, Smethwick". She must have been rolling inside. They drop the "w" in other -wick cities like "Warwick", etc.. Ours it not to question why.
8. Another pronunciation peculiarity - Edinburgh. No doubt many Americans knew this, but not me. Even though it looks like EdinBURGH, it is pronounced EdinBOROUGH. I heard it repeatedly one night on TV in a competition between a local college and the University of Edinburgh. I also had the fact verified by my friend John Hull. He remarked, "EdinBOROUGH, hmm, sounds very AMERICAN."
I'm sure I'll notice more soon and will blog about them. As G.B. Shaw said, "Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language."

It's been a while...

2005-01-20T18:17:00.000-08:00

I know. You think I'm already slacking. Well, I am. But I have good reason. We keep having to wait to get internet access at the house, and thus I have to blog when on campus. I've been extremely busy with meetings, teaching, classes, and work. But having fun nonetheless.

I had great fun teaching my Hermeneutics class today, mostly because I taught on a subject that interests me greatly... linguistics. The perfect lead-in to our material is the difference between American and British English. I pointed out that in America, for the most part, we make no distinction between trousers and pants. But don't make that mistake here. Trousers is the word that Americans want to use while here. If you say pants here you are talking about underwear. I used this to talk about the nature of language... that it differs from region to region, and launched into a lesson on lexical semantics and then did a text-analysis of James 1:2-8. Stuff that most people don't like.

But, for my American friends, I thought you'd like to know some peculiarities of language I have noticed in my just over 2 weeks here. Here are the ones I've observed:

"Give Way" - Road sign... like our "Yield" but wordier. However, it is helpful that most smaller intersections will have a "Give Way" sign instead of a stop sign... good idea.

"Spot on" - means "right on", exactly.

"Brilliant" - If you've seen the beer commercial where the English chaps call everything brilliant, then you get an idea of how overused this word is here. Normally, where Americans would say "Great", they say "Brilliant". Gets old.

"Collect" - You don't pick up someone at the airport, you collect them.

"Push Chair" - Not a wheelchair... a baby stroller.

"Quid" - Slang for a British pound. Like the American expression "buck" for dollar.

"Mate" - Now I know where the Australians get it.

"Cheers" - Its not cheerio anymore. Cheers is the thanks and goodbye... and it has nothing to do with offering a toast.

"White coffee" - Coffee with milk in it. Seems obvious, but I noted to one friend that I'd never heard it called that before. He asked, "Well, what do you call it?". "Coffee with milk" I replied.

Other oddities... No single-vegetable baby food like carrots or peas, or green beans, etc. They're all mixed together. According to Mary, this is not good because, if the baby has trouble with one of the veggies, you can't figure out which one it is. Sounds right. We did manage to get some sweet potato baby food, and Helen loved it.

.... They love America. Don't listen to what the opinion polls tell you. They watch our movies, listen to our music, follow our politics, visit our Florida, and drive our cars. And they like to hear Southerners talk, too.

... Utilities are actually cheaper here. Of course, that might be because our house is so tiny.

... Forget finding a good citrus soft drink (like Mountain Dew), they just don't have them.

...You have to pay for all your calls, even local ones.

...Calling cell-phones costs considerably more than calling land lines.

And never, absolutely never, if you are an American visiting the UK and you are wearing one of those little pouches around your waist... never call it a "fanny pack". Just trust me.

For more one the differences between British and American English, see here.

The Lord's Day

2005-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

It was nice to meet with the church today. It actually took way too long to get there and we were way too late, but you live and learn. We walked about a mile to catch a train, which connected to another train, which took us a station where we had to walk another 1/2 mile or so to get to church.... 2 hours in total to get there. With some helpful advice from a sister at church... 30 minutes on 2 buses with no walking to get home. But now we know! Helen took it all in stride and complained very little... less than we adults did.

Church was interesting.... we were quite late. But we did get a chance to meet a few of the memebers there, and one might be able to give us a ride on Sunday.

I left off my last post mentioning I was going to Wolverhampton, a town about 15 miles north of here. I took a train there. Decided to take a cab to the home of the person with the B&W TV for sale. The cabby recognized me for a rookie, took the long way (£7.80), and told me I would have to pay £5 extra just to bring the TV in the cab. The lady at the house told me he was being "cheeky", so we told him to go on and she called another cab. He charged me £4 to get back to the train station and no £5 fee. And, yes, the TV works and only cost £10. And in black and white everything looks nostalgiac.

Now we get 4 1/2 BBC channels. I'd heard that there were 6, but can't find the other. Last night we caught part of Law & Order and then some CSI. They show an American movie on channel 4 almost every night. And they do not edit out any of the language.... I mean any. And this is "regular" TV. But its nice to have for those times we want to take it easy.

Busy-ness

2005-01-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

Busy days yesterday and today. Yesterday I taught my first Hermeneutics course. It was basically introducing what we'll be discussing all term. We concluded by offering a little non-biblical criticusm to the old story by Hans Christian Andersen -- The Ugly Duckling. Genre Analysis - Fairy tale... complete with fantasy (talking ducks) and a moral point (about judging others). Narrative analysis... Setting changes from a beautiful day in a wood to a cold, brutal winter, then to spring when hope comes alive... Characters are developed - all the ducks are bad (even the mother)... Plot - developed as we feel more and more sympathy for the duckling. An abrupt twist is when the ugly duckling, ready to surrender to death because of his ugliness, sees himself in the water and realizes his beauty. Feminist Theology - Of course, the hero is a drake, and the implication is that, if the ugly duckling were a female, there would be no hope. So the story serves to reinforce stereotypes. Black Theology - Punished because he doesn't look like the majority, the duckling only finds true peace when he is among his own, beautiful kind. Liberation Theology - One option for the newly discovered swan might be an uprising against all of duckdom!

This exercise simply served to help them see that we won't be doing rocket science, but trying to use clever but faithful approaches to interpreting the Bible.

Yesterday was also good because I got a part time job (6-10 hours per week) assisting Dr. John Hull in his research and duties. This will be especially good for me because Dr. Hull is completely blind and I'm sure he will teach me much. With the money I make from teaching and helping Dr. Hull, we'll almost break even over here. Praise the Lord!

Now, I'm off to lunch with Mark Goodacre, my supervisor, and then to Wolverhampton for a B&W Television...

At last!

2005-01-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

I awoke very early this morning. I walked about 2 miles to a train station (and later learned I lived closer to another) and rode the train to the airport to await my crew. Their plane landed on time, and within 30 minutes I was loving on my little one and hugging my wife! I was lost without them. We (Mary, Helen, Mary's mom, and I) crammed into a taxi and took the 25 minute or so ride back to our house. After a little over an hour of unpacking and settling, we ate some sandwiches. The 3 girls couldn't help but fall asleep, and I, after little nap, snuck over here to the University to take care of some class stuff for tomorrow and some emailing. Our little house will start to feel like a home tonight.

I teach Hermeneutics in the morning. Thankfully, tomorrow will mostly serve to set the stage for the term. I'm also looking a potential part-time (6-10 per week) job. I will make a little money as an instructor, but not enough to pay the bills. With a little extra income, we could avoid dipping further into savings. Let's hope...

One more thing: For some reason, my posts have shown to be 8 hours and 10 minutes earlier than when I post them. So, beginning with this one, I will try to have the correct UK posting time.

Let the games, er classes, begin

2005-01-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

My first class in the UK was on Monday morning. Of course, I taught it. I teach "The Gospel of John" on Mondays to third year students and "Hermeneutics" on Thursdays, also to third years. I think the first one went well. I have a small class, 8 students, and they all seemed attentive and interested. FWIW, the Bible translations being used: 2 New King James, 3 New International, 1 New Revised Standard, 1 Good News Bible, and 1 New American Standard (the American teacher's, of course). Yes, that's only 7 students. Student #8 will be there next week.

I also attended my first class on Monday afternoon -- Research Methods. The only thing of note is that I happened to sit beside the only other American in the class of 50 or so. He's a nice guy from Philadelphia working on an MA in Quaker Studies, and he is a Quaker. And no, he does not wear one of those hats and, as far as I could tell, wasn't particularly fond of the oats. He told me that another American grad student and her husband from Savannah, Ga., are living not too far from our place in Bearwood. I hope that we cross paths.

My most tantalizing class will probably be on Wednesdays -- Postcolonial Biblical Interpretation. I'll have to miss tomorrow's class though, because MY FAMILY WILL BE HERE! They're due to land in Bham at 8 am. Let's pray they make is safe and sound.

And, in the "Who Would've Thought" category:
Preacher Dies During Sermon About Heaven
Jan 10, 10:43 PM (ET)
OVIEDO, Fla. (AP) - A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven ...," his colleague said Monday.
The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.
Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus," Beates said in a telephone interview.
Several members of the congregation with medical backgrounds tried to revive the minister and paramedics were called, but Arnold appeared to die instantly, Beates said.
Arnold had been the senior minister at the church until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. The cause of death was believed to be cardiac arrest. He had bypass surgery five years earlier.
Beates also recounted Arnold's death in an e-mail he sent to members of the Central Florida Presbytery.
"We were stunned," Beates said. "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most."
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050111/D87HKMPO0.html

Off to church... or not

2005-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

I'm bummed right now because of a stupid mistake I made that caused me to miss church this morning. I talked to the guy who was to pick me up last night and he said he'd be at the hotel between 10:20 and 10:40. Well, I got up plenty early and showered and got all my stuff together. I went downstairs and waited from 10:20 til 11:05. I figured something must have come up, and I didn't know how to get there, so I decided to walk up the street and get something to eat - a cinammon role and raspberry tart for £1. I ate them in the store and then decided I'd go to Woolworth's ("And stay out of the Woolworth's") and see if they had any floppy disks. The door was locked, but the sign said that they opened at 11am. My watch said 11:45. I stood there and could see the workers inside. Another lady came up and I asked what time they opened - "11am" she said. I asked her what time she had - "10:45". Somehow I had set my watch up an hour. When I realized what I'd done, I dashed back to the hotel, only to find that I'd missed my ride. What a way to build up warm feelings toward Americans.

But, on the bright side, only 3 more days until Mary and Helen are here!!!!

I found us a place to live in a little area called Bearwood. 2 Bedroom house with more room than I expected and close to amenities for Mary. Of course, I'll still have to take a bus to school or ride a bike, but its still not that far. Its funny how they call each little neighborhood a town here. To get from our house to the Grad School (and the place where I'll be teaching - Birmingham Christian College) you have to go through 2 towns, but its only about 3 miles away!

I teach my first class on the gospel of John tomorrow morning.... Ayyyyygh! I'm excited but nervous. On Thursday comes the kicker -- Hermeneutics. That one will stretch me.

Here I am, or I am here

2005-01-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

I'm typing this from a computer cluster on the campus of the University of Birmingham. Getting here was much too exciting!

First, I was to fly United out of Nashville at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, and then have a 6 hour layover in Washington before departing for London. However, the flight to Washington was delayed.... first 2 hours... then 5. We landed in Washington at 9:10 pm, 30 minutes before my British Airways flight was to leave. Washington Dulles is a HUGE airport, and I just jumped on a bus and went to another terminal, not knowing where I was going. God must have been with me, because I just so happened to enter the correct terminal, at the wrong end, and after a near sprint, I made it to the BA desk 10 minutes before departure. No sooner had I gotten my big, cozy, comfortable seat than a man came up telling me that I was in his seat. We compared tickets and his was exactly the same as mine. Luckily, he was in a different seat and the problem was solved.

The flight over was fine, for me that is. My luggage apparently lacked the skill to make it across the Dulles airport like I did. So I dashed into the streets of London, after filing a missing bags report, with only my carry-on luggage (one set of clothes). Actually, I bought a Tube subway ticket from the airport to near my bus station. Somehow, I underpaid, and when I tried to exit the subway, the turnstile wouldn't let me. One of the workers there told me that I was supposed to have paid double what I did. When I told him I was not aware of what I was doing, he let me go with a look of amusement. I found my megabus with about 10 minutes to spare. Nothing worth noting on the trip (other than I just don't see how £3 per passenger can come close to paying for the gas in that big bus.

I got a call from Mom and Dad, then Mary while on the bus. Nice to know that the phone works. Free for me, but apparently pretty expensive from the U.S. (at least on the calling cards we have).

I found my hotel rather easily. Not the best place in the world, but the cheapest... including a small, old color TV with the 6 BBC stations. After dropping off my carry-on luggage, I made my way to find some food. Along the way, I found 3 real estate places and made appointments to see 2 properties. Then it was treat time -- Tennessee Fried Chicken-- really, that was the name of the place. I had to go in. I was interested to see who there knew how they cook in TN. Much to my surprise, an Indian family ran the place. When I told one of the ladies that I was from Tennessee, she said "You mean the country Tennessee?". I wonder how they came up with that name. I suppose it was an attempted ripoff of KFC. But who here knows that TN borders KY? And who here likes real fried chicken anyway? Anyway, the chicken was fine, similar to the Colonel's, but the fries. though they were many, were less than gourmet. The entire meal was £2.99 (BTW, for you Americans, £ means pounds, much like our $ symbol).

After retrieving some money from the ATM, it was back to the hotel for the night. I slept well and awakened at around 7:15 am. At 8am, the sun was just barely above the horizon. I washed up and ate a breakfast of cornflakes and toast. Enjoyed a good theological conversation with the innkeeper. He attends the Church of England regularly (which puts him in the 5th percentile). He had a few provocative things to say, but was mostly confused about certain New Testament events. For instance, he seemed to think that Paul made Christianity into a thing for Gentiles, when Jesus was only concerned about Jews. While there is some truth to this, it misses the point that is frequently addressed in the gospels, namely that Jesus foresaw a future day in which gentiles would be welcome in God's kingdom. I told the innkeeper about the conversion of Cornelius in Acts, and he said he'd never heard of it. Anyway, the conversation was not dull.

At breakfast, I got a call canceling my first appointment to view an apartment, so I went on to the University. I came across another letting (real-estate) agency that had 2 properties I wanted to view. I was whisked there, and liked the second of the two. I wil most likely wind up choosing it. While viewing it, I got a call from BA telling me that my bags were found (Hooray!) and would soon be in route. I gave them the address to Internal Office at the Uni. Hopefully that will do. I'm blogging right now as I wait to hear if they have arrived. I've got an appointment in an hour to see some more proprties. No rest for the weary. How will I ever survive without a car?

Overall, I'm having fun and the people here have been very nice. It feels weird to be a foreigner, but at least I know that I have more British blood than many of the people I meet, for whatever thats worth. And its not worth enough to get free medical care here. But I digress....

More later.

I got one

2004-11-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

I was able to get a flu shot today at the LC Health Department (for free). Normally a healthy 30 year-old would be disqualified, but the presence of our pre-6 month old puts me in the "high-risk" category.

I will be updating my research page tonight, with reviews of Goldingay's "Models for Interpretation of Scripture," and an article by Schnabel on
“History, Theology and the Biblical Canon".

Hip Hip Hooray!

2004-11-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

My good friend finally got my Yahoo mail problem solved. It turns out that the MTU setting in the DSL router had to be changed. Of course, that makes as much sense to me as this sentence: "Whenever you go down in Holcombe, spot is on the brigand."

Just read an interesting article in the best global market magazine available, the Economist (aside for the occasional flub in political endorsements) about the "Anglo-ness" of America. They never state their article authors, which perturbs me. But anyway, they mention Albion's Seed, the best book on the subject of how Britain birthed modern America. They further describe the part of America that I know well:

James Webb claims that the Scots-Irish (who moved from the Appalachian
hinterland across the South and the mid-west and now, he reckons, number about
30m) are a big part of Mr Bush's supporters. They have never shied away from
using force to solve problems (Mr Webb was a tough marine in Vietnam and his
book is called “Born Fighting”). They are passionately keen on religion,
fiercely hostile to the state (particularly when it tries to take away their
guns) and instinctively loathe self-appointed “elites”, not least of the
Frenchified variety.

More about the Scots-Irish influence in my neck of the woods later.