The Arrow's Path

on the greatest collapse in baseball history. Unbelievable.

My, my...what a Saturday makes. 5 of the top 10 college football teams lose. USC eeked it out, but it wasn't pretty. Out of deference to defending champs, I keep them at No. 1 until proved other. Hi ho...the King is Dead. Florida loses to Auburn, which means I can go about normal top ten rankings from now on. New No. 1: LSU. This is a no brainer at this point with Florida and Oklahoma (Congrats Colorado!) flushing the undefeated season. USC stays at No. 2. I will have to ponder the rest of the top 10 until tomorrow.

I like airplanes. That may be because I have relatives who flew or worked on airplanes during their lives. To that end, the Strategic Air and Space Museum (which used to the the Strategic Air Command museum) in Omaha finally finished restoring a C-47, a transport that was used to carry Airborne troops into France during D-Day and cargo hauls. They would fly these planes with cargo over the Himalayas...that must have been wild. What this particular plane originally looked like is seen here: The Museum has several (two large hangers) of airplanes from military service that they that kept up or restored outright. Its a really cool museum because they let tourists walk around the hangars and simply look at and touch the various planes, which range from a B-17 Bomber to a U-2 spy plane. When I first moved to Lincoln about 5 years ago (has it been that long?), they were working to restore this C-47. The museum use volunteers to restore the planes and let interested tourists watch (and occasi...

Horse smuggled onto play in dog crate (even I couldn't make that up...) Monkeys mug tourist and get cell phone (No, not those Monkees ) Nerd auction (you can probably find one on ebay cheaper.)

The Episcopal House of Bishops met yesterday and voted and approved a resolution that has now been published online in various places, one of which is here (if you want accompanying liberal spin) and another is here (if you want accompanying conservative spin) or here (if you are apathetic and want to see pictures of cute doberman puppies born at the Nebraska Doberman Rescue). Speaking of puppies, I do not know what to make of this puppy the House of Bishops adopted. I don't think anyone else does either. Take for instance the follow headline snippets: From the BBC : "US Anglicans reject Gay bishops" From the New York Times : "Episcopal Bishops reject Anglican Church's Orders" From the Omaha World Herald : "Episcopal Leaders try to Avoid Schism" (I particularly love this one as it shows Gene Robinson wearing a Hawaiian shirt. I'll avoid further comment, the picture says it all.) All that spin, and who really knows anything? Since the whole E...

One never knows for sure, but I cannot shake the feeling that there is a disturbance in the Force. The House of Bishops have been meeting all weekend and something (a resolution of some kind) is forthcoming and likely will be adopted with the next few hours. This resolution will likely be some attempt to respond to the Primate's communique that was issued from Dar Es Salaam back in spring. For my non-Anglican readers who are not really affected with the goings-on in the Anglican Communion, the Primates (the Anglican version of Archbishops...or Cardinals perhaps) met a few months back and requested some points of clarification on The Issue that confronts us all. I was always struck by the fact that the city the Primates met at was Dar es Salaam: The City of Peace. Peace is something none of us has had in the Anglican Communion for quite some time. I wonder if we would even recognize peaceful co-existence in the church if it came knocking on our Big Red Door. I haven't heard what...

I was sent on a mission a few weeks back to restock some of the Communion linens in the sacristy. (For my liturgically handicapped readers, a sacristy is the little room in the church that stores the candlesticks, etc., and is used as a priest's vesting room.) In the Anglican tradition we use the same chalice for Communion, not those little Protestant shot glasses o' Jesus juice. Some churches use white wine or even sherry as it does not stain the linens as badly. I have no idea how anyone can think white wine is Christ's blood. (Perhaps the platelets of Christ, but not the blood.) As with most places, however, we use red wine for Communion. The problem with using red wine (although I imagine the problem would be the same with grape juice) is that Communion linens tend to have a short lifespan. Wine can be gotten out of the linens, but the cleaning of them (even with that Oxyclean stuff instead of the traditional bleach or vinegar) every week wears the fabric thin. The tim...

The Curate’s Corner -By the Rev. Deacon Ryan Hall “The Man in Black” I was ordained in June; so, I am still something of a newbie clergyman, a Padawan Jedi if you will pardon the allusion to certain pop culture science fiction movies. If you will think back to that first Star Wars turkey prequel that came out with in the late ‘90s, new initiates to the Jedi order had to get a weird hair cut and start wearing those funky Jedi robes. Luckily, new people ordained to the Jedi Sacred Order of Deacons do not have to get weird haircuts. Not unlike the Jedi, however, what has been an adjustment for me is getting used to wearing this thing which we call the clerical collar. Wearing clericals has not been so much of an issue at St Mark’s because most Episcopalians (but not all) are used to and even expect their clergy to wear them. Wearing clericals outside the walls of the church has been a completely different learning experience. Perhaps my favorite story thus far has been on a bicycle ride...

Every football home game, St Mark's on Campus has a tailgate party. Its good publicity, and we make a little money for the church by selling hotdogs, etc. Being good Episcopalians, we know people that know people. We hired a local group of traditional Japanese drummers. They certainly drew a crowd, which was good. If only the Huskers had played that well...

Spotted in the Courtyard of St Mark's "Someone please help me..."

Today, St Mark's was hosting a group of students temporarily displaced from the University of Nebraska Cultural Center due to a bureaucratic scheduling snafu. As part of out outreach to the University, we allow our space to be used for student events like this. Today, its Episode II: Attack of the Czechs. The Czech student group is hosting the Czech UN ambassador and other dignitaries which couldn't be rescheduled. They've been up the hall in the kitchen cooking Czech goodness all afternoon. The church smells of pot roasts and sauerkraut. Students keep coming into the office with plates of food. "Here you go, Father!" Potato pancakes, kolaches (which I surmise is some some pastry). It's been an all afternoon feast. Quoth the rector, "Same time next semester?"

St Mark's had its annual booksale over the weekend. I never sorted so many books in my life... And this was before the truck full of estate sale books showed up!

I updated my college football top ten. Louisville got axed. Boston College cracked the top ten thanks to beating Georgia Tech. I was a little surprised at how easy BC made that game look. Georgia Tech's defense isn't anybody's patsy. As much as it gripes me, I still have to put Florida at No. 1. They are still the champs and played like it against Tennessee. Although I have to admit that 24 unanswered points in the 4th quarter seemed a little excessive. I was really tempted to put USC as co-No. 1. They looked incredible against Nebraska. I got to see them in person, and that is one unbelievable running game, the like of which I have rarely seen before. I certainly gave USC points for sportsmanship. Say what you want, but Pete Carroll is a class act. USC scored 49 points on Nebraska by the beginning of the 4th quarter. If Carroll had of wanted to make a BCS statement, he could easily have run up the score to 60+ points, but he pulled all the starters by the 4th quarter out ...

Hobo-noun, plural -bos, -boes. 1. a tramp or vagrant. 2. a migratory worker. I think the word 'hobo' has largely vanished from common usage in the English language. I believe this to be because of politically correct folks who want to supplant words like "bum" and "hobo" with "homeless person." Granted, "bum" has a negative connotation, which is probably why the term has survived. Interestingly, however, "hobo" which actually isn't as negative a term, has largely gone extinct like other such grandly descriptive words like "sluggard." A hobo, at least in the original sense, was someone who lived a certain lifestyle. They chose to be a vagrant, working occasionally in seasonal jobs. Bums were just, well, bums. But folks who used to describe themselves of "hobos" did so with pride because it was a carefree life almost to the point of being very Franciscan in a way. They enjoyed the adventure and the variety,...

And if you believe that, I have some property here in Nebraska with gourgeous mountain views to sell ya.

My cell phone starts ringing early this morning. I had set the alarm clock on it because I had to get up at 5 to make a pastoral care call. I looked at it and realized it wasn't the alarm clock function...someone was calling me. Bad news always invariably comes in the middle of the night. It was the police station: the church security alarm had gone off. 2 potheads from the fraternity had jimmied the door downstairs. Their mission? Smokin' doobies in the Lady Julian chapel. Not realizing they had tripped the motion sensors, they proceeded to fire up some purple incense haze. The police busted them as they were coming back out. Sergeant Friday The policeman on the scene was quoted as saying, "the only evidence of the pot was that one of the officers thought they smelled it. I guess they smoked the evidence." They were ticketed for trespassing. Quoth the rector, "I chose not to speak to the young men, but I did see them from across the courtyard; they looked like...

So I learned an interesting thing about wearing glasses today that never occurred to me before. I can only recount the verbatim for theological reflect: The names and faces have not been changed to protect no one. Location: Somewhere on the University of Nebraska campus Campus Religious Workers meeting. Archer (drinking hot coffee): Argh! I can't see! Archer's boss: That's because your glasses are fogged up. FYI...who knew hot coffee fogged up glasses?

I was perusing a stack of used CDs in the store yesterday and found an album by one of my favorite Gospel/Blues groups. I was happy because it was one of the few albums I do not have of this group. And then I got to looking at it: I guess the producer is blind too because...ummm, how can I put this politely?...there are six.

So I finally had to get a real pair of eye glasses. I had some cheap drugstore glasses a while back, but I hardly ever wore them. In fact, I went out of my way to avoid wearing them. I came up with a plethora of excuses not to wear my first pair: you get those whelps on the bridge of your nose, the dog piddled on them, they were hijacked and held ransom by Canadian Separtists, eh ?, it was after midnight and they turned into a pumpkin, the police confiscated them to use in a bathroom sting operation with a certain ex-US Senator (I've tried hard to resist making a crack about that, but I can't resist such good material), Mr. Tumnus stole them when I was in Narnia (The book says he wore specs, but I never saw any eyeglass factories in the movie. He either stole them from the Sons of Adam, or Narnia outsourced eyeglass making to the Lone Islands), and (my personal favorite) my roommate lost them in his martini glass at which point they dissolved. (Hey, it was a very dry martini!) ...

So, I was sitting in my office earlier. My office overlooks St Mark's little courtyard area which is next to one of the main drags on the University of Nebraska campus. We are on a corner with a stop sign, and a lot of student passersby use the walkway intersection to get over to the classroom buildings across the way. The time was approximately 11:30, so I assumed the classes were getting out for the lunch hour. There were people milling about with back packs and whatnot, about what you would expect on a campus. A tweaked out car pulls up to the stop: a purple low riding thing which appeared to be about 5 or so years all. The owner decides it is time to cruise by turning on the woofer in his car. What I can only describe as a shockwave from the blast of rap music rattled my office window. It was at this point that I looked up from my desk. I was just in time to see a hub cap, apparently loosened from the rap music, fall off the car and roll down the sidewalk. I have never actually...

I made a few tweaks to my College Football Top Ten list yesterday. I bumped LSU up over USC to No. 2. LSU has looked incredible the first two games. I don't really think Florida will finish No. 1, but as I have always stated, the champs are the champs until they prove otherwise. Texas/Oklahoma are still too close to call. Although I am leaning toward Oklahoma taking the lead in the Big XII South. I bumped Louisville down to No. 10 because they scored a lot of points on the Thursday night game, but I am not sure they have a defense. I bumped up West Virginia, Cal, and Wisconsin to round out the other spots. The jury is still out on how good these teams are, but so far so good. On the bubble: Georgia Tech (If they can get by Clemson, they have a legitimate shot an going undefeated), South Carolina (I predicted they would beat at least one of the big boys in the East and they already did it to Georgia. I think Tennessee is next in their sights), and Nebraska (probably a pipe dream, b...

So it came up in the vestry meeting today that a vestryman had tickets to "next week's football game." The conversation ensued about our parish tailgating parties for Husker games. No one picked up on the potential value of said vestryman's comment except one curate who shall remain nameless. ;) After the meeting was over, I asked him how he managed to score tickets to the Nebraska-USC game. He said, "Yeah, a relative isn't using them...do you want one?" Is Fred Thompson bald? FYI...look for me on TV next week.

When your deacon stole comes apart in the middle of the service after the sermon, you can use the clippy from the mircophone to reattach it until you get back to the sacristy. FYI...

Selichot Service The St. Mark's choir will join with the choir of the South Street Temple for the Selichot service on Saturday, September the 8th at 9:00 pm. This is the Jewish service of preparation and repentance that precedes the High Holy Days. The service will include clergy from both congregations. All of the St. Mark's family and all of the readers of my blog are invited to participate in this event.

This is a scan of an article about my ordination from the newsletter of the Church which hosted it.

So, it's Sunday morning, and I am helping with the Chalice during Communion. I'm wiping off the rim and, unbeknownst to the curate, a 2 year old at the altar rail reaches out and grabs the bottom rim of said chalice. In a slow motion splash reminiscent of the D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan, two of the eternal Sunday mysteries were answered: Who knew albs could absorb that much wine? Who knew Gospel Books in the Processional could be used to hide such wine spillage on said altar vestments? According to Canon law, I have to consume the alb or set myself on fire. Good luck filing that Workman's Comp claim.

That's how quickly Michigan was dropped from my top ten list...like a rock. I am going to have to ban them from my top ten list for the year. Appy State...you gotta be kidding. I might take odds on not whether Lloyd Carr is out by the end of the season, but if he even makes it through the season. He's been on the hot seat for a while and now he's turned the gas on. The Big House may blow up. Not that I have much to talk about, as my Tennessee team pretty much got thumped by Cal, who cracked my top ten btw. I saw that one coming. Cal was out for blood. My other team, Nebraska, looked sharp though. I will have a write up on that tomorrow as I got to go to the game. I am too tired to write anything in depth at this point. I also promoted Louisville and West Virginia who looked sharp, while I knocked Auburn down a few notches. I pushed Va. Tech out of the top ten because they appeared to need some work. I have Georgia Tech in the wings at No. 11 after they drubbed Notre Dame. ...