Which Reminds Me

Yes, it will be very difficult for underground tent-sewers like Mark and Linda to aspire to the church superintendency when there is no visible fruit of their ministry to be tasted by all, mostly just a lot of rotten apples being thrown around. I don't know what everyone else is thinking but I personally would not be interested in lending any assistance to them. Greg is pathetic. I should not have to listen to his nonsense. I don't know why I never saw that before.

The Tease

I so much hate teasers, as if their stupid Party were anything but a gathering of groveling dummies and wannabe uppety-ups, as if that were anything that mattered in the whole scheme of things.

Which Reminds Me

Perhaps I should ask what I am expected to do with a boatload of 19th century drivel spewed by mostly clueless bimbos whose acquaintance I do not treasure. This is of no benefit to me. These snooty rich billionaire people expect me to work full-time for nothing digging up all of their dirt, as if I ever knew anything about it.

I am also reminded of the day in 10th grade English class when Joan Calabrese made some sort of snarky comment about how regrettable it was that Richard Nixon was reelected (1972). The Watergate hearings were at that time in full swing in D.C. I replied that, well, actually my parents voted for Nixon. Joan said, "Oh!" and then snootily turned away in her haughty arrogant way, as if this revelation only confirmed the stupidity of my existence.

Uh, thanks?

And if the person whose name graced my passport were to later get involved in burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters, would I be complicit in their crime by virtue of passport identification? I think not. I think I would be needlessly torturing myself and taking on way too much baggage if I were to ask such useless questions and engage in such irrelevant dialogue with persons who would only be using me for their own political purposes. Watergate does not concern me in a personal way. I am sure that some Republican Party people are deeply affected but I am not them. I respect their silence but they also need to respect mine. I am not even aware of how connected my relatives might be to that party machinery because I was not there and, anyway, they never tell me anything.

Which Reminds Me

One day at college at SCC we were walking out of the classroom and Terry Cederblom was calling me his "red heifer." I was immediately insulted by that comment. What is that supposed to mean, that I am Terry's cow? I think not. Probably they will be sorry later that they messed with me but, anyway, it is really not my place to wreak vengeance. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, as the Bible says.

Which Reminds Me

I do not recall making any athletic claims. Someone did ask how high I can kick and, actually, you might be surprised how high that would be. That is the only thing I can remember along those lines. However, I always mostly hated athletics generally speaking. It was complicated. Enough said.

Speaking of Alaska

Yes, truth be told, nobody ever really cared that much about the opinions of chatterbox Dawn. She always talks incessantly in a nice if snarky way about all of the pranks that she and her brother continuously pulled behind the back of poor Miss Nafsker, the MK schoolteacher who was living at their house. That is about as deep as it gets. But I have told this story before and there is nothing else to add to that. I cannot imagine what reports she might have delivered to the dummies' class people because we never really had any high school classes together, only met at maybe recess. Anyway, I never interviewed the three blond dummies — Gwen Juneau, Kelly Elliott, and Janice Barton — so I really wouldn't know. Just being blond does not mean that you are any more worthy of American citizenship than I am. I am just as much a part of the American people as any Canadian Dawn-come-lately so there is nothing else to say about the disgustingly trashy Sawords. I am sick and tired of hearing about Wicked Witch Dawn, in addition to some other witches, so don't be surprised if I slam the door in Kelly-Gwen-Janice's Wicked Witch face, or whoever it is. I am sick and tired of hearing from the Wicked Witch dogs of high school, as if I ever cared about their pathetically horrible lives.

Which Reminds Me

I forget exactly who it was who pointed out the grating sound of the voices of Bill and Gloria Gayther. They did write a couple of good songs that made them very popular but that probably would have been the end of their story if they had not gone out and hired lots of other people to do most of their singing so that nowadays we do not have to listen to an entire two or three hours of only Bill and Gloria. Obviously sometimes writing a good song that says something people can relate to is more important than just having the best voice.

Which Reminds Me

Many years ago while attending Oakland Park Assembly church I remember one night this lady came up to me and seemed to think she had a "word from the Lord" for me which was something about how I am expecting something to happen in the future and she is praying for me. So that was nice? I was not exactly sure what she meant by that. It was a bit puzzling. Was she wishing me well or to the contrary? It was not clear. Anyway, her comments were not solicited by me. Sometimes people just get these ideas in their heads and it is not clear why I should correct them when they think they are hearing "from the Lord." I cannot honestly say that I do not have any hopes for the future in terms of what the Lord may or may not do with me in the future. She was some Italian lady, possibly the wife or sister of Tom Endovino although I am not sure. I really did not know those people much. I barely remember the names and faces but I never really understood what their mental problem was.

Which Reminds Me

Why is everyone always accusing me of something? It's like if I were to say that the world is round they would argue the world is flat just to spite me, not because I actually said something wrong, and God forbid that I actually did something wrong, they would not hesitate to throw the book at me, so greatly do they despise and loathe me. So, like, am I surprised? Not really. I have grown accustomed to being treated like garbage even though I am not even remotely a Catholic German from Berlin and have no idea where they are coming from.

Which Reminds Me

During the year that I was at Evangel College I remember taking the New Testament Survey class, the professor being Gary Kellner. He was a fairly good teacher as I recall. One day he used the word "asinine" in forcefully making a certain point. A certain girl in the classroom spoke up and sharply rebuked the professor for using such a bad word. She was highly insulted by his use of such terminology. Flipping through the old '76-77 yearbook, the face of Jennifer Franklin leaps to mind although I am not sure. I do not remember discussing this with her but I do remember being asked about this later. It was shocking at the time to watch her create such a scene and disrupt the lecture flow in that way. She seemed to be misunderstanding the meaning of the word or the context of its use or something and taking it to be personal in a way that everyone else in the classroom was not getting. I mean, if the professor had been spewing D and F words probably the whole class would have been rioting but it was only an "A" word and spelled with only one "s." Whatever the point was I cannot quite recall but the "A" word seemed to fit the context of the moment. The "A" words does seem a bit too strong for casual conversation given the potential for misunderstanding and abuse by ignorant and vulgar persons but, anyway, I was more interested in completing my requisite college credits than in getting involved in Jennifer's obscure mental issues.

Which Reminds Me

Someone was saying that the Butterfields are angry with me. I don't remember why they were so angry with me and anyway I really don't care what they think about anything, truth be told. They are never going to have another chance to humiliate me that way again, whatever it was. I don't quite remember. I was maybe 6 or 7 when I was forced to stay at their miserable house for several days. Just being distantly related to me means nothing as all of my relatives are pathetic, especially the horrible Butterfield cousins. To them, being military is the only thing that matters in terms of American patriotism and citizenship, and yet they fail to see that being powerful enough to beat me up will get them nowhere in the long term, especially when they are fighting on the wrong side of history obviously. It is not enough to be military. You have to be fighting for the right side of something that matters. Just your being a loudmouthed bully will not win you any signal of recognition from me. I am just going to ignore all of this nonsense and never go there because, anyway, Jesus is going to win in the end and that is all that matters to me. I just want to be on Jesus' side.

Which Reminds Me

I vaguely recall Karen Asmuth in college talking about that science fiction/fantasy book by Madeleine L'Engle, "A Wrinkle in Time," in which she describes the United States as some sort of "heart" object located somewhere outside of Washington D.C. which produces a regular heartbeat but occasionally flops out of its place and has to be repositioned. I don't quite remember Karen's opinion of that. She was just describing the book she had read which she really liked. But of course Madeleine L'Engle is a British author so we must recall that her opinion of America would be somewhat skewed to the British-Canadian angle, obviously. L'Engle was perhaps one of those Ink Blot Society people but I really don't remember. I never read a book twice. Maybe that was what Karen was saying. I myself did read that book later also but it did not mean that much to me. I really don't remember anything about "It."

Which Somehow Reminds Me

Everyone remembers the story that Vicky Smeya told about how Roy Smeya invited her to a college banquet at Southwestern college in Texas and then she was sitting there at the banquet table thinking about how she wanted to get up and run out the door but she didn't and then later they were married because, as Roy said, she did not run away so she was apparently his friend. So that formula worked for them but it does not necessarily fit everyone else's circumstances. Not everyone wants to spend that much time hanging out with the Smeyas. They are not the King of anything.

Which Reminds Me

Everyone in our family knows that the Butterfields are well known to blither blather endlessly on fad topics such as angels. However, nobody really understands why they are so obsessed with the topic of angels, when obviously we as Christians cannot base our theology on angels. You would have to ask them yourselves whether they were aware of Boddy and his Angels of Mons pamphlet because we were never enough aware of those events to even be able to ask that question ourselves. I only became aware of the Angels of Mons topic maybe a year ago. Before that I just did not have any idea I was supposed to ask questions about that because I just didn't know. We just thought they were nuts.

Which Reminds Me

It seems strange to me that the Sawords would be attacking us just because basically they are British-Canadian and we are not. That is about all that it amounts to because otherwise there was really nothing else to say about them. It was not like we were planning to attack them later or anything like that. We have other things on our minds and we know that they belong to a very exclusivist tiny like sect called Plymouth Brethren which has its own rules. We already knew that their particular rules would make us seem worldly by contrast to their extremely strict and retro lifestyle so there would be nothing constructive to be gained in discussing that point any further. At their church the women do not cut their hair ever, etc., etc. We would feel very uncomfortable if required to be judged by their rules because, basically, our church denomination sees that somewhat differently, not that Dawn would have stopped talking long enough to allow me to explain my point of view on that. We have other ideas about certain things. Not to go around attacking them because we understand about the invisible church and they are doing what they believe is right, but we also have freedom to do as we believe is right. That is what freedom of religion is all about, is it not?

Which Reminds Me

That was nice of someone in high school, one of my high school classmates, to explain to me something about the "Mata Hari" joke, not that I would necessarily have to ask questions. They are not descended from Mata Hari herself but from someone else in her family, possibly one of her brothers. I don't remember the exact details but it was something like that. So this means that it would be hard for them to aspire to Empire of the Universe perhaps with that dark secret in their family. Oh, that was interesting, but did not really seem like a secret or big deal. Almost everyone in our high school class seems to be already aware of this fact about their family, those people already knowing each other's business in great detail anyway, many of them being related by family or in-law ties. So I really did not give much further thought to that point of history. Lots of people have strange family attachments I would imagine. So?

Which Reminds Me

My sister spent her junior and senior years of high school studying at a public high school in North Miami Beach. I only vaguely remember once or twice meeting her Jewish friend from high school, I think her name was Lori although I am not sure, who was in choir and classes with my sister. This girl Lori converted to Christianity near the end of her senior year which seemed good to us at the time but then shortly after that she converted to Mormonism and moved away to Salt Lake City I imagine to attend Mormon college there, which seems rather appalling in retrospect. How could that happen? We think of Mormonism as a cult because of its refusal to accept the centrality of Jesus, God incarnate in human form, born of a virgin and risen from the dead, in Christian theology. Whether or not my sister has kept in touch with her high school friend I really would not know. I would not recommend it under those circumstances but not to be mean. It is just that cult people are so brainwashed and we don't want waste time having to listen to that. We know better.

Which Reminds Me

There are those who wonder why the Book of Susan is not included in the Bible canon. I don't know why and am not qualified to say. Protestant Bible scholars with doctoral degrees in Greek and Hebrew make those decisions. I have no clue but we commoners have to trust the authorities who tell us we don't really need that Apocryphal trivia cluttering our brains. The KJV Bible has everything that we need for life and liberty. And yet late at night, deep in the silence, one hears the thunderous pounding of demon fists trying to break down the door that keeps Susan's story out of this debate. And what if Susan were standing with a myrtle tree on her right and a Lentiske tree on her left so that both men correctly named a tree in the garden? Still she would be innocent of guile and the two lecherous men guilty of evil and treacherous schemes, according to the facts presented. Thus we see that Susan's story produces no repentance in the men who plotted against her. The two men are not led to a recognition of their own sinfulness and folly, which is the prelude to salvation and forgiveness from sin. The two men are put to death by law enforcement based on the fact that their arboreal alibis do not exactly match, but the legal burden of proving false witness is not fully met. The fact that the two would-be thieves cannot read each other's minds only proves that they are not omniscient deities. Thus, would-be thieves of the future are notified that in order to get away with murder they must be of one mind. The reader is left asking whether the two men would have ben excused of their wicked schemes, the slaughtering of Susan's innocence, if, under another scenario, they had chanced to name the same tree. With the honor of the vineyard's owner slaughtered, the two men might feel some pangs of sadness at the loss of beauty but barriers to assuming ownership would be demolished. Thus we see that Susan's story produces a race of thieves. Mankind falls far short of the standard of righteousness that God demands from us. God says that we are to be holy as He is holy. God is perfect. If mankind had not sinned in Adam and Eve there would be no need for a Messiah, no reason for the prophecy that the woman's seed would crush the serpent's head. So anyway, I don't understand anything but these are just some thoughts produced by Susan's story.

Which Reminds Me

Perhaps I really should have asked someone how my name got mingled in there with the divorce of Cindy Santiago (MK-Ecuador) from Mr. Howell so many years ago. They met and married during college but I did not know them well enough to know very much about that. I just remember seeing Cindy and her husband walking around the college but a few years later they were divorced so the marriage perhaps did not last very long. I would only be guessing. We might have talked two or three times but that was back in school days. There are those who would classify Cindy as one of the most flaky, nutty fruitcakes at our college so anyway Mr. Howell would not be receiving a lot of sympathy for having married her in the first place one way or another. No need to drag me into their mess, thanks anyway.

Yes, and Sandy Santiago was reminding me that she was on the staff of the Wine Press, the college newspaper, while I was not. So true and yet where are Sandy's bestselling books now? We would all be interested to know more about the makings of these Ecuadoran sonnets from the Portuguese.

Which Reminds Me

I actually never saw that movie starring Dick Van Dyke, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" so all these clues pointing in that direction would not mean anything to me. I am not every interested in exploring someone else's creepy nightmare, which is what a movie often is, thanks anyway. I might have seen pictures of that "flying" car and movie stars in a magazine but never got around to actually seeing the movie so there is no way that I could write a plausible movie review that I never saw.