Each year Time Magazine honors its Man or Woman of the Year. The magazine states that the criteria for selection are “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse.” This year’s selections were Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft fame and wealth along with rock star Bono. They were honored for their financial and political contributions to world poverty. I don’t have an issue with Time’s selections. I admire Bill and Melinda for giving significantly and Bono for his passionate campaign. But if Time magazine came to me and asked for my Man and Woman of the year it would be much different. I would nominate four people that you likely have never heard about. These are the people that affected my life for better because of their unquenchable faith. I would first nominate Bob and Susan. Susan was diagnosed with cancer over a year
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I used to be terrified by Dracula when I was a kid. Bela Lugosi played the Transylvania terror and I did not sleep well for many nights after seeing that movie. The standard defense methods against a vampire were generally not available to an eight year old kid. I did not have any silver bullets, did not possess a crucifix, was too chicken to think about the wooden stake, and could not figure out an excuse to put garlic on the shopping list. So I hunkered down under the covers, stayed close to beloved mutt Penny, and began my first foray into earnest prayer. God does work in mysterious ways. So it brought back a lot of memories when I picked up an article in yesterday’s “Dallas Morning News” headlined Give the slip to ‘energy vampires’. The premise of the piece written by Patrick Pemberton is that certain people possess bad vibes, passive-aggressive tactics or outright meanness that simply wipes you out. The concept
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I have a friend who believes in nominal predestination. He thinks that your name determines a great deal about who you will become. For example, was Yogi Berra more likely to become: a) a nuclear physicist  b) a malaprop spouting baseball hero The answer, of course, is b. If your name is classy, he theorized, you would tend to be more sophisticated. If your name was Bubba you might not be predestined to enjoy an opera libretto. I viewed his theory with interest but a bit of confusion. What nominal predestination awaited a person with a pedestrian name like Dave? The concept of creative naming had not blossomed when I arrived midway through the Baby Boom. My moniker was the fifth most popular of my birth year. Numbers one through four were Robert, James, Michael, and John. So I imagine that the millions and millions of Bobs, Jims, Mikes, Johns, and Daves would be sympathetic to someone wanting a bit of unique identity in their lives. I remembered an
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The blogosphere is alive, not with the sound of music, but with opinions on Victoria Osteen’s recent incident while flying with the family to Colorado. I am assuming that unless you just returned from a filming of “Survivor”you have most likely heard the story (if not refer to the Dec.21st or 26th posts). Reader Jackie posted on this site the following comments (note – all italicized comments are from blog sites). I found Ms Osteen “apology” to be more of a “spin” than an apology. I don’t care when she flies, where she flies to or what her title is. I do find that rudeness and poor behavior is unacceptable from anyone .What bothers me most is that she can issue a statement saying this was a “minor” event. A plane being held for 2 hours and the passengers leaving the plane ( whether they ask to leave or are asked to leave) is not a “minor” event. I do
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The December 18th Doonesbury comic strip might have been clever but it was deceptive and dishonest in it’s content. The strip begins with a doctor looking at an x-ray image. He is thinking to himself that “he hopes he (the patient) is only a Sunday creationist.” In the next frame the patient finds out he has TB. The doctor is better looking and looks more intelligent than the poor “creationist”. The doctor reassures him that they have caught the disease early. Patient: “So my prognosis is good?” Doctor: “Depends. Are you a creationist?” Patient: “Why yes I am. Why do you ask?” Doctor: “Because I want to know if you want me treat the TB bug as it was before antibiotics? Or the multiple drug resistant strain it has since evolved into.” Patient: “Evolved?” Doctor: “Your choice. If you go with the Noah’s Ark version, I’ll just give you Streptomycin.” Patient: “Ummm…what are the newer drugs like?” Doctor: “They’re intelligently
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As I surveyed the annual end of the year summaries I came across the Ig Nobels, an annual ceremony that honors seemingly inane research projects. “ Marc Abrahams, creator of the Ig Nobels and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, the science humor magazine that coordinates the prizes said that,  “The point [of the awards] is to expose people to things they might not come across.”  Mission accomplished. Here are the real 2005 winners of Ig Noble awards. My Ig Noramus Award winning commentary is italicized. Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University in England nabbed the 2005 Ig Nobel Peace prize for their work electronically monitoring the brain cells of locusts as the insects watched selected scenes from Star Wars. “The reason I did the research was curiosity. I had to know,” Rind said in jest. On a serious note, her research studies the way that locusts avoid predators. She hopes the information will lead to new tools that will help cars avoid collisions.
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Greeting cards have all been sent The Christmas rush is through But I still have one wish to make A special one for you     Lyrics from ‘Merry Christmas Darling’ – The Carpenters Yesterday I braved the day after Christmas shopping throngs with the lovely Mrs. Burchett in search of sale priced Christmas ornaments and other half-priced treasures. Actually I found the frenzy at Crate and Barrel to be only slightly less dangerous than the Running of the Bulls in Spain. So I spent a fair amount of time in a nearby Starbucks while she braved the frothing throngs. But I was with her in spirit. My caffinated quiet time gave me an opportunity to reflect on the odd way we celebrate Christmas. The build up to Christmas goes on for weeks and then, before you can file a lawsuit, it is over. We rush pell mell to Christmas Day with intensity that would make Coach Bobby Knight proud. The day itself, like the average
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