My friend Terri Miller who writes a blog about Paintings, photos and dressage. sent around an email soon after the report of the newsman's death.
Axel (Terri's well known dressage judge husband) and I have always looked forward to spending our rare Sunday mornings at home watching Meet The Press because of Russert's great interviews.
My guess is that God was as perplexed as everyone else by American
politics, and needed someone to explain it.-Terri Miller
Charles Peavey's family had an unusual family heirloom; a mummified corpse of a baby. "Baby John" was lovingly passed down for generations. But a judge has ordered Baby John to be put to rest in burial because there is no DNA evidence proving kinship.
Say what? So as long as its a blood relative, New Hampshire is ok with its citizens collecting and drying dead babies?
Until police confiscated Baby John in 2006, the mummy had been on display on a bureau in the Peavey home. Relatives and friends reportedly treated the desiccated infant as a family member. He would get holiday cards and even gifts. One, he was given a dried fish.
Denying any "wierdness" going on, Peavey says he cannot afford the DNA testing the state required to be able to release the remains back to his family.
Peavey tried hard to keep "Baby John", believed to be the stillborn child of a great great uncle, in the family. "It's one of the few things from our family past that we have left. When I pass on, I was looking forward to passing it on to another family member to keep some of the history for future family members."
Sheesh. What about an inheritance or even a stamp collection, dude?
--Thanks to Jo Dwyer for the newspaper clipping!
Long time readers of In Repose Blog might remember my post of June 6.
Coming from a military family, it is very hard for me to stomach the activities of these "god-fearing" people.Today guest blogger Jamie Sue Austin links us to some current news, and gives us her thoughts on these utterly contemptible people.
I really really truly do believe in the freedom of speech. I really, really do...
But these people make my skin crawl. While our collective paranoia fears Muslim extremists, islamofascist, and poorly armed terrorist cells in arid third world countries...we have people like this brewing little cauldrons of hate in our own country. Celebrating the death of the good and righteous. They are grief vultures swooping down on the wounded and plucking out their eyes.
I have always believed that the greatest threats are not those we imagine exist outside our borders, but those we let fester and rot in our own backyards.
Anyways, lovely verdict. Nice that it will be overturned. It's like getting your cake and eating it too. The courts get to show their disdain for this kind of inflammatory hate mongering and at the same time protect the first amendment by assigning a punishment so ridiculous that it can not be upheld.
-Jamie Sue Austin
Read the USA today story HERE.
If disaster was approaching and you only had minutes to decide, what would you take from your home? I have friends fleeing from the California fires. The list is pretty standard. You take your family, you take your pets. You take as many family photographs as possible. You try to take your important papers.
Photograph courtesy Candace Craw-Goldman
I have a friend who called for help in removing her horses from approaching flames. The trailer was not allowed to enter the neighborhood and she had to leave them to brave the inferno on their own. Her worst fear realized. She does not yet know their fate.
California is in our prayers.
Hello friends and readers of In Repose Blog.
Many of you know I have been away to California wearing my photographer hat. The fires began as I boarded my plane to fly home. We just missed the fire and smoke and mayhem. Good thing as we were high in the parched Santa Ynez mountains in a wooden cabin. Even then, wondering at how fast we would be cooked in said cabin with the Santa Ana winds screaming hotly down the nearby slopes.
Photograph Courtesy Candace Craw-Goldman
I arrived home to find my main computer, and my back up computer, both down and unusable. This has put me even further behind and to those of you whom I owe communication, I apologize. No data was lost and hopefully my office will be fully operational by tomorrow afternoon.
There is a memorial to the dead prince to be unveiled next week in London's Trafalgar Square. Its title is "Iraq War Memorial featuring the Death of Prince Harry, the Martyr of Maysan Province". Its creator is artist Daniel Edwards.
The piece shows a mutilated Harry laid out before the Union Jack with his head resting on a Bible and pennies placed over his eyes. The statue clutches a bloodied flag of Wales and in his hand, held fast to his heart is a cameo locket of his late mother, Princess Diana. A desert vulture perches on his boot and looks towards the fallen soilder's face.
What? You didn't hear about the Prince being killed or even being deployed to the war?
Well, that is because he was not. This work of art is not about the actual death of Prince Harry, but instead is a symbolic representation honoring those willing but unable to serve in the Iraq conflict. Poised to fight and to be quite the celebrated soilder, Harry was kept home due to "specific threats to kill or kidnap him".
The memorial was inspired by the Prince's "willingness to sacrifice for this country, and the sympathy for his disappointment of an unfulfilled patriotic aspiration."
Harry had stated he would leave the army if he was left in safety while his regiment was sent to a war zone. “Prince Harry’s spirit must have died the day they told him he couldn’t serve,” speculates New York artist Daniel Edwards. “That’s what this memorial is about."
As a bonus to the artwork a bronze casting of Prince Harry's severed ears is also set for display and will be offered at auction on Ebay. (This piece denoting the explicit threats by militia leaders to send him back to his grandmother without his ears).
Read more at Princeharrymemorial.com.
(I don't normally forward on mass emails of any kind, let alone post them to this blog. But my father, a former fighter pilot, Viet Nam war veteran and fiercely proud American sent this one to me and I LOVE it. If anyone happens to know who the original author isj, please let me know, I would love to be able to give credit.)
How to Kill an American
You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navajo, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim! In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.
The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American."
The late last century's 'gratest' tenor has passed on. Certainly as
Jerry reinvented Guitar, Pavarotti wakened the common man again to the
beauty of Opera. Both men grew from humble beginnings to represent a
genre of music above all others.
He was my father in law's [Michael DiMuzio] favorite singer. Mike was a burly large Italian Construction foremen, yet often we would catch Mike on weekend afternoons listening to Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot" by Puccini. As Pavarotti's unique sound and vocal power unraveled Nessun Dorma to its climactic build, we were sure not to bug Mike, but often watched as the huge man went into a womb-like revery. With Pavarotti's passing I was immediately reminded of Mike DiMuzio.
It is a signature power of a great artist, when they sing, when they die, we get pulled into contemplating our own life and family by their great work. I am sure my example is repeated all over the world for millions of others who listened to, or had loved ones touched by, Pavarotti. Luciano Pavarotti 1935-2007
Barney
Grateful Web
By Siobhain M Cullen
We usually associate cemeteries and Memorial gardens with quiet reflection, sombre moods and perhaps sorrow. If Diana had wanted a break with this tradition to better reflect her youth, beauty and exuberance and the planners had wanted to reflect her wishes, then somebody somewhere certainly did a good job!
In this Memorial Garden in Kensington Gardens, London, we are more likely to hear whoops of joy, splashing in the summer sun and kids running around clutching ice-creams from the Diana playground café. The park opened in June 2000 and is located near her home at Kensington Palace.
In the middle of the garden is a towering pirate ship built of wood, covered with children exploring, hiding and calling down to their Moms and Dads below. The Moms call back to them to jump back down as their ice-creams are melting onto the sand. Yes, that’s right - sand, for the pirate ship even has a beach around it!. The vessel has a shipwrecked atmosphere as it sits with its rigging, pulleys, and crow’s nest on a bed of pristine white sand. How the princess would have loved to see the 70,000 children every year, innocent in their imaginative play, enjoying the free fun in her name.
As a teacher she would have approved of the educational value of the sensory trail and the inviting sculptures just made to be handled and explored, some responding with sound. She would have loved the attractive parkland setting full of majestic trees and fragrant flowers, a rare inner city habitat for wildlife such as wildfowl, beetles, and even foxes.
Among the many other toys and equipment are teepees, slides, walkways and a tree-house, where would-be braves and squaws can hide out. Tourists with hot sore feet who have been tramping around London showing their children the sights will be relieved to know that ample seating has also been provided where parents can take a well-earned break and watch their little ones cooling down. There are even mermaid fountains with rocky boulders dotted around. This ensures the memory of JM Barrie’s Peter Pan is still evident in the atmosphere of Neverland too, so maybe bring a copy of the book to read while the children role-play.
In addition to the obligatory ice-cream for the kids, The Diana Playground Café also serves snacks such as fresh salads, kids meals, sandwiches and refreshing cups of tea or cooling drinks! Tourists with larger families might want to consider a picnic though, as London prices for a whole family lunch might be eye-watering! The usual amenities of toilets, and disabled and baby facilities are provided too.
All in all, this is certainly a Memorial Garden Walk with a twist! It’s almost as if the Princess is still telling us to leave our handkerchiefs, flowers and tears behind and remember her with shouts, screams and laughter. This joyful exuberance was a quality which she shared in common with the children of the world and is a more fitting tribute here. Only the good die young??
Recent Comments