bierkergaard

My Dad stopped by our house on Tuesday on the way out to Pittsburgh. Lina and I decided to not join some of the rest of the family out there since she has been travelling so much recently. My Dad had some precious cargo in his caravan.... Strombolis from Berwyn Pizza, close to where we grew up. The freezer in our garage looked like an Italian culinary armory. No, the Strombolis were not for me--all twenty of them--were for my brother Steve out in Pittsburgh. I am certain that if a 15 lb Stromboli was served for Thanksgiving Dinner rather than Turkey, that Steve would be quite pleased. I am partial to the Sugar Bowl (in Millersville) Strombolis anyway. I will buy the Sugar Bowl Strombolis in lieu of a special trip down to Berwyn for Steve and he is grateful nonetheless. But, no doubt, he prefers Berwyn's. At some point there is going to be an Olympian Stromboli-off, with Gold and Silver being awarded. I wonder if any of those totally fair and impartial East German judges are still...

So, I was reading on the web that rather than raking the leaves and bagging them, better to chew 'em up in the lawn mower and blow them onto the dirt in the yard as a mulch. Made sense to me...and less work. What happened though is that the leaf fragments all were cast away to the four corners of the earth. Like messages in bottles, they are blowing ashore elsewhere. Forensically-speaking, my neighbors will have a difficult time identifying the yard of origin due to the jigsaw puzzle-like leaf particles all in the hood. I feel kind of bad...as if I just subcontracted my leaf collection to others. Plus, we are not the only ones with Birch trees around. The other night I happened to be reading Job. Occasionally, I man up and gird my loins for Job. There was a verse where Job compares himself to a leaf. Job 13:25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? I find his tragedy comforting in that Job withstands the satanic fragmenting and scattering. The book ends with the verse, ...

One of the most lethal ailments of a human soul is ingratitude. There are sins that are more public yet few are more deadly. In Romans 1:21, the Apostle Paul writes: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. This verse is not only just a indictment of the Pagans; which it surely is, because all people know there is a God but humanity suppresses the truth in unrighteousnesses. In other words, the wicked heart leads, and the mind follows behind on a leash. Intellectual argumentation just does the bidding for a heart in rebellion. Paul's opening salvo was a heat and heart-seeking missile into the center of Roman pride. It is also an indictment of religious types who give mouth service to God but whose hearts are equally astray (probably most specifically a reference to many of the Jews): Romans 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judge...

I have been listening to WITF public radio the last couple of days and one of the morning hosts keeps referring to Thanksgiving as "Turkey Day." That is like calling a Wedding celebration "Cake Day." It is crass and uneducated and even desecrating. I would expect a DJ from FM 97 to mouth such a banal statement, not a supposed enlightened voice of the local intelligentsia. Sounds more like the daily special at the local greasy spoon along with chicken waffles and oyster stew and stuffed peppers. Reminds me of what Bart Simpson prays at Thanksgiving Dinner, "We paid for this ourselves so thanks for nothing." Lisa Simpson, in the Episode Bart vs. Thanksgiving laments: I saw the best meals of my generation Destroyed by the madness of my brother. My soul carved in slices By spikey-haired demons. -- `Howl of the Unappreciated' by Lisa Simpson, ``Bart vs. Thanksgiving.'' Here is Lincoln's original proclamation establishing Thanksgiving .

It is interesting, and just a tad frustrating to me, that I know certain principles are good to practice. But, then I forget to do so, pay the price, and relearn and reapply the same lesson. One such principle is looking up when lifting a heavy weight. This is a principle that I "lifted" from lifting weights. Whenever bearing a lot of weight--for squats or like movement--I look up. Looking up arches the back to a more stable posture. If I don't, spasm city. I was lugging a 40 lb of container of Belgian-to-be up the stairs the other week. I had no idea it weighed that much until I did the math. I wasn't planning having to carry up the stairs into the upstairs guest bedroom closet until I discovered the Quad needed to be fermented at a warmer temperature than the basement. Man, my back was shot for days. Old crotchety man I was. On Saturday I had to pour off the trub in the brew along with the hops and other matter. I remembered to look up and no problems with transport...

I was listening to an interview with rapper and former crack dealer Jay-Z on Fresh Air this week. Jay-Z mentioned a line from the film Scarface: " Don't get high on your own supply." The writer of this interview relayed this observation: "Through his 14 years on the streets, he never touched crack. He says there was a strict code among successful hustlers." Here is Jay-Z talking about his years as a crack dealer, versus not being a crack user: "We had these guidelines to help us out," he says. "Some of us died, some of us didn't. I never wanted that. I saw what it was doing to the community." To his credit, Jay-Z now acknowledges the awful irony in his former logic. A perverse inversion of the Golden Rule. So good that God does not treat us as we can treat others. Romans 5:8 But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us