bierkergaard

So, I am driving home yesterday the back way from work. The route reminds me of the old ditty "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go." It is a scenic drive and minus the deer and occasional tailgating driver, it is quite tranquil. There was a big old log on the road. As I was motoring, there was one of those scenarios where two tractors were coming the other way and taking up much more than half the road. This log/branch pincered the other end, so that I had no choice but to send up the automotive white flag, surrender, and stop. The log would have definitely messed up my car. After the tractors rumbled by, I pulled around the log, and started to drive. But then my conscience bothered me. "What if someone else hits that log out in the road?" and "If it is dark, someone is going going to collide with that thing." I kept driving. Although the picture above is exaggerated in terms of log size, the road and woods look muc...

Would Jesus kill an ant? It is a serious question. We know Spring is around the corner when ants begin to appear en masse in the Bierker household. No prognosticator shadow seeing groundhog needed. Now, groundhogs in the garden, I have no problem exterminating. But ants? Those little hard working creatures? It is not like they are fire ants attacking me or my wife. Or a wasp. Or even a fly buzzing around my head...all of which I can justify taking out. These ants are just trying to get by, and are feeding off of stuff that we have left behind. Yesterday, no fooling, Lina left a plate on our kitchen elevated table for two that was coated with grease, sprinkled with bagel crumbs and eggs, and flecks of cheese. Could feed a Patton-sized Army of Ants. We headed off in a hurry to church. I was out in the car getting my GPS working so I saw not her egregious error. Nary an ant when we returned several hours later. Me, in making the bagel egg and cheese sandwich, dropped a small p...

Sandra Fluke testified before Congress on the costs of bearing the payment for birth control because Georgetown University does not cover it in its student insurance plan. As a Catholic university long gone Liberal, this policy emanates from the Roman Catholic Church which still has authority on some institutional  issues. While a percentage of women need birth control for other reasons than to prevent contraception (15%), the remaining 85% are using it to prevent pregnancy. And, many of these women, are unmarried. Rush Limbaugh, married four times, felt morally compelled to register his outrage to this subsidized fornication subsidy by choosing harsh words...slut, prostitute. No Rush, the women are not being paid to have sex, that is technically what prostitution is. As far as the slut comment, your serial marriages makes you less than a stalwart defender of traditional values. So, shut yer trap.     In Fluke's testimony, most of her communication centered on the ...

"I have decided to start groaning every time I have to move my body a little bit," for those who have old eyes like me. Comic from the New Yorker, the wittiest compendium of comics in the world. The N.Y. articles will slay you with their depth and length....pondering and pounding...the comics however are pithy and witty. A refreshing breeze of funny than a full force gale of a storm of words. I would love to draw a comic but I can't draw. Not a good start. Lina commented the other day that I need a larger car for my 6'8" frame than a Honda Civic. It is not that I don't fit in the car. I do, like a glove. It is just getting the glove on and off. Accompanying my gymnastics and gyrations, I groan. I actually groan and groan a lot everywhere. The friction of old age. As I write, my knee aches, my neck has a crick in it. My busted pinky on my right hand, smashed on my older brother's skull over 30 years ago, curls still in traumatic damage. The right si...

Davy Jones came to fame playing the "Artful Dodger" in the musical Oliver on Broadway in 1963. Then, he became the "Paul McCartney" figure of the Monkees, a band created to tried to ride the crest of Beatlemania by getting other surfers on that wave. Not sure the surfing analogy works, maybe better with the Beach Boys genre groups. Like Jan and Dean... Quite interesting that Davy Jones was on the Ed Sullivan Show the same night the Beatles were. The Monkees' music was catchy. Basically Pop tunes with a certain sweetness. For some reason Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and Betty, come to mind. The high school world of the 1950's. I actually saw Davy Jones in person. It was at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, restaurant/bar several years ago. Davy was quietly sitting with some friends and the guy I had befriended--a man who worked for the Olive Garden as a trainer--kept shouting intermittently "Davy!" It was embarrassing and Davy would look over and nod. ...

Photo from here: http://www.virtourist.com/europe/malta/17.htm I am on Day 4 of my Lenten Fast from food between lunch and dinner. Since I have depleted the various sources of nuts through the most effective and efficient means I know--eating them--I have less temptation around. With my wife working for a candy company, not sure we can do the same with the various chocolate in the house. We have an endless supply. Maybe I need one of those automatic cat food dispensers that distributes a set amount of candy into my bowl. I have seen more actual fats cats in the last couple of years needing such a contraption. I wonder if Michelle Obama is concerned. Everyone and everything is fat in the USA. Prosperity kills. I figured giving up the snacking between meals would cut out a lot of calories as well as reminding me of where provisions come from. Continuous snacking becomes auto-pilot like with no reflection  just ingestion. Stopping consumption between  meals allows grati...

Taylor Swift is a remarkably talented musical prodigy. Be all appearances she is also humble and approachable. Not a Diva. Her new song Mean , with her playing the banjo, is a catchy pop song. Moreover, the message of defending those on the outs--particularly youth--is sweet and strong. That song give kids one thing they need more than anything...hope. She handled that Kanye West public dis' at the MTV Music Awards about as gracefully in real time as imaginable. Talk about a bully.   But, believe it or not, the song has a dark side and it is not just the negative antagonists. The lyrics themselves have an underlying message of some people just won't change. And that is true. Yet, only God knows if people will. Unless Taylor is omniscient, some things are better left up to God to project upon. I know that there are probably scores of Christian parents who have let this song be downloaded onto their childrens' mobile listening device thinking, "A great song with a g...