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Monday, April 14, 2014
Hosanna!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Phở with Puns, Part 3
For those who need reminders of what has come before, check out Part 1 and Part 2.
What Does the Phở Say?
Wouldn't we all like to know? Apparently, it says "slurp slurp slurp slurpty-slurp!" and "Wa phở phở phở phở phở pow!" Anyway, it says that at this restaurant. "Sriracha-racha-racha chow!" Will you communicate by phở-ở-ở-ở-ở-ở? The secret of the phở, ancient mystery. Watch out for people wearing phở ears dancing wildly around the restaurant. You can find out more about it here.
Phở News
The flavors are Phở and Balanced™ (though people of other phởlitical persuasions might dispute that).
20th Century Phở
A movie theater that serves phở
Phởzen
A Phở restaurant in Norway. I realize this pun is a bit of a fixer-upper, but sometimes you just have to let it go. The Phở contains whatever snow does in summer, but nobody with their own personal flurry was harmed in the making of this soup. Reindeer tastes better than...um, never mind.
Phởzzy-Wuzzy
...was a bear. Phởzzy-Wuzzy had no hair. Phởzzy-Wuzzy wasn't phởzzy, was he?
Kermit the Phở
Moi loves to eat there! It's not easy cooking green.
Rephởnance Your Mortgage
Where you can talk to your mortgage broker over a bowl of Phở. The conversations are much more interesting.
Phởlite Conversation
You have to mind your P's and Q's at this restaurant, and always say "Please" and "Thank you."
Nick Phởry
SHIELD's very own phở restaurant. The head waiter wears an eye patch and has a scar on his face.
Susan Phởman
The First Doctor's favorite phở restaurant, which he dedicated to his beloved granddaughter
Swiss Phởmily Robinson
Phở served in a treehouse on an island. It's a family business, though the clientele is very limited.
Winnie the Phở
One of the finest restaurants in the Hundred Acre Wood
Christophở Robin
The other phở restaurant in the Hundred Acre Wood. The two restaurants work together and have great adventures.
Mary Phởpins
Their soup is practically perfect in every way.
Phởdo Baggins
True heroism goes into the making of their phở. It was born from a quest to destroy a ring, and became so much more. The oppressor was defeated, and in the heat of the volcanic fires, a new soup was cooked. Once the hobbits and elves worked together to get the sulfur out and perfect the recipe, a new restaurant was born. As Paul Harvey would say, "...and that's the rest of the story." We're Tolkien' amazing heroics here.
Morphởus
After you phởllow the white rabbit, they offer you an option of the red phở or the blue phở. Either choice will change your destiny. After that, they have a whole matrix of events that happen as a result of your choice.
Phở Factor
A reality show in which people must face their least favorite phở. The theory is that they will realize it doesn't actually taste that bad.
Phởddleglum
A phở restaurant in the Narnian marshes. Their specialty is eel phở, though everyone will hate it, I shouldn't wonder.
Phởmble
They have a basketball court, but you don't have to play it well.
Phlởbber
A restaurant inspired by a stretchy, bouncy substance invented by an absentminded professor
Prophởssor X
A phở restaurant for mutants, founded by a great mutant with telepathic abilities
Phởcy Jackson
A phở restaurant at Camp Half-Blood
If you think of any others, feel free to mention them in the comments, though please keep it clean.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Touché!
Naaman
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Unending Oil and Shunammite Resurrection
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Chariot of Fire
Queen Jezebel was furious! The prophet Elijah had called a contest on Mt. Carmel, and not only had her side lost, but her god Baal was humiliated, and she had lost a bunch of Baal’s priests! She only saw one possible solution: Elijah must die! In fact, Jezebel was so angry that she promised that if he wasn’t dead by the next day, she didn’t care how badly her gods punished her!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
New Year's Eve has always been an exciting time, remembering the past year (and in more recent years, wondering what in the world happened to the previous year, since I could swear I just celebrated New Year a couple months ago), and looking forward to the upcoming year. In the Philippines, New Year's Eve often meant going up to Faith Academy, our school, situated on a hill overlooking Manila. From there we could count down the seconds and watch the fireworks until the city lights were blotted out by the smoke from firecrackers, fires, and anything that made noise or fire. Some Filipinos believe that the loud noises chase the evil spirits away, so it is a very loud night. Our dog once tore up the screen door because he was so terrified. The fireworks and firecrackers I can handle, but I do not miss the burning tires. Worst smell ever. I expect whoever came up with the word mabaho (Tagalog for "putrid") had burning tires in mind.
Anyway, more recently, I have not had the pleasure of celebrating the New Year in the Philippines. In the US, it is quite a bit quieter, but still exciting. Sometimes I will attend parties, or stay home and watch the fireworks on TV, or any number of things. I was in Memphis on New Year's Eve 2009, returning the following day (and year) to Seattle. It was then that I learned about the Southern tradition of black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year's Day, which I have tried to do since then. I found them at the store earlier today and plan to prepare them for our family celebration next year...er, tomorrow.
In 1947, Frank Loesser (known for his musicals Guys & Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, among others) wrote a song asking what you'll be doing on New Year's Eve. He observes that it may be too early to ask, but I'll ask it anyway. What are you doing that day? Who will you be hugging as midnight approaches and you ring in the new year? I'm sure you've received tons of invitations, and I'm probably crazy to hope that you'll choose me (Pikachu...oh wait, where was I? Australia.) Just in case you would like to hang out on New Year's Eve, here's the jackpot question: What are you doing New Year's Eve?
Clearly, the singer wants to invite the singee (the spellcheck doesn't like that word...couldn't imagine why) to celebrate the occasion with him or her (depending on who's singing). I find it interesting that Loesser calls it the jackpot question. But then, he also wrote Luck, Be a Lady, so I guess the gambling reference makes sense. It also makes sense because the whole song, it's been building up to this. The singer is asking early because he expects that the guest will have lots of invitations. This must be a popular person! Did he get to her soon enough? What are the odds that she already has plans? If so, can she change them? It's likely he's tried previous years and has been too late, so he's trying earlier this time. Maybe, just maybe, if he invites her early enough, he'll hit the jackpot! "Luck, if you've ever been a lady to begin with, luck, be a lady tonight!"
(So, maybe it would have been more appropriate for me to blog this in September?) :-)
What's that you ask? What am I doing New Year's Eve? I'm at home blogging about a classic Frank Loesser song: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"
Sunday, December 29, 2013
"That's My Boy!"
Thirty years had passed since then, and John had grown up and moved into the wilderness. After returning from Egypt, Jesus and his parents had gone to Nazareth, where he grew up. Aside from that journey and an incident after Jesus’ bar mitzvah (a ceremony that Jewish boys go through when they turn 12), we don’t know a lot about his childhood. By the time Jesus was 30, John had been preaching and baptizing for a while. Just as the prophets had foretold, John was preparing the way for his cousin the Messiah. He wore clothes made of camel hair and a leather belt, and he ate locusts and honey. That doesn’t sound very appetizing, but I hope John liked it!
John seems to have been pretty well known. People came from miles around to hear him preach and be baptized. People admitted their sins and asked forgiveness from God, and then John baptized them.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were two groups of religious experts of the time. They didn’t always agree with each other, and they were both wrong about a lot. When John saw some of them coming to the area where he was baptizing, he called to them, “You snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming? Ask forgiveness for your sins and turn away from them! Don’t tell yourselves, ‘Abraham is our ancestor,’ because God can turn the stones into Abraham’s descendants! I’m baptizing people with water to symbolize what happens when people turn from their sins and choose to follow God. But pretty soon, someone will come who is stronger than I am. I’m not even worthy to carry or untie his sandals.” (At that time, slaves sometimes took care of their masters’ sandals.) “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!”
Meanwhile, Jesus was in Galilee. He went to the Jordan River where John was baptizing. When Jesus arrived, John said, “Wait a minute, Jesus. You should be the one baptizing me! Why do you want me to baptize you?”
Jesus replied, “Let’s do this now. It’s the right thing to do to fulfill all righteousness.” So John baptized his relative. No sooner had Jesus come up out of the water, than the Holy Spirit came out of heaven in the form of a dove and landed on Jesus. A loud voice from heaven boomed, “This is my Son! I love him, and I’m so proud of him!”
The next day, John was talking to his friends, and he saw Jesus headed his way. He said, “Look! It’s the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sins! That’s him, the one I told you about who’s greater than me!”
The day after that, John was talking to two of his disciples when he saw Jesus again. He said, “Hey look! It’s the Lamb of God!” John’s disciples started to follow Jesus, and they hung out with him for a while. One of those disciples was named Andrew. He was so impressed that he ran home and told his brother Simon about what had happened. The brothers came to Jesus, and Jesus said to Simon, “You’re Simon son of John. I’ll call you Cephas” (which is Aramaic for Peter, or Rock).
Jesus then called Philip, who found his friend Nathanael and introduced him to Jesus. So Jesus’ ministry began, and He continued recruiting more disciples.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
It could also evoke the mixture of the Hanukkah and Christmas traditions of processionals with candles and torches, which were common in Provence and Southern Europe.
Who were Jeanette and Isabella? According to the blog Window Toward the World, they were milkmaids who went to the stable to milk cows, but instead found a baby in the manger. When they made this unexpected discovery, they hurried to the town and invited everyone to come see, but were adamant that everyone keep quiet so the baby could sleep. (That blog cites Wikipedia for this, but the Wikipedia article seems to have deleted that story since the blog was published.) In any case, both in that blog and the Wikipedia article, it tells that Provençal children still dress as milkmaids and shepherds and go to Midnight Mass at Christmas while singing this song and carrying torches.
The tune may be from a 14th-century dance for French nobility. The lyrics were first published either in Cantiques de Premiere Avenement de Jesus-Christ ("Songs of the First Coming of Jesus Christ") in 1553 or Noëls français ("French Christmases") in 1901, depending on who you ask. I think the 1553 date is much more likely, as, according to Making Music Fun and Wikipedia, it was translated into English in the 18th century. It's highly unlikely a song that was written in the 20th Century was subsequently translated in the 18th, and a painter was inspired by it to paint in the 17th. Unless it has some connection to PDQ Bach (1807-1742). I have seen no indication of such a connection anywhere. Or maybe The Doctor was involved? That could get a bit "wibbly wobbly timey wimey"... Hmm...
In English:
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Unexpected Guests
The news was getting out. Sometime earlier, God had used angels to announce Jesus’ birth to shepherds. Now He chose another interesting and unusual way of announcing it to someone unexpected. This time no angels appeared. But a group of guys in the east, professional stargazers, were looking into the sky when they saw an unusual star. Where were they from? We don’t know, but it could have been Arabia or Persia. They studied the stars, and they believed that the stars showed signs and announced events. They had also studied many ancient scrolls, and they had read that a King of the Jews would come someday. Somehow they realized that this star had something to do with that King, and they wanted to know more. They were known as magi. We get the words magus, magi and magic from the same word. There was a lot of mystery about them, and some people believed they could do magic. They were also known as wise men because they often gave advice and interpreted dreams and other things for kings. How many of them went on the trip? We don’t know. But we do know that they chose three interesting and expensive gifts to take with them on the journey they were about to take.
Gold was a gift for a King. Frankincense was a gift for the Son of God. Some people burn it when they worship. Myrrh was a gift for the Messiah. It’s a spice that people used when they were burying people. Prophecies told that the King of the Jews would be the Son of God and the promised Messiah, and that one day He would give his life to save us. The gifts that the magi chose showed that they had read the prophecies, and they knew who they were about to meet. They were pretty excited about this, because it isn’t every day you meet someone like that! So as soon as they saw the star, they gathered their gifts, packed up, and left.
It was a long journey. If you’re looking for a King, where do you look first? You go to the capital of the country and find the King’s palace! So they found themselves in Jerusalem at the palace of King Herod. They started to ask around, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose, and we’ve been following it so we can worship Him.”
When Herod got word that these guys were asking around about a new King of the Jews, he was pretty upset. What new King of the Jews? Herod was King of the Jews! Did this mean someone was about to take his place? He liked his job and his life, and he didn’t want to see it end because some kid was gonna come and take his throne!
So Herod called the experts: the priests. They had also studied the prophecies, and so they told him that the prophet Micah had said that the Messiah would be born in the tiny village of Bethlehem.
Then Herod came up with a crafty plan. He talked to the magi and found out exactly when the star had appeared. He told them about the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. “Go there,” he told them, “and when you’re done, come back here and let me know where he is… because I wanna worship him too!”
So the magi left Jerusalem and followed the star to Bethlehem. It kept going ahead of them until it stopped over a house. They couldn’t contain their excitement! They knocked on the door, and when they went in, they saw him. The boy was probably somewhere around 2 at this point. Mary and Joseph couldn’t believe their eyes as a bunch of richly-dressed foreigners came into the house and knelt down to visit their son! They laid their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh at his feet.
That night, one of the magi had a dream that included a warning: Herod wasn’t planning to worship the new King of the Jews. So the next morning, instead of returning to Jerusalem, they left, and went home another way.
Joseph also had a dream. An angel appeared to him and said, “Quick! Get up! Take Mary and Jesus and get out of here! Herod is about to come looking for Jesus to kill him! Go to Egypt and stay there until I tell you it’s safe to come back.” Later someone remembered that the prophet Hosea had once foretold, “Out of Egypt I will call My Son.”
Sure enough, Herod’s men came looking for Jesus, but He wasn’t there. Sometime later, the angel appeared to Joseph again and told him, “It’s OK to go back now. Herod has died.” So the young family returned to their hometown of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up.