Povey Prattle

SALMAGUNDI/ˌsælməˈɡʌndɪ/ A mixture or miscellany. Though this is now used mainly in a figurative sense , it was first attached in English to a dish of chopped meat, anchovies and eggs, garnished with onions, lemon juice, oil and other condiments. A right dog’s breakfast, in fact. We know that the word came to us in the seventeenth century from the French salmigondis, of which older spellings in that language were salmiguondin and salmingondin. Here the line of linguistic footprints ceases, and we must cast about to pick up the trail again. One theory is that it was a dish first prepared for the French king Henri IV (or Henri VI in another version) by a nobleman’s wife, after whom it was named. Another, more prosaic but more plausible, is that it derives from the Italian phrase salame conditi, “pickled meat”. Yet another says it comes from the French salemine, “salted food” and condir, “to season”. In English the name was corrupted to Solomon-gundy in the eighteenth century, and it’s ...

My Brasilian guest, has gone away for the weekend with some of his college friends. These young women and men will be partying on Florida’s east coast. This morning (January 16th) I said to him, “this will be a welcome mid-term break for both of us”. (He has been here since December 17th) He is a first class house guest, and I have no complaints. But I am glad for some time alone, and he will be glad to be with his peers as they “party”. I am relishing the solitude. I decided not to join my other pals at bowling so that I could indulge my “Garboesque” mood. I did a wee bit of shopping to get some urgently needed new bed sheets. They were on sale at Target for $13.98 - bottom fitted sheet, top sheet, and two pillow cases. I also laid in some stocks of pickled crispy asparagus. That will be good for nibbling tomorrow before lunch here with my guests; James, Orlando and Ben. I’ve already made a hearty and spicy Black Bean Soup, so lunch will be simple indeed. This balance between ac...

Yesterday I assisted St. Boniface, SRQ Rector Ted Copeland at a funeral. It was for the Revd. Keith Hedrick a retired Episcopal Priest who lived here with his partner of 36 years, the Revd. Bob Lewis (also a retired Episcopal Priest). Keith and Bob became my friends when I retired here. This was my first funeral in 2 ½ years. I slipped easily into the familiar liturgy. What was “different” was to look out into the congregation and to see just about all of the lesbian and gay friends I have met in SRQ. It was very moving to minister communion to folks I normally see at bowling, cocktail parties or dinners. All but three of them had never before seen me in my ecclesiastical finery, let alone at the Altar. They’ve known me as a retired Priest, but never seen me “in action”. One man was moved to tears at the sight of his bowling buddy (me) assisting Ted Copeland at this funeral. And I was honored to play a small part as the Church committed one of her Priests, the Revd. Keith Hedrick ...

I prepare my blog entries as a Microsoft Word document before posting them. It was the Word document which I deleted in error yesterday. I lost what I had written about Barack Obama and Saul Alinsky. So here I go again. Saul Alinsky (1909-1972) became famous as a community organizer in Chicago, IL. Wikipedia has this to say about him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky Mr. Alinsky was a hero for those on the Left, and a dangerous radical for those on the Right. I am on the Left, and I would say that he had great gifts, skills and abilities to organize disparate groups (e.g. Churches, Synagogues, Labour Unions, and Employers) to work for social justice from within the system, i.e. not as revolutionary outsiders. (I worked for a bit with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organisation (GBIO) which used Alinsky methods to agitate for issues such as Health Insurance reform, Immigrant rights, and fair wages for Nursing Home employees). (GBIO was able to build a coalition of Church/Syna...

In the big scheme of things it does not matter. But I lost the long piece I wrote tonight about Barack Obama, Saul Alinsky and Bishop Gene Robinson. So I'll say bon nuit for today, and try to recover what I lost tomorrow. Sleep well dear readers. That's what I must do. Pove

1. I hate Windows Vista. What a crummy product. My updater has failed, and there is not a damn thing I can do to restore it. Boo to Bill Gates and Microsoft. Next time I’ll buy a MAC 2. A corny joke! The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers. A lady stood and walked to the podium. She said, "I have a praise to express. Two months ago, my husband, Tom, had a terrible bicycle wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn't know if they could help him." You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagined the pain that poor Tom must have experienced. "Tom was unable to hold me or the children," she went on, "and every move caused him terrible pain. We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it i...