Povey Prattle

“Total Wine” is a chain store with a branch here in Sarasota. It’s a cool place with a huge selection of wines, and a well trained staff. It’s a good place to get a decent bottle of inexpensive “plonck”, or a very expensive bottle of the best Beaujolais or Rioja. Even better, none of the staff are wine snobs. They give fine advice about all wines, from the cheapest to the most costly. I stopped by the SRQ branch of Total Wine today to get some bottles of plonck-plus for a dinner party I am hosting a few days from now. The place was unusually busy. I wondered why. Then I discovered that Dan Aykroyd was also planning to be there. I am vaguely familiar with Dan Aykroyd as a minor star/celebrity/actor, but I had no pressing desire to meet him. I suppose that I must be in a minority of one for here is what the Total Wine website had to say: “Join founder of Crystal Head Vodka and actor Dan Aykroyd for an exclusive bottle signing of his award-winning vodka. Produced in St. ...

I visited K.H. at a Rehab Centre today.  He is a retired Episcopal Priest (probably in his 80’s) who assists at one of the two parishes where I also “help out”. When I first met K. it was clear that he was in some stage of Alzheimer’s disease, or senility. Back then it was not difficult to understand that his firm handshake and bon-vivant manner were “learned and practiced behaviours ”: - a way of masking an increasing loss of memory. It was no different today.  He greeted me with a handshake and a joke.  But then he went on to say that his dear wife R. never visited him at the rehab.   Of course she does and is there every day. K. is, and has been,  very affable and gregarious.  Thus it was difficult this morning to distinguish the old and active K. from the new and memory impaired K. That was so until I began the Lord’s Prayer.  K. joined in with a full and strong voice. In that prayer the old K. and the current K. became one. Maybe “heav...

spuodsǝɹ oɥʍ ǝǝs oʇ ƃuıɥɔʇɐʍ ǝq ןןıʍ ı˙ ˙uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ sʎɐd ʎןןɐnʇɔɐ ʇsıןspuǝıɹɟ ʎɯ uı oɥʍ ǝǝs s,ʇǝן ¡ʎןıɯɐɟ sɐ osןɐ ʇnq spuǝıɹɟ sɐ noʎ ʇunoɔ oʇ pɐןƃ ʎןuo ʇou ɯɐ ı ˙uoısıɔǝp snoıɔsuoɔ ɐ ɟo ʇןnsǝɹ ɐ sɐ ʇsıן puǝıɹɟ ʎɯ uo ǝɹɐ noʎ ɟo ǝuo ǝןƃuıs ʎɹǝʌǝ ˙˙˙˙ uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ƃuıʎɐd sı oɥʍ ǝǝs s,ʇǝl mou

The Prayer service which I enable at Resurrection House (a day shelter for homeless people in SRQ) was unusually sombre today. Ramon Z died a few days ago. He was a somewhat “vague around the edges” man in his sixties who had gone over to Lakeland. FL (maybe 50 miles away), where he died after being hit by a car as he crossed a busy road Ron J is on life support in Tampa. He is not expected to live. He was involved in an altercation with two other homeless folks - a bitter fight about a safe place to sleep. Ron J was beaten up so badly that he will probably not survive. Howard W. (another Res. House guest) has been arrested in connection with this beating.A third person is being sought by the police. The probable truth is that Ron J., Howard K., and the third person were as drunk as drunk can be. That in no way excuses the violence. Nonetheless the “also homeless” friends of Ron, Howard and person # 3; and of Ramon Z, were in genuine grief today. Grief knows no boun...

On May 7 th I posted my article about the British General Election.  My good cousin Christopher commented that I had a better understanding of the British Political system than many U.K. citizens.  I took that as a great compliment since, although British born and bred I left my native land in 1976, and became a U.S. citizen in 1984. Now I venture to write that today’s resolution of the British  “hung parliament issue” is superb. Those of you who know me well will understand that, “politically speaking” , I am less than enthusiastic with the news that David Cameron ( C ) is the new Premier in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless although Cameron’s Tories did not win a parliamentary majority, they won the most votes, and the greatest number of seats in the House of Commons  so “constitutionally thinking” I admire and respect this resolution. So I pay tribute to the U.K. system.  The transfer of authority in the U.K. took place: without a Supreme Court ruling...

Sermon for 9 th May 2010  The Revd. J. Michael Povey, at All Angels by the Sea, Longboat Key, FL John 14:23-29 I can remember the exact words of a conversation I had with my classroom teacher Miss Jean Smith 58 years ago.  I had made an error in my exercise book, and as I used an eraser to delete the pencilled word, so I wore a hole in the page. I immediately confessed my error.  It was at the end of term.  At the beginning of the next term, Miss Smith held the page close to her eye, and looking through the hole at the Church across the street she said “John Povey, I can see St. Anne’s Church  in the hole you made in your page.  “Please Miss Smith”, I replied, “I told you about that last term”.  The matter was dropped when Miss Smith replied, “Of course you did, I remember it now”.  I could give you many other instances of the way in which my memory has held on to so many conversations and incidents from many years ago.  I remember them i...