Povey Prattle

Most of my friends have no great fondness for the Super Bowl so I decided not to rant about it. Instead I drove down to Trader Joe's to purchase good cheese, fine coffee and other comestibles. En route I wondered whether I should break down and look at preview of one of the super-bowl ads. "Comcast" keeps encouraging me to open what they title "Bud Unveils Adorable Super Bowl Ad"  Nah.  I'll save my adoration for God and for wonderful people. My journey took me very near to Harry's Sports Bar and Grill. I resisted the temptation to stop by and look at the 63 (yes 63) large screen T.V.'s they have set up for "the Game". On my way home I stopped by a 7-11 store to get a couple of small bags of their very good "kettle cooked chips" (crisps). I tried hard not to think about all the food which is deemed to be  essential for Super Bowl Parties:  Chips and Dips, "Wings" ( a poultry industry rip-off if ever there w

(No Super Bowl rant today -   I’ll store that up for tomorrow). So, I get all manner of “alarm stories” via e-mail or on Facebook. I wish to heck that the senders would use their brains. First there has been an impassioned plea from a very respectable Bishop in the Episcopal Church about human trafficking and the Super Bowl. See:   http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/01/28/anti-trafficking-efforts-intensify-in-advance-of-super-bowl/ I know and like this Bishop (he and I were at Taize together in 1999 when we were both priests in Western Massachusetts). I know that human trafficking is horrendous and evil.   I know that it corrupts souls and destroys lives. That being said, the issue of trafficking and the Super Bowl has been over played and greatly exaggerated    Bishop Beckwith seems to accept these exaggerations without question.   As the following piece points out, campaigns such as the one in the Diocese of Newark may in the end be counterproductive.

A letter to the Times of London. Dear Sir, It has come to my attention that a game with the confusing name of “American Football” is gaining some popularity in our beloved and God-favoured England. It is a sign of our modern decadence. This game may well be American . It is most certainly not football : that skillful and glorious sport which was birthed by decent Englishmen on our noble English shores. In my day we engaged in the manly activities of Association Football, Rugby Football, Fox hunting, Hare coursing and Butler baiting.   Those superb English pastimes led to the creation of the typical English value of fairness.  They made us  great. The introduction of this so called “American Football” will lead to a decline in our morals, and a devaluation of all that is good and valuable in the English heritage of morality, deference to our "betters"  and respect for middle class values. True Englishmen will resist this with all their might. When their

In all the years in which I have lived in these United States (1976 - now) I have watched only one "State of the Union Address" in its entirety. That was enough.  I quickly came to the conclusion that the State of the Union address - by the President du jour to the House and the Senate -  is  a bit of theatre, (badly scripted and dreadfully acted). I also come to understand that in the great scheme of things the SOTUS ( as we now title it) is incredibly boring, and of no real consequence. Indeed it has very little to do with the State of the Union (which one could think would be a thoughtful and truthful  description of the previous year). Instead it has become a prospective "agenda setting" bit of bloviation  by the sitting President whether he be of the republican party or the democratic party. It's all style with no substance. But at least it provides less than gainful employment for the dreary "experts" (of the right and of the left),

Up in the Panhandle I guess Thanks to Neil Page for the tip off on this photo'

My good neighbour Bert fell ill this morning.  His wife Polly of over 60 years has some major memory problems, and could not remember how to call emergency services. Jeannie, their next door neighbour did so, and waited until the ambulance and EMT's arrived. 'Twas at that time I returned from walking with Penne and was able to do my bit. Jeannie followed the ambulance so that Polly could be with Bert.  I made sure that the house was secured, and that there was food set out for Daisy, their cat. Then I called Bert and Polly's son in Indiana.  When he was here last fall I made a point of getting his phone number for such a time as this. Today I was glad that I had his number and could call him. David was grateful for my call.  He and his sister need to know when things are not well with Mum and Dad. Neighbour Jeannie kept watch with Bert and Polly at the hospital  -  it was a long day for her, but Polly needed company. I was able to give Jeannie's mobile 'ph

It all began when I bought some pork loin (bone in) at my local supermarket. It weighed nearly 4lbs, and was offered at a reduced price of just about $4. That couldn’t be resisted. Then as I wandered through the produce section my eyes alighted on an array of cauliflowers. Since I hadn’t eaten cauliflower in a couple of decades (I think that it’s a bit bland), I decided to try this venerable vegetable once again. (Cauliflower with cheese sprang to mind). I set out to cook the pork and make some cauliflower with cheese for yersterday’s lunch. I put the pork with cut up sweet potato and mushrooms in one of those oven roasting bags, placed it in a blue pyrex baking dish, and set it on its merry way in a 350f pre-heated oven. After about 75 minutes I decided to cook the cauliflower and make the cheese sauce.   This being done, some 15 minutes later I opened the oven and saw that that pork etc looked good, and could be taken out of the oven to cool whilst the cauliflower and ch