Povey Prattle

Between 2000 and 2006 I was the Rector at St. James's Church in Porter Square, Cambridge, MA, My home was in Medford, MA. To get to my Church office from home  (and vice-versa)  I drove through Somerville, MA. Some local streets in Sarasota, FL remind me of those years and the almost daily journeys I took. What a hoot!

My smart 'phone has that voice to text feature for Voice Mail. I like it because instead of listening to long voice mails over and over again, I can read them at one "swell foop". Voice to text has its funny side. What it hears and what it writes depends on the diction and accent  of the caller. By now I am used to reading "Mr Posey"  (for Povey). The office manager at my veterinarian's office must have a difficult accent, for her voice to text messages consistently refer to me as Mr. Palavi. Perhaps in truth I am Sr. Giovanni Micheli Palavi. Now there's a name I would gladly own! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have Savings and Checking Accounts at our local Everence Federal Credit Union. The local branch is in Sarasota's Amish/Mennonite area know as Pinecraft. (Yes, we have a population of Amish and Mennonite people in SRQ.  Google "Pinecraft, Sara...

No blog entry today, but please read the Weingarten  post I have placed on Facebook. This man speaks the truth!

I'd noted that my sixteen years old cat Ada was getting very skinny. At the end of August  I took her to the Veterinarian who, (after taking blood and urine samples and having them tested), determined that she was suffering from Hyper-active Thyroid syndrome (quite common in older cats). I decided not to place her on meds.  (which would have ameliorated but not cured her condition). Since Labor Day I have lavished her with love and attention, and given her every bit of food she wanted. Last Sunday I noted that her condition had declined and that she was under stress, and therefore distressed. So today I allowed the Veterinarian to administer first a sedative, and then that "shot" which would end her life. The Veterinarian and the Technician were so sweet and gentle.  I hugged and caressed Ada through the sedative shot, but did not stay with her to "the end". I'd thought that I would cry.  I didn't, but I am very sad. When Ada came to live w...

FIRST   if you are a friend of mine who is a Republican I am not attacking you personally. SECOND   if you are a friend of mine who is a Republican I wish that you would do your best to move your party away from its radical nihilism, and back to its conserv ative roots. THIRD   if you are a friend of mine who favours the Democratic party, don't get smug. (More on this tomorrow!). For now the fact is that the official Republican party despises the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and would abolish it at the drop of a hat. A TRUMP  Presidency would support that. Even now, in a Republican dominated national legislature, the EPA  is severely and dangerously underfunded (with the sad compliance of President Obama who caved in and agreed to the notoriously bad "Sequestration" fiscal policy). I submit that in the interests of National Security, and for the benefit  of generations yet to come we should spend at least as much on environmental ...

I received the following yesterday by e-mail. It came from a friend who lives a goodly distance from my home. There was no greeting at the beginning, and no salutation at the end. It is reproduced exactly as I received it. The sender is a Christian - an Episcopalian.  His politics are as deeply reactionary as mine are progressive. I have asked him not to send me right wing messages, because it will not change my mind, and it only makes me angry, and sad that such a man who I have known for forty years persists in forwarding me such material. This one "took the biscuit".  Here's the e-mail.   My comments are in red (below) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Crusades have finally started They're getting to be known - and rejected. The Crusades have finally started as predicted. The  first countries to ban Islam: ...

The American author Bill Bryson  (now a dual citizen of the U.S.A. and the U.K.) entered the consciousness of many British and American readers upon the 1995 publication of his tender, affectionate and sometimes funny book "Notes From a Small Island". The book was music to the ears of those Brits who love to be adored by Americans; and to the ears of American Anglophiles. Twenty years on, Mr. Bryson (who has lived in the U.K. for many years),  revisited the Small Island and wrote "The Road to Little Dribbling" (Doubleday 2015). The book was disappointing to me.   I thought it to be  "Notes From a Small Island"  revisited, without the charm of the 1995 book. I read "The Road to Little Dribbling" without great pleasure. He revels in the charm of small towns and villages ,  BUT...... He visits the small towns and villages as starting or ending places for his extraordinarily wonderful walks, or because they are en route.  He a...

Regular readers will know that I goofed-off from attending Church this morning. You can have too much of a good thing! Instead I went out for breakfast with five good pals. Although I have lived in the South  (of the U.S.A.) for more than ten years I have never eaten a staple of Southern breakfasts, i.e. "Biscuits with Gravy".   see     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuits_and_gravy ( I suspect that this article tells the truth, but not the whole truth.  My intuition leads me to believe that "Biscuits with Gravy" was first developed by slaves, and later by black share-croppers -  a meal rich in carbs and fat to set a person up for hard labour in the Plantations and later in the meager plots alloted to share-croppers). (How often we air-brush out from our tales of American history the experience, customs and cuisine of Slaves, and that of former slaves after emancipation (if there ever was complete emancipation). ) So I ha...

St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key, FL I was at St. Boniface Church last week on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. That's more than enough for one week. Instead I'll be going out for breakfast with five of my local friends. Will it be cheese grits, or biscuits with gravy?