Povey Prattle

At about 8:30 this morning (3rd Feb) I and others received a text from the Revd. Ted Copland (former Rector at St. Boniface Church, Siesta Key, FL) with the news of the sudden death of Allan Rogers, a fabulous Deacon who served the parish so well. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Later in the day I got this more official notice from the current Rector at St. Boniface. It is with deep and profound sadness that we announce the death of our parish deacon and friend, The Rev. Allan Rogers. Allan died suddenly and peacefully at his home Friday night, February 2, 2018. He was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons on January 18, 2003, recently celebrating his fifteenth year of service at St. Boniface Church.  Please pray for Allan as he goes from strength to strength in the nearer presence of God. Pray also for his family in their grief; his mother and father; his daughter Sandy and her spouse Rebec...

Florida silliness via my friend Barbara F.-C. **Just a wee correction -  there is no such thing as a Palm Tree. .   Palms are palms, they are not trees! ** (Not a critique of Barbara. She simply re-posted the picture  unaltered)

I am not on eBay, so let's call this poveBay. I am a (usually) honest vendor. The Background. This afternoon I was clumsy and let a table knife slip into the wee gap between my oven and the counter. I had to pull the oven out to recover it.  I found the knife (and a butter knife which I had forgotten that I'd lost). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some will remember that in October 2017 I  lost a lower jaw partial plate. I searched high and low.  I even called my trusty handyman to open the trap under my bathroom sink in case it had slipped down there. All to no avail.   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- So I had a new one made (at a cost of $800 - insurance payment, and $100 - my payment). Guess what I found under the oven today. You've got it!  The missing partial.  I have no idea how it got there. It's now on sale.  ...

My mother had a pure soul. Swearing, or bad language was forbidden in our home. Bloody was off limits, as it was thought to be a shortened form of the oath "By Our Lady". Bugger was a very bad word because of  its connection with (what was then a crime in the U.K.) buggery. Damn was forbidden.  It's short for damnation, we were taught that God alone can damn people. Even the common British expletive "strewth" was questionable  because there's chance that it derived from another oath - "God's truth". None of this was bad.  I confess that I use coarse language, to my shame. But Mum could get frustrated.  No wonder, with nine children, some of them being rambunctious. At those times she would utter "God speed the plough". This confused me.  As a child I thought it had something to do with her East Anglian heritage, but that made no sense, for her father was a fisherman, not a farmer. Whether or not Mum knew it  ...

On my way to visit Donna C. or Bob L. I pass the Northminster Presbyterian Church (on North Lockwood Ridge, near University Parkway in SRQ). The parking lot is filled to overflowing on Sunday mornings, so I suppose that the Church is "doin' O.K." Northminster has a fancy outdoor sign. It often announces the title of the next Sunday's sermon. Today it read: Theological Amnesia Boy oh boy, that's guaranteed to attract the spiritually hungry who have no church connection. (My tongue is in my cheek). What does your Church sign say?   Is it designed for "the faithful?" Or is it in any way attractive for the seekers, the skeptics, or the non-believers?

It rained in SRQ yesterday (Jan 28th), our first significant rain since Hurricane Irma (Sep 2017). I discovered that Mr. Perfect ( a.k.a. Zion) does not like rain.  So I took him to my local "Plaza" where there is good walking space under cover, and various plant areas where a good dog can have a good pee.  It worked out well..... .....  but as we passed a dog grooming business which has a ceramic dog on a low shelf by the window, Zion became obsessed. He saw it as a real and very passive friend. I had to drag him away! Yes, it's Zion on the left, and the ceramic dog on the right (behind a window). Hope springs eternal in the canine breast.

So said my neighbour Mrs. Butinski one day last week. We were chatting with another neighbour so all I said was "Zion is also used in the Christian tradition". But I could not let it go. I saw her the next morning and blindsided her by asking "when did you last go to Mass?"  She is a very lapsed Catholic. She shrugged as if to say "it's so long ago that I can't remember". "Well" I said, "you probably should go to Mass to learn how Zion is also used in Christianity". Then I asked "Did you like M. and S. (two Jewish neighbours who have now moved away)  or were they too Jewish  for you?" Of course she said that she liked them. So I had to ask her what she meant by too Jewish . I went on to say that I did not ask for her opinion about my dog's name, neither did I value it.  Then I added "and I found your words to be deeply offensive". We do not have to dig deep to uncover antisemitism. It is utter...