Apr 28

The mad, merry month of May

Posted on by

When I agreed to join the local Relay For Life committee last fall, I knew that the Relay would fall not long after the annual Symphony At The Celebration concert, one of the great passions of my adult life.

Of course, I didn’t know at the time – nobody did – about the Relay For Life “Cancer Sucks!” Crawfish Festival, which will take place a month before the Relay and a week and a half before the symphony concert. I also didn’t know that my title with the symphony concert was  to change from “publicity chairman” to “co-chair.” So I find myself heavily involved with three huge events taking place in less than a month’s time.

I’m not complaining; I’m having a lot of fun, actually, and I’m really looking forward to the next month. I just hope I can do everything justice.

First up, of course, is the crawfish festival, which will take place in about a week. We’ve already sold a considerable number of tickets. I’ll be working the water / Red Bull tent for the first six hours of the festival; after that, hopefully, I can get some photos and video. This has turned into something much larger than any of us imagined when it was first proposed. It’s a massive undertaking to stage a 12-hour outdoor music festival and crawfish boil, including a big-name recording artist as the headliner.

Fortunately, Tammy Trott, who is our lead on this project, seems to have every base covered. Every time one of us asks her about something, she’s got an answer. There are a lot of things that have to come together, but it looks like they’re going to come together. Fortunately, the ball seems to be rolling, and while I’m still trying to help out with publicity, we seem to have done a good job already getting the word out.

Our participating bands, such as Rayz’n Cain, have helped tremendously, by spreading the word to their fans. Rayz’n Cain, which includes some of my sister’s high school classmates, even created a tongue-in-cheek graphic playing off the fact that the festival takes place on Cinco de Mayo. Rayz’n Cain was sensational at our Relay For Life dance and live auction earlier in the year, and they’ll be closing out the festival for us. The cause is personal to them; one of the band members lost a family member to cancer the week of the dance and auction.

Three days after the crawfish festival will be my 50th birthday. I’m taking the day off work, but I’m not completely goofing off. On that morning, I’ll go to Tullahoma for a local-access cable talk show appearance promoting the symphony concert. That evening, we’ll have a Relay committee meeting, to discuss what happened at the crawfish festival and to make more plans for the Relay For Life coming up. (I don’t know when we’ll have the actual family celebration of my birthday; we tend to do such things on weekends, when we can get the family together.)

A week after my birthday is the symphony concert. We’re looking for another good one this year. I love telling people that this will be the Nashville Symphony’s first public appearance following their triumphant May 12 return to Carnegie Hall. That’s right: they’re going from Carnegie Hall straight to Calsonic Arena.

Calsonic Arena, which was built for equestrian events, has some permanent illuminated sponsor signs at the opposite end from where we do the concert. There’s a pair of signs promoting a local walking horse breeding operation. One sign bears the name of the operation, the other bears the slogan, “Why Breed Anywhere Else?” Last year, Maestro Albert-George Schram, in his charming Dutch accent, joked about the sign during the concert. “I think that’s great,” he said. “I think that should be the poster for dis concert next year.”

After the symphony concert, I will have two whole weeks to rest up for the Relay For Life, which will take place June 1-2 at Bedford County Agriculture and Education Center. This will be my second time to be at the Relay but my first time to be a committee member – which will be a completely different experience than being a walker, I’m sure. It’s also our first year going from a 12-hour format to an 18-hour format. We’re encouraging everyone to take shifts, but I’m going to try to be there and awake for as much of the Relay as I can, so that I can take video and photos. Some of that, of course, depends on how long I, as a committee member, will have to be there before and/or after the actual event. I still haven’t heard all of those details yet.

I may be turning 50, but I may feel more like 80 by the time the sun sets on June 2.

Apr 25

A light in the darkness

Posted on by

As we move through April and approach May, we’re getting into Relay For Life season. Here in Bedford County, the Relay is scheduled for June 1-2, but I thought I’d go ahead and post this for the benefit of any out-of-town readers whose events might take place sooner than that.

Two years ago, I had little real conception of what the American Cancer Society Relay For Life was all about. Some years earlier, when our local Relay was much, much smaller than it is today, I went out and took a photo of the survivor lap for the newspaper. I didn’t stick around.

People are so familiar with the idea of a fund-raising walk or run that some people — and I guess I was one of them — tune out Relay if they know they’re not going to be an officially-registered participant. But Relay, as I discovered last year, depends on visitors to make it work. If the only people who show up for our Relay For Life on June 1 are the registered walkers, our Relay will be a huge disappointment. Instead of thinking of the Relay as a walk, you need to think of it as a festival. The Relay’s slogan is “Celebrate. Remember. Fight back,” and that’s a perfect description of what the event is really all about and why you need to stop by and pay a visit when it happens in your community.

For one thing, the Relay teams are not just walking. Each team has a base of operations called a campsite, and most of the campsites also function as concession stands — selling food, or wristbands, or face-painting, or a bouncy house, or what have you. A Relay event is a great place to bring the kids, and they’ll have a tremendous time.

There are also the various traditional moments and ceremonies during the Relay. I’ve already mentioned the survivor lap; the first lap of the event is made by cancer survivors, so that we can cheer them on. Later in the evening comes the luminaria ceremony. Luminaria — paper bags, each with a candle inside — are a trademark of the Relay. You may have seen the TV commercial featuring the luminaria.

You can buy a luminaria and write someone’s name on it to honor or remember them. There are also torches (although I don’t think you can buy them the night of the event, because the plaques are engraved) and sky lanterns. Sky lanterns will be a new addition to Shelbyville’s event this year. They’re a cross between a luminaria and a hot air balloon.

During the luminaria ceremony, all of the lights in the area are turned off and the arena is lit only by the luminaria, torches and sky lanterns. There’s a special recitation in honor of those who have battled cancer. The sky lanterns will be released into the sky. It’s the type of moment that is not easily forgotten.

In the wee hours of the morning, of course, most of the casual public visitors go home. But the activity goes on. There’s a huge game of musical chairs, with 100 or more participants; various picnic-style games and what have you.

Different Relay events have different schedules, but they always run overnight. It’s meant to symbolize the passage of cancer patients through darkness and struggle — into the triumph of remission or, as in my Mom’s case, at least a relief from pain and a release to one’s eternal reward.

This year, since Bedford County has switched from a 12-hour format to an 18-hour format, there will be a new opportunity for the public to come out and celebrate with us on Saturday morning. Some of the teams which sell dinner food on Friday will offer breakfast food on Saturday. We’re talking to a local radio station about a live remote.

Last year, in the wake of my mother’s death, Phillip Oliver’s death, and Vickie Hull’s survival of breast cancer, Vickie decided that First United Methodist Church needed a Relay For Life team. I happily signed up, grateful for some constructive response to make to what had been a devastating loss for our family. By the end of our 2011 Relay, I was hooked, and I remember thinking to myself that Relay was going to be a permanent part of my life. Little did I know that just a few months later, Samantha Chamblee and Harriet Stewart would come to see me at the paper and ask me to join the local Relay committee.

Please go to http://relayforlife.org and find the Relay event in your area. If you’re here in Bedford County, just go straight to http://relayforlife.org/bedfordtn. Put the Relay on your calendar, even if you’re not affiliated with a team or participant. Stop by and help us celebrate our survivors and the progress that has been made; remember those we’ve lost; and fight back against this devastating class of diseases.

Apr 23

‘How God Became King’

Posted on by

I have preached, on more than one occasion, about the dual nature of Biblical references to God’s kingdom – some of which seem to place it in the future tense, others in the present tense.

I checked out How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels through a digital library loan. I’ve heard a lot about N.T. Wright, and read bits and pieces of things he’s written, but this is the first of his actual books I’ve gotten the chance to read. It’s a terrific book, well worth my time, and I believe it would be worth yours. Wright emphasizes the present nature of the kingdom in the light of the gospel story.

Most Christians understand, or believe they understand, the theological significance of the Incarnation and Jesus’ birth. They also understand, or believe they understand, the theological significance of his death and resurrection, and like to think of it as pointing towards their eternal reward. (A college roommate of mine, Darrell Grizzle, once complained about the music he had to play at a southern gospel radio station by inventing the satirical song title, “When Jesus Comes Back and Sends All The Communists To Hell, Won’t It Be Wonderful Up There?”) The material that comes between the birth and the resurrection is the stuff of sermons, but we don’t really incorporate it into our understanding of theology, or (as Wright notes) into our creeds. The Apostles’ Creed jumps right from “born of the Virgin Mary” to “suffered under Pontius Pilate.”

But Wright makes a solid case that the scope of Jesus’ life is vitally important to our understanding of his nature as the Messiah, bringing about God’s promised kingdom. Like the disciples of Jesus’ day, who expected the Messiah to be a military-political revolutionary, we throughout church history have overlooked and misunderstood the true nature of God’s kingdom, the way in which Jesus made it a reality, and our own responsibility for to behave as if we’re subjects of that kingdom in the here and now. Wright breaks down various New Testament passages and the Old Testament prophecies to which they relate, showing the nature of Jesus and his messianic kingdom.

The book is a little imposing at the outset, but once you get into it it’s quite readable and compelling. I had, frankly, forgotten that it was a library book; I’ve plowed through so many Kindle books recently that sometimes I lose track of what was free, what was super-cheap and what was borrowed. I was a little sad when I realized the book was going to have to delete itself from my Kindle, and I may have to take a look at picking it up some time in the future.

Strongly recommended.

Apr 21

How are you fixed for blades, boys?

Posted on by

I switched to an electric shaver years ago, and I’m content with it – my beard is so light in color (lighter than the hair on top of my head) that even if the electric doesn’t shave quite as close, it doesn’t matter in my case. And I save on the recurring expense of razors and shaving cream or gel.

But I followed with interest the hubbub a short while ago about Dollar Shave Club, a company which will ship you razor blade cartridges automatically for as little as a dollar a month. That $1 per month gets you twin-blade razors; four-blade and six-blade razors are available for $6 and $9 per month respectively. The $6 and $9 prices include shipping, while the $1 does not. A handle is free with your first order. The company released a viral video promoting its service.

The initial review I read on Lifehacker noted that whether the service would be right for you depends on how often you want to change the razors. Dollar Shave Club offers a fixed schedule, and there’s no way to change it if you like to change your blades more often or make them last longer.

Well, now the SmartMoney web site, quoted by Lifehacker, has discovered that Dollar Shave Club apparently gets its razors from a company called Dorco, which sells comparable razors in bulk directly to consumers for considerably less than Dollar Shave Club is charging. You can get a 10-month supply of the six-blade razors for $29 instead of $90. The founder of Dollar Shave Club responded that his company offered the convenience of monthly delivery, but Lifehacker pointed out that it doesn’t really take up that much space to store 10 months worth of razors, and you can burn through them at your own pace, not on some imposed schedule:

My biggest frustration with DSC was that I don’t like the idea of that recurring monthly bill, especially since to me, razor blades aren’t like clockwork.

I think I’ll stick to my electric shaver for the time being, but I’ll have to remember the Dorco site if I ever want to go back to blades.

Apr 21

Givin’ on a prayer

Posted on by

There’s an Advil commercial with Jon Bon Jovi during which he refers to himself as “singer-songwriter, philanthropist, father.”

I don’t know anything about his charitable efforts, but I have no trouble imagining that they would be substantial, and that seems to be confirmed by this web site. Still, to me it sounds sort of pompous for anyone to refer to themselves as a “philanthropist.” Even if it’s accurate, it sounds like boasting.

Of course, I’m trying to think of an alternate word or phrase that would convey the same intent but without boasting. “Activist” sounds too political. “Donor” would be a literal match, but “donor and volunteer” might work better.

Apr 13

Stranger than fiction

Posted on by

In the late 1800s, a professor named James Murray led the team which was preparing what would become one of the world’s greatest and most-renowned reference books: the Oxford English Dictionary.

Murray put out a call for volunteers to help in the arduous process of scanning centuries worth of books looking for the first appearances of words in print, or for citations which demonstrate that the meaning of a word has shifted.

Many such volunteers responded to the call, but one of the most surprising was a physician, W.C. Minor. Minor’s contributions were voluminous and impeccably-organized. The address given by Minor was a short train ride away from Oxford, and Murray eventually wanted to meet his generous and able collaborator in person. But Minor refused invitations to visit Murray or to attend a great banquet held to celebrate the dictionary project. Murray then resolved that he would, instead, visit Minor.

A widely-reprinted story has it that Murray didn’t find out the truth until he arrived at Minor’s address. The actual reveal was a little less dramatic in how it took place, but the information would have been jaw-dropping no matter how it was revealed. W.C. Minor, a former U.S. Army surgeon and a veteran of the Civil War, was a killer, found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, and consigned by a British court to life at an asylum for the criminally insane.

I first read a version of this story many years ago, in one of the book compilations of Paul Harvey’s “Rest of the Story” radio series. So when I saw Simon Winchester’s  The Professor and the Madman available for Kindle loan through my local library, I eagerly put myself on the waiting list. I had the day off work today, and – apart from cleaning my oven and going to a Nashville Symphony concert planning meeting – I’ve spent much of it with my nose in Winchester’s well-researched, well-told tale.

Winchester lays out the basics of the relationship between Murray and Minor right at the outset, but then he goes back and gives you all the nuance and pathos, including a rather gruesome detail, a little more than two-thirds of the way through the book, which I had not been expecting. It’s an amazing story – on the one hand, the book covers the great achievement of the OED, which took 70 years to complete and which has such deep importance to language, learning and England. On the other hand, the book tells a heartbreaking story about a tortured soul, a Civil War surgeon whose paranoia may have been made worse by what he witnessed in battlefield hospitals, or by the role he was forced to take in punishing a deserter. And yet, in his more lucid moments, this mental patient and American expatriate was able to play a key role in one of the crowning glories of the British empire.

Winchester covers every aspect of the tale, including the sad story of Minor’s victim and the family he left behind. It’s the type of tale that, if created by a novelist, would be called outlandish and unbelievable.

Strongly recommended.

Apr 11

The saffron of over-the-counter medications

Posted on by

Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, cold sores can be triggered by excessive exposure to sunlight, and so I think I brought this on myself — when I was out at Walmart on Saturday, selling tickets for the Cancer Sucks! Crawfish Festival to benefit the American Cancer Society Relay For Life, I failed to take the cancer society’s own good advice and wear some sunscreen. I got burned as red as those crawfish in our festival logo. And now, I have a cold sore.

I had a lipstick-sized pump of Abreva, the saffron of over-the-counter medications, and I’ve used up every last molecule, even breaking open the pump and scraping around in it with a nail file for the last little gobbets. I went to several of the chain pharmacy web sites today to remind myself just how ridiculously overpriced Abreva is, and CVS had it on sale for online purchase — but that apparently doesn’t mean it’s also on sale in the brick-and-mortar stores. CVS charged $20.99 in store for either the pump or the tiny little tube, and Rite Aid charged $19.99. I didn’t feel like I needed to spend the money this week, and so I bought some ointment with zinc, lysine and beeswax — none of which the FDA will let them list as active ingredients — from our good friends at Placebo Industries. Hopefully, the 24 hours when I was putting Abreva on the sore will have given it a head start on healing up, and this cheapo oinment will distract me with the notion that I’m actually doing something for the cold sore.

Man, I can’t wait for Abreva to run out of patent and go generic. Because it really is effective; it’s just way overpriced.

Apr 06

Good Friday

Posted on by

and look me in the face, at least what’s left of it
tell me you still love me just a little bit
or nail me down, break the skin
hard enough to do me in
but don’t leave me hanging
dying and dangling
twisting in the wind

here, touch my side
let doubt be crucified
nailed with your wounded pride
to love’s grim altar
here, taste my flesh
my bloody humanness
i am no phantom guest
no skinless martyr

From “The Twist,”  words by Terry Taylor, Music by Terry Taylor, David Raven, Jerry Chamberlain and Tim Chander
©1988 Broken Songs

Apr 05

Pimento power

Posted on by

OK, as promised earlier on Facebook, here’s my as-built recipe, adapted from Bobby Deen’s recipe, for pimento cheese.

Instead of half a green peppper and half a red pepper, I used a whole red pepper – and I roasted it, to give it a more pimento-like sweetness and consistency. I forgot to buy chives, and I had a leftover half an onion in the fridge, so I substituted a little onion. I wanted to also add a little parsley, but couldn’t find any.

I did not seed my jalapeño, because I wanted the heat. I got more than I wanted, actually.

This is from Bobby’s show “Not My Mama’s Meals,” and it’s supposed to be a lower-fat version of his mother Paula Deen’s recipe. I think most of the fat savings comes from using Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise as the binder. The recipe calls for “low-fat” mozzarella cheese. I used reduced moisture part-skim, which is how much of the mozzarella on the shelf is labeled; there may be an even-lower-fat version that I missed, and if so I missed out on that particular part of the low-fat option.

I’m just giving you the recipe for the basic pimento cheese. Bobby’s recipe goes on to use the cheese spread in a grilled sandwich with a slice of tomato. I didn’t have any tomato and I didn’t feel like grilling the sandwich, so I just made it on plain bread.

It’s good stuff – but I wish I had bought something other than the Kroger store brand Greek yogurt. Even though it’s clearly labeled “plain,” it has a vague hint of vanilla. Oikos or Fage would have been better.

And I wish I’d seeded half of the jalapeño.

 

1 red bell pepper

1 cup plus a little more shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

2/3 cup Greek-style yogurt

3 T. finely minced onion

1 jalapeño, seeded if desired, finely minced

Salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste

 

Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise; remove stem, seeds and white membrane. Place halves cut-side-down on a baking sheet and place under a broiler for a few minutes until the skin of the pepper is black and blistered. Immediately remove the pepper halves from the oven and place them in a paper lunch sack, empty margarine tub or plastic container. Fold over the sack or seal the tub to hold in the steam as the pepper cools (it will help loosen the skin).

After 10 or 15 minutes, remove as much of the skin as you can; most of it will be blistered and pull away easily. Dice the pepper into pea-sized pieces.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.