Five-year-old piano prodigy

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Emma Sue?

Goodbye, Maxine (here and here).  Hello, Emma Sue.  (Emma Sue?)  Let me explain.  Today I traded in Maxine, my 1983 Datsun Maxima, and got a 2000 Subaru Outback.  And I'm guilty of naming my cars.  My friend Donna went with me and, thinking of ways to describe green — as in the car's color — she came up with emerald.  No, no, no!  That's a forest green, not an emerald green!  So she shortened emerald to "Emma" and added "Sue" for Subaru.  Thus, Emma Sue.  Well, I don't know.  What do you think?  Does she look like an Emma Sue to you?

Sunday Salon ~ I've been busy

Perfectly fried okra is my favorite comfort food.  Slice fresh okra, bread it with yellow corn meal, salt it lightly, and fry it in vegetable oil until crispy.  Would you like to know why I wanted comfort food this week?

For starters, there's my car, named Maxine because she's a Maxima.  This shows her on Saturday, September 1st, when I was ready to trade her in for a newer car.  Maxine is a 1983 Datsun Maxima, because Nissan Maximas didn't come out until the following year.  Yes, Maxine is 30 years old, since dealers around town already have 2013 models on their lots.  I decided to keep Maxine when I got really annoyed by the used car salesman's refusal to pin down actual numbers.  Using his figures, my overall cost for the 2006 used car, counting principle and interest, was about double the original asking price I was quoted.  Nope, sorry, I'm not willing to pay that much — or continue to play those used-car-salesman games.  Maxine and I came home together.

On Sunday the 2nd, I led our Sunday school discussion on Matthew, using three chapters from this book:  Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World ~ by John Shelby Spong, 2011.

Raegan with her new puppy toy

After Sunday school, I took Raegan and her parents to lunch at Red Lobster.  Her mother, Kenzie, is my granddaughter; her father, Michael, took offense at something I posted on Facebook back in May and spent the summer trying to convince me (on Facebook) that I was wrong.  When I finally un-friended him, it caused a ruckus in my family, so I tried to improve the situation by inviting Michael and family to lunch.  I also invited my friend Donna, who — in defending my stance — also offended them.  So here we are, smiling.

Donna and Kenzie

Michael and Bonnie

I'm not sure it made any difference, since we didn't discuss the "problem" in front of Raegan, but I did try to ease tensions by having us get to know each other a bit better.  On to the next event, which got complicated.

Bea and Sharon, with Jaxon in his great-grandmother's lap at his first birthday party in December.

On Monday the 3rd, which was Labor Day in the United States, my daughter-in-law Sharon learned that her mother (Bea) had died in her sleep.  Sharon asked me to do her mother's funeral, and I offered to go with the family to make arrangements, since that's what pastors do.  On Wednesday the 5th, Maxine wouldn't start when I needed to go to the funeral home, so I borrowed Donna's Saturn.

After we spent hours making funeral arrangements, my son followed me home and jump-started my car.  Maxine ran okay and even started after being turned off — but not the next time I tried.  On Friday the 7th, Donna drove me to the service in her car, since Maxine obviously needs a new battery.  After two hours of visitation, I officiated at the graveside service, inviting those who were present to share their memories.  Friday was a sunny day, with temperatures in the mid-90s, very hot to be outside, even for those of us under a canopy.  I came home hot and tired.

Saturday cooled off considerably, but can you see why I wanted comfort food this week?

P.S.  Jaxon and Raegan are my great-grandchildren.  And here's the book I've been trying (off and on) to read this week:

With or Without God: Why the Way We Live Is More Important than What We Believe ~ by Gretta Vosper, 2008

Envisioning a future in which the Christian church plays a viable and transformative role in shaping society, Gretta Vosper argues that if the church is to survive at all, the heart of faith must undergo a radical change.  Vosper, a minister in Toronto, believes that what will save the church is an emphasis on just and compassionate living — a new and wholly humanistic approach to religion.  Without this reform, the church as we know it faces extinction.

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I would have given the student high marks

A student got 0% on this exam ***

1. In which battle did Napoleon die?

* his last battle

2. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?

* at the bottom of the page

3. River Ravi flows in which state?

* liquid

4. What is the main reason for divorce?

* marriage

5. What is the main reason for failure?

* exams

6. What can you never eat for breakfast?

* Lunch and dinner

7. What looks like half an apple?

* The other half

8. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?

* It will simply become wet

9. How can a man go eight days without sleeping?

* No problem, he sleeps at night.

10. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?

* You will never find an elephant that has only one hand.

11. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have ?

* Very large hands

12. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?

* No time at all, the wall is already built.

13. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?

* Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.

*** And here's how I know this isn't a real exam:

• The questions aren't about one subject ~ #11 and #12 are about math, #1 is about history, #3 is about geography, #4 is about social studies.
• The questions are made up especially to fit tricky answers ~ Who teaches "how" to drop a raw egg (#13) or "how" to lift an elephant (#10) or "how" to go eight days without sleep (#9)?
• What kind of questions are #6, #7, and #8?

"What can you never eat for breakfast?" (never?)
"What looks like half an apple?" (Looks like?)
"If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?" (become?)

• And the clincher: Napoleon died in bed, not in a battle. See this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
• But wasn't it fun to contemplate?  Yeah!

Joy

First and last

What a great question!  When WAS the last time you did something for the first time?

Top ten most read books

The Protestant version of the Bible is actually 66 books (with 39 "books" in the Old Testament plus 27 "books" in the New Testament) and "Harry Potter" includes seven books, so I don't know how somebody chose these ten titles.  I've read the whole Bible several times, the first three Harry Potter books, The Alchemist, The Da Vinci Code, Gone with the Wind, and The Diary of Anne Frank.  That's more than half this list.  So how many of these have you read?

1.  The Bible
2.  Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung
3.  Harry Potter
4.  The Lord of the Rings
5.  The Alchemist
6.  The Da Vinci Code
7.  The Twilight Saga
8.  Gone with the Wind
9.  Think and Grow Rich
10.  The Diary of Anne Frank

Printed in white and difficult to read:

"Based on number of books printed and sold over the last 50 years.  Some titles may have had more copies printed than some of these books, but a vast number of those books were not sold, so we'll assume that they did not get read."