If he were any dumber he'd have to be watered twice a week.

Aunt Alice was not someone you invited your friends over to meet,
even if she had shaved recently.

From the mailbag:

1. Yes, Sue, Cast Away is the movie I think is a knock-off of Robinson Crusoe, with a volleyball playing Friday.
   
2. Yes, Anonymous, the swim is normally the first event in a triathlon. But because this is a sprint triathlon (only a 400m swim) with 500 entrants they don't want everybody jumping in the pool at the same time, even if it is Olympic size. So by starting with the run and then going to the bike ride they spread out the field. A small portion of the field is in the pool at any given time.
3. Anonymous #2 wrote that, "In High School I had a girlfriend who looked a lot like Julia Roberts..." Anybody else wondering the same thing I am?
4. Scott - I'm not sure what that was about. But the best part of that fight was when Shaq came in and pushed one of the Rockets. Behind that player, the rest of the Houston players fell down like so many dominoes. That guy is HUGE and very strong.
   

"I'll take Foreign Words & Phrases for $100, Alex"
A week or so ago I heard someone on NPR use the phrase (prepare for serious misspelling) "Day New Ma." I know it's French, and I've known the meaning, but can't remember it. My efforts to look it up have been fruitless because I don't know how it's spelled.
Anybody help me out here?

I don't want to own an automotive manufacturer, especially an American one. Shouldn't Congress ask me before they buy me shares in one of those economic black holes? Chrysler was at this feed trough 30 years ago and apparently it didn't take then. Why should we think it will this time? And where is it written that unless cars are made in Detroit by the "Big Three" (now there's an oxymoron for you) the world is somehow going to end? Life, liberty and American cars?

Last Sunday, Imago Dei (Who Am I?). This Sunday, Theodicy (Why Are Things So Messed Up?). Praying for Jose.

While I was working on my sermon this morning I had my "Mozart" channel coming through Pandora. I heard unfamiliar music that I liked so I clicked to see who it was. Ignace Joseph Pleyel. Never heard of him, so I read his biography. "Remembered mostly as Haydn's rival during his London journey of 1792, Ignace Joseph Pleyel was the 24th child (out of 38!) of an impoverished schoolteacher."
Imagine that! Impoverished with 38 children. Can we not figure out the law of cause & effect?

I also like my "Nora Jones" channel. But I think she's like martinis; it needs to be at least 4 p.m.

Jets are up on the Pats, 7-3. Belechic is easy to hate and I can't root for Favre. So who do I want to lose less?

I'm sitting on the patio staring up at a beautiful full moon - the "harvest moon." But I think I'll head inside, see if I can find something more to eat and watch an old episode of NCIS. The Office comes on in an hour, but unless it gets a lot funnier than it has been the last few weeks (IMHO) I'll soon be a no-show at Dunder-Mifflin.