"The only thing worse than a man you can't control is a man you can." - Margo Kaufman

Ponzi Scheme (n.); a fraud in which investors are led to believe they will receive unrealistic returns when in fact early participants are paid with the money invested by later entrants. The scheme eventually collapses when insufficient new investors can be found to continue paying dividends to those who preceded them.
See also: Medicare, Social Security

While I ate lunch I looked at the card we got from the installer that lists all the DirectTV channels. It has different colored dots so you can identify which channels you get with the package you ordered. We got “Choice Xtra” mostly because it has more sports channels, but it also includes some others we watched when we had cable.

DirectTV includes music channels, too, and the number you get also depends on your package. So I looked to see which music channels we don’t have because we didn’t step up to “Choice Ultimate” or “Premium” packages. Am I missing a music channel I really wish I had? The answer is no, but now I’m wondering the thinking behind DirectTV’s arrangement.

For example, we get “Instrumental: Beautiful Instrumental” but “Instrumental: Piano” only comes if you go all the way up to the Premium package. We get “Irish” but not “Italian.” Seems suspiciously racist. We get “Latin: Bailamos!” (whatever that is) but not “Latin: Carnaval Brasileiro” (people dancing in Portuguese?) because we didn’t go Premium. So are there people who are so dialed into Carnaval Brasileiro that they’ll pay an extra $40 per month to have it coming through their TV?

If a preacher really nails a sermon is it OK if afterward he runs over and jumps a shoulder-bump with the elders? How ‘bout if he wads up and spikes his sermon notes? ‘cause if I ever do nail one I want to know what’s appropriate and what isn’t.

Most of today’s bowl games were disappointing. I did think, however, that the Al’s Transmission Shop/Soy Sauce Bowl lived up to the hype. I mean, who thought that Eastern North Dakota State could put up those kind of numbers against a powerhouse like the Henry Wilburn School of Dog Grooming?

I wonder what we’ll have for attendance tomorrow morning. It’s the last weekend of the holiday break so it may resemble last week. Either way, we’ll worship and learn. I’m using the first minute or so of a favorite piece of music as a sermon illustration. Looking forward to the reaction.