"When I told my doctor I couldn't afford the surgery he offered to touch up my x-rays." - Henny Youngman

Genius or scary?

For my MI friends, here's a guy with a quick and easy method for cleaning the ice off his car's side window. But after having spent 17 winters there I think something's missing here. Why does his window go down that easily? I wonder if he sprays it with Pam or something similar the night before. And while you obviously can't roll your windshield down, if you knew an ice storm was coming would spraying help get it cleared off?

I read today that the white elephant gift idea originated with the King of Siam. He reportedly gave rare albino elephants to people who had displeased him with the thought that the cost of keeping the animal would eventually drive them to ruin.

Today's news stories include accounts of the anger directed at UPS and FedEx because they didn't get some Christmas packages delivered on time.
Pity the fool who expresses any of that outrage within my hearing.
Get over it!! You live in a country of enormous wealth, you're talking about gifts, and absolutely no lasting negative consequences will result from the one-day delay. Three months from now the presents and the delay will both likely be forgotten.
And how 'bout a thought for those sorters, loaders, and drivers working their butts off so you can get another pair of gloves from Aunt Millie?
Americans are generally clueless.

My check of local Grand Rapids news included a report that a 77-year old man was struck and killed by a mail truck in front of the Vietnamese Catholic Church on Porter Ave. They used that description of the location because most people wouldn't remember that it's across the street from where Craig & Pam MacDonald used to live.

Cheesy Christmas music is gone for another year.
And on earth, peace to men.

I'm doing a kids' time this Sunday morning, an irregular custom at Pathway. We're going to talk about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year celebration. (Literally, "the head of the year.") A big part of the celebration is the blowing of the shofar, the ram's horn. Years ago I purchased a small shofar and planned to use it in a demonstration Sunday, but when I got it out this afternoon I discovered that it was broken at the small end, enough that it won't make a sound. It's supposed to be carved into a concave shape not unlike a trumpet mouthpiece, but too much of the horn material has broken away.

So I dug out a steer's horn that I got at some point a long time ago for reasons that I can neither recall or fathom. No Jew would ever have a shofar made from a cattle horn because of the golden calf idol Aaron made at Mt. Sinai. Tradition says ram and goat horns are correct, but not from cattle.
Shhh. Don't tell the kids.

It was already hollowed out down pretty far. So step one was to cut off the end so that there was about 1" of solid horn between the end and the hollowed portion. Then drill a 1/8" hole from the now-flat end up to the hollowed portion. (You can click to enlarge if you're really that interested.)

"How's it going, Craig?"
"Uhm, shofar sho-good."

Then I took my Dremel and began grinding out the flat surface into a concave shape like a trumpet mouthpiece. I'm still experimenting with the dimensions. I enlarged the diameter of the hole and that helped. I may create more of a dish shape. Or it could just be that cellists make lousy shofarists. (Actually, the Jewish term is baal tekiah, which translates roughly, "master blaster.") At this point I sound like an a very loud fart, but I've got time between now and Sunday to practice.