News Updates

Offering further proof that it's not just the fundies who mess up religion, the New York Times has a piece today on the increasing commercialisation of Ramadan. (And you thought Christians had the monopoly on missing the point).

On the local front, I rearranged the living room yesterday, as promised. The venture was aided by the return of The Neighbor who had been to Reno to retrieve a set of vintage living room furniture that had been stored in her mother's garage for 30 years. I scored her old (contemporary) couch to make room for her new (vintage) stuff.

The furniture is really beautiful, a sofa, club chair and ottomon covered in deep blue velvet. It has those wonderful curves of furniture from the '30's. Astonishing that pieces that old could be in such good condition. It owes, of course, to craftsmanship. Ain't nobody gonna be handing down great-grandma's Ikea bookshelf, you know?

Which got me thinking. My friend Payson, the one in Dallas, has a beautiful home full of lovely objects. Many of them he scored through his unique and finely honed shopping sense. But there are a great many things which are family pieces and it is these items, with their patina of age and story that provide the true spirit of his home. He calls his home "Heritage" and that is the enduring theme around which he composes his environment. The newer pieces all fit in with and bolster that aesthetic.

My family heritage does not manifest itself in physical objects. What goods exist that have a story are all still with my parents and there are precious few of those. There's nothing, thankfully, from the paternal grandparents. That grandmother could be rightly described as having all her taste in her mouth. Her favorite colors tended to be orange and brown, and not the nicer shades. My maternal grandparents weren't concerned with style but they did have good, plain things, with rooms arranged with an eye to reading and conversation. I do harbor a vague memory of certain chairs in their home which, I'm rather sure, were Mission furniture. But those things were "left by the side of the road", as my mother would say. Grandma and Grandpa were the sort to give away things like that because it would be "too much trouble to move" or because someone else needed it more. They weren't concerned with handing things down for their legacy was one of faith.

Which is all well and good and let's face it, as it should be. Still, I have always been a little jealous of the people who's forebears had a few nice things, nice enough to stand the test of time and end up in the more modern homes of their descendants. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be surrounded by so great a "cloud of witnesses" as it says in Hebrews. But would it have killed them to hand me down a Stickley chair, too?

Meanwhile, The Child got a B on her last spelling test, which is a real accomplishment for someone with dyslexia. She also, however, lost her retainer so part of my day is going to be spent making sure The Dog isn't chewing on anything weird.

And now, here's Lorraine with sports. Ha! Yankees choked. Ha! No Yankees in the World Series. Ha! Makes up somewhat for the fact that the Mariners had a terrible season and that pitching coach Brian Pryce has resigned. A few years ago the Mariners slogan was "You gotta love these guys". Now it would be more rightly stated, "Do you recognize these guys?" Back to you.

In a final story, I am going to watch the new Martha Stewart talk show today for the first time. I have a lot of ironing to catch up and that seems as good a reason as any. Thanks for joining us, have a good day.