Random Thoughts

A few stories of interest from the past week....

Earlier this week came the not totally unsurprising news that Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees was tied to a clinic that allegedly provided him with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). If confirmed this would be the second known instance where he had taken PEDs. He previously admitted to taking the drugs from 2001 to 2003 but when he made the admission in 2009 he proclaimed himself to be clean. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports suggested that A-Rod is finished. I tend to agree. Even if the PED story isn't true it's hard to see how A-Rod will be able to rehabilitate his image. Age and injuries have caught up with the slugging third baseman and his career has nowhere to go but on a continued downward spiral. This might be a good time to consider retiring rather than trying to slog through these allegations any further.

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This week marked the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Few novels or novelists have  developed such a strong following as Austen or her most famous novel. The BBC has an interesting look at why Americans are drawn to the British author.

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Speaking of British entertainments, Downton Abbey has been causing quite the stir on the American side of the Atlantic. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting interview with series creator Julian Fellowes that provides some surprising insights into the hit series.

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Having a daughter about to graduate high school has caused me to think (and read a lot) about the changing face of higher education. Arthur C. Brooks offers some interest insights into the college dynamic in a New York Times column entitled My Valuable, Cheap College Degree. Peter Berkowitz offers 10 Ways Liberal Education Fails Students - and Society. Finally, Mark Cuban boldly declares that Colleges are Going to Start Going Out of Business (language warning).

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Robert Epstein, author of The Case Against Adolescence, has a thought-provoking interview with Psychology Today about the problems facing modern teenagers. Among his more interesting assertions is that teenagers spend too much time with other teenagers. He makes several good points in the interview and while I don't necessarily agree with everything he says it's worth a read. (Hat tip: Joe Carter)

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Twitter surprise of the week: I am constantly surprised by the people I find on Twitter. This week's great discovery is that Dick Van Dyke is tweeting. He's @iammrvandy and definitely worth a follow.

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Finally, the oddest story of the week: A group of men have been playing a game of tag for 23 years.

25 Books: Book #2 - Conquering Gotham

At the beginning of the 20th Century, New York was growing into a major metropolis. But transportation in between the boroughs (especially in and out of Manhattan) was still somewhat difficult. It wasn't until the construction of Penn Station and its underwater tunnels that train travel in and out of Manhattan was even feasible. Accomplishing such an engineering feat required a company willing to take tremendous risks and invest huge amounts of money in such a project. That company was the Pennsylvania Railroad led by its visionary president Alexander Cassatt. The story of the Penn Station construction project is told in Conquering Gotham: Building Penn Station and its Tunnels by Jill Jonnes.

Today, the idea of an underwater tunnel is not so very foreign. But in 1900 such things were still relatively new. The construction of such a tunnel was a dicey prospect at best as numerous workers had perished in other tunnel projects. However there was no better way to solve the problem of how to connect Manhattan to New Jersey and to the other boroughs.Once the project was completed the city would be completely transformed. Suddenly people would have the freedom to move out to the suburbs and still be able to get to their jobs in the city.

As for Penn Station, for several decades it stood as a grand station in the midst of Manhattan. Unfortunately poor planning and a change in transportation choices (as Americans migrated towards air and roads in the 1950s and 1960s) doomed the grand temple to a brief existence. Still Penn Station managed to serve as a grand monument not only to the determination on Andrew Cassatt but of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to revolutionize travel into and out of Manhattan. Its story is still an interesting one to read as it involves courage, risk-taking, battles against political corruption and good old-fashioned American ingenuity to accomplish what many thought was impossible.

25 Books: Book #1 - Ratification by Pauline Maier

Many a volume has been written about the writing of the Constitution (The Summer of 1787 and Tempest At  Dawn are two of the better volumes I have read on the subject) but very little has been written about the ratification process. Most discussions of ratification tends to revolve around The Federalist Papers but that only provides a small part of the overall picture.

Pauline Maier set out to write the definitive history of the ratification debates in Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. She provides a detailed history of the individual state conventions and insight into the public mood and debates that surrounded ratification. While it might have seemed that once the Constitution was written it was a foregone conclusion that the states would ratify it the fact is that it was far from a sure thing,

As Ms. Maier shows in her book the debates were actually much more extensive and not always driven by just two opposing points of view. In fact, the debates were much more sophisticated than that. The debates were not just limited to those among the political elites, either. The proposed Constitution drew interest from people from all walks of life and became one of the most widely debated issues of the day.

Ratification is a good overview of the political climate of the day and does a good job of documenting the numerous aspects surrounding the debates. Those who wish to more fully understand the Constitution would do well to learn more about the passions from all sides that fueled the ratification debate.

25 Books in 2013

Like most folks, I don't spend enough time reading. I read recently that the average person only reads four books per year. That's a pretty shameful statistic.

Also, like most folks I'm lousy at keeping resolutions. But I do believe that it's important to set goals for things I want to do and achieve. Therefore, I have come up with a challenge for myself to address both issues simultaneously. I am setting a goal to read 25 books in 2013.

It's pretty simple: if I read just one book every two weeks I can achieve this simple goal. In the process, I will be nourished through reading and get back into developing some healthy book consumption.

However, before I jumped into this challenge I wanted to set out some ground rules that would help make this an even more beneficial process.

First, I am not allowing myself to read any e-books or listen to audiobooks for the purpose of meeting this challenge. While I enjoy reading on my Kindle I often find I am distracted by other things on it (e-mail, Internet, Twitter, etc.) and I don't spend as much time reading books as I should.

Second, any book I read has to be at least 200 pages in length. This may seem a little silly but I want the books I read to be of substance. Therefore, no cheating on this challenge by reading shorter books.

Finally, any book I read has to be a book I haven't read before. Part of the purpose of the challenge is to explore new stories and ideas. Therefore, I want to be intentional about what I'm going to read in that it's not something I have read before.

As far as subjects go, pretty much anything goes. I tend to be drawn more to non-fiction books but I suspect there will be a few novels mixed in too. This also means lots more trips to the library and the used book store!

As I finish a book I'll post my thoughts on it here so that (1) you'll be able to follow what I'm reading and (2) can help hold me accountable on meeting this goal. I'd welcome anyone else who wants to attempt the challenge with me to share in the comments what they are reading too.

Books are a precious treasure that are meant to be savored. In this information age it seems that we tend to know less and less. Books can open us up to other worlds and other lives. There are all kinds of wonders to be explored but only if we are willing to take the journey. Are you willing to join me in the journey?

Election Reflections

Like many other folks, I was up late last night watching the results come in. While I am disappointed in the outcome I am still proud to live in a country that allows its citizens to freely choose its own leaders. We should never take that freedom for granted. I'm working on a much longer essay on my thoughts and observations on the election and what it means as we move forward. For now, I'll recommend two excellent articles I saw posted today from Albert Mohler and Joel Rosenberg. I was talking with a friend last night who suggested that perhaps God is chastising his people here in America the same way he did the nation of Israel when they were disobedient in the Old Testament. Perhaps that is true. I do know for certain that God ordains who He wants to lead us and therefore He must have a purpose that will be served with President Obama's re-election. Finally, I couldn't help but think of this speech from the late Chuck Colson. He summed it up much better than I ever could:

"Where is the hope? I meet millions of people that tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us, or what laws are passed, or what great things we do as a nation.

Another Victim of Obama's Economy

We hear a lot about the effect of the economy on small business but this video says it better than any other I have seen. Bill's Barbecue was an institution in Richmond, VA for 82 years but it couldn't survive four years of Obama's economic policies.

Some Further Thoughts on the Democrats' Platform Problems

Over at the Corner, Hadley Arkes has some further analysis of the Democrats' platform fiasco from their just concluded convention and comes up with this nugget:

For it’s not a matter of one word more or less, one or more mentions of God. The real heart of the issue is that most of the people in that hall, in the Democratic convention, really don’t accept the understanding of rights contained in the Declaration of Independence: The Declaration appealed first to “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” as the very ground of our natural rights. The drafters declared that “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal,” and then immediately: that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” George Bush was not embarrassed to insist that these are “God-given rights,” as opposed to rights that we had merely given to ourselves. For if we had given them to ourselves, we could as readily take them back or remove them. 

This is the real crux of the matter. Denying the existence of God (or at least failing to acknowledge His existence) makes it much easier to also deny that any of our rights are also given by God. The Democrats, at their core, don't' honestly believe what the Declaration of Independence says. Once you've disavowed the Declaration it's not hard to disavow the Constitution as the two documents are closely linked to one another.

Tonight, the President said this:

On every issue, the choice you face won’t just be between two candidates or two parties. When all is said and done, when you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation.

The President is exactly right. The choice that voters face is clear. Two differing worldviews are on clear display to choose from. One party believes that our rights are God-given and therefore cannot be infringed upon by government. The other believes that government has the power to grant (and to take away) rights as it pleases. Which choice would you make?

Can a Person of Faith Be a Democrat?

Given the events of the past 24 hours at the Democratic National Convention, this suddenly becomes a fair question. Yesterday, delegates went ballistic when party officials tried to reinsert previously omitted language about God and Israel into their platform. Needless to say this created some bad optics for the Democrats as well as creating news at their convention. This was such a grave unforced error it's not clear yet how much damage has been done.

But taking this in conjunction with the party's full fledged endorsement of abortion on demand (“The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”) as well as the ongoing controversy over the HHS mandate regarding conception and suddenly you get the feeling that there is outright animus towards people of faith.

This is not necessarily new but never has it been more obvious. As John Hinderaker points outs, "The Democrats, bluntly put, have become the party of those who don't go to church." Although I would disagree with him over whether religious beliefs informs ones view of the issues of the day (it does) he is absolutely correct to suggest that the Democratic platform is in direct opposition to the values that Jews, Christians, and Catholics in particular hold. 

This point is further illustrated in Al Mohler's excellent essay on the stark worldview choices we are facing in this election.

All of this begs the question whether a devout Jew, Christian or Catholic can sincerely also identify themselves as a Democrat. I frankly can't see how anyone can.

Favorite Eats - Three Li'l Pigs Barbeque - Daleville, Virginia

Having grown up in North Carolina one of the things that I developed an affinity for is barbecue. When North Carolinians refer to barbecue they mean pork. Depending on which part of the state you are in the meat is served either with a tomato based sauce (western) or a vinegar based sauce (eastern). Personally I prefer the eastern variety because it tends to maintain the smoky flavor of the meat without being totally overwhelmed by the sauce.

Consequently, I am a bit of a barbecue snob. Invariably when I order barbecue in a restaurant it doesn't have the same flavor I'm accustomed to getting from my barbecue. Thankfully there is one place I know I can go for great barbecue and it's not even in North Carolina!

Three Li'l Pigs Barbecue is just off Interstate 81 in Daleville Virginia. It's close enough to the highway that anytime I am passing by it's easy to turn off for a quick fix of barbecue. Owner Bill Gaul hails from North Carolina which explains why he's so adept at making barbecue. Plus the menu offers both varieties to suit everyone's taste. Plus while you're waiting for your food you can pass the time playing Pass the Pigs.

They also sell their barbecue in bulk packaging to go (be sure to bring a cooler so you can take some home with you) as well as their full line of barbecue sauces.

I've tried a lot of barbecue from a lot of different restaurants but the best by far is at Three Li'l Pigs. If you're ever driving by take the time to get off the interstate long enough to sample the best barbecue anywhere.

Some Tasty Sandwiches

Over at Stately Sandwiches, proprietor Kelly Pratt has come up with the idea of creating a sandwich for each of the 50 states. So far she's come up with several and quite a few of her choices are spot on. Take for example the Hot Brown for Kentucky. This is a huge favorite in Louisville as I discovered earlier this spring. Or something simpler like a Virginia Ham Biscuit. Or my personal favorite, the pulled pork barbecue for North Carolina. I have a feeling that this is going to be a fun (and delicious) site to follow.

Thanks to Paula for the tip.

Back to Blogging

It's been a long time since I've posted her regularly. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track. A few random thoughts that have been rolling around my brain......

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This election cycle is shaping up to be the second straight presidential election in a row where I am seriously considering not voting. Much will depend on who Mitt Romney chooses as a running mate. John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin made me feel comfortable enough to cast a vote for him even though I still had serious reservations about him.

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Speaking of politics, it seems to me that politicians are more and more concerned with maintaining power than abiding by principles. This has always been true to a degree but seems to be more prevalent these days than ever before. Part of the reason I don't follow politics as closely as I used to as I find myself increasingly frustrated by members of both parties. The country seems poised for a major reformation in its politics but only if principled leaders will stand up and be counted upon to be agents of change.

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Most of my free time of late (what little there has been) has been devoted to baseball. Although my team, the Chicago Cubs, are having a typically frustrating season I still enjoy the sport. In fact, I became a fan of the game before I became devoted to my team. More on that in an upcoming post over at Eephus League. That's where I have been doing what little blogging that I have been involved in lately.

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Not long ago I ran across an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Wrigley Field be torn down. The author is, of course, wrong for a lot of reasons. One of his assertions is that the Cubs were a better team before moving to Wrigley than afterwards. That's true, however, he failed to look at the club's won-loss record at Wrigley. Through the 2011 season, the Cubs had a +435 win differential at the park. So clearly it's not the home park that's the problem.

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From the Useful Links Department: the Random P. G. Wodehouse Quote Generator.

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It was a really big deal at the time: it turns out Dan Quayle was right. And you read about it in the Washington Post of all places. Dan Quayle might not have been the brightest or most effective politician but at least he was willing to stand up and speak about what he believed.

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Quote to ponder: "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived." - George S. Patton

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Finally, I have held out as long as I possibly can but have given in and decided to join Twitter. I don't really plan on tweeting much (we'll see how that goes) but I've already found it's a great way to quickly check news sources that I like to follow. Feel free to follow me (for what it's worth).

Charles Colson, RIP

From Fox News:

LANSDOWNE, Va. –  Watergate figure Charles Colson, who turned to religion, died Saturday at a Northern Virginia hospital after a brief illness, according to a family spokesman. He was 80.

"This is a time of conflicting, colliding emotions for all of us," said Jim Liske, the chief executive of the Lansdowne, Va.-based Prison Fellowship Ministries that Colson founded. "We grieve that our brother, our founder, our inspiration is no longer with us. But we rejoice that Chuck is with Jesus, we rejoice as we reflect on his life and legacy and that we could be a part of that, and we rejoice when we think of all the redeemed in heaven who will greet him and thank him for the role he played in their salvation."

Colson was the author of numerous books his most famous being his autobiography Born Again which tells his compelling story of coming to faith in Christ prior to going to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal.

He was also a compelling speaker and boldly proclaimed Christ at every opportunity. My wife and I had the privilege of being in the audience at his acceptance of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion at the Universty of Chicago in 1993. In the midst of a highly ecumenical service with representatives of every major religion, Colson bravely and unashamedly proclaimed the gospel. Many who disagreed with him walked out during the speech. However, reading the text nearly twenty years later still gives me chills.

Chuck Colson made a tremendous impact on many believers all over the world. His story is a true story of redemption and the power of Christ to change lives.

Rest in peace, brother.

America's Game

"Nothing in our daily life offers more of the comfort of continuity, the generational connection of belonging to a vast and complicated American family, the powerful sense of home, the freedom from time's constraints, and the great gift of accumulated memory than does our National Pastime."
-- Ken Burns

Few things are as truly American as baseball. More than any other sport it has permeated our culture. It is intertwined with our history. It celebrates what's great about our country. Countless books and articles have been written about the beauty of our game. But it's not often that we get to hear the perspective of immigrants who have come to this county about our national game.

Take for example, this excellent essay by Irish author Colum McCann. He came to America a number of years ago and immediately fell in love with the game. A brief excerpt:

Baseball is often talked about as the American game, but there is something wildly immigrant about it too. No other game can so solidly confirm the fact that you are in the United States, yet bring you home to your original country at the same time.

If soccer is the world's game, then baseball belongs to those who have left their worlds behind. This is not so much nostalgia as it a sense of saudade - a longing for something that is absent.

I have been in New York for 18 years. Every time I have gone to Yankee Stadium with my two sons and my daughter, I am somehow brought back to my boyhood. Perhaps it is because baseball is so very different from anything I grew up with.

The subway journey out. The hustlers, the bustlers, the bored cops. The jostle at the turnstiles. Up the ramps. Through the shadows. The huge swell of diamond green. The crackle. The billboards. The slight air of the unreal. The guilt when standing for another nation's national anthem. The hot dogs. The bad beer. The catcalls. Siddown. Shaddup. Fuhgeddaboudit.

Learning baseball is learning to love what is left behind also. The world drifts away for a few hours. We can rediscover what it means to be lost. The world is full, once again, of surprise. We go back to who we were.

Be sure to read the whole thing.

Application to Date My Daughter

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I just had to share it because it is absolutely hilarious:

The Catholic Church Fights Back

President Obama may have picked the wrong fight when his administration announced they were forcing the Catholic Church to provide contraceptives including the morning after pill to their employees. In his unforced error, the President may have awakened the sleeping giant of the Catholic Church and set the wheels in motion for a permanent political shift. From the Daily Mail:

Prominent Catholic leaders across the U.S. have threatened to turn voters against President Obama over his controversial plans to offer free birth control.

The fight is over a provision of the health reform law announced on January 20 that would require health insurance plans -- including those offered by institutions such as Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities -- to offer free birth control including sterilization.

According to estimates, there are some 70 million Catholic voters – and many could be posed to vote against the president in the crucial upcoming election.

Catholic League head Bill Donohue said: ‘Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,’ CBS New York reported.

'This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.' Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who was promoted to the status of a Cardinal just weeks ago, spoke out about the issue. 

'It’s not about contraception. It’s about the right of conscience,' he told reporters. 'The government doesn’t have the right to butt into the internal governance and teachings of the church,” he said.

'This is not a Catholic issue, it’s an American issue. We’re strong on this issue of conscience, and that’s what’s at stake here.'

Catholic clergy on Sunday called on the faithful to write Congress to protest new birth control rules from President Barack Obama's administration, stepping up a campaign that began a week ago with denunciations from the pulpit at Masses across the country.

Catholics are traditionally staunchly pro-life despite their tendency to vote for Democrats. But over the past couple of election cycles, Catholics have slowly begun to wake up to the fact that many prominent Democrats who also profess to be Catholics (think John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi) don't hold the same values as those that the church endorses. 


The Catholic Church is rising to the challenge because they realize this controversy is not just about abortion. It's also about religious liberty. And they are finally realizing that Democrats that they have worked to elect over the past several decades are not their allies. It's about time.

Obama Declares War Against Religious Freedom

The Obama Administration has struck a blow against religious freedom and it's time for folks to stand up against such tyranny. Click here to read the whole story.

Advice to Dads of Daughters

Here is a list of fifty rules for dads of daughters. It's a terrific list. I only wish I had thought of it.

Hat tip: Joe Carter

Rules for Dating

This has been around for a while but still makes me laugh and I find particularly appropriate as a father of two daughters: Ten Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter.

Of course there is another simple way to handle it by following this rule.

9/11 Ten Years Later

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Never forget.

Of Mice and Men

One of the more charming things about living in a rural area is the occasional visitation by the odd field mouse. We've had one roaming around the house for some time now. Our cat thought it was a toy to be played with rather than a rodent to be killed. Makes me wonder why we have a cat in the first place.

Anyway, it finally got to the point where we had to call in an exterminator. No sooner had he laid the traps under the kitchen sink did we catch a mouse. Whether it was the same one we had seen before is debatable. It's also not clear whether he is the only invader of our home. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

For some strange reason this all has me thinking of a Robert Burns poem.

Depravity and Young Adult Fiction

As a father of two teenage girls, I am very concerned about what books they read. Thankfully, neither of them like to read what's currently being offered in "young adult fiction" and for good reason. Look no further than Meghan Cox Gurdon's excellent essay in the Wall Street Journal:

How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18.

Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in young-adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not even remark upon it.

If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader—or one who seeks out depravity—will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds.

Ms. Cox Gurdon bravely exposes the dark underbelly that is young adult fiction and goes further to show that this recent advent in publishing has been an increasingly detrimental trend. Take time to read this excellent essay.

Saying Goodbye to Facebook

This morning I did something I had been thinking about for quite a while. For many in our internet-connected culture it will seem a little counter-cultural and probably would leave some scratching their heads. I deactivated by Facebook account.

This was a decision brought on (in part) by recent events in the news involving a congressman's online extracurricular activities. But it was also something I had been thinking about because I was never really comfortable allowing others to connect to me.

Granted, while I was on Facebook I did connect to college friends as well as members of my extended family. I managed to reconnect with folks I hadn't spoken to in many years.

I rarely received an unwanted message and can count on one hand the number of times I received an invitation to be friends with someone I didn't know.

It was convenient to have the news feed from a lot of different blogs and websites I follow in one central place. But there are other applications that allow that function without connecting with strangers.

I only signed up in the beginning because my girls were curious about having their own account. I signed up because I wasn't familiar with it at the time and needed to see what it was all about before allowing my girls to get on it. Ultimately I decided they didn't need an account and they both agreed with my decision.

But I still couldn't help shake the nagging feeling that this was not a good thing to have. I've never been interested in having a Twitter account and don't bother following anyone. While I enjoyed being on Facebook, increasingly I didn't have time to keep up with it or find things to share.

My mind kept coming back to a book I read several years ago by Jerry Jenkins entitled Hedges: Loving Your Marriage Enough to Protect It. It talks very frankly about sexual sin and how it can subtly enter into your marriage. In order to protect our marriages, we need to build "hedges" which are ground rules for interacting with the opposite sex that protect us from falling into the trap that sexual sin can put us in.

Increasingly what I realized was that with my Facebook account I was tearing a huge hole in the hedges that I had been placing around my marriage. Although I never had any issues while I was on Facebook I felt it was better to get out before a problem arose.

Social media can be a wonderful thing. But it also provides a wealth of danger. Recent news stories have shown that Facebook contributes to divorce. The bottom line is while it may seem innocent to reconnect with old friends it can present danger.

I know plenty of people that are on Facebook and have not run into any issues. I think whether to be involved in social media or not is a personal choice that each individual has to make. As I said before, I didn't have any problems with being on Facebook. But when I weigh everything together, it's better for me personally to not be out there allowing myself to be set up as a target for temptation. I don't want to do anything that puts my marriage and my family at risk. For me, the risks involved with being on Facebook outweigh the rewards.

It Could Be Worse.....

I always tell my kids they are fortunate I don't do things that embarrass them (at least, not normally). I could have been like this guy.

At least his kid was a good sport about the whole thing.

A Great Quote on Writing A Book

I saw this quote today and thought of both my daughters who are both aspiring writers (thanks to this course):

"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy, then an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then it becomes a tyrant and, in the last stage, just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public."

—Winston Churchill, Grosvenor House, London, November 2, 1949. From Churchill By Himself, edited by Richard Langworth, p. 49.

Favorite Eats: Provence Breads and Cafe

Last week I made my annual jaunt to Nashville which is always a fun trip. My favorite part of visiting Nashville is that it's like visiting New York except on a much smaller (and more manageable scale). Nashville has so many things to offer including an abundance of great places to eat.

One of those places is Provence Breads and Cafe which is one of the best bakeries I've ever visited. I have a great weakness for breads and pastries. This place is a must visit when in the Music City. There are six locations throughout the city (including one at the airport for those passing through). The location I've visited is downtown at the Nashville Public Library at 601 Church Street. It's not everyday that you find a bakery at a library but it's a really cool spot to stop in.

My mission was to go and get a variety of their pastries for breakfast on our day of departure. However, I didn't arrive until around 10:00 and was reminded that it pays to come early (they open at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday through Friday) as the selection was pretty limited by the time I got there. Still, I was able to find plenty of goodies to take with me and we all had a wonderful breakfast before heading home.

The breads are also absolutely fabulous and they have a terrific selection of sandwiches they put together with their artisan breads. Imagine the bread at Panera Bread (one of the few chain restaurants I visit when I travel) only a little better. They also do fresh salads and have plenty of both available for those that need a quick lunch to go.

If you ever get the chance to visit Nashville, make a point to stop by a Provence Breads and Cafe. You won't be disappointed.

Moms and Politics

One of the more interesting trends of late has been the increase in the number of mothers who are involved in politics. Dana Loesch has an excellent post on what motivates mothers to jump into the political fray. It's well worth the time to read.

This post also brought to mind Jamie Radtke who is running for the U. S. Senate here in Virginia. Jamie is a friend of mine and, more importantly, mother of three. I also think she would make a great senator. She told me not long ago that her kids were a big motivator in running for Senate.

Moms have a lot of important things to say. We would be wise to listen to them.

Happy Mother's Day to moms everywhere.

Favorite Eats: Blue Collar Joe's

If it wasn't for Food Network, I would have never discovered Blue Collar Joe's.

While my family and I were hanging out in our hotel in Richmond a couple of weeks ago we stumbled across an episode of Food Network Challenge featuring store owner Daniel Knight. The fact that his store was located in Daleville, Virginia just a couple of hours from our home was really exciting to us. Plus, it's just a stone's thrown down the road from one of my favorite barbecue joints so we had to stop on our way home.

Blue Collar Joe's speciality is its doughnuts (or donuts as they spell it on the menu). But their doughnuts are anything but typical. Featuring flavors such as the Botetourt Bog (a triple chocolate doughnut), Boston Creme Pie, Caramel Apple Pie, and German Chocolate Cake, they are anything but typcial doughnuts. Most of the flavors are cake doughnuts but unlike any I've ever had. I grew up on a steady diet of Krispy Kreme's yeast doughnuts but Blue Collar Joe's doughnuts are the lightest and tastiest cake doughnuts I've ever had.

They also serve wraps and hot dogs during the day and are known for terrific coffee. But the doughnuts are the real draw.

If you're travelling along Interstate 81 through Virginia make it a point to head down U. S. 220 just a couple of miles to the some of the best donuts you'll find anywhere.

End of an Era

As a kid growing up in North Carolina, I fell in love with the University of North Carolina through its football and basketball teams. My father is a Carolina grad (class of '58) and I graduated from Chapel Hill thirty years later. In addition to my father, the one other person that helped nurture my love for Tar Heel blue was Woody Durham.

I grew up at a time when sports was not all over television as it is now. The idea of college sports being televised was still a rather novel idea. Fans connected with their teams through radio announcers much in the same way that baseball fans of years ago connected with their teams. What set these men apart is they didn't just announce the games. They had a unique connection with the teams and often served as the school's lead cheerleader.

Woody Durham just such an announcer. If you mention his name anywhere in North Carolina folks will immediately know who he is even if they don't follow Carolina sports. His voice also was featured in countless commercials across the state. In addition to his radio duties he hosted weekly television shows with the football and basketball coaches.

Fans connected to Woody in such a way that when Carolina games finally started being televised across the region it became tradition to "turn down the sound" on the television and listen to Woody's call of the game on the radio. On a side note, even during my years at Carolina I frequently watched games with friends on TV and the sound was turned down. I also frequently took a radio with me to the football games I attended. It was that important to hear what Woody had to say.

Another sign of Woody's connection to the fans: at games it was common practice at a football game for someone to start a chant of "Wood-y, Wood-y". The crowd would keep cheering until Woody would lean out of the press box and wave to the crowd.

During my last couple of years at Carolina I had the privilege to work with Woody. In 1987, I went to work at WCHL (the flagship station for the Tar Heel Sports Network - a collection of radio stations in North Carolina and along the eastern seaboard that carried the games - a network that existed primarily because of Woody) to help cover the U. S. Olympic Festival to be held that summer in the Triangle area. That job led to a even better position later that fall as a locker room reporter during home basketball games. For the entire season, I was able to sit in the press box with Woody and watch him work. At the time, I was seriously considering becoming a broadcaster because of Woody.
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I will never forget the commitment he had to every broadcast in getting every detail just right even down to the pronunciation of the players names. His recall of facts and figures was simply amazing. Most of all, he carried an enthusiasm for Carolina sports that was unrivaled among other announcers.

But all good things come to an end. After 40 years as "The Voice of the Tar Heels", Woody is calling it a career. He's leaving on his own terms which is just the way it should be. Of course Carolina sports will never be the same.

Thanks for the memories, Woody. It was an honor to know you and to be able to work alongside you even if it was for all too brief a time.

Why We Should Read Austen

My wife and daughters are big Jane Austen fans. We watch just about every adaptation of her novels that comes along (although the 1995 Pride and Prejudice (Restored Edition) is our favorite) and the books are frequently read in our house. I must admit I've acquired an admiration for Austen's works over the years myself.

Mark Mitchell, writing at Front Porch Republic, has a great article on why we need to read Austen and how both ladies and gentlemen can benefit from diving into her novels. For example, here's what he has to say about how Austen can help guys to learn to be gentlemen:

Austen’s gentlemen (I’m thinking especially of Darcy here) understand the call of duty; they are committed to family, reputation, propriety, and self-control. To be sure, Darcy takes himself quite seriously, but aren’t these pursuits serious by nature? To neglect one’s duty, to be careless of one’s family and reputation, to ignore the bounds of propriety and to indulge the appetites without restraint are not the actions of a gentleman. They represent, conversely, the behavior of a boor. Or, perhaps equally fitting, they are the actions of a male who has no sense of what it means to be a man. Such characters may be Guys or Peter Pans but they are not men and surely not gentlemen.

Be sure to read the whole thing.


Hat tip: Joe Carter

Answers to Questions About Homeschooling

Homeschoolers get questioned all the time about why they homeschool and tons of inane questions about homeschooling. Thanks to Deborah Markus at Secular Homeschooling, here is a list of answers to those pesky questions.

Hat tip: Joe Carter