Give thanks

The children's story that was read in church on Sunday has given me some extra reasons to give thanks on the coming national holiday. The story was a reading of a children's book entitled The Story of Thanksgiving, and it included a description of Squanto showing the pilgrims how to plant corn.

It is easy to hear that story without noticing its significance. Corn seems so familiar to me. From my childhood, the family garden always included a section for a few short rows of corn. When I was in high school, picking fresh sweet corn from our field and selling it in front of our house was a regular summer activity. It is hard for me to imagine my life without corn.

And yet that short story on Sunday reminded me of a very important fact: that there was a time when my maternal ancestors who came over on the Mayflower did not know how to grow corn. There certainly is much more that could and should be told about the first colonial Thanksgivings, but the story I heard on Sunday reminded me about the whole history of corn, without which a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant such as myself would not have experienced corn.

I am thankful to God for many things this Thanksgiving: for my daily bread, and for people of other cultures who over thousands of years developed the foods that enrich my life.

File under : Thanksgiving, food, history

Remove or block

One of the hazards of having a Facebook page is the accumulation of excessive applications. If a friend invites you to play a particular game or participate in an online activity with them, you need to install the application for that game or activity, most of the time giving the application access to your information. In many cases, the only way one can find out what the application is about is to install it and try it.

Lately I have been inundated by notifications from applications I tried once without finding them interesting. And so the adventure of uninstalling Facebook applications begins ...

I find my way to Facebook's Applications page where there is a list of the applications I have installed. Next to each of the applications there is a row of icons indicating whether I have bookmarked the application, whether I have added it to my profile, whether I have authorized it to access my data, whether I have given it permission to post stories on my wall, and whether I have given it other kinds of permission.

Then there are the buttons to edit the application's status, to read an "about" page for the application, or to remove the application. "Remove" looks really good.

But when I click it I get a window with a message like the following:



The user must make a choice, and none of the choices is "Remove AND Block."

I don't know how many times I have scratched my head over this conundrum. I have ended up going with "Remove" because it feels more protective of my privacy, and my general practice has been not to have applications I am trying out show up on my profile page anyhow. I think that all the applications I have "removed" have also disappeared from my bookmarks and application page, but nowhere on this explanatory window is there a promise that "removing" access will actually include "blocking" as well.

If anybody on Facebook has any better solutions, please let me know.

File under : internet

It's just a jump to the left and then a step to the right

At the beginning of this month I really enjoyed being able to see the Stage Right production of The Rocky Horror Show. (Just to be clear, this was not a screening of the 1975 film, but a live stage production of the musical.)

I had never been to any live show of this musical, but had seen a video of the movie once. I knew it had a number of great songs but I was not prepared for how much fun the live show would be. There are simply some things that won't happen when watching a video, like being invited to get on my feet with a crowd to dance "The Time Warp", or having to cover my head with newspaper as shelter from the rain, or almost being hit in the face by a roll of toilet paper, being pelted by rice, or hearing live singers make their songs work in spite of technical problems with the sound system.

It was a great production and I am glad I went. (And for those who are curious, I did not try to go as Brad. I simply went as myself.)

File under : drama, music

Tarentum streetscape

I hope I always remember the things I see when I look up as I walk on streets in Tarentum. There are such contrasts: interesting architectural features, bare brick and painted brick, and autumn leaves as brilliant as the yellow traffic hazard signs.

File under : Tarentum, picture

The window quiz

There is a worship and the arts group at The United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington. Last week they introduced their new art installation of displays in each of the eight windows in the sanctuary. The overall title of the project is "Give Thanks for Our Legacy of Faith."

The last Sunday bulletin invited the church members to match the themes with the windows. The themes are:

A. Three Churches Become One
B. Missionary Women
C. Youth Learning and Doing
D. African Connections
E. Children in our Midst
F. Emerging Ministries
G. Celebrate the Saints
H. A Future Legacy

Here are the eight window displays going clockwise from the front of the sanctuary.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Can you match them all up?

Drag your mouse on the next line to see my educated guesses.

Possibly the right matches: A-5; B-4; C-3; D-2; E-6; F-7; G-8; H-1

File under : New Kensington, United Presbyterian Church, art, worship

The election at last

I just got back from voting today, and was impressed by the turnout.

I am still getting used to the practice in Pennsylvania of allowing people campaigning for their candidates to work so close to the polling places. When I lived in New York and Connecticut there was always a much larger zone that was off-limits to this activity. But when I go to vote here I feel like I am running the gauntlet of campaigners all the way up the sidewalk, even to the door of City Hall.

As I look back on the last month, I don't know how many times I heard people lament that the election was not over yet. This sense of weariness with the election leaves me concerned that our two-party system (a legalized duopoly here in Pennsylvania) is failing to present the electorate with a choice of candidates who actually energize the public to participate in our democratic systems. I hope that the turnout I saw today is evidence that the choices offered really did motivate people to get out and vote.

File under : Lower Burrell, politics