Ignoring Global Warming Won't Make It Go Away...

Unless it's not real.


Thanks to Dad for the article link.

Castro Enters The Bottom Of The Ninth...

The big news yesterday was that Cuban president Fidel Castro has apparently decided to call it quits and hand the Cuban government over to his kid brother Raul (incidentally, the kid is 76).

This is not really a huge surprise, as it is commonly believed that Raul has increasingly been running things ever since Fidel suffered a stroke back in 2006.

The elder Castro has led an eventful life over the last 50 years or so, from executing enemies with Che Guevara, to giving big hugs to Nikita Khrushchev, to watching his economy reel under a U.S. trade embargo, but my favorite story about ol' Fidel revolves around baseball.

The story goes that Castro was a promising left-handed pitcher who earned a tryout with the Washington Senators back in the 1940s, but didn't quite make the cut and decided to try his hand at ruthless dictatorship instead.

Unfortunately, as Snopes points out (and rather condescendingly, I might add), this whole story is bogus. Castro has been a supporter of baseball throughout his presidency and actually played for a mock-up team called the Barbudos, or "Bearded Ones" back in the 1950s (pictured above), but like so many of us, was never talented enough to seriously consider playing professionally.

Oh well. I guess it's a little too much to expect a guy to be good at leading an insurrection, killing anyone who stands in his way, opposing a world superpower, stagnating a once thriving economy, and being a generally oppressive Communist dictator, and to have a Major League-caliber fastball.

All I know is that if you were playing against the Barbudos and El Presidente was on the mound, it was probably wise to make sure that you struck out at least once.

Time For An Update?

I found this nifty little pamphlet in the literature rack in our church foyer, and thought it was worth scanning and sharing with you.

A couple of thoughts/reactions:

• I actually got a pretty good scan of this (i.e., the original looks just like this), which leads me to wonder why it was printed in blue. For one thing, the guy is blue, and for another thing, his blue hair really blends in with the blue background.
• From the looks of him, there's no doubt in my mind that the young man pictured on the cover closely follows all of the rules explained inside. And never leaves the house unless he's in a suit.
• Are there still some of these left over from when they were originally printed (which must have been prior to 1960), or have they just never been re-designed?
  
• Is there any design that could have been used which would make Bible study seem less interesting than this one does? I'm thinking no.
  

Despite any impression I may have given, I'm sure this pamphlet contains some good information. I'm just thinking that maybe it's time for a reprint, you know?

Office Oddities: Stephen

As part of my job, I spend quite a bit of time with teens (teaching classes, doing service projects, devotionals, fun activities, etc.), but I usually spend the bulk of my time during the week at the church office, doing office-type things.

Any time you work at an office (or really anywhere), you become aware of certain peculiarities and goings-on that are probably particular to your specific workplace.

My situation is no different, and it occurred to me the other day that there were a few interesting characters that I encounter on at least a semi-regular basis who I would like to introduce you to. When I do this, I’ll generally avoid using names to keep it anonymous, but since I'm talking about a 2-year old today, I’m not too worried about him being embarrassed.

Stephen is the youngest son of the church secretary, and he comes to work with her most of the time. Stephen is probably the best-natured little kid I’ve ever been around, and if he’s not smiling, you can usually get him to do so within about 12 seconds.

One of my favorite things to do with Stephen is to cheerfully ask him if he wants to take a nap. He always cheerfully replies “No!” and then tends to get riled up (as I said, it’s one of my favorite things to do, but it isn’t really one of his mother’s favorite things for me to do).

So I like Stephen a lot, but working around a 2-year old has its downside. I share an office with the church secretary, which means Stephen is generally in close proximity to my desk, and it’s not uncommon for me to come in and find my pens on the floor (missing lids), papers on my desk wrinkled or torn, and chocolate smeared all over my chair.

Yesterday, little Stephen managed to get his hands on a crayon, and proceeded to decorate the walls in the church foyer. He looked very contrite afterwards, and fortunately, we were able to get the crayon off with WD-40, so it wasn’t so bad.

Maybe my favorite memory of Stephen though was one day when he was throwing a fit, and to get his mother’s attention, he wrote all over his face with a brown marker. He looked pretty hilarious, so I took a picture of him with my phone and then printed it out and put it on my desk. After that, when he would act up and start fake crying, I would show him the picture of himself with marker all over his face and he would kinda act embarrassed and clam up.

I was pretty pleased with that method, but then one morning, I came into the office and found that Stephen had gotten a hold of the picture of himself and wadded it up. I guess he didn’t find it quite as amusing as I did.