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Foster the People
Jilly’s Cupcake Bar in St. Louis was packed on Sunday morning. They serve a full brunch buffet with a menu that appealed to me. I decided to go the moment I saw the words “Bananas Foster Baked French Toast” on their website. The staff said I should have made reservations. In reality, the wait was much shorter than at any Knoxville restaurant on a Friday night.
During the wait, I had just enough time to share a Space Monkey cupcake with my son and to chat with the cashier. She offered us some banana cupcake biscotti, which were shaped like doughnut holes. While we sampled it, she told us about the time she saw Howard Stern nearby. I assume he was at the Indian restaurant next-door. She gave him a cupcake.
After brunch, I had my picture made with Casey Shiller. I rooted for him on “Cupcake Wars” because of his enthusiasm for the space program. He told me that he was inspired by the space capsule he saw at the St. Louis Science Center on field trips as a kid and that he recently visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in D.C. His excitement hasn’t waned.
Zut Alors!
When Jillly’s Cupcake Bar appeared on “Cupcake Wars,” I immediately made plans to go there the next time I would be in St. Louis. While waiting for a table at their Sunday brunch the other day, I tasted a Space Monkey cupcake, one of the ones chef Casey Shiller made on the show.
Towards the Roar
Fr. Michael Woods was a little disappointed that I was going to miss yesterday’s second annual outdoor Mass at All Saints Catholic Church. I was there last year and served as a lector. “All Saints Coming Together” pushes some people out of their comfort zone. My wife and I know of several fellow parishioners who refused to attend and made plans to visit a neighboring parish. All Saints has five Masses per weekend, each with its own regular congregation. Fr. Michael’s intention is to unite the groups via one large celebration that is too big for the church building to hold. Popular Catholic blogger Frank Weathers attended and wrote a nice piece about it. WBIR covered it again this year, focusing on the new bilingual angle now that All Saints has added a Spanish-language Mass on Saturday nights.
Last year and this year, the outdoor Mass fell on the same weekend that my son returned to college. Last year my wife took him back to school and missed the outdoor Mass. This year we did the opposite. The trip put me in St. Louis on Saturday evening, so I made plans to attend a vigil Mass. Over the years I’ve done some church tourism throughout St. Louis. My family and I have attended Mass at the Cathedral Basilica, an African-American parish and Bishop Stika’s former parish among others. I often try to seek out a Mass celebrated by Fr. Gary Braun, who was a mentor to my friend Fr. Ragan Schriver. I also listen to many of his homilies online. He’s been to Knoxville a couple of times. He was here for Bishop Stika’s ordination and he was here to speak at a retreat for the priests of the diocese. As a result, he knows Fr. Michael Woods.
During his homily on Saturday night, Fr. Gary quoted from a piece written by Michael Meade. The theme of Meade’s article was “run towards the roar.”
This old teaching story comes from the great African savannahs where life pours forth in the form of teeming, feeding herds. As the herds eat their way across the plains, lions wait in the tall grass nearby, anticipating the chance to prey upon the grazing animals. In preparation, they send the oldest and weakest members of the pride away from the rest of the hunting pack. Having lost much of their strength and most of their teeth, the roar of the old ones is far greater than their ability to bite.
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The old lions go off and settle in the grass directly across from where the strong and hungry lions wait and watch. As the herd enters the area between the hunting pack and the old lions, the old ones roar mightily. At the sound of the roaring, most of the herd panics. Blinded by fear, they turn and flee from the seeming source of danger. As they rush wildly in the opposite direction, they run right to where the strongest lions wait in the tall grass for dinner to arrive.
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“Run towards the roar,” the old people used to tell the young ones. When faced with great danger in this world, run towards the roaring, go where you fear to go, for only there will you find some safety and a way through danger. Trouble that is faced when it first appears can be the roar that awakens a person’s deepest resources. In times of trouble or tragedy, a person either steps into life more fully or else slips into a diminished life characterized by fear and anxiety.
After Mass, I told Fr. Gary about the outdoor Mass at All Saints and asked for his prayers. He sent his regards, which I relayed via the following text message to Fr. Michael: “Fr. Gary Braun sends prayers for tomorrow’s outdoor Mass. He said to tell you something from his homily: ‘run towards the roar!’ I will explain soon.”
My wife called me as soon as the outdoor Mass was over. She was exited to tell me about Fr. Michael’s homily. In it, he read the text I had sent and said that the first thing he did Sunday morning was Google “run towards the roar.” He built his own sermon around Meade’s article. Last night, one of my Facebook friends posted that “run towards the roar” was her new mantra and several friends “liked it.” Thanks to the Internet, they can now watch Fr. Gary’s homily to see how it compares to Fr. Michael’s.
No Licking of the Spoon
Some of the segments I’ve done for Smoky Mountain Morning are starting to turn up on YouTube. The first story I did was a walking tour of World’s Fair Park. Later that same day, I visited Forensic Chemistry Camp, which obviously is a favorite topic of mine.
Boomington, Minnesota
The World’s Largest Prairie Chicken could have improved our trip through Minnesota. Last month, my wife and I visited the last four states on my quest for all fifty. Because we were going to be in the neighborhood, relatively speaking, we added stops in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I had visited those two states but my wife had not. Both turned out to be a bust.
My wife read about a restaurant in La Crosse that was designed to look like the betting parlor in “The Sting.” However it was closed on Sundays and holidays, which meant bad news for us over the Fourth of July weekend. After a long day of driving, we elected to skip the town’s Riverfest, even though two-hit-wonders the Spin Doctors were playing. I figured that the $7 per person admission fee could be better spent on buffalo burgers or loose-meat sandwiches in the days ahead.
Because we love the movie “Fargo,” we originally planned to drive through Brainerd, Minnesota. We scrapped those plans and chose a more direct route to Fargo, North Dakota. Along the way we stopped in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Some quick research revealed that they had a giant river otter statue. Unfortunately neither the customers nor the employees at Walgreen’s could give us usable directions to find it. We drove around the wrong city park several times, only getting frustrated. Things immediately got better once we reached North Dakota, thanks to the staff at the Fargo-Moorhead visitor center.
Two days ago, my friend Bean shared a photo on Twitter that he had received from one of his followers. It showed the World’s Largest Prairie Chicken. I Googled the bird to learn more about it. Imagine my disappointment when I learned that it is just off I-94 in Rothsay, which is about halfway between Fergus Falls and Fargo.
Earl of Sandwich Cookies
The experience of eating a Triple Double Oreo was surprisingly familiar. I dunked it in milk and took a bite. It reminded me of the way I used to eat regular Oreos; two at a time.
According to the nutrition information on the back of the Triple Double package, the serving size is a single cookie. That’s because each Triple Double has 100 calories, which means it would take me at least 12 minutes of moderate swimming to burn off. It was worth it.
Being Felt
“The Green Album,” a new collection of Muppets tunes, gave me a sense of déjà vu. The disc contains 12 songs covered by modern artists such as OK Go, Amy Lee and My Morning Jacket. When I worked at KROQ, I remember getting an album of Saturday morning cartoon songs and an album of Carpenters songs covered by various alternative artists.
They’re pushing OK Go’s version of “The Muppet Show Themesong” with a video that was released on YouTube on Tuesday. I wanted to like it but it sounded too forced. The tracks I liked best illustrated the two choices available to artists on tribute albums. They can cover the song in their own style, “making it their own,” as Weezer & Hayley Williams did with “Rainbow Connection.” Or they could do a faithful rendition of the original, as The Fray did with “Mahna Mahna.” I would have enjoyed hearing the lyrics to “Mahna Mahna” done more Fray-like. If you didn’t tell someone that the track was by The Fray, they would never guess it.
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