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It practically gallops!

Jinkies, Jenkins!

As more and more viewers of “Dancing with the Stars” jump aboard the Katherine Jenkins bandwagon, I can point to a year-old blog post that I wrote about her singing voice. I have enough credit on my Amazon.com account to buy one of her albums. I’m having a hard time choosing just one. My first reaction is to buy either “One Fine Day” or “Serenade” but I’m going to have to listen to all the 20-second samples that Amazon offers before deciding. So far, I seem to be partial to her covers of songs I recognize, like this version of an old Bryan Adams song:

April 4, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Contributive Justice

The 14th Annual Kids Helping Kids Fun Walk benefiting Columbus Home will be held on Sunday, April 1 at Knoxville Catholic High School. For the third year in a row, I’ve been asked to serve as honorary chair of the event. After we recorded a radio interview to promote it, Fr. Ragan Schriver joked that I could end up becoming the Jerry Lewis of the Fun Walk.

The Walk is more than just a walk. It’s a family festival with t-shirts, games, prizes and food from Domino’s Pizza, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Rita’s Ice. The cost is $15 per person or $30 per family in advance. The prices go up to $20 and $35 on the day of the walk. Participants are encouraged to get pledges to raise extra money. The top fundraiser wins a movie ticket each week for a year from Regal Cinemas.

As Executive Director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, Fr. Ragan oversees Columbus Home and several other ministries. Because he also teaches classes in the University of Tennessee College of Social Work, I asked him to put on his professor hat and comment on the roles of government and charitable organizations in today’s society. You can listen to the half-hour show by clicking on the play button below.

FrankMurphyInterviewsFrRaganSchriver-KidsHelpingKidsFunWalk-03-11-12.mp3 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

March 11, 2012 | Filed Under Catholic | Comments Off 

Talk-tioneer

Frank Murphy at 2012 Catholic Charities of East Tennessee annual dinner; wearing suit from Meridian Formal Wear “Between Ragan and Frank, I’m exhausted!” said Bishop Richard Stika as he opened his remarks last night at the 27th Annual Catholic Charities Dinner. Bishop Stika’s comment followed Fr. Ragan Schriver’s inspirational speech and a live auction, which I conducted again this year.

In his address, Fr. Ragan compared Catholic Charities of East Tennessee to a sports franchise. The owners are the Bishop and the Diocese; the coaches are the members of the board of trustees; the trainers are the local councils; the managers are the staff members; the players are the clients served by the agency; the referee is the Council on Accreditation; the groundskeepers are the priests and sisters of the diocese; and the cheerleaders are “you all.” He talked about picking a name and mascot for the hypothetical team. In typical Fr. Ragan style, there were three options: Braves, because bravery represents the intersection of fear and love; Flutes because they have to empty themselves in order to let  beautiful music flow through them; and Volunteers because of their willingness to get involved.

There were three items up for bids: a basket with $2,000 worth of gift cards; a week at a luxury condo in Hilton Head; and dinner for ten people with celebrity guests Fr. Ragan, Dane Bradshaw, Bruce Pearl and Dr. Jerry Punch. The dinner will be held at Connor’s Steak & Seafood, which is slightly ironic since Fr. Ragan is a vegetarian. The date of the soirée is undetermined but I joked that with Fr. Ragan and Bruce Pearl in attendance, it was certain that the dinner would not take place on Good Friday or Yom Kippur. I asked the potential bidders to imagine themselves talking basketball with Bradshaw and Pearl, NASCAR with Dr. Punch and tennis with Fr. Ragan. Then I asked Fr. Ragan if he could name any NASCAR drivers. He knew there was one named Ragan. Or did he mean one named Regan?

The three auction items brought in almost $7,000 for the cause. I was extremely impressed by the generosity of the donors and the bidders. Even though the prices were out of range for most people, we all have something we can give. Pastors often ask parishioners to donate their time, treasure or talent. While the attendees gave some of their treasure, I gave some of my time and talent. In this instance, my talent happens to be the willingness to stand up in front of everyone and risk failure in the hope of getting laughter and applause.

There is something odd about comedians and other performers who are compelled to overcome the fear of public speaking just so they can feel normal. I think of my condition as a “deficiency of Vitamin Applause.” I need approval like a sailor with scurvy needs oranges. Even though I was completely drained after the auction, it was worth it for the money it raised and for the nice compliments I received.

March 9, 2012 | Filed Under Catholic | 2 Comments 

Consternation

notification of Amazon.com Subscribe & Save cancelation Is there a March Fool’s Day? I hoped for a moment that the notification from Amazon.com was some sort of joke or error. My Bran Buds subscription has been canceled.

About two years ago, I discovered the health benefits of adding a lot more fiber to my diet. Kellogg’s All-Bran Bran Buds are an easy way for me to get psyllium husks without having to drink some gritty mixture. I use the cereal as a salad topping. Sometimes I mix it into yogurt, especially Key Lime flavor. The cereal combined with the yogurt tastes like a slice of Key Lime pie.

My subscription to Bran Buds lasted thirteen months. Each month, I received a carton with four boxes of cereal at a cost much less than the supermarket price. The Walmart price is higher than Amazon but slightly less than Kroger. I should have bought some the other day when I was buying makeup.

March 2, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Base Pay

The Knox County School Coupon Book includes a coupon for a pay-per-view movie from Xfinity. My wife and I plan to redeem the coupon when we get the bill for the movie we watched on Sunday. I feel like we got a bargain because we chose one of the more expensive movies. The HD version of “Moneyball” cost $5.99 to rent.

The movie tells the story of the Oakland A’s as they assemble a team of “misfit toys” at bargain prices. The general manager and his assistant sign players who are good at getting on base but have been overlooked by other teams for various reasons. I had no recollection of whether or not the A’s made it to the playoffs in 2002. As a result, the pennant race in the movie was exciting. The filmmakers also did a great job of building suspense as the A’s attempted to break the record for most consecutive wins during the regular season.

My wife and I like to see as many of the nominated films as we can before the Academy Awards ceremony. Best Picture nominees “The Help” (which we’ve already seen), “The Tree of Life” and “Midnight in Paris” are available on demand. For some of the others, we’ll have to make another trip to Downtown West.

February 1, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

Stream Weaver

Three of the items purchased with an Amazon.com gift certificate that I got for Christmas were Instant Videos. Two were movies that were on my wish list for a long time: “Shaun of the Dead” and “Stormy Weather.” The third was a black-and-white episode of “The French Chef” in which Julia Child cooked lobster.

The hassle of connecting a laptop to my television in order to watch “Sherlock Holmes” inspired me to click another link on Amazon. Set-top boxes and certain newer model televisions can be connected to the Internet and can play Amazon videos. The Sony SMP-N100 is currently on sale for less than $50 online and at several retailers.

I had $20 in cash and a $30 gift card to a big box store, which I decided to spend on the streaming video box while Frank Jr. is still home and available to help me hook it up. The only disappointment was that the store would not let me use their coupon in the Knox County School Coupon Book because the item I wanted was on sale. I will probably never use the coupon, because I can’t think of one thing I would buy there that wasn’t on sale.

In addition to Amazon Instant Videos, the SMP-N100 has pre-programmed links for podcasts from NPR and other sources, free videos from Crackle and YouTube and many more that I haven’t tried yet.

It was relatively easy to use the device to log-in to my Amazon and YouTube accounts. I showed Frank Jr. a couple of funny Einstein Simplified videos, including my current favorite in which Dave Fennell is trying to get Aaron Littleton to guess “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

December 31, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments 

Bread and Butter

loaf of homemade bread in a cardboard box by Paula Deen One of my wife’s co-workers gave loaves of homemade bread to the rest of the staff for Christmas. Instead of being wrapped in cellophane or a Ziploc bag, the bread was in a cardboard box that fit it perfectly. The front of the box said, “Let’s eat y’all.”

Fans of Paula Deen will immediately recognize the saying as one of her catchphrases. I didn’t realize that Paula had expanded her product line into so many different items. The perfect fit of the bread in the box made me think that Paula must also sell the pan that baked the loaf.

According to Paula’s website, the loaf boxes are a discontinued item, which is just as well. At $12.95 for a set of four, they were horribly overpriced.

December 21, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments 

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