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It practically gallops!

But Moses Invests

unusual minivan in St. Louis parking lot One of my favorite church sign sayings is “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I assume that the owner of a decorated minivan in St. Louis wants the answer to be yes.

unusual minivan in St. Louis parking lot From a distance, it wasn’t clear why one car in the Walmart parking lot stood out from the others. Upon closer inspection, my family and I could see that it had been painted with religious messages, the largest of which was “Jesus Saves!” The license plate referenced Yahshua, another name for Jesus.

As I photographed the van, a police car pulled up behind us. For a second, we thought that the officer was going to tell us to stop. However, she just wanted to get a closer look at the van too.

January 20, 2012 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments 

Greek to Me

In past years, talk-show hosts like Bill O’Reilly have drawn attention to the war on Christmas. John Gibson wrote a book with that title. The term refers to people replacing “merry Christmas” with the politically-correct greeting “happy holidays.”

Chi Rho created by Frank Jr. using Microsoft Paint Instead of the war on Christmas, “Overnight America” host Jon Grayson is fighting against the “war on Xmas.” Many people mistakenly believe that the X in Xmas is an atheist trick to remove Christ from Christmas. On Thursday morning’s show, Jon said his grade school teacher explained that the X was a “crisscross” that represented the crucifixion. I had been taught that X was actually the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of Christ. Chi Rho, the first two letters of Christ, are the components of a well-known Christian symbol. “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison” (Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy) is one of very few Greek prayers in the Latin Mass.

James Newport, the Gatlinburg Improv Fest organizer, posted on Facebook that his 7-year-old daughter spelled Christmas “x minus m-a-s.” His wife Krisha commented, “I’m sure she’ll be messing with ‘E-str’ soon too!”

December 16, 2011 | Filed Under Catholic | Comments Off 

Valley of Bones

The forensic memorial service that I attended Monday was on the news last night. Dr. Bill Bass said it was only the third time the ceremony had been recorded on video and the first time by an American television station. The footage was on WTNZ at 10:00 p.m. and on WBIR at 11:00 p.m.

During the memorial, UT Medical Center Chaplain George Doebler read a Bible passage from the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 37. The scripture is about a vision of dry bones covering the landscape. The song “Dem Bones” is based on the same chapter.

The 11:00 broadcast also included a live interview with Dr. Bass. My favorite part was the video from 1981 that they showed while he spoke.

November 23, 2011 | Filed Under Body Farm | Comments Off 

Hearts and Souls

Two words on the Twitter feed for the Catholic website New Advent stood out: cadavers and Catholic. The link took me to an article that shared a topic with the book I’m currently reading.

The article in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune was titled “Gross Anatomy at Catholic School Teaches Sacred, Profane.” The reporter witnessed a blessing of 18 cadavers by a priest at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago. The article tells the story of the late Salvation Army Maj. Randall Sjogren, whose body was probably under one of the sheets. It’s unusual that his widow addressed the students. The article even has another Paul Harvey-like twist at the end.

“Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” had been on my Amazon Wish List for years. I bought the e-book version last month after receiving a Kindle for my birthday. I read a few pages each day as I start my nap and again when I go to bed for the night. The first chapter of the book describes dissections at the UCSF School of Medicine and goes on to teach the history of anatomical research.

Here in Knoxville, they have a prayer service every year for the humans whose remains are in the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection at the University of Tennessee. The bones are collected at the Body Farm and stored in office space inside Neyland Stadium, as referenced in the movie “The Blind Side.” The skeletons will soon move to a new building. The Dr. William M. Bass Forensic Anthropology Center is scheduled to open at the end of this month.

September 3, 2011 | Filed Under Body Farm, Catholic | Comments Off 

Ch’i and Crackers

The Dalai Lama visited Washington DC for ten days last month. He conducted prayer rituals at the Verizon Center, where my sister’s husband works.

On one of the days, the Dalai Lama announced that the crowd was free to leave, unless they wanted to come closer to the stage as he blessed some food in a tsog ceremony. Instead of traditional Tibetan bread, they used cases of snack foods from Costco, which were stacked on a table in front of the stage. They said it was a “concession to modern times.” My sister’s husband, who needed to know when his staff could go home, asked in all sincerity, “how long does it take to bless the Cheez-Its?”

Toastchee that was blessed by the Dalai Lama during Tsog ceremony in Washington, DC The pile also included Oreos and peanut-butter crackers called Toastchee. My sister’s husband got some of the leftovers and gave me two packs. He gave the rest of the crackers to his kids’ swim team. They did especially well that day.

August 16, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Candygram

A veterinarian named Kaihla Dailey has expressed an interest in joining Einstein Simplified. We chatted after one of our weekly shows at Side Splitters. She told me that she had some previous improv experience with a troupe in Ventura, California and had earned her veterinary degree at the University of Tennessee.

I asked if she knew Dr. Jim Brace, a friend of mine from church. He’s a professor and associate dean at UTCVM. Kaihla said everyone knows and loves Dr. Brace. She said he’s like the Dumbledore of the school. One time when Kaihla’s car broke down, Dr. Brace drove to Karns and gave her a ride so she wouldn’t miss class.

On Friday night, Einstein Simplified performed at a relatively new venue in Rockford, Tennessee. The Riverside Business and Event Center used to be a Baptist church and it still looks like one. When the congregation outgrew the facility, they built a bigger church nearby. The old church now plays host to family-friendly concerts and comedy shows. In fact, marketing director Caryn Geren is looking for stand-up comedians who can get laughs during shows billed as “Clean as a Whistle.” Einstein Simplified agreed to do PG-rated shows there on the second Friday of the month. I missed the July show due to my vacation. The next show is September 9th.

Frank Lifts Kaihla during Einstein Simplified performance in Rockford, TN - photo by Randy Thompson The group invited Kaihla to perform with us on Friday. Her mom drove in from North Carolina as a surprise. She didn’t realize it until her mom stepped forward as an audience volunteer for a game of “Animatronics.” Kaihla and I did a few scenes together including a game called “Rewind.” We acted out a basic scene (hunting for a land shark) and then had to redo it in different styles. In the first round, I offered to give Kaihla a boost over an imaginary wall. By the time we did it a third time (as Frankenstein’s monsters) and a fourth time (as The Golden Girls), I was basically throwing her over the wall around Chevy Chase’s home.

August 14, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Arts & Splash

Bele Chere - Frank with the Whiteman, Ralph Longshore One of the first things to catch my attention at the Bele Chere Festival in Asheville was a human statue who came to life to play his guitar and sing. The WhiteMan, Ralph Longshore, saw the camera and microphone from Smoky Mountain Morning and stepped off his pedestal to chat with me. I thought he wisely chose to wear white on such a hot day, as opposed to the people I saw two blocks away who were painted gold.

Bele Chere - Frank with artwork by H.C. Warner Artist H.C. Warner said he saw an antique radio along the side of the road where someone had put it out with the trash. He made a U-turn and went back to retrieve it. It became the centerpiece of one of his works of art that were on display in the Arts Park at Bele Chere. He had a similar piece that used an old wooden wall phone. He said critics described his work as “low-brow.” I guess I have low-brow taste in art because his stuff appealed to me. His prices were fairly high-brow however.

Bele Chere - Ultimate Air Dogs - Milt Wilcox in action Bele Chere - Ultimate Air Dogs - starting point on the dock ramp Bele Chere - Ultimate Air Dogs - Trout in mid-air Former major league pitcher Milt Wilcox has a new passion: dock jumping. Milt stays put. His dogs do the jumping. He runs a business called Ultimate Air Dogs and travels the country putting on shows at festivals and other big events. Dog owners urge their pets to run down the dock ramp. They throw a toy at just the right moment to get their dog to leap into the air. The longest leap wins. In some higher levels of competition, the dog also has to catch the toy in the air. A Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Trout was a crowd pleaser with his impressive distance and big splashes.

The street preachers who used microphones and placards to condemn “drunkards and fornicators” seemed to only encourage dissent. I saw two women holding hands as they passed the preachers. Another man loudly played the vuvuzela toward the man who was speaking.

July 31, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

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