Sometimes One Pacifier is Just Not Enough

We've been trying to break Amado of his soother habit, but it only seems to be getting worse.

Salvador de Bahia

I once had an opportunity to travel to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil with a group of friends. I had to decline because I didn't have the vacation time. Bad mistake.


Picture by Paolo Sammecheli, more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xdatap1/240355542/

Out in the Desert

My Mom has a great story on her blog about her and Irene's recent trip to the Mojave Desert. Check it out here. I loved their photo of the desert shack and hope they don't mind if I borrowed it for a new title banner! (Thanks Mom!)

Good Morning Toronto XXII

Nowadays, when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you see is a massive tower of smoke rising from downtown you can only think one thing. "Thankfully" it was only a six-alarm fire. Lots of stunning pics here.

Weekend Update

1. Gun Moll: In 1972, after watching the movie, Bonnie and Clyde (above, the real deal), I raced around the streets on my bicycle for a couple of weeks wearing a beret and a scarf tied around my neck playing cops and robbers. Of course, I imagined I was Bonnie. I don't know where that came from, though it was hard to miss the fact that she had a killer instinct for fashion.

2. Family Day: As a reward for voting him into a second term as Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty gave the people of Ontario a new holiday, Family Day, which was celebrated today for the first time. There was widespread confusion in Ontario about what we were supposed to do on Family Day, but as for my family, we celebrated quietly, exchanging family heirlooms and enjoying a family dinner while sitting beneath the family tree.

3. Weather Update: We're having a great winter this year, with tons of snow and some bitter cold temperatures. As a native Californian, I still find the Canadian winter exotic and totally exciting. Of course I live in an apartment and don't have to set my alarm clock to dig my car out in the morning. I also live very close to my office and don't have to spend a couple extra hours commuting on snow days. However, I do spend an extra half-hour getting our two-year-old dressed every day, including snowpants, snowboots, scarfs, mittens, hats, etc. You don't have to do that in LA, now do you.

4. Spring is Coming.... And I've got two field-level tickets to the Blue Jays opening home game vs. the Red Sox on April 4. Oh yeah.

5. Oscars: We watched Juno the other night on DVD (I know it's not out yet, but we have our sources). It's a really, really sweet movie and I loved it. But I can't see it winning picture of the year, though of course I don't keep up with the movies so I have no idea what it's up against.

6. Beans: I may have had one too many double tall lattes at Starbucks this afternoon.

Opera Warm-Up Routine part 2

Amado likes this, so I'm posting it to the blog. Now we can watch it over and over and over....

WonderCafe: The Series - Webisode 3 - Homeless

Speaking of homelessness...we have an new WonderCafe webisode out on that very topic.

This webisode asks the question that's always on the top of everyone's mind: "Why aren't the homeless more professional?" Ok...maybe not everyone's mind -- but it sure makes for good conversation! Join in at www.wondercafe.ca

Homeless in Toronto

A homeless person sleeps on a grate in Toronto's theatre district. This picture is from two weeks ago when there was a lot less snow than there is now. There's an interesting discussion over on WonderCafe about what this image says about Canadian society.

Get Out of my *^%$! Bathroom!

Don Amado is in the bath.

Geez

I think I'm just looking for an excuse to post this great photo on my blog. It's from the site of Geez, a magazine I have been reading and recommend. Their blurb is almost as good as the photo:

Holy Mischief in an Age of Fast Faith
Geez magazine has set up camp in the outback of the spiritual commons. A bustling spot for the over-churched, out-churched, un-churched and maybe even the un-churchable. For wannabe contemplatives, front-line world-changers and restless cranks.

Gardenias

I'm doing a story on the flora in my life and I searched the Internet high and low the other day trying to figure out what kind of flower my paternal grandmother had growing in her yard in East LA. I think they may have been exquisite gardenias, such as the one above. Also in her yard, I remember a tidy Missouri Synod Lutheran collection of roses, purple irises, and Bird of Paradise flowers.

I'm contrasting this with exploding cacophony of flora my maternal grandmother had in her quarter-acre suburban El Monte plot. She had mints and cati, poinsettias and poppies, along with a billion other exotic plants. But the most amazing thing about her garden were the fruit trees, from kumquats to apricots to oranges, limes, pomegranates, and walnuts. For a child, it was a wonderland, rivaling the mystical gardens of Babylon. But best of all, you could eat your way through it too.

In the Toronto winter, there is nothing I miss more.

Dispatch from a Civil War

Anyone who doesn't think Hillary Clinton is in deep trouble in her primary fight with Barak Obama just needs to read Frank Rich's column, "Next Up for the Democrats: Civil War."

Among many troubling points for the Clinton campaign is this:

Clinton paid a small fortune for an hour of time on the Hallmark Channel plus satellite TV hookups for the assemblies of supporters stretching from coast to coast. The same news media that constantly revisited [Obama's] Oprah-Caroline-Maria rally in California ignored “Voices Across America: A National Town Hall.” The Clinton campaign would no doubt attribute this to press bias, but it scrupulously designed the event to avoid making news.

Meanwhile, the “Yes We Can” Obama video fronted by the hip-hop vocalist will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas had been averaging roughly a million YouTube views a day. (Cost to the Obama campaign: zero.)

And, even worse, this:

Last month a Hispanic pollster employed by the Clinton campaign pitted the two groups against each other by telling The New Yorker that Hispanic voters have “not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.” Mrs. Clinton then seconded the motion by telling Tim Russert in a debate that her pollster was “making a historical statement.”

It wasn’t an accurate statement, historical or otherwise. It was a lie, and a bigoted lie at that, given that it branded Hispanics, a group as heterogeneous as any other, as monolithic racists. As the columnist Gregory Rodriguez pointed out in The Los Angeles Times, all three black members of Congress in that city won in heavily Latino districts; black mayors as various as David Dinkins in New York in the 1980s and Ron Kirk in Dallas in the 1990s received more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote. The real point of the Clinton campaign’s decision to sow misinformation and racial division, Mr. Rodriguez concluded, was to “undermine one of Obama’s central selling points, that he can build bridges and unite Americans of all types.”

It all makes for great political theater. But obviously this battle of titans is not good for the Democratic party. It could all lead to John McCain becoming the next president, just like Business Week predicted back in December (and they were probably the only ones in the world making this guess, which was quite an absurb statement at that point).

From Tourists to Pilgrims

The other night I had a dream that Joni Mitchell had died and I was watching as her fans started sidewalk memorials to her in front of all the places in Toronto where she got her start as a young folk singer in the 60s. "It's true," one fan sobbed, "she's gone." Then I heard Joni's voice, as if coming from everywhere: "You're acting like a bunch of tourists, man," she said. "When are you going to become pilgrims?"

(No doubt inspired by her famous scolding of unruley and unenlightened fans at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. Here is a written description, and here is the scene on YouTube.)

(Or maybe there's a connection to this.)

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Spiritual Leader, Dies

Deepak Chopra about the Maharishi:

His capacity to explain Vedanta was unrivaled, and if he accomplished nothing else in his long life, his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita insures his lasting name, because with acute analysis he cuts through to the heart of every verse. Imagine that someone arose in the West who definitively settled all the disputes over the New Testament and went on to exemplify the nature of Jesus. Then you might get some idea of Maharishi's impact as a guru.

Good Morning Toronto XXI

Lots and lots of new snow this morning. The whole place is socked in. You'll have it click to enlarge this pamorama, though it really doesn't show what it's like on ground level, which is DEEP. I had to pick Amado up from daycare yesterday in a sled! He loved it!

Bob Marley

I know the word "prophet" has been overused--mostly misused actually. But I wouldn't hesitate to apply it to this man. Bob Marley wasn't necessarily any more holy than the rest of us, but his words, music, and positive vibration has helped to wake up millions of people and called us to live life in a better, more loving way. That's a prophet in my book. Happy birthday Bob Marley.

In the Wake of Super Tuesday

What happened in a nutshell, from my favourite (supposed) traditional, nonreligious conservative, Andrew Sullivan:

The Biggest News: I'd say it's Huckabee's astonishing resilience, with so few dollars and so little organization. The Bush-Rove party is a disproportionately religious organization and the pastor cannot be denied. The GOP's natural ticket is obviously McCain-Huckabee. It makes a lot of sense for the logic of today's religiously-based, war-motivated Republicanism. It's also a huge reminder that the so-called leaders of the conservative movement - Limbaugh, Hewitt, Dobson, Levin, et al - are very scantily clad emperors. Their bluff has been called. And it couldn't happen to a nicer crowd.

On the Democratic side, the bottom line is that this is now a dead heat. Given Clinton's massive lead only a couple of weeks ago, that's a huge Obama gain. Clinton has the edge among super-delegates (as of now). Obama has the edge in money - a real edge, and it's building. It's still all to play for.

Super Tuesday

I think I'm looking forward to Super Tuesday more than I was Super Sunday.

Giant Upset

Sometimes I still get surprised by a sporting event. Above, seldom used back-up David Tyree makes an amazing, game-saving, unbelievable, earth-shattering, championship-winning catch. Eli's throw wasn't half-bad either. I mean for a Manning.

"I am a man that really has to capitalize on his few opportunities," Tyree said. "Some things just don't make sense and I guess you can just put that catch there with them."

Um, Where You Going, Dude 2

More Groundhog Day pics here.

Um, Where You Going, Dude?

Soap

Sometimes I wake up thinking about such things...

How Soap Works

Soaps are useful for cleaning because soap molecules attach readily to both nonpolar molecules (such as grease or oil) and polar molecules (such as water). Although grease will normally adhere to skin or clothing, the soap molecules can attach to it as a "handle" and make it easier to rinse away. Applied to a soiled surface, soapy water effectively holds particles in suspension so the whole of it can be rinsed off with clean water. The hydrocarbon ("fatty") portion dissolves dirt and oils, while the ionic end makes it soluble in water. Therefore, it allows water to remove normally-insoluble matter by emulsification.

The History of Soap
The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon.[1] A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.

True soaps made from vegetable oils (such as olive oil), aromatic oils (such as thyme oil) and Lye (al-Soda al-Kawia) were first produced by Muslim chemists in the medieval Islamic world.[3] The formula for soap used since then hasn't changed. From the beginning of the 7th century, soap was produced in Nablus (West Bank, Palestine), Kufa (Iraq) and Basra (Iraq). Soaps, as we know them today, are descendants of historical Arabian Soaps.

From "Soap" in Wikipedia.

Good Morning Toronto XX

More snow yesterday...lots of it!

AmadoFest 2008

We took cupcakes in to Amado's daycare yesterday so all the kids could celebrate his birthday. Chocolate. As you can see.

Happy 2nd Birthday Amado!

Click to make big... He's more amazing every day!

Pre-Birthday Haircut

Yesterday we took Amado to get his haircut for his 2nd birthday, which is today. We went to a cool kid's place called MelonHead's. And although I can't say Amado had a great time (above, he's just getting his bearings back after a titanic struggle against scissors and comb), it was pretty fun for us. The jury is still out on the actual haircut though. The teachers at daycare all said he looks like such the little man now. But we're not ready for him to be the little man yet. He's still such our little boy.

New Sesame Street intro

Amado's favourite YouTube video!

Stevie Wonder - Superstition live on Sesame Street

Too much!

Future World Snowboard Champion

The Great Awakening

I don't know if it's my cold medicine or what, but I'm up late in my hotel in Winnipeg and I happened to catch my old boss and friend Jim Wallis on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Glad to see him on the show. Progressive Christian voices like Jim's really do need to get out there more. I look forward to seeing his new book, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America.

It's Not Just Brutally Cold

I bet you're thinking that all Canadians talk about in the winter is the extreme cold. But it really is remarkable. I'm in Winnipeg where it's about -30C without the wind chill. I heard somebody on the plane call this "crunchy breath" weather, and I knew exactly what they were talking about. But it isn't simply brutally cold. A Sikh taxi driver today explained to me that there are some of the subtle distinctions in cold weather:

1) Yes, it's -30C today in Winnipeg, but it's a "warm cold," my taxi driver told me. Compared to Toronto where it's -10C, but with lots of humidity, Winnipeg is very dry so the cold here is warmer than the cold in Toronto, he said. [Ed. note - After walking a couple of blocks this afternoon, I'm going to have to disagree. It's MUCH colder in Winnipeg than Toronto.]

2) Winnipeg has gotten a couple "big dumps" of snow this winter. But they've been dumps of "warm snow," from the south. The taxi driver said that when the city gets the warm snow dumps from the south his tulips will bloom in mid-March. When the snow dumps come from the north--"cold dumps"--his tulips don't bloom until the end of May.

3) It's -30C now and that's unseasonable, but later this week it's going back up to -12C and that will be "really comfortable," according to my taxi driver. "Just wait," he said. "You'll see."

100-Car Pile Up

Wendy's parents narrowly missed becoming the 101st car in this mess on Highway 400 in Ontario. Thankfully they missed it--though they had to spent almost seven hours stranded on the highway in -20C temps. Lessons learned: 1) Don't drive fast in whiteout conditions. You would be surprised how many people ignore this rule. 2) Remember to pee before you leave the house.

Abominable Snowman

Amado weathers a winter storm on New Year's Day, 2008.

While You Were Sleeping

1. Amado. Lovely kid, but he's making it almost impossible to do any blogging these days. He has a fascination with the computer--climbing, clawing, his way to the keyboard whenever he sees it on. And if it's not on, he will turn it on. Even his cyber-addicted daddy can't compete with him! (Though I have kept up on my del.icio.us posts, if you're interested.) Ok, just a few highlights today...

2. I love to watch NFL football played in the snow. Snow brings an aspect of inpredicticality (is this even a word?) to a game that has become a little too smooth around the edges. "The weather forecast for Green Bay on Sunday: a high of 11F degrees. For Foxborough: a high of 16F. In other words, baby, it's gonna be cold outside for this weekend's conference championship games. To get you prepared, here are 10 hot ... er, whatever ... topics about frozen football from ESPN."

3. Grief is Good. I just discovered this fascinating and very tragic blog which invites readers to post a message to a deceased loved one. "Dealing with death is an isolating process, and reading other people's diverse messages may help ease feelings of loneliness. Both writing and reading messages can be a starting point to the return of some kind of normality in life."

4. OK, back to sports. Don't you just love a boxer who can write? Wayne McCullough, a boxer with a killer chin who has never been knocked down, writes that taking it on the chin is as much mental as it is physical. "When you get hit with a hard shot -- that makes you consider going down -- you definitely feel a buzz going all the way down your body to your toes. I've felt it and seen the black flashing lights that come along with that feeling. You grit your teeth when you're hit full force. It's almost as though your brain is offering you a deal -- a 50-50 chance, per se -- go down or stay up. I have always chosen to stay up. I believe that not going down has a lot to do with your mental state of mind. Your head and body are telling you one thing, but your heart and determination to go on are telling you another."

5. Speaking of fisticuffs, my Mom may be retired, but she's not taking it on the chin from anybody. This week she was seen in the streets of Santa Cruz doing battle with the trash collectors.

6. "Crisis? Maybe He’s a Narcissistic Jerk" from The New York Times. "With the possible exception of 'the dog ate my homework,' there is no handier excuse for human misbehavior than the midlife crisis.

7. Rev. Shawn made me aware for the first time that Martin Luther King's famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was written in response to King's fellow clergy who opposed his work. After working for church organizations for going on 20 years, I'm not surprised.

8. Stray Questions for [writer] Buzz Bissinger: Q. How much time - if any - do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing? A. "I spend a great deal of time on the Web, about two hours a day. It obviously is an amazing tool for research. But let’s just cut to the chase, I spend as much time messing around on the Web to avoid the very acts of working and writing. Compulsive e-mail checks. Web sites in foreign languages. My productivity has suffered. I think that is true of every writer with a computer."

9. Jordon Cooper, one of my favourite Canadian bloggers, is doing an comprehensive review of Warren Kinsella's new book, The War Room. If you love politics, are involved in a campaign, or running an organization and want to make it more effective, you will find this really interesting.

10. I writing another article that's overdue for Sojourners. My editor is one patient Ohio lady. :-)

11. Another inspirational sports story here: Last week in the divisional playoff game with Seattle, Green Bay running back Ryan Grant lost two fumbles in the opening minutes, leading to touchdowns for the Seahawks. After these ignoble moments, Grant spent the rest of the day making it up to his team, running for 201 yards and three touchdowns. I love heart like this!

12. Amado is the cutest, smartest baby anywhere!

Just Kidding With You, Man!

¿Y Que?

Flash Crowd on the Subway

I borrowed the following entry from the WonderCafe blog of David Giuliano, who is the leader of The United Church of Canada (which is where I work). David is undergoing treatment for cancer. (Picture from The Toronto Star.)

On the subway last night, there were lots of empty seats and I took one. I was making my way down town for another MRI. Most of the east-bound riders were young folks heading out for the evening. Memories of the days when I too might have been reveling on a Saturday night left me nostalgic.

With each stop more riders crowded into the car. A wave of young folks boarded at the Dundas West stop. Then they took their pants off. First, it was just one young woman standing near me. Without the slightest interruption in the conversation with her friends, she kicked off her boots, stepped out of her pants and rolled them into a ball to stuff in her backpack.

Now she wore boots, a t-shirt and jacket and “panties”. Proximity is relative. She hadn’t moved but without pants felt suddenly closer to where I was sitting. A middle-eastern man seated next to me stared forward and gazing medatatively into middle space when I left the train. I directed my discomfort to looking “out” the window which, on a subway is more than a bit ridiculous.

Reflected in the glass, I could see that other passengers were shedding their pants. My initial awkwardness and embarrassment turned to curiosity. Twenty or thirty young people had removed their pants. They continued to nonchalantly chat. One young guy in boxers, leather jacket, boots, and cowboy, hat read philosophy. A couple wore matching suits and ties, black leather shoes and socks. They had folded their pants neatly into brief cases. I’m not making this up.

Two big 20-something guys with a case of beer boarded the train. Their heads spun on their necks in disbelief. “What’s this about?” whispered one to his friend. They covered their eyes and giggled like boys. Like me, they had obviously not been notified that it was international don’t wear your pants day! Then, one shrugged and said, “What the hell” and dropped his drawers. His friend set the case of beer on a seat next to me and did the same.

With each stop the number of pant-less patrons multiplied. Some of the bare-legged left the train and others got on. There were a few people sans-pants among the crowds on the platform. It wasn’t lewd in the least. Mostly, it struck me as wonderfully funny. Even the most seasoned urbanites found it difficult to pretend that beyond their IPod-armor they were outnumbered by people without pants. What added to the hilarity was that everyone – the slackless and the simply slack-jawed – did their best to pretend nothing unusual was happening.

Later, I found http://blogto.com/events/2319 where the “First No Pants Subway Ride" invited participants to meet at Dundas West. Other than not wearing pants the only rules were “keep a straight face” and “no cameras”. The “point” – if one is necessary or possible – it seems was just enjoying the absurdity of crowds of people riding the subway in their underpants. By the time I had to switch trains at St. George’s Station about half the people on the car were bare-legged. One more stop and I may have succumbed to the restrained, festive energy and joined the performance art.

Instead, I climbed the steps at the Queens Park Subway stop again, and sat in the waiting area at Toronto General Hospital. I chatted with few other patients. We watched the American Primaries on CNN. I took my cloths off and put on a hospital gown. My head was clamped into place and I was rolled into a tunnel of magnets to test the efficacy of surgery and radiation treatments. All the while I was smiling about this lovely, ridiculous, playful, wonderful world in which we live.

The Brown Sisters 1975-1999

Photographer Nicolas Nixon's "25 Years of the Brown Sisters" series captures so much of the melancholy beauty of the human experience of aging. Since I was a child I have stood before the mirror and struggled to imagine myself 10, 20, 30 years older. Now that I'm well along that road, I can see that my imagination wasn't especially accurate. No mirror is sharp enough to predict the life ahead of a person and tell them how it will be reflected back through the look in their eyes. That can only be determined by the decisions we make each day.

1981

In January 1981, these albums carried my heart through a very difficult transition from the desert to Santa Cruz. Tonight I realized that I am still clinging to them as if they were my best friends I had lost.

Fiesta

Thanks to Grams. Coop and Bean for the cool bilingual maracas! Amado loves to use them to get the whole house dancing. Much love to you today!