When a garbage disposal breaks…

…it isn’t simply that I don’t get to enjoy that functionality any more.

No, it’s far worse.

Water and bits of food sit in there. Lingering. Waiting.

Occasionally, that drain will clog, meaning I have to stick my hand in there to clear it. This always makes me think it’s going to turn on and devour my hand. I check the switch. I recheck the switch.

Ah, but this isn’t a regular clog anymore. There has been water and bits of food sitting in there. Lingering. Waiting. Creating some kind of Hideous Stink Oil. Which only with great persistence washes off.

Well, thinks I, I need to try to clean that out. But I can’t really get in there… hey! I’ll pour boiling water down the disposal, and that will warm and loosen the Stink Oil, and away it will go.

No, actually it fills the room with Hideous Stink Oil Potpourri.

So, guess what I’m fixing this weekend.

**UPDATE (The Next Day):** I picked up a new garbage disposal last night while we were out and about. I started installing it first thing in the morning, and had it done before I’d finished my morning coffee. Ahhh.

I’ve turned off the Koine Greek podcast

The traffic was just burying my server. Heh heh.

No, I just realized that the podcasting plugin I was using was tagging everything on the site as though it was a podcast. But really, I didn’t even really record Intermediate Greek since it just wasn’t a lecture-style class. Most of what would have been recorded would probably have been me mistranslating something, thus discovering fresh new heresies.

So, TTFN to the exciting world of podcasting.

New Atheism?

[1]: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010341

Last Friday (I think) I heard a long interview of Christopher Hitchens concerning his latest book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. He is a well-spoken and witty man, but during the interview he failed to progress much further than anger and weak logic, all with a dogmatic yet inexplicably founded moral tone.

There’s a fairly recent editorial about Hitchens’ book (and the “new atheist” trend overall) by Peter Berkowitz on the Wall Street Journal’s [Opinion Journal][1] titled “[The New New Atheist][1]” that’s well worth a look.

From the editorial:

> They contend that from the advantage point of the 21st century, and thanks to the moral progress of mankind and the achievements of natural science, we can now know, with finality and certainty, that God does not exist and organized religion is a fraud. The disproportion between the bluster and bravado of their rhetoric and the limitations of their major arguments is astonishing.

Martin Island. Shell Island. Whatever.

Here’s a 3D panorama I took during our trip to South Carolina. It’s of us visiting a tiny little island in Lake Wylie.

Click and drag in the image to look around.

Various members of our family have labeled it Martin Island and Shell Island. The naming issue was hotly contested while we were there, and so by a one vote margin the name “Shell Island” was upheld.

Until next time, I’m sure.

The thunderclouds rolling in were an afternoon staple of our visit. It was very warm and humid, and every evening spotty, strong storms would roll through with some of the oddest thunder I’ve ever heard.

CARE Package

I listen to a lot of old time radio shows; Johnny Dollar, The Shadow, Superman… things like that. They’re often very good little dramas, and they don’t require my visual attention.

They were the mass media of the time. And unlike today, there weren’t thousands of choices for content, and there was little freedom concerning when you could listen in. Just a few choices played nightly or once a week. Listen or miss it.

They are also very interesting time capsules. Phrases we don’t use any more. Politically incorrect characterizations. Positive, hopeful national identity (a refreshing break from modern American recommended self-loathing). Even an occasional hat tip to that religion which the vast majority of Americans at least acknowledged as common and useful (which was Christianity, as it is now).

And sometimes there are just these odd little facts…

_Unto Death Do Us Part_, a “The Shadow” episode from March 6th, 1949, had an announcement in it for [CARE](http://www.care.org/), and something you don’t even see on [their history page](http://www.care.org/about/history.asp) was there. In soliciting support for a particular CARE initiative, the announcer said “CARE, the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, proposes to help meet that need…”

CARE is an acronym? Hmph. Never knew.

Though the organization has now a much broader scope, I just found it interesting where it started: a movement of Americans voluntarily helping European (and later Asian) survivors of WWII.

And back again…

Kids sleeping in the van going to South Carolina

We’re just back from our family vacation driving to South Carolina. It was very nice. It was a long drive. More later, but I just wanted to say hello.

Note for next time: I will *not* actually be able to get a hotel room on the Sunday evening before the Fourth of July. Anywhere.