Episode 37: Falling

The foliage was late in our valley. It was well into November before the colors began to change in earnest. Then the day after Thanksgiving the leaves started drifting down in wind-propelled blizzards. Late in the day, the lowering sun shoots rays through the ever larger gaps in the screen of trees, striking sparks off the river below our house.
We don't dread winter. It gives us back our view, of the opposite bank of our curling river, of the bay where it meets the Hudson, and of the hills on the far shore.
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Republican Evolution

"The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value."
-Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

"A tree is a tree - how many do you need to look at?"
-Ronald Reagan, 1965

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In The Year Of Our Lord 2007
Jerry Falwell passed on to his justly reserved reward, a special place no doubt restricted to those departed who agreed with him that homosexuality caused September 11. The Reverend Ted Haggard, publicly homophobic and secretly homosexual and drug-addled, announced that he had been cured of all gayness. But other true believers were right there to hoist up the trampled banner of virtuous religiosity.

*Members of the ultra-fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka continue to picket the funerals of soldiers killed in our two current wars, comforting the bereaved with signs that read "God Hates Your Tears" and "Thank God For Dead Soldiers." The protesters are persuaded that their particular version of the deity is punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuality by killing its soldiers.

*Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University and son of the eponymous founder, has resigned under pressure. He denied charges that he spent university money to pursue his lavish lifestyle. Apparently his wife's one-stop shopping debauch of $39,000, the $29,000 senior trip to the Bahamas for his daughter, and the stable of horses for his children were ordinary expenses critical to pursuit of his presidential duties. God's work never ends.

*Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has renounced his self-proclaimed role as a prophet of God and expressed remorse over "immoral actions with a sister and a daughter" (NY Times). It's a good idea to voice mea culpas when one has been pronounced guilty as accomplice to repeated rapes of children and the judge is mulling sentencing.

*Not to neglect the ongoing sexual criminality of the Roman Catholic clergy, let us note that a priest from Boston is charged with stalking late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien. He was found to have sent threatening letters and postcards on parish letterhead to O'Brien's home and office. Father David Ajemian used to be an Episcopalian.
Rev. Gary Meade, on the other hand, wasn't looking to scare anyone. He just sought a little kinky fun (allegedly), but was swept up in a police sex sting at an Interstate rest stop in New York. What's that thing about clerical celibacy?

*Rudy Giuliani publicly flaunted his adultery with the woman who became his third wife, charged the expenses of the dalliance to city budgets, lived with a gay male couple in the course of his resultant divorce, alienated his children, pushed for stiffer gun control, and declared in favor of gay marriage and abortion rights. So who, pray, is his latest endorser? None other than Pat Robertson, Christian conservative wingnut. Ol' Pat, now 77, once declared that the Twin Towers tragedy was God's punishment for abortion and "rampant secularism".

*Sudanese police arrested a British schoolteacher, accusing her of insulting Islam by allowing her elementary school pupils to name a class teddy bear Muhammad. (In some communities we can think of, she might have suffered at least dismissal if she permitted the little tykes to name another teddy bear Jesus.) Her punishment could include public flogging and prison.









To great or lesser degree, religion poisons everything and everyone it touches, not least the ability to reason.

Yes, I believe that.

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Writers Strike
Radio comedian Fred Allen, a big deal when Geezer was young, had a ready response when a boss rewrote his finished manuscript for his Sunday night show:
"Where were you when the paper was blank?"

A "classic," said Mark Twain , is "a book which people praise and don't read."

Jean Rhys, author of The Wide Saragasso Sea, took Geezer's Pretentious Twaddle Award with this declaration:
"Listen to me. All writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don't matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake."

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Thanksgiving Sauerkraut
We always have the standards for Thanksgiving dinner - stuffing, cranberry sauce, creamed onions - but still try to do something different every year. Sauerkraut doesn't spring to mind as a turkey side dish, but this works really well - not sour, even slightly sweet. It's adapted from a Sara Moulton recipe. In this version, it serves about six, but can be easily doubled or tripled. Start about two hours before serving.

1 14oz package of sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
One-quarter cup dark brown sugar
One-third cup cider vinegar
1 cup of water
1-2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 tablespoon butter
2 medium onions, chopped

Combine the sauerkraut in a large saucepan with the sugar, vinegar, caraway seeds, and one cup of water. Bring to a boil, stirring. Then lower the heat, cover, and simmer until the sauerkraut has absorbed some of the liquid, about one hour.

Meantime, melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until soft. Remove the cover from the sauerkraut and boil until most of the water is evaporated. Remove from heat and add the onions. Stir. Cover again and set aside until ready to serve.
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