A weird thing happened to me on Friday night, January 24. I fell asleep listening to a radio program on KSFO, Coast to Coast, and woke up to hear this different talk show host talking about Covenant Network. The executive director of Covenant Network is a member of my church, and she's in my Kerygma bible class on Wednesdays. I was on a committee with her for a year, and have known her for several years. She's a Wellesley grad, was a college classmate of Hilary Rodham Clinton, and I think she used to be a book editor at Random House.
It's so weird to hear my friend's organization talked about on the radio. The conservative radio talk show host was talking about a couple of presbyterian churches in Hayward and Castro Valley inviting a transgender presbyterian minister from Georgia to talk to them, so they could have a greater understanding of transgender people and issues since the slaying of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo Jr. -- the 17-year-old transgender teen slain last October. I guess Covenant Network helped to sponsor the event or something.
From the Covenant Network website, here's what they're about.
"The Covenant Network of Presbyterians is a broad-based, national group of clergy and lay leaders working for a church that is simultaneously faithful, just, and whole. We seek to support the mission and unity of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a time of potentially divisive controversy. We intend to articulate and act on the church's historic, progressive vision and to work for a fully inclusive church.
We seek to live out the Reformed faith found in Scripture and our confessions, and in our life together to follow the principles laid out in the Call to Covenant Community. We strive to proclaim and embody the gospel as we have learned it from the life and ministry of Jesus; we affirm the centrality of the Bible in our church; and we value the dynamic tension between unity and diversity. The Call to Covenant Community has been affirmed by more than 2,500 ministers, 2,000 other officers, 19 former Moderators, 300+ sessions, five presbyteries, and the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.
Covenant Network was founded in August, 1997 to support the passage of Amendment (97)-A, the "Fidelity and Integrity Amendment." Its founding Co-Moderators were Robert Bohl, Pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas and Moderator of the 206th General Assembly, and John Buchanan, Co-Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and Moderator of the 208th General Assembly."
It's strange to have one's personal life and a hot news topic come together on a conservative talk show program in the wee hours of the morning.
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
On Thursday, January 23, I took advantage of Dine About Town and had dinner at the Pacific Restaurant at the Pan Pacific Hotel. The restaurant had decent reviews on CitySearch, and since I've been curious about what the inside of the Pan Pacific Hotel looked like, I booked a reservation.
First of all, the restaurant is way overpriced. Entrees were in the $20's, which is high considering the quality of the food is average. I thought the food was similar to the Daily Grill, which is much cheaper. I had the salmon, and it was drowning in oil. The Daily Grill serves their fish this way too. I know some people like their fish drizzled in olive oil, but I find this technique unimaginative and so five years ago.
Secondly, since the restaurant is overpriced, the place was empty yet the hotel was overflowing with guests. Usually hotel restaurants are full of hotel guests, because it's convenient and a guest can charge the food to their room. I don't know if the restaurant was empty because of the bad economy and the visitors are watching their pennies carefully, or that even the out of town visitors knew the restaurant was no bargain.
The only saving grace of the restaurant for me was listening to the few diners that were there. A beautiful, immmaculately coiffed white haired woman was sitting a few tables from me. She looked like one of those older society matron types, with her Bottega Vanetta bag, her silk shirtwaist dress that perfectly matched her green eyes, her rings, her double strand huge baroque pearls and the fine italian wool navy blue blazer with the gold buttons. The silk dress was definitely designer or off the rack designer, probably bought sometime in the 70's, but which still looked timeless and classic.
The society matron had beautiful unlined skin, and was still very thin, but she had all the tell tale signs of old age; arthritic looking age spotted hands, severe lines around the mouth, a crepey neck, clouded eyes, stained teeth, bad eyesight, and of course the lifeless white hair. However beneath the ravages of age, you could telll that this woman was quite the refined blonde bombshell in her youth.
The society matron was crying and telling the french waiter that his accent reminded her of her french husband. She had lived in France with her husband during world war 2, and had kept a journal of her experiences for her grandsons to read. The woman's husband's family had been in banking, and they were killed by the Nazis during the war because they had refused to give up the combinations to the vaults.
The french waiter told the society matron that while he was growing up was Lyon, he had met an old man who told him a story about the Nazi occupation of Lyon that he witnessed. Apparently, there was a Nazi in Lyon nicknamed "the butcher of Lyon". This Nazi, whom the waiter said was caught 10 years ago, had sent a whole school of 40 children to their death at Auschwitz.
Great story huh? The society matron knew all the waiters and they knew her, which must mean she's a regular eater there. I love hearing people's stories. Everyone has such an interesting story to tell, and if you just shut up and listen, you'll discover whole new worlds.
Tomorrow, my review of American Buffalo.
First of all, the restaurant is way overpriced. Entrees were in the $20's, which is high considering the quality of the food is average. I thought the food was similar to the Daily Grill, which is much cheaper. I had the salmon, and it was drowning in oil. The Daily Grill serves their fish this way too. I know some people like their fish drizzled in olive oil, but I find this technique unimaginative and so five years ago.
Secondly, since the restaurant is overpriced, the place was empty yet the hotel was overflowing with guests. Usually hotel restaurants are full of hotel guests, because it's convenient and a guest can charge the food to their room. I don't know if the restaurant was empty because of the bad economy and the visitors are watching their pennies carefully, or that even the out of town visitors knew the restaurant was no bargain.
The only saving grace of the restaurant for me was listening to the few diners that were there. A beautiful, immmaculately coiffed white haired woman was sitting a few tables from me. She looked like one of those older society matron types, with her Bottega Vanetta bag, her silk shirtwaist dress that perfectly matched her green eyes, her rings, her double strand huge baroque pearls and the fine italian wool navy blue blazer with the gold buttons. The silk dress was definitely designer or off the rack designer, probably bought sometime in the 70's, but which still looked timeless and classic.
The society matron had beautiful unlined skin, and was still very thin, but she had all the tell tale signs of old age; arthritic looking age spotted hands, severe lines around the mouth, a crepey neck, clouded eyes, stained teeth, bad eyesight, and of course the lifeless white hair. However beneath the ravages of age, you could telll that this woman was quite the refined blonde bombshell in her youth.
The society matron was crying and telling the french waiter that his accent reminded her of her french husband. She had lived in France with her husband during world war 2, and had kept a journal of her experiences for her grandsons to read. The woman's husband's family had been in banking, and they were killed by the Nazis during the war because they had refused to give up the combinations to the vaults.
The french waiter told the society matron that while he was growing up was Lyon, he had met an old man who told him a story about the Nazi occupation of Lyon that he witnessed. Apparently, there was a Nazi in Lyon nicknamed "the butcher of Lyon". This Nazi, whom the waiter said was caught 10 years ago, had sent a whole school of 40 children to their death at Auschwitz.
Great story huh? The society matron knew all the waiters and they knew her, which must mean she's a regular eater there. I love hearing people's stories. Everyone has such an interesting story to tell, and if you just shut up and listen, you'll discover whole new worlds.
Tomorrow, my review of American Buffalo.
Monday, January 27, 2003
I wonder what would happen if the White House were to show the world evidence that Iraq has biological and chemical weapons. Personally, I think it would cause mass hysteria and panic around the country and people would be freaking out. I know I would. Is that why Bush isn't showing us the evidence?
Some people are saying that if Clinton was in Bush's position, there wouldn't be as much opposition from the left. I wonder about that too sometimes. When Clinton was in office, we sent troops into the Baltic regions and no one said anything. Hmmm.
Some people are saying that if Clinton was in Bush's position, there wouldn't be as much opposition from the left. I wonder about that too sometimes. When Clinton was in office, we sent troops into the Baltic regions and no one said anything. Hmmm.
It's been a whirlwind four days, with my birthday on Friday and then having an event planned every day since Thursday, that I haven't had the time or energy to blog.
But first with Sunday's news. Yes, I am bummed about the Oakland Raiders losing. I thought for sure they would win by a touchdown, but the Tampa Bay defense was strong and Rich Gannon and the Oakland offense never could find their rhythm. Weird thing too, with the center being sent home. No one on the team will admit that this incident made them lose the game, but it's got to have been a distraction. Not sure if I even heard what the real story was on the center, but I'm sure the news will come out soon enough.
So damn! This is the second San Francisco Bay Area team this year to make it a sport championship final, and then bomb out at the end. The SF Giants lost to the Anaheim Angels, when in game 6 it looked they had it all wrapped up, and now the Oakland Raiders, who were a 3.5 point favorite to win, get stuffed in the superbowl. Bummer, bummer, bummer!
I liked that Oakland Raider was full of veterans and older players, or as the media dubbed them "football senior citizens". I wanted Oakland to win, to make a statement that just because you're old doesn't mean you can't play. I didn't want Tampa Bay to win, beause it sends the message out to everyone, that if you've got enough money and are willing to give up draft picks, you can buy a coach and win a superbowl. It's the New York Yankees style of winning championships, and I didn't want the same thing to happen to football. But it did, and that's too bad.
Thank god, football has a salary cap, so the George Steinbrenner school of winning championships can't infect football entirely. But because of salary cap, most of the Raider players will be gone next season, since the Raider will be seriously over the salary cap next year. Oh well. Al Davis did get spectacular draft picks in giving up John Gruden, so they'll be able to rebuild the team that way.
I think the Raiders lost because Al Davis has so much bad karma with the NFL. He's still in lawsuit with the NFL and with the City of Oakland as well.
Someone in the NFL office must really be a big Sting fan, since he appeared again. I loved Santana's appearance and No Doubt, and even Shania Twain. But Sting? Come on. I mean, I love Bon Jovi, but I can't believe they're playing at some other big event on TV. And why wasn't there any rap/hip hop acts like Nelly? Guess the NFL front office doesn't listen to the music that most of their players listen too or believes in variety in their acts.
I did love the way the Dixie chicks sang the national anthem, but I'm a Dixie Chicks fan. I kind of liked the spoof of the Bud Light two girls fighting commercial down the "The Practice". I think it only came on once, and it was funny. Then there's the visa check card commercial with Rondi and Tiki Barber, such cuties, where Rondi has a visa check card and the checkout girl makes the observation that Rondi is the one in the superbowl and Tiki isn't, because he's the one who uses check. Funny. The Ozzy Osbourne commercial was funny, but Pepsi Twist does not taste good. I wonder how much Pepsi paid all those people to be in that ad.
More later on Thursday's events - I went to see "American Buffalo" at ACT and ate at the Pacific Restaurant the Pan Pacific Hotel, Friday's events - I watched "Lilo and Stitch" and "Gangs of New York" and ate at One Market and at a Singapore/Malaysian/Thai restaurant, and Saturday's events - I went to a lecture on Tibetan art, wondered through a Chinatown street fair and saw "LOTR-The Two Towers." Like I said, it was a busy four days.
But first with Sunday's news. Yes, I am bummed about the Oakland Raiders losing. I thought for sure they would win by a touchdown, but the Tampa Bay defense was strong and Rich Gannon and the Oakland offense never could find their rhythm. Weird thing too, with the center being sent home. No one on the team will admit that this incident made them lose the game, but it's got to have been a distraction. Not sure if I even heard what the real story was on the center, but I'm sure the news will come out soon enough.
So damn! This is the second San Francisco Bay Area team this year to make it a sport championship final, and then bomb out at the end. The SF Giants lost to the Anaheim Angels, when in game 6 it looked they had it all wrapped up, and now the Oakland Raiders, who were a 3.5 point favorite to win, get stuffed in the superbowl. Bummer, bummer, bummer!
I liked that Oakland Raider was full of veterans and older players, or as the media dubbed them "football senior citizens". I wanted Oakland to win, to make a statement that just because you're old doesn't mean you can't play. I didn't want Tampa Bay to win, beause it sends the message out to everyone, that if you've got enough money and are willing to give up draft picks, you can buy a coach and win a superbowl. It's the New York Yankees style of winning championships, and I didn't want the same thing to happen to football. But it did, and that's too bad.
Thank god, football has a salary cap, so the George Steinbrenner school of winning championships can't infect football entirely. But because of salary cap, most of the Raider players will be gone next season, since the Raider will be seriously over the salary cap next year. Oh well. Al Davis did get spectacular draft picks in giving up John Gruden, so they'll be able to rebuild the team that way.
I think the Raiders lost because Al Davis has so much bad karma with the NFL. He's still in lawsuit with the NFL and with the City of Oakland as well.
Someone in the NFL office must really be a big Sting fan, since he appeared again. I loved Santana's appearance and No Doubt, and even Shania Twain. But Sting? Come on. I mean, I love Bon Jovi, but I can't believe they're playing at some other big event on TV. And why wasn't there any rap/hip hop acts like Nelly? Guess the NFL front office doesn't listen to the music that most of their players listen too or believes in variety in their acts.
I did love the way the Dixie chicks sang the national anthem, but I'm a Dixie Chicks fan. I kind of liked the spoof of the Bud Light two girls fighting commercial down the "The Practice". I think it only came on once, and it was funny. Then there's the visa check card commercial with Rondi and Tiki Barber, such cuties, where Rondi has a visa check card and the checkout girl makes the observation that Rondi is the one in the superbowl and Tiki isn't, because he's the one who uses check. Funny. The Ozzy Osbourne commercial was funny, but Pepsi Twist does not taste good. I wonder how much Pepsi paid all those people to be in that ad.
More later on Thursday's events - I went to see "American Buffalo" at ACT and ate at the Pacific Restaurant the Pan Pacific Hotel, Friday's events - I watched "Lilo and Stitch" and "Gangs of New York" and ate at One Market and at a Singapore/Malaysian/Thai restaurant, and Saturday's events - I went to a lecture on Tibetan art, wondered through a Chinatown street fair and saw "LOTR-The Two Towers." Like I said, it was a busy four days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)