I read the following in a NY Times article on 1/25/2004 entitled Whoop, Oops and the State of the Political Slip;
**...consultants for Mr. Bush tried in vain to get him to control his smirk. Still, the smirk slips out from time to time, as it did last week during the president's State of the Union address when Democrats clapped at Mr. Bush's warning that the Patriot Act, an antiterrorism law, would soon expire.
"Bush is vulnerable when that smirk rears its ugly head," said a Republican strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It comes across as not only cocky, but arrogant, and nobody likes an arrogant politician."**
It made me chuckle that people were trying to get the Smirkiemeister to control his smirks, because obviously it didn't work.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
I heard the new interim pastor at my church preach today. He's a nice older guy and his sermon was actually quite good, but it's his prayer for the people that I think shocked me and I think quite a few other people in the congregation.
The pastor is old, between 70 and 80, and he's been around. He even mentioned in his sermon that it was his greek professor who was one of the people responsible for the New Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible.
Okay so he's old, which means he's kind of old fashioned. Anyway, in his prayers he prayed for the president of the USA, "George and Laura Bush". Talk about shocking! I've never heard anyone pray for the health of George Bush ever in my church. It's just not done, not at least in my church.
As soon as words came out of the pastor's mouth, people were coughing and going "ahem", like they couldn't believe it either. I think if he had gone so far as to pray for "Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne", some people might have walked out. He also asked that we pray for the people of New Hampshire so that they make a good decision in choosing the winner of the democratic presidential nomination, and the congregation seemed to like that idea.
Poor guy. He'll probably get an earful for doing that. It is kind of odd, but I think it's just because the guy is old and old fashioned, and in his day you did pray for the president of the country as a matter of course, no matter what you felt about him. It's just weird to hear somebody pray for the health of a person many people in my San Francisco congregation would consider "the most hated man in the world, the next Hitler and the possible anti-christ".
I don't care either way. I mean, maybe we should be praying that the Smirkiemeister see the light and come to his senses and change some of his policies. It can't hurt.
It's odd that the new interim pastor prayed for him on one level, and it's odd on another level that I don't remember anybody else praying for the Shrubmeister before either.
Has my church congregation become so partisan in its views that we don't pray for someone that some people in the congregation don't like, even though there are other people in the congregation who think the Smirkmeister is God's gift to the world?
Shockingly true but yes, there are some people in my city of San Francisco church who totally love W and everything he's doing.
The pastor is old, between 70 and 80, and he's been around. He even mentioned in his sermon that it was his greek professor who was one of the people responsible for the New Revised Standard Version translation of the Bible.
Okay so he's old, which means he's kind of old fashioned. Anyway, in his prayers he prayed for the president of the USA, "George and Laura Bush". Talk about shocking! I've never heard anyone pray for the health of George Bush ever in my church. It's just not done, not at least in my church.
As soon as words came out of the pastor's mouth, people were coughing and going "ahem", like they couldn't believe it either. I think if he had gone so far as to pray for "Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne", some people might have walked out. He also asked that we pray for the people of New Hampshire so that they make a good decision in choosing the winner of the democratic presidential nomination, and the congregation seemed to like that idea.
Poor guy. He'll probably get an earful for doing that. It is kind of odd, but I think it's just because the guy is old and old fashioned, and in his day you did pray for the president of the country as a matter of course, no matter what you felt about him. It's just weird to hear somebody pray for the health of a person many people in my San Francisco congregation would consider "the most hated man in the world, the next Hitler and the possible anti-christ".
I don't care either way. I mean, maybe we should be praying that the Smirkiemeister see the light and come to his senses and change some of his policies. It can't hurt.
It's odd that the new interim pastor prayed for him on one level, and it's odd on another level that I don't remember anybody else praying for the Shrubmeister before either.
Has my church congregation become so partisan in its views that we don't pray for someone that some people in the congregation don't like, even though there are other people in the congregation who think the Smirkmeister is God's gift to the world?
Shockingly true but yes, there are some people in my city of San Francisco church who totally love W and everything he's doing.
Went out with another friend of mine for a post birthday lunch at The Beach Chalet. I forgot how great the view of the beach is there. It's the only place in San Francisco where you can eat a good meal and get a great view of the Pacific Ocean.
There were so many people at the beach, and The Beach Chalet was packed! I even ran into a friend from writing group there. San Francisco is such a small world!
It was such a beautiful day out at the beach. If you didn't know it, you'd think that living out on the coast of San Francisco was really nice and sunny all the time. It's not.
The second apartment I moved into in San Francisco was on the Great Highway. We were on the second floor, and we could see the ocean from our living room and kitchen. Oh my god, the weather down there was foggy all the time and freezing. At night, the wind would whip right off the ocean and into our apartment.
There were maybe 10-20 days out of year where it was a sunny and the weather was nice. The rest of the time, it was miserable. One week out of the year, the sun would set directly in front of our living room. That was cool.
And when you live out at the beach, public transportation sucks. It would take 45 minutes to an hour to get downtown. If you lived outside the city, you could get to downtown faster than I did living down there.
When I lived out there I never felt like I really lived in the city, even though my address said San Francisco. I was so far away from everything. It's like you're living in a foggy beach town.
We shopped at the Safeway at the end of Fulton, and it reminded me of grocery stores in San Diego, LA and Hawaii. I started calling it "the LA beach Safeway". There were always surfer types in there, beach bums, and the kinds of people I remembered seeing in beach town groceries.
Even the food they carried catered to the beach crowd. They had alot of vegetarian types of foods, stuff you'd never see in other Safeways in the city. The "LA beach Safeway" is still my favorite Safeway to shop at in San Francisco.
I think it's still one of the few Safeways in San Francisco that has a perpetual supply of Red Stripe Beer. Talk about the king of beach beers. Red Stripe is one of my favourite beers!
Best Red Stripe beer memories ... walking along South Beach in Miami with friends, watching the sunset and drinking Red Stripe beer ... dancing and drinking Red Stripe beer at the reggae festival in Washington DC at Malcom X park.
There were so many people at the beach, and The Beach Chalet was packed! I even ran into a friend from writing group there. San Francisco is such a small world!
It was such a beautiful day out at the beach. If you didn't know it, you'd think that living out on the coast of San Francisco was really nice and sunny all the time. It's not.
The second apartment I moved into in San Francisco was on the Great Highway. We were on the second floor, and we could see the ocean from our living room and kitchen. Oh my god, the weather down there was foggy all the time and freezing. At night, the wind would whip right off the ocean and into our apartment.
There were maybe 10-20 days out of year where it was a sunny and the weather was nice. The rest of the time, it was miserable. One week out of the year, the sun would set directly in front of our living room. That was cool.
And when you live out at the beach, public transportation sucks. It would take 45 minutes to an hour to get downtown. If you lived outside the city, you could get to downtown faster than I did living down there.
When I lived out there I never felt like I really lived in the city, even though my address said San Francisco. I was so far away from everything. It's like you're living in a foggy beach town.
We shopped at the Safeway at the end of Fulton, and it reminded me of grocery stores in San Diego, LA and Hawaii. I started calling it "the LA beach Safeway". There were always surfer types in there, beach bums, and the kinds of people I remembered seeing in beach town groceries.
Even the food they carried catered to the beach crowd. They had alot of vegetarian types of foods, stuff you'd never see in other Safeways in the city. The "LA beach Safeway" is still my favorite Safeway to shop at in San Francisco.
I think it's still one of the few Safeways in San Francisco that has a perpetual supply of Red Stripe Beer. Talk about the king of beach beers. Red Stripe is one of my favourite beers!
Best Red Stripe beer memories ... walking along South Beach in Miami with friends, watching the sunset and drinking Red Stripe beer ... dancing and drinking Red Stripe beer at the reggae festival in Washington DC at Malcom X park.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Happy Birthday to me!
A friend took me to Grand Cafe, and the restaurant was so cool. She made the reservation and told them it was for a birthday. When we arrived, there was a happy birthday card on the table from the restaurant. Inside it said thank you for choosing Grand Cafe to celebrate your birthday. How sweet is that?
We ordered the Dine about Town menu, and I had a the seafood soup, and the pan roasted petaluma chicken with lemon thyme braised carrots & yukon gold potato puree. I was going to get the pumpkin creme brulee for dessert, but the waiter said since it was my birthday I could order whatever I wanted off the dessert menu for the same price.
I ordered the banana creme pie, and when it came it was a mini pie with sugar covered macadamia nuts and caramel drizzled all over. Yummy, yummy!
The restaurant also served us a free mini crab cake each as part of our appetizer. I totally love restaurants that give you free food.
A friend took me to Grand Cafe, and the restaurant was so cool. She made the reservation and told them it was for a birthday. When we arrived, there was a happy birthday card on the table from the restaurant. Inside it said thank you for choosing Grand Cafe to celebrate your birthday. How sweet is that?
We ordered the Dine about Town menu, and I had a the seafood soup, and the pan roasted petaluma chicken with lemon thyme braised carrots & yukon gold potato puree. I was going to get the pumpkin creme brulee for dessert, but the waiter said since it was my birthday I could order whatever I wanted off the dessert menu for the same price.
I ordered the banana creme pie, and when it came it was a mini pie with sugar covered macadamia nuts and caramel drizzled all over. Yummy, yummy!
The restaurant also served us a free mini crab cake each as part of our appetizer. I totally love restaurants that give you free food.
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