I decided to catch up on the news this morning, so I went over to Worldnetdaily for an overdose of outspoken conservatives. Naturally, I read little of the news and clicked almost immediately on the op-ed and business sections. It was in the business section that I found this tasty tidbit under the heading “Beer and College; Godly Business?”.

Legend has it that Arthur Guinness, dismayed at the debauchery overtaking his native Dublin and destroying the family base therein, once prayed that God would give him the inspiration to concoct a healthy alternative to the whisky that flowed freely at the pubs throughout the city. Soon after, his prayers were answered and he developed an early version of the stout now sold in over two hundred countries worldwide. The genius of his premise lies in its simplicity: make it healthy, make it thick. The vitamin content was vastly higher than that of Irish whisky-so high, in fact, that even the New World doctors (before the discovery of fetal alcohol syndrome, of course) used to advise pregnant women to drink one glass of the stout daily. Guinness also designed the brew to be so thick that his fellow Irishmen would get full long before they got inebriated.

The full article deals is the beginning of a series on the top ten Christian entrepreneurs and also covers Booker T. Washington (the president of Tuskegee Institute, not the lead singer of the MGs - he, of Memphis sound fame, was Booker T. Jones), hence the title, “Beer and College…”

I started my shift in the MLR with Good Dog, Bad Dog by Over the Rhine. (If it seems like I am playing them a lot, it’s because I am. I was given protection of a goodly percentage of their catalog for a time, so it’s only right that I should get to know them and spread the love. ) Since I was not feeling particularly eclectic this morning, I searched for a follow-up album that wouldn’t depart to much from the genre. I ended up choosing Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez. Right now side 1 is just finishing, and I am thinking, “Close but no cigar.” Lest I become a music snob, I will quit the comparison there.

Tarzan!

What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

I also have tiny elbows, stenciled muscle tone, and a chin that puts Leno to shame. Talk about your hairless apes.

May I suggest that anyone who hasn’t already go to Mr. Strauss’ (Gideon, not Leo) weblog to read his series on educating the Strausslings. Also, I’ve gleaned a link from Eating Bark. It rumors that a large cache of biological and chemical weapons was seized by Kuwaiti officials as it was smuggled out of Iraq.

Brahm’s Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 as performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the hands of Erich Leinsdorf

Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me

And even though I am not interested in being hip, the Music Listening Room has to keep up with the times somewhat, so I played The Raveonettes’ Whip It On.

For those who did not know already and might care to find out, Miss Sarah Jones and her dear mother (who is every bit as Dear and Gentle as my mother), along with their close friend Mrs. Brown, spent the last several days (Thursday afternoon through Monday morning) in Atlanta. My own mother and sisters also came to town, but they were only able to be here Saturday and Sunday. Everyone got on swimmingly. I’ll be flying to Minneapolis in a couple weeks to meet the patriarch of the Jones clan (who claims that he is not as omniscient as the Good Doctor, my father, but since neither of them are omniscient, I don’t really know what is supposed to be meant by that statement) and the sisters and a veritable host of extended family and friends.

It so happens that a fraternity brother and friend of mine who recently moved to the Twin Cities area upon his graduation from Tech lives in the same neighborhood as Sarah, so he kindly offered to put me up. (And when I say neighborhood, I mean so close that it’s almost unsettling.) I’ll be going to class with Sarah, which probably means that I’ll get thrown out of her classes for snickering at ridiculous professors. If they make me vacate the premises entirely, I’ll likely freeze in the current cold snap that the Central North is experiencing. I reckon I’d better behave.

As for The Desolation Angels, it is not necessarily shut down for good, but I would not expect much sign of life over there - excepting perhaps Daniel Silliman running amuk in the Sensus Plenior commenting system. It’s possible that in the spring, a flurry of activity may present itself, as Sarah’s school load considerably lightens, but then, she still has to meet her language requirement, so don’t wait with bated breath.