Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Around the Neighborhood

Spring has arrived. In this part of the world, that means we could have snow that hasn't been forecasted by the TV meteorologists; or if the wind is coming in from the northwest across cold Lake Erie, it could be 45F or 74F, depending on your distance from the lake.

This was mid-afternoon one day last week, looking west out the window:

The pear trees along the street are flowering:

And the tulips have bloomed on the Mall:

Stacey's favorite sculpture in the area is located at the War Memorial Fountain on the Mall, Peace Arising from the Flames of War:

And on my way back home, the dogs stopped to see their friend, one of the uniformed doormen, at the Renaissance Hotel, and I caught this shot of the Terminal Tower reflected in the windows of the building at 55 Public Square:

Tapioca

I'm not yet at the place in my life where I will re-visit tapioca. My mother made tapioca pudding. And as I recall, it was not just once in a while -- seems, on reflection, like every single day of my life I was eating tapioca pudding. And this was at a time when we were required to eat everything put in front of us.

"Think of those starving children in India!" my father would exclaim. And nobody dared to say to him that whether we ate tapioca pudding or not made no difference to the starving kid in Mumbai, which used to be called Bombay, by the way, just like Beijing used to be called Peking, after my sister refused to finish her dinner and he flung everything on her plate smack in her face. And in her hair. And on the wall -- where she was outlined with mashed potatoes and gravy and the stray green bean that stuck.

The coffee shop in our building has been serving bubble tea, bubble tea milk shakes, and all kinds of stuff like that. And being a regular, I am invariably told that I must try the bubble tea, the bubble tea milk shakes, and stuff like that.

I resist. I fear that the young woman behind the counter will throw it at me if I gag.

And just moments ago, I received an e-mail from the Rev. Jerry Larry. He does not want a donation from me, but has my fund. He is such a good guy, taking all necessary measures to ensure that I get what rightfully belongs to me. Here's the e-mail:

Its my pleasure to inform you that your consignment containing your fund(US$2.500.000.00 USD) has returned back to Benin because it has stayed more than necessary time and i went to SKYE bank to discus this with the bank director as its has not been delivered to you However he told me that your fund can be transfered to you via a direct wire transfer(KTT) into your bank account.

He told me to instruct you to contact the bank to apply for a direct wire transfer into your account to avoid loosing your fund.Therefore you can contact the bank with below information to enable the bank wire your fund online into your account.

Mr. Robert Johnson Williams
Director General Foreign Remittance,

SKYE Bank SA Towers,
Lot 308 Rue du Révérend Père Colineau 01
BP : 955 Recette Principale Cotonou
Tél: (+229) 99-75-98-73
Fax; (+229)98-56-70-58

E-mail: skyebankplc43@hosanna.net

On attention of Mr. Robert Johnson Williams,Director foreign payment SKYE bank Du Benin Send an email to the bank with the above bank email and apply for your wire transfer as i have informed the bank about you already.On receipt of your fund into your account endeavour to inform me immediately.

Have a nice day from DHL shipping company we decide to order our agent to return back from san diego airport because we confirm that the customs was requesting for high clearance fee and we thought that wiring the fund into your account in a truthful way will be cheaper so our agent returned on Friday evening, so your fund was deposited with SKYE bank this afternoon for online transfer of your fund into your account.

Yours Faithfully
REV JERRY LARRY.

This money would have come in very handy a few months ago when I was attacked while in London by muggers, who stole all my money and credit cards and my cell phone; and I couldn't pay my hotel bill. Fuckers. I am being honest with you when I tell you that I have no recollection of that happening -- complete amnesia after a beating like that is rare, but is possible according to the doctors in the movies.

I really don't need the money. I assume I came by "my fund" when I was in London because I don't remember anything about it. That's the only thing I can figure. Funny how amnesiacs find out information.

So, if you want to get the money, be my guest. If this was from some man or woman in Nigeria, I'd say it was a scam; but this is from a man of the cloth. Why would he lie?

Easter and Passover Chatter

From: Bill
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 9:27 AM
To: Susan
Subject: Passover

So, why is Passover called Passover when other holidays have strange names?

BILL -- From my iPhone
______________________
On Apr 2, 2010, at 9:31 AM, Susan wrote:

Actually, Passover seems to be the only holiday whose name makes sense. (Wait a minute--"Thanksgiving" makes sense, too.) Wikipedia has much to say about it:

The verb "pasàch" (Hebrew: פָּסַח‎) is first mentioned in the Torah account of the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:23), and there is some debate about its exact meaning: the commonly held assumption that it means "He passed over", in reference to God "passing over" the houses of the Hebrews during the final of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, stems from the translation provided in the Septuagint (παρελευσεται in Exodus 12:23, and εσκεπασεν in Exodus 12:27). Judging from other instances of the verb, and instances of parallelism, a more faithful translation may be "he hovered over, guarding." Indeed, this is the image used by Isaiah by his use of this verb in Isaiah. 31:5: "As birds hovering, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem; He will deliver it as He protecteth it, He will rescue it as He passeth over" (כְּצִפֳּרִים עָפוֹת—כֵּן יָגֵן יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, עַל-יְרוּשָׁלִָם; גָּנוֹן וְהִצִּיל, פָּסֹחַ וְהִמְלִיט.) (Isaiah 31:5) Targum Onkelos translates pesach as "he had pity", The English term "Passover" came into the English language through William Tyndale's translation of the Bible, and later appeared in the King James Version as well.
_________________
From: Bill
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 9:48 AM
To: Susan
Subject: Re: Passover

But you have Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana and Sukkot and Channukah and Tzom Gedaliah, among others. Those aren't Englishy sounding like Passover.

BILL -- From my iPhone
________________
On Apr 2, 2010, at 10:13 AM, Susan wrote:

What the heck is Tzom Gedaliah?
_________________
From: Bill
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 10:21 AM
To: Susan
Subject: Re: Passover

You -- and that's the generic hypothetical you, not you you -- are supposed to fast for some reason. You are supposed to fast for everything all the time, it seems. Catholics (I don't know if all Christians do this) sacrifice something only for Lent, usually chocolate covered peanuts or Twizzlers, and can't eat meat on Fridays.

And it used to be Catholics were not permitted to eat meat on all Fridays or suffer eternal damnation in the bowels of Hell, much like murderers and rapists, and would eat Gorton's fish sticks instead of meat; but with the mercury- in-the-fish scare, the Pope decided meat was okay on Friday. And all those souls in Hell were released by Satan according to the terms of a prisoner exchange agreement. That is how a lot of lawyers ended up in Hell.

It's better to be agnostic in the long run.

BILL -- From my iPhone