The Rev. Knute Rockne will deliver today’s message

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This morning I overhead two friends discussing religion. Their “conversation” quickly became tense and strained with one party walking away angry.

Kids, listen to your Uncle Steve. The ONLY safe place to talk about religion is in a big room with a bunch of people who feel exactly the way you do about it.

jesus_footballOrganized religion (a redundancy) is like the NFL. It’s made up leagues (Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Hindu, etc) and the leagues are made up of teams (Southern Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Sunni, Shia, etc).

Now, the league officials (the Pope and whatever they call the top guys in the other leagues) don’t want you just getting together on a Saturday afternoon, choosing teams and playing touch football for a couple of hours. That might be fun, but you won’t make it to the Big Leagues like that and those pick-up games sure won’ keep the lights on.

You need uniforms, play books, cheer leaders, a band… and officials to blow the whistle when you break the rules.

With verrrryyyy rare exceptions… every “discussion” of religion (and politics, for that matter) is one person validating his or her beliefs by demonstrating that yours are wrong.

“Ward, June, Beaver and Wally have all moved away to live with Timmy and Lassie.”

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Letter to realtor from man shopping for a home in just the right neighborhood:

“One of the most important things I’m looking for is the quality of the neighbors and the neighborhood as much as I am a house. According to your map on the internet, I felt that perhaps these homes were in neighborhoods that are clean, wholesome and safe; with honest christian neighbors with sincere and humble christian values who would be pleasant to live among.

Being retired I wish to live where their is respect, and civility and kindness among the resident population. I wish for the neighborhood to have a refinement and elegance to it, with stable households of quality and good taste.  I don’t want to move into a blighted or deteriorating area, nor do I wish to live in an area filled with transient student population where in the neighbors are changing every semeter.  I want it to be family oriented that when one might sit on their front porch people go for walks with their families and wave and are ginuinely neighborly.”

Response to realtor from a seller:

“Ask him if he has any other requests. Would he like his neighbors to be of a specific gender or race? What kind of pets would be to his liking, and what about climate? Would occasional rain be acceptable or would he rather it be dry, but with humidity readings in the low 40’s?

Tell him Ward, June, Beaver and Wally have all moved away to live with Timmy and Lassie.”

No, you can’ t make this shit up. Wouldn’t you just love to live next door to this guy?

“Official” Song of Kennett, MO

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I’ve posted this little ditty a few times but it’s buried deep in 4,000+ posts. So here it is a again, tagged and categorized, for your listening pleasure. The song was recorded sometime back in the ’60’s (?) to promote the town (and the sponsoring businesses). Feel free to download the song, re-post, spread it far and wide. May it play for a 1,000 years.

Kennett, My Home town (MP3)

Alabama paper launches paid site for Crimson Tide sports

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Found this story by Joer Strupp at Editor & Publisher. This strikes me as a very smart move for a newspaper. I can see Alabama fans paying for this kind of niche content.

NEW YORK The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News is the latest to launch a new paid Web site for its newspaper, announcing the creation of a new site devoted to University of Alabama athletics.

The daily paper, owned by The New York Times Company, will charge $10 per month or $59.95 per year for access to the TidesSportsExtra.com site, according to a release. It will be separate from the paper’s main Web page, which remains free.

“The site will offer in-depth coverage of University of Alabama athletics, including specialized blogs, forums, user profiles and video,” an announcement stated.

Added Chris Rattey, the News’ director of new media: “TideSportsExtra provides University of Alabama fans with content they cannot get anywhere else. With photos, blogs, video and extensive coverage, the site will offer an unparalleled fan experience.”

Among the paid-only items on the site will be columnist Cecil Hurt’s new blog, along with his columns and Internet talk show. “In addition to experiencing richer content, Web site users will be able to engage and participate more easily with comments, photos and videos, creating a deeper online community,” the announcement added.

The announcement comes one day after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette launched PG+, a new paid site that offers additional blogging, discussion and community interaction online.

The company I work for has the marketing rights for the University of Alabama.