Filed by Stephen at 7:32 am under General, Pop Culture, The Arts
3 Comments

The Jingle-Tune-Or-Catchprase Title Contest begins today!

This contest, which I’ve just made up, will be a competition to see who can post the most eligible entries on this blog in the next month. For your entry to be eligible, the title of the post must contain a refrain (or the entirety) of a commercial jingle that reminds us of days long past or long present. For example, Trevor’s post “Like A Good Neighbor” makes us finish the tune in our head with “State Farm is there…” (Trevor starts this competition with one point.) Alternately, you can use a slogan or catchphrase from a commercial product (as long as that product does not carry its own jingle…like Lucky Charms — they are magically delicious, all right, but there’s no song). Also, TV show themes will count for points.

Here’s the thing, though. It must pertain to the subject. You can’t just title your post “Save Big Money At Menard’s” and then not talk at all about money (or Menard’s). Use your head. Make a good choice. I will moderate, since a) I initiated this contest, and b) that way I can change the rules if I want to. I’ll leave a comment notifying you that you’ve received a point.

Also, for all of you out there who aren’t contributors to this blog…you can play, too. If you leave a comment that slyly incorporates a jingle tune phrase or slogan into your comment, you will also get a point. But you must use complete sentences. I will not have the rules of the language abandoned for the sake of crushing your opponents. That’s what fists are for.

Good luck, everybody!

Filed by Bil at 1:31 pm under General
3 Comments

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Instead, I prefer to look at each morning like a fresh start, a blank slate — helpful when you make as many mistakes as I do.

I don’t believe in sin, but I believe in grace. And, oh, I believe in forgiveness. From others, from myself, but always to others.

I started the year here in Chicago with a weird cyst on my sternum, and I’m ending it here in Chicago with a weird cyst on my sternum. But it’s snowing this year — it started just an hour or so ago — and Frank is at the ledge looking out at it. I can see the lights from the Christmas trees through the windows from the building across from me. It’s a nice effect.

I’m resolving to keep moving — the same resolution I make every morning.

This evening I’ll brave the Red Line with my impossibly large Beetlejuice-inspired scarf Devon knitted for me, steeled in my resolve that yes, this evening someone’s going be kissing me to ring in the new year whether they approve of it or not.

Filed by Trevor at 4:14 pm under General
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The Absolute works with nothing.
The workshop, the materials
are what does not exist.
Be a spot on the ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the Absolute.
– Rumi

Since my becoming unchurched, I have had some time to think about what speaks to me spiritually. And I’ve come to no conclusions whatsoever. What I have learned, however, is what I don’t like.

One of them is bad sermons.

Sadly, if you’re a Unitarian Universalist, unless you’re attending a church that has hired an amazing minister that always knows just what to say to draw people in, or keep people around, or whatever that congregation wants to do at the time, you’re pretty well guaranteed to get bad sermons at least half the time. And that’s if you’re lucky.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Stephen at 6:53 pm under General, Religion, UU, The Arts, Fightin' Words
9 Comments

Some are beginning to doubt of her existence. Perhaps her clever little page on the right side of this website is but a ruse, a childlike tale to give us all hope, like the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, or God.

But I’m here tonight to say yes, Virginia, there is a Devon. She exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Devon. She is alive and well and needs your love. And she needs to get her ass back over here and set us all straight again.

Until that happens, I give you the fabled Unabridged Oeuvre of Devo; read at your great pleasure:

Hello World!
Some Self-Involved Rambling from the Makers of Facebook™
Don’t Cry Out Loud. No, Please Don’t.
Hummmm…
Hmmm…
Incredible
Opera Nerdiness
The Manifesto

That is all.

Filed by Trevor at 11:58 pm under General, Shameless Plugs, Fightin' Words, Love
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Wow. Here we go. My name is Chelsea. I write here now.

I figured I’d just jump right in and share my latest internet obsession/way to kill time at work. I’ve been spending a lot of billable hours on this particular site recently, and every day I grow more intrigued by the sheer humanity on display. The page is updated a hundred times a day by thousands of individual authors, who have no qualms about letting the world in on their desperation, flirtation, loneliness, heartbreak, and triumph. Some of the entries are so personal and so badly spelled that they could have been ripped directly from the pages of a fifteen-year old emo kid’s diary.

I am talking, of course, about the Missed Connections page on Craigslist.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Chelsea at 9:59 am under General, Pop Culture, Love
2 Comments

Two of my favorite people in the world, of course.

Filed by Trevor at 2:15 am under General
2 Comments

“I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: ‘My son did this to me.’ I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: ‘I forgive my son.’ Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand.” — Mother Teresa.

As I sat on the train last Sunday, after a most wonderful and inspiring church service, I found myself with a lot of free time. Not having brought my headphones or even my laptop with me, I was simply sitting there taking in the scenery and decided to meditate.

A half hour later, I brought myself back to normal consciousness, and had the best day ever. I was calm, collected, had not a single sign of stress, and just generally — happy. So, I decided then and there that I was going to write about meditation for my Friday post.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Stephen at 8:00 am under General, Religion, UU
14 Comments

You know that horrible Nokia ringtone? The one that immediately sets off a Pavlovian reaction of searing hatred? It’s actually based on a composition by Francisco Tarrega entitled Gran Vals. Behold, the true object of your rage!

Filed by Trevor at 1:09 am under General
3 Comments

It takes a very unique news article to really unsettle me. I would say it takes something really big or really awful, but obviously really big and awful things happen all the time, so big and awful is kind of routine now. At least when reading the news.

But then today I read this:

Scorching Chicago Marathon leaves 1 dead

And that freaked me out.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 12:43 am under General, The Arts
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