:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 ::

Department of Shameless Nepotism

My wife, Mary Green, with some acquaintances, has recently begun serving Chicago and the NW suburbs as a birth doula under the name Woman 2 Woman Birth Doulas. To help nudge the search engines along to discovering their site, here is another helpful link:
Chicago birth doula service
:: Ray 10:35 PM [+] ::
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More Guilty Pleasures

Cable networks come and go. One of the more amusing current ones is Sleuth TV, which airs, you guessed it, detective shows. Of late, Tivo has enabled me to catch a few episodes of The Rockford Files. I remember watching the show with my parents as a kid, and had forgotten how fun it is, even though its look and editing style is dated. James Garner brought a likability and believability to the title character, such that I am still tempted to write him all these years later to tell him how much I admire his work.

Finally, the opening to the show, with its answering machine gimmick, upbeat theme music and old-school multimedia sequence of still images (many of them very beautiful photographs) portraying Jim Rockford's life with his father is, in my opinion, one of the very best title sequences to a TV show ever made.

Incidentally, Sleuth TV is also airing episodes of the amusing, but not quite as iconic Simon & Simon, and the now horribly dated Miami Vice, with its absurd fashions and cheesy melodrama. Is this really the show that had me so enthralled in high school? Still, it has cool theme music, and an opening sequence almost as good as Rockford.
:: Ray 12:09 AM [+] ::
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Here's an idea.

We need to cut our carbon emissions fast to prevent global warming, right? In a spirited conversation over dinner with friends tonight, an idea came to me. When I bought my 90 year old house, I replaced the aging furnace with a new 97% efficient one, but on cold days it has to run an awful lot to keep my house warm because there is nothing in the walls but air. Unfortunately, at the moment I don't have the money to spare for major home improvements such as blowing in insulation.

A government that was truly motivated to cut carbon emissions would start tinkering with incentives such as subsidies or tax deductions to help owners retroactively insulate older homes and buildings or otherwise increase efficiency in them. It seems to me like a far better use of money than frittering it away on tax cuts for the rich.
:: Ray 2:18 AM [+] ::
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My spiritual path

On the subject of religion, I am now the webmaster for Bear Spirit Medicine Lodge, to which I belong as an apprentice. I tend to code by hand, sticking to basic html and eschewing some of the fancy new web technologies. In the spirit of nudging search engines in the right direction, here are some links to my efforts:
Chicago sweat lodge
Chicago pipe ceremony

In addition to the Chicago area, we now serve the community of Raleigh, NC, as well:
Raleigh, NC sweat lodge
Raleigh, NC pipe ceremony
:: Ray 5:08 PM [+] ::
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I learn something new every day

Today, on the train, I had a conversation with a guy who identified himself as a "spiritual counselor." When I asked him in what tradition, he said Scientology. Interestingly, however, he went on to add that he was a freelance counselor, part of a breakaway sect.

It had never occurred to me before that such a young cult might have splinter groups, but a quick search on the internet yielded articles about many of them. Interesting. Anyway, the guy I talked to said he does the same thing that the official "church" (if by church, you mean cult) "auditors" do, but for about a third of the price. Nice. And in the "church" tradition, he has been harassed legally and by private investigators. Nice.

We had the exchange about Xenu (google it, if you don't know what I am talking about) and he gave what I am lead to believe is the textbook answer, which is that the people who have revealed this secret information have not yet attained the higher levels of the "religion" and as such do not understand everything, but he cannot explain why because he is sworn to secrecy.

Sorry, man. Any religion that requires its members swear to secrecy about anything is a cult.

I did glean one bit of knowledge from the exchange and my subsequent research, however, which was my first hint of understanding as to why the cult seems to have such great appeal to those who are sucked in. It's all about the "auditing." It is not the "e-meters" that they use in the process...they are a bunch of crap. It is that "auditing" is in a distant way related to psychoanalysis, and perhaps even neuro-linguistic programming. Yes, "auditing," when done by someone ethical, may actually have some therapeutic benefits, not entirely unlike neuro-linguistic programming's reputed ability to treat PTSD.

Instead of being straightforward about it and selling it for what it is, howwever, the Scientologists wrap a sci-fi religion made up by an actual science fiction writer around it, pretend it is a religion, and use it to take obscene amounts of money from vulnerable people. In my book, an organization that does these things is not a religion, but rather a scam cult. If that is hypocritical based on my religion rant, then so be it. I have tried to be open minded here, but everything I read is quite damning.
:: Ray 11:54 PM [+] ::
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Planned Parenthood

Tonight Mary and I attended an yearly event sponsored by Planned Parenthood Chicago Area (PPCA) celebrating the anniversary of the Roe vs Wade decision. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (aka G-Rod), who is a staunch advocate of reproductive rights, said a few words, and let me tell you, the guy really knows how to work a room full of well-heeled liberals. But the big surprise of the evening for me was the firebrand that is Cecile Richards, current president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, daughter of the late former Texas governor, Ann Richards. Cecile inherited quite a bit of her mother's moxie, and talked a bit about growing up around political campaigns and union organizers, always the underdog in a conservative state. I think she makes a great leader for Planned Parenthood, and I hope that she and the organization go far together.

To posthumously honor Ann Richards, PPCA bestowed upon her the PPCA Rebel Woman Award, which PPCA President and CEO Steve Trombley admitted they made up just for her, because none of the other awards they usually give seemed to do her justice. The award was accepted by Cecile on her mother's behalf. It was a nice moment.

I am glad to be married to a woman who works for such a cool not-for-profit. Her salary isn't the greatest, but we are both proud of what she is participating in. They throw great parties, too.

Our current bumper sticker: Family Planning is PRO-FAMILY
:: Ray 11:46 PM [+] ::
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Super Miscellany Fun Pak

Tuning the competition.

In the new "whiteboard" commercials for UPS, the background music is a song called Such Great Heights by a band called, believe it or not, The Postal Service.

Elvis lives, sort of.

Saturday night, Mary and I joined friends to see Patty Elvis at Davenport's Piano Bar on Milwaukee. Patty has the Elvis thing nailed, but adds her own irreverence to it. Together with a band that is clearly having fun, the result is a great show, which I don't hesitate to recommend.

Me? Interested in sports?

Chicago vs. Indianapolis for the Superbowl seems like a rivalry with potential. The AFC playoff game was certainly a nail-biter...I hope the big game itself is as good.

Culinary experiment.

Tonight I tried smoking a cut-up free-range chicken the same way I do my Thanksgiving turkeys (except it took about a third of the time). I am happy to say that the result was some juicy and flavorful chicken.

Because 20 feet is a lot of water if you live near the coast.

Since our eerily warm December and early January, I have started watching my carbon output even more closely. There are both little and big things that one can do. I use the drier less, and line-dry some clothes. I try to consolidate errands to make fewer car trips. I bought some high efficiency LED light bulbs (more about that later). And I am plan to inquire about the newer blow-in insulation techniques, as my house has no insulation in its outside walls. If you have no idea why I am doing this and why I consider people in Hummers to be selfish bastards, rent and watch Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.

No smoking is good.

A couple of weekends ago, Mary and I went to see some friends in a band at a bar in the Northern suburb that recently banned smoking indoors. It was really nice to spend an evening carousing without Mary having asthma problems and both of us coming home in clothes that reeked of smoke. The Patty Elvis show took place in a no-smoking room, too. Yeah no smoking!

That faun and his maze.

Pan's Labyrinth. As good as the hype, if you ask me.

But not 25% less tasty.

Tonight I baked chocolate chip cookies using Alton Brown's The Thin recipe, except I substituted whole wheat for a quarter of the flour, olive oil for a quarter of the butter, and pecans for a quarter of the chocolate chips. By my reckoning, that makes the result 25% healthier, and still quite yummalicious.
:: Ray 1:11 AM [+] ::
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Guilty pleasures

Lately I have looked forward to the beginning of the week, when I can watch a show that Tivo has caught for me late Sunday night on BBC America. Gordon Ramsay's F Word is a frenetically paced hour of reality and cooking revolving around a British egomaniac doesn't seem to be able to utter more than a sentence or two without dropping the F bomb. This makes for a lot of bleeping, but he is just so over the top about it that seems refreshingly brash to me, and amusingly antithetical to all those Victorian stereotypes about Brits that we Americans seem to entertain. At least, the charm hasn't worn off yet.

The show takes place in a made-for-TV restaurant that looks like a brightly lit discotheque. Each week, Gordon shows several amateurs or aspiring cooks how to prepare a starter, main and dessert for the customers, and then proceeds to harass and berate them as they stumble through the steps. Having heard a bit about Charlie Trotter's reputation in the kitchen, I suppose it takes a bullish personality like this to get perfection, but you couldn't pay me enough to go through what these people do. Most of them are so cowed that all they can stutter is, "Yes, Chef," or, "No, Chef," as he points at something they have just painstakingly plated and shouts, "This is (bleep)," or, "Would you pay for this?"

And that last quote is where some of the interest is derived, for the 50 customers seated in the restaurant are aware of the situation with who is preparing their food, and they can choose whether or not to pay for each of their three courses or not, based on how much they liked them.

During all this, Gordon occasionally flits out to mingle with the guests, and there are featurettes, shot on location, in which correspondents report on the health of British food, and Gordon goes into a someone's home (usually a habitual convenience food eater) to teach him or her how to cook.

On a recent episode, Gordon exclaimed, on looking into the fridge of a hapless pair of bachelors, "There's no food in here...it's all beer!"

"There's some ham," one of them replied.

"What, you mean this?" Gordon held up a package of dubious looking lunch meat. "Have a sniff. Mind you don't let it bite you."

(Quotes are from memory and not exact)

Finally, in each episode, Gordon participates in a one-on-one recipe challenge. The challenger, not a professional chef, as far as I am aware, cooks a favorite recipe, while Gordon makes his own version, and a blind taste test is held in front of one or more judges, sometimes a celebrity. To date on the episodes I have seen Gordon is about 1 and 4. He is surprisingly graceful about losing. That, and the fact that he does lose, humanizes him to a surprising extent. He is not a perfect culinary egomaniac, just a driven one.

BBC America just started airing the second season of F Word. I don't know that I will ever eat in one of this guy's restaurants, but I will certainly enjoy his circus on TV for another few weeks.
:: Ray 7:54 PM [+] ::
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