Cocoposts

How to Eat a Five-Dollar Tomato

Whipped by the co-op real fast for slow food and found this bodacious spectacularly expensive "Heirloom" tomato.  I admired it's appearance.  Fondled it.  Then I saw the price, set it down and kept going.

This never works with shoes either. 

The fresh basil reminded me of it almost immediately.  The mozzarellas made me think of it again.  Nope.  My own tomatos would be ripe in a few days.  And I have plenty of shoes. 

Iwas near the registers when I looked over and saw the "farmbread" - those thick chewy perfect round loaves in their own special case.   Free from the confines of plastic, set carefully on perfect shelves, their doughy goodness slightly concealed by the light powdering of flour.  They taste like Europe.  That was it.  I beelined back to "the tomato".  I glanced at others but none promised the flavor of the huge semi-gnarly purple-red Heirloom.  The most beautiful tomato in the store.

I sliced it into a single meal - a giant Salad Caprese with that bread and  a spot of wine.   It was spectacular.  I ate the stem too.

Now for some shoe shopping.   

Guide to Coming Again

From a grocery store in Mormaon-land, Utah via Dooce, who deals with Mormans, a two-year old, notoriety from her five-year old blog AND a puppy. 

One of her many many commenters said:

...Maybe this timeline will look familiar to you:

Devirginification: 25
Coffee: 29
Beer: 30
Freedom from a mind-fucking cult: priceless. Eight Hour Lunch 12:15PM, 04.07.2006

Coco   

Happy Epiphany!

Today, January 6th, is the last day of of Christmas - 12th Night - Feast of the Epiphany - when those wise guys found the baby Jesus.

Every year I have the same argument with some knothead who insists I'm wrong because they counted back twelve days from the 25th and so the 13th was the first night of Christmas and it's all over now. 

Well maybe it's over for retailers and knotheads, but not for the Church or the pagans just getting geared up for mid-winter celebration at Imbolc (around Groundhog Day for you anti-pagans).  This also marks the beginning of Carnival culminating on Marti Gras.   

I'm a stickler about this stuff not because I'm especially religious but because I'm a traditionalist ... and this is another excellent excuse to party.  And partying is healthy for those who get all depressed and SAD because of short days.

From theological site, The Voice:

Epiphany is the climax of the Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from December 25th until January 5th.  In most traditions, the day before Epiphany is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the evening of which is called Twelfth Night.  This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). ....

In some households it's considered bad luck to take down your Christmas decorations before this date or to leave them up beyond it.  From Wikepedia:

Twelfth Night is when all Christmas Decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If decorations are not removed on Twelfth Night, they should stay up all year.

  And you thought that was just about being lazy!  Coco

 

Solstice Blog

Happy Solstice!

Feeling especially touchy about Christmas this year.   Not that I'm personally down on the bearded guy, JC.  He was a cute baby and all.  But he kinda stole the holiday from solstice and the sun.  And I look forward to longer days  more than going to church.

I put up lights on the house this year. Myself.  Though not because Mayor SMarty told me to.  (I find it especially funny that the committee working on the Festival of Illumination is headed by a PNM executive.)  I'm so irked about Montano and Paseo and Westland and Payne that I'm thinking of turning my Christmas lights off on Christmas Eve in defiance of the Mayor's attempt to set a record for electricity consumption that night.   

    My display features some very lively twinkle lights prominently displayed in a front window.  The other night someone parked on the street and sat in their car listening to techno whatever - ecstasy music.  Loud.  They were having a rave in their car.  It woke me up at 1:30 am and as remarkably monotonous as that noise is, I couldn't sleep to it.  (I give techno 9.5 on the never-ever-want-to-hear-it-scale, right up there with the cheesy pop Nashville puts out these days and calls 'country'.  I'd have to be on ecstasy to like that shit.)   

So I got up and began flashing my porch lights to the beat.  They were probably parked there watching the cool Christmas lights in the first place and the addition of the porch light might have blown their mind.  Cuz they left. 

Happy longer days!  Merry Winter!  Coco

Creation Care

In Grist via Salon is the interview with Richard Cizik, Vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. 

...Genesis 2:15 specifically calls us "to watch over and care for" the bounty of the earth and its creatures. Scripture not only affirms this role, but warns that the earth is not ours to abuse, own, or dominate. The Bible clearly says in Revelation 11:18 that "God will destroy those who destroy the earth."

Do you believe that polluters will literally be destroyed by God?  (Grist)

It's very difficult to comprehend the full ramifications of this Bible verse, but I can tell you it's a warning: Destroyers beware. Take heed. It was by and for Christ that this earth was made, which means it is sinfully wrong -- it is a tragedy of enormous proportions -- to destroy, degrade or despoil it. He who has ears, let him hear.

The Bible also says that humans have "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing." Some in your community interpret this as a license to exploit natural resources. (Grist)

That is a deeply flawed interpretation. Dominion does not mean domination. It implies responsibility -- to cultivate and care for the earth, not to sully it with bad environmental practices. ...

...I am trying to reason with my community that we've earned our spurs in co-belligerency -- collaborating with groups we wouldn't otherwise work with, in the name of the common good. I say, if we've worked with Free Tibet on religious freedom, the Congressional Black Caucus on slavery, Gloria Steinem and feminists on rape, and the gay and lesbian lobby on AIDS, why can't we work with environmentalists?

An environmental evangelical at last?

We can pray.  Coco

Popular Religiosity

Los Angeles Times (most e-mailed) editorial by Rosa Brooks describes how  too much religion may be a dangerous thing.  She cites a study of social health indicators and "popular religiosity" that suggests a correlation between  social dysfunction and absolute belief in God. 

We shouldn't shy away from the possibility that too much religiosity may be socially dangerous. Secular, rationalist approaches to problem-solving emphasize uncertainty, evidence and perpetual reevaluation. Religious faith is inherently nonrational.

This in itself does not make religion worthless or dangerous. All humans hold nonrational beliefs, and some of these may have both individual and societal value. But historically, societies run into trouble when powerful religions become imperial and absolutist. ...

(The) study invites us to conclude that the most serious threat humanity faces today is religious extremism: nonrational, absolutist belief systems that refuse to tolerate difference and dissent.

We know a few of them,  Coco 

Colorado Springs

The Sharlet piece about New Dominionists in Colorado Springs is now on the Harpers site in its entirety. 

Stranger than fiction.  The Stand, atypical Stephen King novel, pitted forces represented by places: Colorado Springs and Las Vegas.

I wonder if Pastor Ted read it.  Coco 

Maybe Monk

Some details on the monastery brewery from The New Mexican.  Pecos Benedictine Monastery and Christ in the Desert are involved but there is some dissent among monks. Master brewer Brad Kraus, former brewmeister at Wolf Canyon will craft the ale.  San Miguel County Commission has granted the license. Brother William Woytavich, of Christ in the Desert Monastery, says the beer will be on tap by Christmas but plans for the facility sound very preliminary and they still need investors.

Enjoyed a Roswell Alien last night.  Coco  

Echidne says

Echidne of the  Snakes has a good story about the Christian Media and says: 

The logical conclusion to this trend is frightening: a nation where no values are shared, where nobody can communicate with the members of groups who think differently and where nobody agrees on what is actually happening.

We’re Therrre.  Coco

Dominionistas

It’s OK to be scared of Christians.  Not all Christians but maybe Colorado Springs Christians.  This month's Harpers has 2 very disturbing pieces about the Religious Right.  The first by Jeff Sharlet focuses on the evangelical capital of America -- Colorado Springs -- and the New Life Pastor Ted.  It’s not online but worth buying. MyDD quotes from it.

There is information about the how R's are anti-urban and not only targeting the suburbs, but encouraging their growth -- strip malls, sprawl, the whole shebang -- because it fosters a fertile culture for recruits.

The part about prayer teams being sent to suspected wiccan and gay homes by one Colorado Springs ministry will get your neck hairs up.  Coco