I'VE HAD a really difficult month so I didn't give a link to one of the really great Christmas institutions, Mike Wilkins' annual collection of wacky Christmas songs that you've certainly never heard before. And one of the best ways to get the flavor of it is Callie Crossley's annual show about it. So, before it's almost too late.
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
New Years Eve Radio Drama - Katie Hims - Hair of the Dog
A witty and poignant ensemble drama following different characters in the pub on New Years Day.
Hair of the Dog is recorded 'as live', in a single take, on location in a London pub.
The resolutions aren't going so well - but what does the year hold for the relationships and the dreams for the future? We move through the bar, between characters and stories, between an old way of life and a new one. This is truly a New Years Day, with all its humour and it's sadness, its desire and its frustration - and the anticipation for a good year to come.
Sound by Alisdair McGregor
Written by Katie Hims
Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris
Nick Nicholas Gleaves
Jo Madeleine Bowyer
Clare Sarah Belcher
Marine Sharlit Deyzac
Kara Silvana Montoya
Darren Rasmus Hardiker
Benedict John Benfield
Director Boz Temple-Morris
Producer Boz Temple-Morris
Writer Katie Hims
Monday, December 30, 2024
Thoughts On The Death of Jimmy Carter And New England Yankees
ONE OF MY TEACHER SISTERS tells the story of how her principal and another teacher and the front office secretary (daughter of a 1960s era secular liberal I knew and clashed with as a member of the Young Democrats*) all made fun of a poor family in their district who were getting a Habitat for Humanity house built for them. They, all of them from financially secure, college-credentialed, middle-class, white, New England Yankee backgrounds, all working in a public school paid for by tax money, decided that the family were not of the supposedly deserving poor and deserved to be looked down on for receiving charity. In my experience, no one but those like them could have passed their test for deserving. I suspect that those who distinguish between the "deserving" and "not deserving" poor generally don't believe there's any such thing except as a theoretical comparison to the real poor who are always held to be undeserving.
Jimmy Carter, the man who did more than anyone to promote Habitat for Humanity is and likely will always be the greatest ex-President in American history, Not least of all because he did physical labor for the least among us, sought to make peace for the least among those in the world, worked to get prisoners released and better conditions, and worked for human rights and many other things. I can't imagine Bill Clinton or Barack Obama doing anything like that. If they have it has to be one of the best kept secrets in contemporary life. In his post-presidential career and during it and before it, he lived a Christian life. I can't think of another ex-President apart from John Quincy Adams who did as much to help the to the least among us to anything like the extent he did. And I don't think Adams did nearly as much of it as Jimmy Carter did. And certainly Rosalynn Carter did, as well. They quit the Southern Baptists as that denomination adopted a rigid right-wing political agenda, according to his statement at that time the issue that brought him to leave was its rejection of equality for Women and its rejection of Women pastors. There were other issues as well, including the breaching of the wall of separation between church and state. The reason that a lot of Catholics now consider themselves ex-Catholics.
Many, many People around the world are praying for the repose of their souls today and maybe some will be inspired to emulate their work which would be a good way of praying for the repose of their souls. If he knew how the Netanyahu regime in Israel seems to be doing its best to destroy one of his greatest achievements, the treaty between Egypt and Israel in the past few weeks, it must have hurt him badly. Politics here and in many another alleged democracy has deteriorated badly since his time in office. I think that's certainly related to the rejection of secular leaders of The Law, the Prophets and The Gospel. The separation is between church and state, which is necessary for the healthy operation of both but unless the political leadership and the Voters hold to the morality of religion, it will always devolve into an amoral abyss as certainly as things will when leaders of what is deputed to be religion abandon morality for political and economic gain. Trump is reportedly peddling seats at a pre-inaugural "religious" service which will feature him as the godhead for a hundred thousand bucks. I am not holding my breath for a majority of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, such figures as Timothy Dolan or Robert Barron to condemn such blatant blasphemy and sacrilege. No one who is not a complete disbelieving crook in a collar would participate in such a thing. I wonder what Catholic figures will show up at it. I wonder if Southern Baptists will appear. I can say with total certainty that no one from the Roman Catholic Women Priests would attend such a thing. I can't say the same for the officially ordained hierarchy of what is nominally my church.
* I remember her older brother, a really arrogant jerk, making an anti-Catholic comment at a Y.D. meeting, clearly knowing I and my brother were Catholics. I pointed out to him that most Catholics at that time were Democrats whereas most of the old Yankee families were Republicans. I have been told that all of the members of that family except the oldest daughter are Republicans, now.
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