Links to Radio Playlists

Some of you have asked why I haven't been posting my radio show playlists lately. I really haven't had much time for typing them in. But some of them are on the WUSB Stony Brook NY 90.1 FM website under my program's listing. Please check them out, and tell me what you think!

So far this year, the top song has been "Endlessly" by Green River Ordinance. What -- me, playing ballads?? No apology for this one.

If any of you are from commercial stations and wonder what you should do for Christmas, send me an email.

Amazing Race 15 : predictions

Okay, now the cast is out. 12 teams, one of which doesn't make it past LA (except to go into the Elimination Station -- which is usually, when you think about it, a strange sort of free vacation in a resort area). After reading the bios, seeing the interviews, and flipping coins, here's who I see in the finals :

Ericka & Brian Kleinschmidt (She's 2004 Miss America, the requisite beauty queen)
Sam & Dan McMillen (the requisite exemplar gays, this time they're brothers)
Herbert Lang & Nate Lofton (Harlem Globetrotters, trotting the globe for TAR)

Meghan Ricky & Cheyne Whitney have a shot at the third finalist slot.

I think they'll finish in that order. I am, of course, kinda partial to Ericka...:)

I wish they'd have a season where no one from California was chosen. It would take three or four such seasons to make up for their overcasting CA. Next best would be to take every 'requisite' category (the ones that show up season after season) and bar all of them for a season. All by itself, that would make the casting more interesting.

Hyundai: Deal or Duel?

I just saw a Hyundai commercial on TV. In it, a car was being followed around by a gas tanker truck, for their new promotion of a full year's gas at $1.49 a gallon -- co-promoted with PriceLock. I don't think Hyundai will like what my first feelings were : Fear!

When I saw the truck, it took me back to a 1970s TV movie, Duel. In it, Dennis Weaver was being chased through the desert by an evil gasoline tanker. It was in the thick of the '70s gas crisis, so we were all getting a little of that feeling in real life. And, it was Steven Spielberg, at the top of his game. All in all, a TV terror classic, complete with Weaver's facial expressions each time the truck renewed its attack -- by themselves, worth it.

I wonder if the ad men for this ad are old enough to remember that one.... and how many others got that same creepy feeling. (A far cry from Volvo's "Safe and Sound" ads, to be sure!)

TAR 15 -- from an Unexpected source

It seems that a relative of one of the women I know from Stony Brook U is in Tokyo Japan. The woman said that two pairs of Amazing Racers had run past the relative. Didn't say where or what they were doing, so it's not quite a true spoiler. And there were pix, but not shared. Also, she's a Big Brother fan who despises TAR. (:P)

That got me thinking: with the wireless technology and the prevalence of Twitter worldwide, can anyone hide anything anymore? In the case of Amazing Race, the TAR Detectives get such incredible detail on everything, long before anything airs. I don't read spoilers until it airs, but I'm sure Chateau has the airport covered and the camera angles figured, Apskip's got the flight numbers and arrival times, and Neobie's got the leg mapped out. It's incredible. But fortunately, they're fans. They love the show and they're sane (as far as any fanship is 'sane'...) Think what would happen in the hands of people who are, er, less supportive and less sane, like, say, someone who's stalking a star, or trying to undermine a rival, not to mention terrorists or spys or Big Brother fans. Go to a mountain in Tibet, some monk's Twittering from the next mountain over. Or a tundra location in Yakutia in Siberia -- the bears have their own YouTube accounts. The amount of evidence can be astounding, and that makes chasing it down for a live event so much fun.

But it's also just a bit scary. Technology has redefined privacy in a way that makes it impossible to hold as a near-absolute right above all else. It has become what it really was all along - a right to be held in the context of all other rights, and defended as such. And it is dealt with in the breach more than in fact, in typical human fashion. How to handle it from there, I don't know.

A liturgical section for commissioning lay ministers

A Brief Order for Commissioning Lay Ministers of Health and Wellness

Rubrics (descriptions and explanations) are in red.
P: presiding minister, L: lay ministers being commissioned, C : Congregation.

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[This service is best used within a standard worship service, following the Offertory. It's actually a specialized version of an order for commissioning other ministries, such as those ministring in education, evangelism, social ministries, youth ministry, or worship. Consider commissioning any of those who have demonstrated the ability, gift, commitment and responsibility to make a job or task or avocation into a real ministry for Christ's sake.]

P: Today we act as the Body of Christ to recognize and support those who do ministries of health and healing among us in Christ's name. Baptized into Christ's priesthood, we are each called to offer ourselves in service, sometimes in specialized ministry as [[ name(s) ]] are doing right now.

[The person/people about to be commissioned come forward. Then, someone officially representing the church council or vestry arises and comes forward, to give a brief description of each person's specific health ministry. Then the council representative is seated, and the lay ministers gather around the presiding minister, on their knees.]

P: Will you commit yourselves to serve people in the humble manner of Jesus, and be responsible to the Body of Christ for the manner in which you serve?

L : Yes, with God's help.

[The presiding minister then goes to each lay minister, and lays both hands on his/her head. Other ordained personnel are invited by the presiding minister to come up and join in the laying of hands.]

P: Come, Holy Spirit, and give blessing and power to the ministry of your faithful servant [[ name ]], that the broken may become whole, and that Your name be given glory.

P, L: Amen.

[When this is completed, the lay ministers arise and turn to the congregation, linking hands. The presiding minister may choose to link hands with them, especially if there is only one being commissioned.]

P, L : We stand together in service to our Lord and our neighbor.

P : Lord, bless all of those who serve to bring wellness and wholeness to others. Bless and guide physicians, nurses, technicians, emergency personnel, physical trainers, dieticians, hospital visitation ministers, chaplains, and prayer intercessors. Grant them wisdom and skill, sympathy and patience, resilience and faithfulness. In Your mercy, heal those who need healing and give comfort to all who need comfort. Through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

[Other specific ministries, such as faith healers and Stephen ministers, can be included in the above prayer, as fits the congregation's traditions and actual ministries.]

All : Amen.

[At this point, the lay ministers return to their seats and all return to the rest of the service.]

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Return to Spirithome.com worship, main page.

Or, if it's where you came from, the Healing page.

A Sotomayor surprise

The surprise isn't that Obama chose her. She was on about 80% of the pundits' short lists.

The surprise isn't that the right wing of the Republican Party took off into using the r-word (racism) in their comments. These are the people who turned the GOP into the Party of No. (Yo! You lost the election, idiots! In a democracy, you work with the choice that the people very clearly made - those who won the Presidency, the Other party.)

No. The surprise is to see so many refreshing and insightful people coming to her support. I don't mean Pelosi (who doesn't even try to grasp what a thoughtful opponent might say) or Schumer (her main booster during the entire selection process to date)

I mean the folks who reporters have been sticking their mikes in front of. People. Lots of them, for a change. Probably because she's from the Bronx. They seem to understand. They 'get it'. They see a woman who's done some bold things as an appellate judge. Someone who's got a top-drawer legal mind. And most importantly, someone who's had to apply it in real life. (You know - the thing most court justices haven't seen in, say, half a century.)

I get a lot of personal pleasure seeing even cantankerous sports writer Mike Lupica getting his big-mouth licks in, in the part of the NY Daily News that isn't the sports section. (You know, the shrinking part.) This thing matters to so many.

Go get 'em, Sonia!

Amazing Race 14: the finish line

Tomorrow is the last segment for the Amazing Race season 14 (TAR 14).

They're finishing up in Hawaii, on a golf course on Maui no less. (I hope no golfers try to play through...)

There's always a task in the finals where the racers have to remember what happened in the previous legs of the race. From the preview, it looks like that will be tied to making a surfboard wall.

Who will win? I can't see how it can be anyone else but Tammy and Victor. They're just too good at it. Besides, I'm figuring Jamie (of Cara and...) will have to keep dealing with the fact that taxi drivers are not human slaves, even on the rare occasion they speak her language (rare even here in the US!) And after this, Margie will get a well-earned rest.

The TARflies (fans) will be meeting again in New York to see the finale, in what's called "TARcon". I'd love to be there with them (it's only a 1 hr. trainride away), but I can't because of family commitments. Hopefully, it won't be as noisy as when I went last -- the night the Giants beat the Packers to get into the Super Bowl. They might be able to hear each other speak this time. I'm also hoping Phil Keoghan feels well enough to attend; he's been on a difficult bike ride across the USA to raise money for MS, with of course the usual promotionals along the way for GNC stores and TAR. (At least he didn't have to carry a Travelocity Gnome around, like the racers...)

I will be watching, though. Go Tammy!

Shaky Game

I know the world of third-party apps is weird, demented, and morally bankrupt (they consider that a compliment). But the iPhone app "Baby Shaker"? My cousin has a baby, Grant, and he was shaken by his caretaker. A happy baby before then, but now a frustrated child because he can't balance himself enough to stand straight, among other mental and coordination problems. It's called 'Shaken Baby Syndrome', and there are many childrenwho suffer because they were shaken (supposedly to attain silence, just like the shaking of the iPhone does in the program). To watch him struggle with just the act of moving from one place to another can break a heart. It does mine.

I want whoever the stupid ass is who thought up such an app to go over my cousin's house and spend some time getting to know Grant, and the true supermom who raises him. By the time he's done, I'd hope he'd himself be shaken -- emotionally. What in hell gets into people that they think that's funny??