Manna Food Bank on "The Biggest Loser"

Manna Foodbank was selected to be featured on an upcoming episode of The Biggest Loser. The partnerships are numerous but involve Manna, General Foods, Mission Hospital plus the programs, Pound for Pound Challenge and Lighten Up 4 Life. Proceeds go to Feeding America which filters money down to local food banks based on the locations of the participants. Manna was filmed Tuesday as part of the project. The mayor of Asheville was present (that's Terry Bellamy in the photo above) and they shot segments throughout the day. Libby was on the ground for the whole thing, but they didn't get her in front of the camera. The Hendersonville paper (among others) picked up the story.

Recently seen on the web

Because I maintain a couple of blogs, I tend to surf around and look at other peoples' blogs. It's mostly boring, but every now and again I see something interesting or entertaining. And once in a while I see something really dumb. Spelling-wise.

pollups= polyps

knaw= gnaw

snoops= Snopes (the urban legend, fact-checking site)

I don't even bother with the common mis-uses of they're, their and there. And the whole hear/here thing. But funny mistakes are out there. From people who ought to know better! I know I've made my share of mistakes (my mom points them out to me). But these are the most recent crop that had me chuckling.

100 Days - 100 Fire Trucks

A couple of weeks ago when we were really bored, on a whim I asked Briggs to gather up all the fire trucks he could find around the house. I was remembering when Eli had been in kindergarten 100 days and we had to send to school 100 of something. With Eli we sent 100 toy cars, Matchbox car-sized. He had by age 5 more than enough. Remembering that school project, and knowing we had accumulated a lot of fire trucks over the years, I wondered if we had anywhere near 100. With no trouble at all we came up with 68. Not counting books with fire trucks on the cover, video with engines on the case, stamps in our collection, and the really huge trucks in the basement.

Then this evening Libby mentioned that Briggs had a 100 day-100 objects project coming up. So the spontaneous thing of a couple of weeks ago took on a whole new legitimacy! Tonight while I was at rehearsal they gathered up the 68 we had separated into their own box, and went around the rest of the house to come up with 100 fire trucks. Libby said they had more than enough, what with Brio fire trucks, Lego fire trucks, magnets and pictures on the walls in the boys' room. They cleverly arranged all the trucks on the steps from the basement to the first floor. The smallest is about 1.5 inches. The largest (a present from the Steeles a couple of years ago) is about 4 feet long! Here's the photographic proof. Happy 100 days of school!

A star is born?

Briggs performing live at the Folly, January 11th. With a spontaneous, improvised interpretive dance by Calvin.

A Wesley Hymn

Charles Wesley wrote a collection of 6 hymn texts in response to a 1750 earthquake that severely, but not catastrophically, shook London. Consistent with the common theology of his time, much of the lyrics see in the earthquake a summons to repentence and righteous living. The last of the six, however, is a setting of Psalm 46. Thanks to the folks at Duke Divinity School for releasing this material in light of the catastrophe in Haiti.

Let earth’s inmost center quake,

And shatter’d nature mourn,

Let the unwieldy mountains shake,

And fall by storms uptorn,

Fall with all their trembling load

Far into the ocean hurl’d,

Lo! We stand secure in God,

Amidst a ruin’d world.

Prayers for Haiti

Our choirs sang this song this mornings, instead of what we had planned. I found this nice article of faith in Haiti while catching my breath between services. Finally this picture above seems to convey a sense of anguish an hopefulness all at once. We're having a good thought for the family of my former colleague from Eastern NC, and most recently head of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Sam Dixon, who died in the rubble in Port-au-Prince doing the work he loved.

Thanks to Reuters for letting me post the photo. Credits to Carlos Garcia Rawlins.

Happy Birthday Briggs!

Briggs turns six today. Lo, these many years ago he popped out at about 530 in the morning after along night of pushing and pulling at our house in Richmond. Libby did it with the help of a midwife and me safely at the far end of the house. In my defense I was there at the last to help in what little ways I could. Carolyn P stayed over to help Eli put everything in perspective. 1/14 was also my dad's birthday, and my grandfather's. A propitious day, indeed!