A Quote By:

Rev. Reggie Longcrier, pastor of Exodus Missionary Outreach Church in Hickory, North Carolina, in response to presidential candidate John Edwards' claim that his opposition to gay marriage is influenced by his Southern Baptist background:

"We know religion was once used to justify slavery, segregation and women not being allowed to vote, all of which today are recognized as unconstitutional and socially and morally wrong. So why is it still acceptable to use religion to justify denying gay and lesbian American their full and equal rights."

Bleachers, by John Grisham

My advice would be to read this book only if you're into football. If not, a good half is going to be quite boring. For me, not knowing football at all, it was boring and foreign. Good chunks of the narrative are radio broadcasts' of games during which I had no idea what they were talking about.

The book is short, only 4 CDs, and the second one is all about such radio broadcast, so it went pretty quickly. It wasn't until the middle of CD 3 that I started to like the book, so if you're not a football fan, it might take a while before you start feeling any interest.

Anyway, in the end, it's not horrible, but certainly not a great read. It's the story of a guy whose glory days playing football in college (where he was quite promising) are over, and he's back in his hometown for the imminent funeral of his onetime coach.

Here he finds his old friends, and together they relive the times when they were all part of an unbeatable football team whose glorious facade hid many slowly surfacing cracks.

All in all, enjoyable, but, like I said, only after a good half.

Grade: 6

Green tea, the good stuff

I drink it daily because I like it but also because I read over and over about its health benefits.

A sample:

What can green tea do for you? It might be easier to list what it can't do. A fascinating analysis published in the November/December 2006 issue of Explore found numerous ways that studies have demonstrated that green tea (or compounds in it) promote human health, including:

* Fighting viruses, including influenza.
* Lowering levels of LDL, the "bad" cholesterol.
* Battling cancer. Tea compounds have been shown to help prevent or alleviate cancers of the lymph nodes, bladder, breast, cervix, colon, esophagus, lung, bones, pancreas, prostate, skin and stomach.
* Aiding endurance.
* Promoting weight loss in animal and human studies.

In short, drinking green tea is one of the best health moves you can make. And if you want to avoid caffeine, drink decaffeinated versions, or remove the caffeine yourself this way:

1. Steep tea for 45 seconds in hot water, then pour off the liquid.
2. Add more hot water and steep as you normally would to brew a cup of tea.

Up to 80 percent of the caffeine is released in the first infusion of water, so only minimal amounts will remain when you add water the second time. This method has little effect on the tea's flavor or aroma.

And with so many varieties to pick from, both plain and flavored, you'll certainly find the one you like.

A Quote By:

South Africa's Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, in an interview during which he discusses gay rights:

"For me, I couldn't ever keep quiet. I came from a situation where for a very long time people were discriminated against, made to suffer for something about which they could do nothing--their ethnicity. We were made to suffer because we were not white. Then, for a very long time in our church, we didn't ordain women, and we were penalizing a huge section of humanity for something about which they could do nothing--their gender. And I'm glad that now the church has changed all that. I'm glad that apartheid has ended. I could not for any part of me be able to keep quiet, because people were being penalized, ostracized, treated as if they were less than human, because of something they could do nothing to change--their sexual orientation. For me, I can't imagine the Lord that I worship, this Jesus Christ, actually concurring with the persecution of a minority that is already being persecuted. The Jesus who I worship is a Jesus who was forever on the side of those who were being clobbered, and he got into trouble precisely because of that. Our church, the Anglican Church, is experiencing a very, very serious crisis. It is all to do with human sexuality. I think God is weeping. He is weeping that we should be spending so much energy, time, resources on this subject at a time when the world is aching."

The New 7 Wonders of the World!!

They were announced last Saturday, so I'm really late with this post!!

The winners are:

• Chichén Itzá, Mexico
• Christ Redeemer, Brazil
• The Great Wall, China
• Machu Picchu, Peru
• Petra, Jordan
• The Roman Colosseum, Italy
• The Taj Mahal, India

So 3 of my picks got elected: the Colosseum, Machu Picchu, and the Taj Mahal. Four if you count the Pyramids of Giza, but:

After careful consideration, the New7Wonders Foundation designates the Pyramids of Giza—the only remaining of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World—as an Honorary New7Wonders Candidate.

This decision has also taken into account the views of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. The Pyramids are a shared world culture and heritage site and deserve their special status as the only Honorary Candidate of the New7Wonders of the World campaign.

So, technically, we really have 8 now.

I must say I'm pleased with all but one of the picks, and I think you can guess which one: Brazil's Christ Redeemer. I mean, forget the religious connotations and how much that might bother me, that statue was not the most deserving among the candidate statues and, above all, there were many other candidates that deserved it more than that.

For example, Cambodia's Angkor, Turkey's Hagia Sophia, or Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle. And certainly, mysterious statues like those of Easter Island or even something like the mystifying Stonehenge were more deserving of such a status than the "simple" Christ Redeemer, about which every thing's known.

Anyway, these 8 wonders are now on my list of things to see and places to visit in my lifetime, although I'll most certainly go to Rio de Janeiro for more than just the Christ Redeemer, like its Carnival celebrations, the samba, its beaches, and the Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar).

I think it's time to plan a trip!!

Lake George, NY

We went there for a mini-4^th of July vacation and we had a really good time. Ray had been there before when he was a kid, so he must have had a nice feeling about bringing his own kids there now.


The lake is much bigger than I expected it to be, and it's really beautiful, as you can see from this picture:


We did have a rainy day, during which we went for a car ride around the lake that took the whole afternoon. We also found the time to capture a couple silly poses from the kids:



We went tubing down a river, which was my first time (we don't "tube" in Italy, and that's a shame), shopping downtown (where I found the most marvelous of treasures: a complete set of The Lord of the Rings chess pieces - I believe they're made of crushed marble, they're very big and detailed, and they carry the Tolkien Enterprises logo too - that now, naturally, belongs to me :-) ), mini-golfed, and on the last day, went to an amusement park.

We were super lucky there. It was very cloudy most of the afternoon, and we were there till it closed at 10 pm, walked all the way to the car, which was parked on the opposite end of the parking lot (figures), got in, closed the doors, started the car up, and it started raining. Phew!! It would have sucked to be on the rides under the rain.

All in all a very nice vacation. We should go somewhere again soon.

Predator, by Patricia Cornwell

My first book by Patricia Cornwell was a good read. It was unabridged, the way I like it, and read by Kate Reading, an actress, which is usually a good thing.

In this case, not so much. I felt like she was able to "be" the different characters but not able to clearly differentiate them by doing different voices.

This was much more evident when there were more than two people talking at the same time, since sometimes it wasn't clear who was saying what and you had to go back and listen to that bit again. An immediate suspense killer.

The predator in the title refers to a serial killer who's been taunting the investigators of a private firm chasing him down for a while now.

By what I could infer, the main characters (Lucy, Dr. Scarpetta, Marino) are recurring characters, sort of like Harry Potter, so I might look for other books in the "series."

Being a thriller, every bit of information counts, so I won't say more to avoid spoilers (what I already said, that it's about a serial killer, is revealed within five minutes), but the book is good and the final twist is unexpected.

Check it out.

Grade: 8

Rome

WOW, what a great show!! Given the production costs, it only lasted 2 seasons, and that's a big pity.

Everything, from the acting to the screenplay, the costumes to the sets, the music to the direction is top notch.

According to history books, the Rome of the old days was both fascinating and terrifying, intriguing and dangerous. Shrewd calculations went into both politics and relationships and the show portrays this exceptionally well.

The series rotates around two centurions, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. The former rises through the ranks of the formidable Roman military apparatus, while the latter just tags along, alternately arguing with or helping his friend.

They interact with a huge cast of characters that includes Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, Cleopatra, Brutus, Octavian, Pompey Magnus, and many more, whose fortunes rise or fall as quickly as the wind can change direction.

Most shocking and interesting is seeing how both evolved and backwards the Romans' thinking could be, how much things have changed and yet, how some things never change, and how much better off we'd be if some aspects of their society were still with us (for instance, their open-mindedness).

All in all, this show falls squarely in the don't-miss it category.

Grade: 10

On the Lot

Ray and I started watching this new reality show and it's pretty good, so I wonder why the ratings are so bad. I'm not a fan of the American-Idol-format (which, thankfully, has been trimmed down because of poor ratings), with long winded presentations between contestants, frequent commercial breaks, and a full hour for the elimination process, but the concept is good.

A bunch of wannabe directors compete for a $1-million development deal at DreamWorks (that is, Steven Spielberg) by casting, writing, producing, and directing their own short films every week. One by one they are eliminated by the audience, which votes for its favorite films. The one with the least votes, is cut.

Some of the films are very good, others are weird but interesting, and then there are those that aren't so good. Usually their directors get the boot.

Anyway, give it a try, it's playing till the end of August. You might enjoy it too.

Good for you!

Today Paris Hilton was released from jail (too soon if you ask me, and I'm sure we'll soon witness her latest shenanigan on some stupid tabloid cover). She's scheduled to do an interview with Larry King, but apparently he got her only after she was turned down by someone... more desirable. Barbara Walters:

"Look, I've done prison interviews before, but people like the Menendez Brothers were really important news stories," said the creator and cohost of The View. "This wasn't. And even though I'd already written my questions, when all that pay-for-play stuff happened, I suddenly felt this was not up to my standard. It... felt... sort of... tawdry."

"The whole thing somehow was beneath me," she added.

Walters revealed that it was ABC, not she, who initially wanted the interview. "For them it was ratings. For me it was respect," she says. "I'm fortunately at a point in my life where I can choose what I want, and this was solely my decision."
[...]
"They respected my decision and walked away,” she said. "Some agreed with my decision, some didn't. For me it was just a question of respect."

Hats off to you, Barbara, you made the right choice for so many reasons...