ASK ME

My brother usually meets with a group at Starbuck's every Saturday morning, but apparently most everyone had said they couldn't make it. So, he told me, he was lying in bed early Saturday, wondering if he should go to Starbuck's or not.

Finally he decided to go and here's what he did. He made a little table-tent sign that said "ASK ME". He got a cup of coffee and the book he's currently reading, sat down at a table and set up the sign.

First thing that happened was a woman stopped and said "Ask you what?". Tom said "Anything". She replied "Okay, why is the sky blue?" Tom said "Great question. You want the serious answer or the funny answer?" "She said "Gimme the funny one", so Tom gave her the funny answer - an old Professor Irwin Corey routine.

"'Why is the sky Blue' is a two part question. The first part is 'why?' This question has stumped philosophers for centuries. It's too complex to get into right now. The second part, 'is the sky blue?' Yes."

Then she asked for the scientific explanation and he gave that to her. It turned into an interesting 10 minute conversation.

A few moments after she left a couple walked in. Same bit. The guy says "Ask What?" and Tom says "Anything". The guy looks at his wife, says "Honey, get me a cup of coffee" and sits down with Tom for 12-15 minutes of conversation that began with "What are you reading?"

Tom told me he figured that a) almost everyone has questions, and b) a lot of people don't feel like they have anyone they can ask. So he decided to let people know they can ask him.

I think he's on to something.

Random

• “Let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage”. Walden Media is awesome. So is Hillsdale College's monthly print/electronic publication Imprimis. This month Walden co-founder and President Michael Flaherty writes about the vision of Walden.

"We wanted to create a company dedicated to recapturing imagination, rekindling curiosity, and demonstrating the rewards of knowledge and virtue. All of our films would be based on great books, great people, and great historical events. They would be made by the best talent in entertainment and they would all be linked to educational materials developed by some of the best talent in education. We were taking Henry David Thoreau’s famous advice—to march to the beat of a different drummer—to Hollywood, which is why we decided to name our company after Thoreau’s most famous book, Walden."

Read more - you won't be sorry. These are the first guys I want to show my screenplay to.

• Every Last week of February, right before my March 2 birthday - I give myself back to my parents as a birthday present. I wish I could bring my whole family with me. I'm writing from my parents' home in Davis. Brother Tom picked me up late Thursday night at the airport; sister karin and husband Dave drove up from Claremont; and all of us had dinner last night (as is our tradition) at The Buckhorn in Winters, of whom the Davis Enterprise recently wrote:

Where's the best beef? The Buckhorn Steak and Roadhouse in Winters, according to the U.S. cattle industry. The Winters steakhouse has been named top independent restaurant in the nation with the National Beef Backer Award, announced last month by the Beef Checkoff Program at the annual Cattle Industry Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

• An enjoyable side benefit to this annual soujourn to the town of my raising is dinner the next night - Saturday (tonight), which gathers a circle of friends who became close in our High School years. Some of them, like Peter York and Bill Pfanner, I count among my friends since our days at North Davis Elementary School (and Oliver Wendell holmes Junior High, where the three of us were Dorothy's companions in the spring 1971 production of "The Wizard of Oz"). Others, like Christine Hopper, our hostess, became a friend in High School. All of them are interesting people (one of them is getting lots of airplay (and residuals, I hope) in a Progresso soup commercial in which she is a woman trying on a black dress). It's good to be with people who have known me for over 35 years and like me even though they don't have to. They even schedule a dinner around my travel schedule. How nice is that? I'll snap some pics tonight and see if I can pare them with some old pics and post them next week.

• And finally, I typically will speak at a Vespers Service at URC, where Dad and Mom live. That's Sunday, after attending my home church, University Covenant.

It's all good - just as it will be good to get home Monday night.

Random Notes

• Miles has been diagnosed with eosinophilic duodenitis. Those without highly technical interests can skip the following italicized portions.

Eosinophils (ee-oh-sin-oh-fillz) are a type of white blood cells. Eosinophils are the least common of the white blood cells and comprise approximately 1-4% of the blood’s cellular make-up. Eosinophils are most commonly associated with allergic diseases and parasite infections. This condition is most common in south Texas for unknown reasons.

Because it is believed that allergies play a role here, the treatment of the allergies is hoped to be the trick to treating the condition. If Singulair does not work, prednisone is the next step, which tends to drive blood glucose numbers crazy. Your prayers appreciated.

• ElenaClaire and the Kingwood High School Chorale is on a 2 1/2 day trip to San Antonio where they will sing at the Texas Music Educators' Association Convention - quite an honor. Her scholarship application to Concordia Austin was sent in today. She has applied to Concordia and to North Park. Everything rides on financial aid.

• Alicia is going to New Orleans March 1-4 with the CTK Women's retreat to rebuild.

• Covenant Bible College is closing at the end of the school year, reports the Covenant. That's a real loss.

• Brian came into my office yesterday and played me some music by The Redwalls. Since then I can't get "Colorful Revolution" out of my head. Sounds like The Beatles meet Dylan circa 1969, with Jeff Lynne or Gerry Rafferty at the boards. But it's none of those things, it's a band from Chicago.

• My band, These Guys Here, (be sure and check out the video) are booked for a wild game dinner on March 24 at the Humble Civic Center. I hope my family and I get back from seeing "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" at TUTS in time.

• I've been cast in Center Stage's production of "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying", June 8-17 in Kingwood.

Miles in Hospital Thursday

Miles will be in the hospital Thursday for an outpatient procedure, an endoscopy to figure out the source of his chronic severe stomache aches, present for the past 9 months but becoming more frequent and painful in the past month. We hope they can find a reason for this but also believe in may be emotional and stress related and rooted in his frustration with his illness. More than once, and as recently as last week, through tears of sadness, confusion, anger and who knows what else, Miles sobbed "Why did God give me diabetes?" That's a tough one to deal with when asked by a mature Christian who's suffering; it's heartbreaking to hear your 10 year old son ask it.

Meanwhile every spare moment these days is spent painting hardiplank siding. A gang of guys from church and I are tearing off the 30 year old cedar siding that is in terrible shapr, on 2 sides of our second story (the first floor is brick, and the streetward sides of the house are tudor style stucco). I figure it's easier to paint the stuff on the ground. I have 60 pieces of 8 inch siding still to do - 12 feet long. I've got a couple sawhorses set up in the garage and I can paint 10 pieces at a time. I do a batch at lunch, a batch before dinner and a batch before bed. I'll finish Weds night and then take Miles to the hospital on Thursday. Pictures will follow.