Monthly Archives: August 2006

Holy Innocents Food Pantry News

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Things are about to get really interesting at Holy Moly, my small Episcopal mission parish that I love so well. For one thing, we’ve got a new vicar, and the old one has a new job, and this all happened really quickly. For another, we totally changed our service time to 9am. It’s the tag end of summer, and attendance hasn’t been very good, so the time change could potentially be really damaging.

But. I talked to a reporter earlier this week. 😉

The supplemental food pantry we started last Christmas during Advent has slowly been gaining ground, and in the spring we committed ourselves to just a once-a-month distribution, every Third Tuesday, without fail. It’s hard to get anyone but the Bishop’s Committee members interested in showing up on that night, but we made it the lead-in to our monthly meetings, so we HAVE to be there.

The reporter called because I sent a press release to a couple of the local papers describing how our most recent distribution was our biggest yet – a total of 5 families that week came by for pre-packed bags of groceries. Over the entire course of the summer, we’ve fed about 12-15 families, two or three bags at a time (we also respond to calls to the office). I was crowing about it a little because, frankly, it was the best news we’ve had in a long, long time.

I got a bite from the local neighborhood “shopper” newsweekly, who was intrigued by the concept. We don’t have a lot of room for storage, and we wanted the convenience of having bags already packed with two meals ready to give out, either for a family with cooking facilities, or a family without access to a kitchen.

The dynamic right now is interesting; the new vicar is a very forward-leaning fellow, and there are one or two members of the Old Guard who keep saying “Father” and “His” where the bulletin says “The Lord” and “God’s” for… going on 5 years now.

Several older parishioners fell away this summer, and only now am I hearing undercurrents of exactly why some of them won’t come back, and it’s not for the reason you’d think, either. Our former vicar’s sexuality was a problem for some, and a convenient excuse for others.

Frankly, I’m looking forward to meeting some new people. The folks over at our new partner parish, St Nicholas, are quite lovely and I can’t wait to get to know them better.

links for 2006-08-23

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Utah Senate Race: Swiping Signs and Sneaking Seniors Out After Hours

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Pete Ashdown’s Campaign Journal � Sign War

It appears that the “sign war” has begun. Last night, all of our signs in the Salt Lake Foothill area magically disappeared, including a 10 foot banner that was zip-tied to a brick wall. All of the signs, including the banner, were on private property.

Equally magical is the fact that Republican signs have suddenly appeared in the same area.

I wonder what my sisters have to say about this? One of them lives in the Foothill area.

And what about this item?

Interestingly, Republican Party County Chairman James Evans who had presided over a voter registration-dessert party at St. Joseph’s Villa Thursday evening, was seen lurking in the shadows of the shrubs south of the wheelchair shop on the premises just after dark.

Hours later, coincindentally, at about 2 a.m. Friday morning, Mr. Evans was spotted leading a group of ambulatory residents out the back door of the nursing home. According to a witness, the residents, still dressed in pajamas, were led through a backyard and piled into a van, loaded with republican campaign signs, parked a block away, and drove east with Chairman Evans at the wheel.

It was further reported by long-time St. Joseph’s Villa resident Bee Bee (Bessie Bensen), that an unusually high number of residents were late for breakfast Friday morning, prompting kitchen staff to hold breakfast open till 10:30 a.m.

Okay, now really. This is St Joseph’s Villa we’re talking about. This op guy would hardly have been taking them out to swipe yard signs, or secretly register them as Republicans… okay, he wouldn’t have been taking them along to swipe yard signs at least.

But remember, this was after the dessert party. He was probably taking them out for a not-so-innocent (cue the dunh! dunh! Dunnnnh! music) cup of coffee.

They’re probably dying for a decent late-night latte. Heh.

Paragraph By Paragraph: Obama Rules, SA Health Minister Not So Much

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Senator Obama says to get African HIV test?|?Health?|?Reuters.co.uk

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Barack Obama, the only black U.S. senator, criticized South African leaders on Monday for their slow response to AIDS and said he planned to be tested for HIV while visiting Kenya later on his African trip.

I love Obama. But it still shocks me that he’s still the only black senator. That is so, so wrong. I hope that he’s not alone come the first Wednesday in November. Is anyone else black running, from either party?

South African AIDS activists say Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has created confusion by pushing traditional medicines and a recipe of garlic, beetroot, lemon and African potatoes to combat AIDS while underplaying the role of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.

Confusion? I’d say Minister Manto is creating a lot of dead South Africans who smell kind of tasty before they waste away.

Obama said Tshabalala-Mismang was making a terrible mistake.

He is being much too kind. I love him, but he needs to tell it like it is: Minister Tshabalala-Mismang is a complete and total idiot.

“On the treatment side the information being provided by the minister of health is not accurate,” he told reporters outside an AIDS clinic in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township.

“It is not an issue of Western science versus African science, it is just science and it’s not right.”

Diplomatically put, Senator. Others have not been as tactful.

Obama later told local AIDS activists that he planned to take an HIV test during the Kenya portion of his trip, winning immediate praise from South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“That would be very good,” Tutu said after holding talks with Obama. “It encourages other people who may be less brave to want to do that. It also helps to deal with the question of the stigma.”

Aww, I love Archbishop Tutu, too.

Obama’s blast at South Africa’s AIDS policies follows an week of criticism by activists over its decision to promote garlic and lemon as a solution to its AIDS crisis at last week’s global AIDS conference in Toronto.

Tshabalala-Msimang has frequently questioned the efficacy and safety of ARVs and says her approach is aimed at promoting basic nutrition as a bulwark against becoming ill.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS caseloads with one out of nine people — or five million South Africans — infected.

The government relented to pressure in 2003 and launched a public ARV program which officials describe as one of the largest in the world. But activists say drugs still only reach a fraction of those living with AIDS, which still kills more than 800 South Africans every day.

Tshabalala-Msimang has a lot to answer for – and an indefensible position to defend. She remains… incredibly, unbelievably, wrongheadedly defiant. What a shame she is so stubborn, what a pity for the people of South Africa.

Anderson window installation …one done

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Flickr

UPDATE: The window installers worked like dogs yesterday and got all but one set of windows downstairs and the patio doors installed, and then stayed until 730pm clearing out debris and vacuuming more thoroughly than…uh… more thoroughly than the housekeeping staff generally do around here. 🙄
They’re here again, right on the dot of 8am, just as promised. We have a lot of touch-up repairs to the window edges – plastering or spackling will need to be re-done where it fell off the metal strips on the inside of the windows, and it will need to be painted.
And, guess we really should have held off on installing new blinds until after the windows were installed, but we didn’t know we were going to do this at the time. We fell into a good deal.
I’m looking forward to being able to sit in the family room this winter and not have a cold draft go down my back from the windows, and there should be no need to put up plastic weatherizing film in there at all. Yayyyy!

Via: Flickr Title: Anderson window installation …one done By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 17 Aug ’06, 12.22pm CDT PST