Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Scattershooting


Back in my former life when I was the asst. sports editor of the Columbia Daily Tribune, there was a Saturday afternoon ritual. At some point Blackie Sherrod's column from the Dallas Morning News would come across the wire and whomever saw it first would yell out:

Scattershooting!

That's because Blackie always started this column (which was a scattershot of random thoughts) by saying "Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to..." and then there would be the name of some obscure sports, entertainment or political figure.

Then it was up to the rest of us to guess. We'd each throw out some obscure name and, whomever had shouted "scattershooting!" in the first place (it was usually Dave Holzman, who loved this stuff ... wonder whatever happened to Dave -- last I heard he was in the sports department of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) would judge who came closest. Usually this was by some strange (and usually funny) criteria that he made up on the spot.

It was one of those great workplace traditions that lightened the load -- especially since you were spending a nice Saturday afternoon in a room with no windows while Missouri's football team lost 77-0 down the road.

Anyway, I haven't updated in a while and I feel like taking a page from Blackie, so it's time for some scattershooting. Unfortunately, Google has taken some of the fun out of the "whatever happened to" -- 'cause it's so damned easy to find out now. But it occurs to me that there is someone whose name I haven't seen in awhile. So, I'll resist the temptation to Google and just say that I'm...

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Blackie Sherrod...

When I was growing up, my priest was a firebrand named Clint Fowler (just to say "Father Fowler" is to elicit knowing looks of respect and fear from generations of Tucsonans). He's going strong at 82 in Pennsylvania and I'm on a e-mail list where he sends out 3-4 articles a day -- almost all from the liberal press and almost all excellent and thought provoking. Two came today, which are worth looking at:

"A 'Long War" Designed to Perpetuate Itself" by William Pfaff in the International Herald Tribune.

and


"Who Will Blow the Whistle Before We Attack Iraq" by Ray McGovern at Truthout.org

Give 'em a read...

Travelling a LOT these days. Last week it was Chicago for three days. Great meeting at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary with students and faculty interested in getting involved in the Millennium Development Goals. Then later a meeting with a great guy, Matt Gunter, rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn, who is active in the Diocese of Chicago's relationship with the Diocese of Renk in Sudan and who is going to help us with EGR's General Convention presence (it's great to put faces to names on the internet). Then it was a night at Brent House, talking about the MDGs with U. of Chicago students and members of St. Paul & the Redeemer Church. Big surprise there is who showed up by Tabitha Knerr ... one of my former students from Wash. U. who is at the Div. school at U. of C.

Then last weekend, I was in Atlanta with some folks from our board working with this incredible group of people from Tula ... a marketing and design firm in Atlanta (please, check out their website ... they do amazing work). Reid Mizell, who is the CEO, is an Episcopalian who is deeply committed to what we're doing, so she is giving us her services at such an amazing discount (which is all we can afford right now!) that it is practically giving it away. So we spent Friday night and all day Saturday with the Tula team, and they did unbelieveable work in helping us clarify mission and vision, chart out an ambitious but exciting seven-year campaign for EGR and the Episcopal Church, and lay the groundwork for a great relationship. They're going to have a campaign strategy for us by the end of the month and by Mid-March they'll have a new look for us and we can start churning out materials and preparing for the launch at General Convention....

Tomorrow, I'm off to Tucson. My parents are moving out of the house I grew up in. It's time, but it will be very weird. I wish my family could come with me, but it's too expensive and not good for time with Robin's work. Ian and Kathy will be there, which will be great. Also Ian O'Malley -- haven't seen him in a long time. I'll be there until Saturday. Then next week, it's off to New Haven to do the MDG thing for my old seminary -- Yale Divinity School -- and do some fundraising. (And dinner with Maegan and Sharon on Tuesday night!)...

My father-in-law, Ray, gave me his old Treo. Now I can do email and web from my phone and get wireless internet for my computer anywhere their system works (which is just about anywhere). It's amazing. One of those things that you don't know how you functioned without it. Thanks, Ray!...

Someone sent me an email last week filletting me for being a Bush supporter. Wow. People don't read carefully. It's also that we're in an environment where you can't give an opponent any credit at all for doing and saying something good without people coming down on your head. How in the world do we move forward from this?...

Pitchers and catchers report this week. Always reminds me of the day in February in Columbia that Jim Fallis brought a ball and glove to work and we played catch in the alley -- all because pitchers and catchers were reporting to Cubs camp in Mesa. God, I miss Jim....

Arizona's hoops team was looking like it might miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since Eddie Smith and Brock Brunkhorst. But their RPI is high and they've won a couple in a row, so it's looking up. I know I'm spoiled, but what a bizarre March that would be....

The new Cardinals stadium is taking shape. The scoreboard is up and the Busch Stadium sign is out. Looks good. Wish we could have spent the money elsewhere, though...

Spent an hour playing in the park with the boys yesterday. Most of it playing "Dad Monster" -- where I chase them all over every piece of equipment out there. Then we just collapsed on this big disc-swing that we could all lie on together and swung back and forth, looked at the clouds and hung out for about 10 minutes. Can't be a better way to spend an hour ANYWHERE...

Seriously, someone has GOT to come up with a good drinking game for plenary sessions at General Convention...

Got an email today from the folks at the Liberian refugee camp with an accounting of how they spent the $2,700 we sent them. I's amazing. They seriously built from the ground up a fully functional,wired computer lab. Now we're going to work on getting good training for the teachers, and see if we can get the Gates foundation in there to upgrade the equipment and software (though we need to be careful, the training needs to happen on machines and using software they would actually use getting jobs in Accra.)...

Saw "Good Night and Good Luck" this weekend. Really good film and definitely thought-provoking. Obvious connections between what happened then and the current administration ... but also a really great indictment of what the news media has become. Go see it....

Even though I'm still reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, it's too big to travel with. On Alan Blanchard's recommendation, I picked up "Mountains Beyond Mountains", Tracy Kidder's book on Paul Farmer and Partners in Health in Haiti. Just read the first section on the plane yesterday. WOW. Pick up a copy -- you won't regret it...

And, on a lighter note, the third season of Moonlighting just came out on DVD. It's the best season of one of the cleverest shows ever. And it contains one of the single best hours ever aired on television -- Atomic Shakespeare -- their takeoff on Taming of the Shrew. I picked it up in Chicago and it was wonderful to watch AS while I was sick in bed my last night there. I'm saving the version with the commentary by Bruce Willis, Cybil Shepherd and Glenn Gordon Caron for another time. And the rest of the episodes are top-notch, too...

Well, I've got to get to work. That's all for now. |
Mike at 2/14/2006 09:35:00 AM