Favorite Entertainment

The second annual Broadway on Church Street!   This just might be my favorite entertainment of the year!

The cast was made up of approximately 30+ extremely talented people.  There were the young and the older.  The child and the youth.  The short and the tall.

And lots of singing and dancing and lively choreography!   (The choreography was not simple---looked especially challenging!!)

Classical show tunes came from Les Miserables,  from Sound of Music, from Gigi, South Pacific and any number of other familiar and not so familiar musicals, too numerous to remember.

An all male ensemble sang "There Is Nothing Like a Dame".  This number was especially funny with a motley crew of rugged (ragged) sailors singing about the "girls" and all their shapely qualities.

Judie Murphy sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" complete with a real live Toto puppy who behaved perfectly from the first note to the last.  The puppy belongs to the local veterinarian so was perfectly trained.

Accompaniment was by the gifted Paulette Fry and Sue Bonne, with additional sound effects added via a synthesizer.

I could go on and on talking about how much I enjoyed it.   I cannot believe how much talent is concentrated in that one choir group  (plus a few extras.)  

And I simply have no words for how much I love these people!!

Apoptosis

I was reading an article on line about cancer and its causes and treatment (one out of three people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes).  I encountered in that article an interesting word I did not know:  apoptosis.

It is also an interesting concept. Apoptosis is the body's natural process of killing off and destroying old dying cells.   I will include the full definition below, as found in the medical dictionary.   

What is so fascinating to me is that cancer is not some outside disease, or external foreign substance that somehow invades the body,  like a virus or bacteria, but it is instead an interruption of the natural process of cells killing themselves off.

Cancer is uncontrolled cell growth.  Cellular disease occurs when something gets in the way of of the cells process of self-destruction, or natural life cycle.  Cells  are designed to live for a time, and then die off and be replaced by new cells.

One could apply this notion to any number of ideas.  One could especially apply it to other living organisms besides the human body:   Organizations, institutions, agencies, governments, religions.

What does not flow and change and evolve according to a natural life-cycle process can easily become cancerous or diseased.   I suppose the challenge there is trying to figure out what the natural life-cycle process is supposed to be.

So that's my philosophical observation for the day.

Definition of APOPTOSIS

: a genetically determined process of cell self-destruction that is marked by the fragmentation of nuclear DNA, is activated either by the presence of a stimulus or by the removal of a stimulus or suppressing agent, is a normal physiological process eliminating DNA-damaged, superfluous, or unwanted cells (as immune cells targeted against the self in the development of self-tolerance or larval cells in amphibians undergoing metamorphosis), and when halted (as by genetic mutation) may result in uncontrolled cell growth and tumor formation—called also programmed cell death

++++++++++++

 

Polenta

When I was growing up in the south,  you mixed a little bit of corn meal with an egg and some milk or even water, baked it in a cast iron skillet until brown, and that was what you had with dinner every night.  Good old fashioned cornbread.  A skillet of cornbread might cost you about five cents.

Then later in my life, watching cooking shows on television, and reading recipes in magazines, as an adult, I discovered polenta.   If purchased as a dish in a fancy restaurant, a serving might cost more like fifteen dollars.

Because of my childhood experience with corn meal,  I have never actually  either tasted or made polenta----until this afternoon.   Oh, how I wish I had taken a picture.  It was so very lovely!

I watched Mario Batalli make polenta on The Chew, and it looked so delicious, I wanted to try it myself.   I read some recipes on-line and learned the basic process.  I usually modify recipes to use what I happen to have on hand.  

What I selected was a mushroom and carmelized onion version, a topping for the polenta.  It was so absolutely out of this world,  that I'd have to say we really had a gourmet dinner!  Polenta along with an herb roasted pork loin and roasted asparagus.

I have definitely gotten over my prejudice about polenta!   I see from the recipes that you can also bake it  (which I did for part of it), and cut it into a variety of different shapes and it becomes so very versatile. The possibilities are endless.

There are so many new things to discover later in life!   Goodbye cornbread  (which I no longer cook or eat anyway) and hello fancy-pants-polenta!

Event Planning

Event planning is something I have done my share of, from time to time.

Last year it was the planning of our 30th Anniversary Celebration event, a special occasion with approximately 80 people in attendance, with program, slide show, games, food, etc.

This year, I am planning our road trip.  When I first began this project, I had no idea how complicated and time consuming it would be.

First, one identifies the route, the states, the highways that get you from point A to point B, and ultimately where you want to be.  After that, I got Guide Books and maps from AAA.   Then I began to figure how many hours of travel it would take from A to B.  What things would we do and see?  Where would we stay?   I have a notebook filled with a day by day plan, complete with reservations and confirmation numbers.   Hopefully, I can add to my 'event plan' a Trip Tik.  (I've never actually seen one before!)

Truthfully, many a worship service is an "event to plan", especially on those high holy days, and on many other occasions as well.   It definitely requires a detailed plan, a theme, a focus, and a specific vision of what that "event" will 'look like', and feel like.

 To this day, that's the kind of worship service I most enjoy, where the entire event is tied to the specific scripture for that day---the liturgy, the hymns, the anthems, the children's message, the prayers.

Yes, I do sometimes miss planning those events. These three things I loved:  writing, preaching, planning, but the greatest of these is planning!