Tag: a personal note

How Ben Carson Got Me Throwed Out of My House

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

I am in big troubble now and its al becuse of that nogood Ben Carson. I had to go hom to my famly this week end and I seen they had Ben Carson bumper stickers on there cars. So I tole mom and pop they stopid for likin him, “Dont yuo know he hates Muslems and is a hater, he dont want no Muslem Presdint?”

And they got mad so I tole them i am a interllectural so they shuld listin to me, I am much smarter then them, i been to collidge and goin to get a Degree in Gender Studies, and they just ordrinary dum peple who ouhgt to pay atension to us interllecturals and do what we tell them. And my pop he got mader and he said well that does it! i am not goin to pay for any more collidge, i been payin al these years and now yuo are 26 and yure a bigger fat head than you was in heigh school. And my mom she said “Yiu get out of this hose and dont come back, not ever.” And I just said well thats what hapens when yuo listin to Ben Carson, yiu get to be as stopid as he is.

So now i got no home and no more tution mony, but my prefesser he says I can live in his tool shed for a wile. But how am i goin to pay for the rest of my collidge? I mean, like, its my hole future in Gender Studies!!

And to make it worse my folks they go around with them fake glases with the big noses and mustashes so no one will reckonize them. That is what hapens when you are a interllectural. All them ordrinary dum peple theyr just jellous.

Help Me Get 3,000 Hits

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

No, I’m not talking baseball here–I mean 3,000 hits on this blog for the month of September.

I’ve never reached 3,000 hits in a month, but I’m sooooo close! Another 200 will do it.

So if you like this blog, and wish to support it, please turn out in force, tonight and during the next two days. Tell your friends about it! Browse the Archives for articles you’ve missed. Click “Books” and enjoy the artwork and the blurbs.

Hey, it’s free.

My Pet Tree Frog

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hyla versicolor.jpg

Behold the grey tree frog, hyla versicolor. He also comes in bright green, because he has the ability to change colors.

These are about the nicest frogs you can have as pets. They tame fast. Mine would perch on my finger like a canary–their toes can curl, and also stick to slippery surfaces, like glass–and snap up mealworms I offered with the other hand.

I once had three of these; and because it was springtime, mating season, every night they used to line up on a stick and sing. The Tree Frog trio. They would sing all night long. And very loudly. So loudly, my housemates finally forced me to release the frogs back into the wild.

And that’s it for today from Mr. Nature.

A Special Treat for You

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Does this hauntingly beautiful melody sound familiar?

It’s called “My Love’s an Arbutus,” and it is used as theme music for Alice in the classic version of A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim. But it’s good any time of the year, and tonight I thought I’d like to share it with you. Relax and let it stroke your cheek.

Keep the Komments Klean, Please

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

I’m always happy to publish reader comments on this blog. After all, it suggests that people are reading it. But I received a couple last night that just couldn’t be allowed to see the light of day.

Just for future reference, here are some of the guidelines, again.

1. Look, I’m from New Jersey, where folks throw f-bombs around like confetti. But this is a Christian blog and there are no cuss-words allowed.

There are a lot of angry people out there, and there is a lot to be angry about. But anger must be kept under control. We really can’t have people jumping up and down, screaming, cursing, and making extravagant threats.

Come to think of it, I’m kind of prejudiced against that all-caps stuff, too.

2. A comment really must not include threats of physical violence. True, they can’t easily be carried out over the Internet. But they do indicate a state of mind not entirely appropriate to the occasion.

3. Do not pretend to be making a comment just so you can try to sell me something.

4. As much as I am against “hate speech” laws and pseudo-laws–that’s one of the things that cheese me off–I don’t permit terms of abuse. Use of those terms may indicate that you really, truly, do hate someone, and wish to do them harm, solely on the basic of some external characteristic (like skin color, for instance). I am not inclined to publish such language. This is a Christian blog, part of the Chalcedon Foundation’s ministry, and I have a responsibility to keep it that way. As it is, some readers think I go too far. But I do try not to.

So, by all means, let’s have comments–the more the merrier. All you gotta do is scroll down and click “Leave a reply.” I publish at least 90% of what I get.

Some Thoughts on 9/11

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

I don’t like to watch videos of the events of this day, 14 years ago. The images make me angry. So do conspiracy theories and the “Let’s forget about it” crowd. Nevertheless, I remember those events and continue to seek their meaning.

Here are some of my reflections.

*God’s judgment can land right on our heads and we still wouldn’t believe in it. We learn nothing. We stop our ears to God’s warnings. We wouldn’t want anyone thinking we were un-hip.

*Who would have ever thought, 14 years after 9/11, that the governments of the West would be competing to see which of them could import the most Muslims?

*Meanwhile, our glorious leaders could find nothing better to do than radically redefine, or just plain overthrow, the definition of marriage, light up our public buildings to celebrate it, and criminalize Christian and other religious beliefs that have remained the same for thousands of years.

*Our government gave a medal to a man who had himself surgically and pharmacologically mutilated so he could say he was a woman. At least we know who our heroes are. Or must I say heroines?

*We have a president whose middle name is Husain, and whose amateurish, community-organizing, make-it-up-as-you-go-along dabbling in foreign policy has caused the Middle East to boil over into the biggest man-made humanitarian crisis since World War II.

*While ISIS is beheading Christians and burning them alive, all captured on videotape, our government obsesses about “Islamophobia.”

*Western Europe would rather be invaded by millions of Muslims all at once, than roll up its sleeves and exterminate ISIS. The West ignores calls from Egypt and Jordan to do that very thing. One cannot explain why they let ISIS continue what it’s doing.

*For as long as we are governed by career politicians advised by self-proclaimed intellectuals and self-promoting Scientific Experts, we will not even begin to find our way out of trouble.

Eat Lots of Cake and Still Lose Weight!

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

I have to go to the dentist this morning and I have no idea what will happen to me there. So I thought I’d better post something now, in case I’m not able to, later.

Meanwhile, I have a burning question:

Where has my readership gone?

In the middle of the month, the readership of this blog took a radical nose-dive and has not come back. Where is everybody? Like, I’m sitting here listening to crickets.

Was it something I said?

And Suddenly It Hits Me…

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

So there I am, plugging away at my new book, The Throne (No. 9 in the Bell Mountain series), without the foggiest idea how the story’s going to end.  I’m used to this by now.

For years I wrote very differently. I had detailed biographies for every character. I had color-coded index cards, each subplot assigned its own color, so I could lay them out on the table and move them around and around until I found the best arrangements. I would be months and months at these preparations before I wrote a single word of the manuscript.

I’ve been writing The Throne since April. Each day I sit down with my pen and paper and say a prayer, asking the Lord to give me the story He wishes me to tell, and to make my work fruitful in His service. And He always gives me the story. This has been my method for each and every one of these books.

I’ve also been asking Him, lately, to show me how to end The Throne.

I was going upstairs yesterday afterno0n when, in just the time it took to climb the last two steps–whoom! I had the ending. Like a whole picture being flashed into my head. The whole thing.

Now all I have to do is write my way to it.

Sometimes I start with the ending and have to wait for the beginning. Or I start with a few key scenes in the middle of the story. Maybe even just one scene.

It’s a cool way to write, and I enjoy it. Thank you, Father.

 

Today is Our 38th Wedding Anniversary

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

This is where we met, 38 years ago. No, not up in the sky. Down there, in the little town of Keyport, NJ. At the offices of The Bayshore Independent. Our marriage has outlived the newspaper.

Yes, 38 years ago today, Patty and I got hitched. Speaking for myself, my marriage is the greatest earthly gift God has given me. Without it I wouldn’t even be me. Without my marriage I doubt I would ever have wound up in God’s service or written my Bell Mountain novels. I don’t like to think I would have turned into an out-and-out pagan; thankfully, I’ll never know.

We had our anniversary feast the other day, exquisite seafood from The Keyport Fishery–which is about the only place we know that’s still as good as it was 38 years ago. We’ll have another nice supper today. Otherwise, we hope to  celebrate in peace and quiet. Our scalp-dancing days are over. At least for now.

I also wear the T-shirts we bought on our honeymoon.

We hope to be left in peace by the bloodsucking idiots in Washington, but that’s out of our hands. They have already redefined current and future marriage. When they try to redefine existing marriages, then I would say their time has come… and there is yet another scalp-dance left to dance.

My Poetical Slip is Showing

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

[One of my hopeless competitors–T.S. Eliot]

I must admit to a poetical streak in my nature. I can hold it back no longer. As if struck by lightning, the following two poems occurred to me.

After decades of national trauma,

Brought on by two terms of Obama,

America rose

On the tips of her toes,

And canceled the liberal Drama.

Pretty cool, eh? Eat your heart out, T.S. Eliot. And then there’s this:

Progressives found some dynamite,

Couldn’t understand it quite.

Unbridled hubris never pays:

It rained libs for seven days.

Now if that doesn’t get you, what will? All I gotta do now is wait for that call from the Pulitzer Prize Committee.