Our Mission Statement REPRINT

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From July 17, 2019

Thanks to a comment made by Heidi this morning, I’ve been thinking about how to define the purpose of this blog. It was originally set up to promote my Bell Mountain books and hopefully stir up sales; but it has since grown into something more.

It’s not something I set out to do on purpose; it just sort of happened. Much of the credit goes to you, the readers. Together we have done enough to give birth to a mission statement. And here it is. Here’s what this blog is supposed to do.

Provide a place for Christian fellowship, including the posting of hymns, hymn requests, prayer requests, reblogs of posts on other Christian blogs, and Bible study. I love it when readers get to talking to each other. Nor do you have to be a Christian to be allowed in: the door is open to you, too. It’s important for us to comfort, encourage, counsel, inspire, and teach one another.

Praise the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the works of God the Creator, proclaim the Lordship of Christ, and assert His crown rights as the King of kings.

Outreach. This blog is a small part of the larger ministry of the Chalcedon Foundation.

Provide opposition to, and skepticism for, the pretensions of secular humanism–the climate change cult, Darwinism, transgender, and all the rest of those Really Smart Ideas that are actually abominable and stupid. The highest card in their hand is their claim to being vastly more intelligent than ordinary people–a claim that must be regularly and vigorously challenged. They deserve to be satirized, and I try to provide that. Hence Joe Collidge.

Provide good humor, pleasant memories, and fun. A good laugh is the gift of God. So is a happy memory. Hence features like “Oy, Rodney” and Memory Lane. And the comment contests, the quokkas, etc.

And yes, I’m still trying to promote my books along the way.

Anyway, that’s our mission–and we’re doing it together.

Cuscus and Baby REPRINT

From July 17, 2019

Somewhere in the treetops in the jungles of New Guinea, a momma cuscus grooms her rather hefty child–that’s the big white thing scrunched up in her lap.

Byron the Quokka assures me that business will take off “like a bloomin’ rocket” if I hire a cuscus to assist him him managing my blog contests. He’s up to something, depend upon it.

Well, I remain open to persuasion. Toss in your two cents, anybody, if you want to. I have to get on to some nooze coverage.

Byron Tackles ‘Oy, Rodney’ REPRINT

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G’day, everybody! Byron the Quokka here, with Chapter CCCXLII of Violet Crepuscular’s epic romance, Oy, Rodney.

[Nothing is written for an hour, to indicate an hour going by.]

What the dickens is this? Something about some unemployed shepherd with d damaged coccyx, and these twins, the Pottery sisters, Febrile and Facile. Come on, now! What kind of names are those? And I don’t want to know how to make twinkies with a toothpaste filling!

Y’know, that guy Unknowable had the right idea: wait till the Old Man’s better, and let him deal with this. By Jove, I’ll run contests for him till we’re both blue in the face, but trying to read and make sense of Oy, Rodney is just not on the cards for me. Just the one chapter that I read–sort of!–was enough to make my own coccyx hurt–and I don’t have one!

Management will endeavor to restore normal service as soon as management stops feeling like death warmed over.

 

By Request: Byron’s Baby Picture REPRINT

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From May 29, 2019

While I grow older and vegetate in the doctor’s waiting room this morning, we have a request from “Unknowable” for Byron the Quokka’s baby picture. Always happy to oblige, so here it is.

There is, of course, a whole family album to trot out; but Byron eschews celebrity status. I am not sure he knows what “eschews” means. The last time I used that word, he said “Gesundheit.”

Byron’s TV Listings (May 29) REPRINT

David C. Tucker, Author: When TV Was Simpler

From May 29, 2021

G’day! Byron the Quokka here, with a sample of this weekend’s spectacular TV broadcasts brought to you by the crew at Quokka University–just in time for Lee’s porch party! Without further ado:

2:30 P.M.  Ch 09  GENGHIS MY FOOT!–Drama

Brought back to life by a mad scientist (former California Gov. Jerry Brown), Genghis Khan (Mickey Rooney) is elected mayor of Hangem High, CT, and immediately sets out to conquer all of North America–after he recruits a Mongol horde. Mrs. McFlop: Eve Arden. Ghost: Fernando Lamas

Ch 12  GROW IT & SHOW IT–Gardening

Guest Luther Furbag has bred brown flowers “that look like they’re already dead.” Host: Nature Boy Buddy Rodgers. With Carl Sagan and his orchestra.

2:47 P.M. Ch 21  PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE–Politics

Top candidates for the presidency of the Bilgewater Fishing Club, Francis X. Fimbo and Don Diego Shaughnessy, square off on foreign policy, Climate Change, economic recovery, and blind dates. Featuring the June Taylor Dancers.

3:00 P.M.  Ch 03   THE ARACHNIDS–Sitcom/Suspense

Can a family of gigantic spiders live the good life in a human suburb? Only if they can learn to fit in! Episode 1: The Arachnids get off on the wrong foot with their neighbors when Muffy (Chelsea Clinton) eats Mr. Prigg’s dog. Directed by Jack Webb (who else?). Mr. Prigg: Edward Platt. Daddy Spider: James Arness. Grandma Spider: A real spider blown up to colossal size.

Ch. 15 PC POLICE SQUAD–Grime Drama

Hair-raising tales of misgendering, microaggression, and cultural appropriation, with only Lt. Kaydence Jugular (Jane Fonda) and her Bias Response Team standing between the human race and offensive language. Filmed inside a cement mixer! Sock puppets by Ralph Lauren and Carl LaFong.

There you have it! What’s a porch party without great stuff on TV?

Am I Out Of Gas? Am I Out of Potatoes? REPRINT

Land to the tiller | Cat questions, Funny cat memes, Wild cats

From June 3, 2022

I feel like an empty burlap bag.

Maybe it’s because we never get two sunny days in a row around here. That gets to you after a few months. Maybe it’s because nobody living under this roof feels exactly in the pink. Maybe it’s just the nooze wearing me down. Or some combination thereof.

And where is everybody?

All these maintenance errands to do today. Supermarket. Bank. Convenience store (not really convenient at all). Call doctor’s office. Try to get prescriptions refilled, drive to the mall and stand in line, waiting to pick them up. How do I do all that and still do my work?

Ai-ya, time to take my blood pressure…

P.S.–Are any of you seeing these posts as real light-grey letters on a white background, almost impossible to read? That’s what it looks like at this end. *Sigh*

A Fun Part of Blogging REPRINT

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From January 29, 2019

One of the things I enjoy about my blog is seeing what countries its readers come from. There’s a world map with that day’s readers’ countries colored in, and a column of flags where it says how many readers checked in from each country. Even better, WordPress keeps a running total going back to the beginning of my blogging history.

So far I’ve had readers from 189 different countries. I mean, it’s just so cool to see a flag pop up for Andorra or Paraguay or the Cook Islands–places my globe-trotting aunts never visited. It’s fun in the same way collecting stamps or foreign coins is fun.

I’ve got almost all of Europe by now, but I’m still waiting for views from Liechtenstein, San Marino, and the Shetland Islands. I think the coup that would tickle me the most would be to get a view from Easter Island: thinking of somebody sitting by one of those great stone heads with his laptop, reading Oy, Rodney. And how delighted I was by my first view from Mongolia!

I wonder if I’ll ever complete my collection. It seems unlikely, but heck–once you’ve gotten views from Laos, anything is possible.

Is the Lord Trying to Tell Me Something? REPRINT

Extinct hoofed animals looked like gorilla-horse | Earth Archives

 

From June 15, 2020

Knuckle-bear and calf, Lintum Forest

I am so not ready to go back to writing about the Chinese Communist Wuhan Death Virus, riots, soulless white liberals, and all that other schiff that everybody else is writing about. I am so not up for it, it isn’t funny.

That’s not like me. Usually on Monday I’m ready to wade back into the hurly-burly. So why am I thinking that today I’d like to work on my new book and put up a few blog posts that have nothing to do with Far Left Crazy trying to murder our country? I mean, we have to fight them, and we have to win.

But is God telling me, “I will fight them, boy. You go write your book”?

Yeahbut, yeahbut–Lord, what about my Newswithviews column?

“You don’t even know what you want to write for that. If I told you to sit down and write it today, you’d be stuck. So don’t worry about it.”

Tomorrow, then. I’ll get back into the melee tomorrow. I guess.

 

 

An Exclusive Interview with Byron the Quokka

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(Editor’s Note: The following interview was done by Ernest and Giulio Gallo for Not Those Gallos Brothers! Magazine. These are excerpts.)

E&G: Have you settled into your job as contest manager for this blog?

BTQ: Yes.

E&G: We understand this is only the second interview you’ve ever granted.

BTQ: That’s true. The first one, the guy told me he was Col. Mustard from the Clue game and I believed him because he looked like Col. Mustard, and then he turned out to be some patzer named Henderson and all the other quokkas laughed at me for a week and went around calling themselves Miss Scarlet or Professor Plum, etc. I have to admit–it left scars. But I granted this interview because my Uncle Cedric thought it was the Gallo Brothers who make that wine he likes so much, and I just couldn’t disappoint him.

E&G: Who do you try to pattern yourself after?

BTQ: (thinking it over for a good five minutes) I guess the Sons of Hercules.

E&G: what do you like best about working for this blog?

BTQ: The hours are flexible, the pay is fantastic, I get to see all the cat and hamster videos I want, and I love the readers, they are cool! Also I get to go to New Jersey now and then and ride on the handlebars of Lee’s bike.

E&G: Do you think Australia will ever have a quokka as prime minster?

BTQ: (dives into burrow. Won’t come out. Faint noise of him blowing a raspberry at the interviewers).

From Dec 14, 2019

 

Be Patient, We’ll Get to It!

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Crikey! I’ve just been promoted to executive editorial assistant, or something like that. Byron the Quokka here–to tell you that we are snowed under with stuff today, but Lee is gonna do his level best to get to it. I told him, though, to hold onto a couple of the hymn requests for tomorrow, in case we don’t get any more.

We could wind up with ten or twelve posts today, easy–and the joke’d be on us if no one viewed them!

On to the next one!

From January  2020