East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame 2011 Reunion

This event looks to have been a blast!  All the old drag cars look great!

East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame 2011 Reunion

 Our fried Bob Lees was there with the "High & Mighty II" Ramchargers tribute car.

More on Planet Fitness

These are kind of long (and the first has needless use of the F-word), but they illustrate the position which Planet Fitness has taken up in the market. They really DO have pizza night.

I Want To Be a Bodybuilder (Part 3)

I think I may have posted some of the videos here before. I like Part 3, because it gets into the whole Planet Fitness thing. Of course, I support their right to refuse membership to anyone they choose, but their anti-bodybuilder stance still amuses me. It is not a "Judgment-Free Zone", as they claim.

In case you missed them, here are the other parts from YouTube:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

Cemetery Gates: Death and Mourning Through the Ages

Those who are regular readers of this blog may know of my interest in cemeteries, and in photographs and paintings of cemetery scenes.  I recently had one of my photographs published in this book, but interestingly it was not a cemetery photo (see B&W photo below).

Here is the photo that was chosen for the book.  It is of Ivy Blue, and was taken at St. John's Episcopal Church of Detroit, on Woodward in downtown Detroit.

I have not given the book a close enough examination to be able to write any sort of meaningful review.  But I did find the images it contains to be interesting.

Sometimes, You Just Have to Feel Sorry for Atheists ...

I was driving my family home at about 1:00 am this morning, through the darkness of I-75 in Genesee County, we saw this billboard, blazing at us with what seemed a million watts:

You kind of have to feel sorry for the atheists, really.  I mean, the odds are long enough, what with them pitting themselves against centuries of belief in God.

But now, to take on Christmas ... I don't know how they think they can win this one?

Beat Frequency (Christmas in October)

Dear Readers ... Here is my 2011 Christmas poem.  (A few notes follow, below the text.)

Beat Frequency (Christmas in October)

Backward through the calendar

Christmas yearly strides.

Pagans push it earlier;

Summerward it rides.

Every year it starts again,

Sooner than before.

Someday we shall wake in June,

With Christmas at the door.

Still, they won't be satisfied,

These hurriers to carouse,

Until electric bulbs are hung

From April's budding boughs.

Faster!  Sooner!  still they cry.

On the madness goes!

Heathen frenzy at the malls,

'Mid February's snows.

Why this dash to Bethlehem?

Why no fear of danger?

Rush on pagan, meet your Lord,

Lying in the manger.

Finally, they shall catch me up;

We'll celebrate in synch.

And they shall have their Christmas Eve

Upon Epiphany's brink.

This beating of the Christmas waves,

For aeons shall it live.

For pagans need more Christmases

Than Christendom can give.

© 2011, Paul Erlandson

Notes:

1.  By "pagan" here I merely mean "non-Christian".

2.  It is, of course, not entirely the fault of pagans that Christmas is celebrated at the "wrong" time. Greedy capitalists, unprincipled radio station managers, and Christians who have lost their way from the Church Calendar (celebrating neither Advent nor the 12 Days of Christmas) are also to blame.

3. I had the idea for this poem back in October, 2011, a few days before Halloween, when I heard Christmas music being played on the radio.

Angus Dei

I sometimes think that if I ever open a restaurant, I will have a beef dish called "Angus Dei" (the Angus of God).  Angus cattle, of course, produce tasty beef.  I wondered if anyone had thought of that, and so I Googled the phrase, and came up with only one relevant photo:

If I don't open up a restaurant, I may open a clothing store.  If so, the name of it will be:  Everybody Loves Raiment.