Today's Reading

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 30, 2009

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 125

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading 1
Dt 4:1-2, 6-8

Moses said to the people:
“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?”


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5

R. (1a)One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Who harms not his fellow man,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
by whom the reprobate is despised,
while he honors those who fear the LORD.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Who lends not his money at usury
and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
Whoever does these things
shall never be disturbed.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.


Reading II
Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

Dearest brothers and sisters:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.


Gospel
Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

“From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Boeing 787 to fly by year's end

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.



Boeing Dreamliner
The Dreamliner project has been hit by a number of delays

The first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will take place by the end of 2009, the company has announced.

Boeing also said it hoped to deliver the first plane for service in the last quarter of 2010.

There have been a series of delays in the development of the aircraft, and it is now running almost two years behind its original schedule.

Boeing chairman Jim McNerney said the extra time would enable the remaining work to be completed.

"The design details and implementation plan are nearly complete, and the team is preparing airplanes for modification and testing," he said.

Write-off

The delay was partly caused by an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft which needed to be reinforced, Boeing added.


Risk remains the new schedule could slip given the current challenge of re-fitting the wing-body join... and simply the poor 787 track record
Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn

The latest delay in the project, announced in June this year, was the fifth time the launch had been put back.

The company estimated that the cost of the first three test planes, which have no commercial value, would be $2.5bn. This, it said, would be included as a one-off charge in its July to September results.

"This charge will have no impact on the company's cash outlook going forward," Boeing said.

While analysts generally welcomed Boeing's announcement, some cautioned that future delays may still have to be announced.

"Risk remains the new schedule could slip given the current challenge of re-fitting the wing-body join, the possibility of changes to the electrical and environmental control systems, and simply the poor 787 track record," said Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn.

Important plane

Boeing hopes to be making 10 of the 787 planes a month by the end of 2013.

Last month, the firm said it already had 850 orders.

It also revealed that it had received 13 new orders for 787s between April and June, but that airlines had cancelled 41 others.

The 787 Dreamliner is a hugely important plane for US-based Boeing in its long standing rivalry with Europe's Airbus.

It was the first unveiled in July 2007 and is the firm's first all-new jet since 1995.

It is designed to make use of carbon fibre to make it much lighter and more fuel efficient than traditional aluminium planes.

Memorial of Saint Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 28, 2009

Lectionary: 429

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
1 Thes 4:1-8

Brothers and sisters,
we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,
as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God–
and as you are conducting yourselves–
you do so even more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

This is the will of God, your holiness:
that you refrain from immorality,
that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself
in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion
as do the Gentiles who do not know God;
not to take advantage of or exploit a brother or sister in this matter,
for the Lord is an avenger in all these things,
as we told you before and solemnly affirmed.
For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness.
Therefore, whoever disregards this,
disregards not a human being but God,
who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 97:1 and 2b, 5-6, 10, 11-12

R. (12a) Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
Justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the LORD of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he guards the lives of his faithful ones;
from the hand of the wicked he delivers them.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!
Light dawns for the just;
and gladness, for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.
R. Rejoice in the Lord, you just!


Gospel
Mt 25:1-13

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Since the bridegroom was long delayed,
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight, there was a cry,
‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
‘Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.’
But the wise ones replied,
‘No, for there may not be enough for us and you.
Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’
While they went off to buy it,
the bridegroom came
and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.
Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said,
‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’
But he said in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’
Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

U.S. News Ranks GU No. 23; Rises in Economic Value

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.


Business, Study-Abroad Programs Also Recognized
Georgetown maintained its overall No. 23 ranking in the annual U.S. News & World Report America's Best Colleges list for 2010, but rose in two categories reflecting the university's economic diversity and value.

The rankings, which will be published in the magazine's Sept. 1 issue, list Georgetown among the nation's top 25 universities for the 20th consecutive year. It's held the No. 23 spot for the past five years.

Georgetown received a No. 24 ranking among national universities in the "Great Schools, Great Prices" category, a jump of eight spots from the 2009 list.

"Particularly in today's challenging economic climate we are proud of the fact that Georgetown is seen as a good value for students and is among a peer group of schools known for academic excellence and economic diversity of our student body," Georgetown President John J. DeGioia said.

In the "economic diversity" category, Georgetown tied with Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Princeton and Yale universities for schools that have 10 percent of their undergraduates receiving Pell grants. The number of Georgetown students receiving the grants, which provide tuition assistance to low-income students, rose by one percentage point from the 2009 list.

Among individual school rankings, the McDonough School of Business kept its No. 21 spot for best undergraduate business program. McDonough has held the spot since the 2008 rankings. The program shares the ranking this year with three other institutions -- Penn State University, Purdue University and the University of Washington.

Additionally, the magazine recognized Georgetown's study-abroad opportunities in the "Programs to Look For" category, which recognizes programs that enhance the undergraduate experience. The university's study-abroad program has been a fixture on the list since the category debuted seven years ago.

"Given Georgetown's global reach we are also especially proud that our study-abroad programs were recognized," DeGioia said. "Study-abroad is an activity that many of our undergraduates participate in and find to be among the most rewarding aspects of their experience at Georgetown."

U.S. News and World Report compiles its rankings in a methodology that includes statistics and other quantitative data in addition to peer assessments.

Source: Office of Communications (August 18, 2009)

Bear Escape with Ladder

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Good Things Do Come in Pairs

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.


Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

DYNAMIC FORCES Mary-Kate, left, and Ashley Olsen have emerged as unlikely designers with their clothing lines The Row, and Elizabeth and James. Above, the twins at their Manhattan warehouse.


By CATHY HORYN
Published: August 26, 2009

“THERE is a certain amount of face time that you need when you have a brand,” Ashley Olsen said. “We just wanted to function more behind the scenes.”
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Splash News

WHO’S WHO? The Olsens have kept their name detached from their brand.
Enlarge This Image

THE ROW From the fall collection, the Manchester leather jacket and the Ludlow dress.
Enlarge This Image

The Warrington coat.
Enlarge This Image

From spring 2010, a classic tank top.

It was a sultry afternoon in August, and Ms. Olsen and her sister Mary-Kate were visiting the production office of The Row, their two-year-old fashion label, on West 39th Street. The Olsens, despite being very rich women, have clearly chosen not to spend money on décor. The furniture is nicked, the windows mossy with grime, and the five employees who share the two-room office have to step around a stack of fabric bolts.

At least a tropical plant on one of the desks offered a bright spot of vitality.

“It’s fake,” Ashley said.

Her sister, the dreamier of the two, looked at the artificial greenery and said in a tone of rising lightness, “The table fell over the other day and the pot didn’t break and I was so mortified and impressed.”

This seems to be the classic response to the Olsen sisters as well. To read blogs devoted to them is to feel a queasiness with the fact of the Olsens — their physical smallness (“the magical millionaire pixies,” as one site refers to them) and, of course, their wayward style (“bad breath and dirty hair,” to quote another). Very few celebrities are either so fascinating or appalling that they manage to get under our skins, as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have, and it may be because they are twins. Yet their success in a field as competitive as fashion is impossible to deny. The Olsens, who are 23, have succeeded with two different labels simultaneously — The Row and the hip, less expensive Elizabeth and James — and without formal design training.

Elizabeth and James (named for two Olsen siblings) is produced under a license with L’Koral Industries, a denim and contemporary sportswear maker, and is sold in 300 stores, according to its president, Jane Siskin. The brand expects to double its apparel sales this year.

The Row is really Ashley’s brain-child, though the sisters share responsibilities. Nearly four years ago, while a student at New York University and ducking the paparazzi hired to follow her and her sister everywhere, Ashley gave herself the goal of creating, in her eyes, the perfect T-shirt. That was the concept behind The Row: beautiful but practical clothes whose fit and luxurious texture (T-shirts in sheer cashmere, leggings in stretch leather) had private meaning to the people who wore them.

Most good designers are mad for fit, and true-blue fashion consumers make choices on that basis, but the Olsens saw fit as a kind of ruthlessly modern sensibility. Their chaste black blazer, for example, has a high armhole because the Olsens liked the way Paris couture jackets fit, with high armholes and narrow sleeves that make your arms look even skinnier and longer. Being small, about five feet tall, they have always had a thing about proportion.

Even though four or five years ago, Mary-Kate and Ashley were the biggest names in tween clothing, thanks to a deal with Wal-Mart, today they’re practically aesthetes.

With The Row outperforming many better-known labels, beleaguered retailers can’t help gushing over the Olsens. The company expects annual sales to be 30 percent higher than last year, and Ashley said the line, which recently added men’s wear, will break even this year. The company’s total sales are estimated at $10 million, company officials say.

“To enter the designer apparel arena and build something, that’s significant,” said Jim Gold, the chief executive of Bergdorf Goodman, which carries the Olsens’ label. “I think the way to think about The Row is that it offers the perfect blank — the perfect schoolboy blazer, the perfect leather leggings, the perfect peacoat. So many designers are intent on the next great trend that some of the basics are neglected.”

“Perfect” was also the word that Julie Gilhart, the fashion director of Barneys New York, used to describe the Olsens’ timing. She noted that even before the recession forced a change in spending habits, more and more women were seeking high-quality pieces that didn’t go out of fashion. (For that reason, Barneys and other stores generally do not put The Row on sale. Prices range from about $200 for some of the T-shirts to $3,000 for coats, with the top-selling blazer at Bergdorf’s at $1,150.)

“I don’t think anybody really cares that it’s Mary-Kate and Ashley’s collection,” Ms. Gilhart said. “They’re buying it because they like it.”

Maybe, but you can’t help wondering how this particular fashion success story was written by two former child stars, and not by a designer with years of experience. And that may be the explanation: the Olsen sisters don’t seem to acknowledge the conventional barriers to success, beginning with their famous name. After all, they detached their names from the brand. “The customer who buys the clothes almost never knows we’re involved,” Ashley said.

And though Ashley, the alpha sister, came to the meeting in the production office dressed in a plaid cashmere shirt from The Row’s fall line and a black miniskirt, the label can’t be said to reflect the Olsens’ wildly random style — sometimes, perhaps uncharitably, called Dumpster chic. Mary-Kate, her eyebrows bleached, had on a vintage black leather skirt with a long-sleeve print T-shirt that she last wore, she said, about eight years ago.

“The majority of our customers are 35 to 60,” Ashley said. “Yeah, I wear a lot of stuff because it’s basic. It’s that ageless design that we try to focus on, but it’s not defined by one of us.”

Mary-Kate added, “Also, I think you design things because maybe it’s not you.” She paused. “I have my own pet peeves about things that I don’t wear.”

Like what?

Ashley started to laugh.

“Like tank tops,” Mary-Kate said.

“You’ll never see her in a tank top,” Ashley said.

Her sister, who vaguely, surprisingly, has the face of a 1930s film star — Harlow with bed hair —prefers to be covered up. “So sometimes,” Mary-Kate said, “you design something that you die to wear or love to see somebody else wear.”

It’s also true that the Olsens have the luxury of choice. Unlike most young designers, they are enormously wealthy. Forbes estimated their earnings in 2008 at $15 million. They have been working since they were 9 months old, first sharing the role of Michelle Tanner on the popular sitcom “Full House” and then as entrepreneurs of their own cutesy image. By 2005, when the sisters assumed the leadership of their company, Dualstar Entertainment Group, and bought out their partner, Mary-Kate and Ashley products — videos, makeup, clothing, dolls — were said to generate $1.2 billion in retail sales.

Jill Collage, the executive vice president of Dualstar, said that the company’s new ventures, like Elizabeth and James, reflect the Olsens’ growing up. Ms. Collage, who has worked with the sisters since she was their on-set guardian, declined to reveal sales numbers.

And yet, almost perversely, the atmosphere in The Row’s cramped office on 39th Street is old school — before big brands, indeed before celebrity. The Olsens and their production manager, Joe Karban, a veteran of a number of designer studios, including Ralph Lauren’s, schlep to the sewing rooms and patternmakers in the garment district. (The label is produced entirely in New York, mostly with Italian fabrics.) And while the sisters may attend the odd fashion show, they are not interested in staging their own.

“It’s much like the old days at Polo,” Mr. Karban said. “The kids on the team are really passionate about making clothes. How do you set a proper sleeve? How does a fabric perform? It’s the art of making clothes as opposed to making everything cookie-cutter. Plus everything Mary-Kate and Ashley do turns to gold. Lots of people in the industry are worried about their excess inventory. My reorder business is phenomenal.”

People who know the Olsens say they have uncanny instincts for what the stylishly obsessed want. “There’s no God that said, ‘Create a high-end label and not have your name attached to it,’ ” said a friend, Alex Hawgood, who works as a creative consultant on The Row (and formerly was an editorial assistant at The New York Times Magazine). “That was 100 percent their decision.”

The Olsens don’t do many interviews, but in recent ones they have brought up, almost coyly, the perception that they don’t work and are lollygagging around with their boyfriends (Mary-Kate dates the artist Nate Lowman; Ashley goes out with the actor Justin Bartha). The sisters, in fact, work very hard, but this slightly scripted moment of self-effacement is meant to serve a larger point: they want you to know they don’t really care what people think of them.

Mary-Kate and Ashley are older than their years. Everyone says so.

“I think Ashley has an old soul,” said Ms. Siskin, their partner in Elizabeth and James. “That’s really what it is. She’s not as good with the whole celebrity thing as people might think. She’s longs for a bit of a normal life.”

And Mary-Kate, who continues to seek out acting jobs, is adept at channeling glamour in a cool way; it was really Mary-Kate’s boho layers and oversize glasses that inspired a generational look.

But they are still 23.

“Listen, I used to be in the entertainment industry,” Ashley said. “I decided at 18 that I don’t really want to do this anymore. I wanted to explore other things, and with that came The Row.” She looked across the table at her sister and for a moment their eyes locked.

She continued: “Our lives have been kind of backward. We never got that opportunity in high school to figure out what you want to do. We never had the time to discover, ‘Oh, I love doing this ...’ So for us this experience in fashion has been amazing.”

Memorial of Saint Monica

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 27, 2009

Lectionary: 428

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
1 Thes 3:7-13

We have been reassured about you, brothers and sisters,
in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.
For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,
for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?
Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person
and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.
Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus
direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase
and abound in love for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 90:3-5a, 12-13, 14 and 17

R. (14) Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!


Gospel
Mt 24:42-51

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Today's Reading

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 26, 2009

Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 427

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
1 Thes 2:9-13

You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery.
Working night and day in order not to burden any of you,
we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God.
You are witnesses, and so is God,
how devoutly and justly and blamelessly
we behaved toward you believers.
As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children,
exhorting and encouraging you and insisting
that you walk in a manner worthy of the God
who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.

And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12ab

R. (1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.


Gospel
Mt 23:27-32

Jesus said,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.


DescriptionLeutze's depiction of Washington's attack on the Hessians at Trenton on December 25, 1776, was a great success in America and in Germany. Leutze began his first version of this subject in 1849. It was damaged in his studio by fire in 1850 and, although restored and acquired by the Bremen Kunsthalle, was again destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942. In 1850, Leutze began this version of the subject, which was placed on exhibition in New York during October of 1851. At this showing Marshall O. Roberts bought the canvas for the then-enormous sum of $10,000. In 1853, M. Knoedler published an engraving of it. Many studies for the painting exist, as do copies by other artists.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsSignature: [at lower right]: E. Leutze / Dusseldorf 1851
ProvenanceWith Goupil, Vibert and Company, Paris and New York, 1851–52; Marshall O. Roberts, New York, 1852–died 1880; his estate, 1880–97; sale, Ortgies and Company, Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, January 20, 1897, no. 172; John S. Kennedy, New York, 1897
Additional Views
Alternate Image
1 of 4
Enlarge image Enlarge
Zoom on image Zoom

Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 25, 2009

Lectionary: 426

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
1 Thes 2:1-8

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters,
that our reception among you was not without effect.
Rather, after we had suffered and been insolently treated,
as you know, in Philippi,
we drew courage through our God
to speak to you the Gospel of God with much struggle.
Our exhortation was not from delusion or impure motives,
nor did it work through deception.
But as we were judged worthy by God to be entrusted with the Gospel,
that is how we speak,
not as trying to please men,
but rather God, who judges our hearts.
Nor, indeed, did we ever appear with flattering speech, as you know,
or with a pretext for greed–God is witness–
nor did we seek praise from men,
either from you or from others,
although we were able to impose our weight as Apostles of Christ.
Rather, we were gentle among you,
as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you
not only the Gospel of God, but our very selves as well,
so dearly beloved had you become to us.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 139:1-3, 4-6

R. (1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know the whole of it.
Behind me and before, you hem me in
and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
too lofty for me to attain.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.


Gospel
Mt 23:23-26

Jesus said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.”

Diana

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Diana, 1892–93; this cast, 1928
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, 1848–1907)
Bronze, gilt

101 3/4 x 53 1/2 x 14 1/8 in. (258.5 x 135.9 x 35.9 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1928 (28.101)

At the request of architect Stanford White, Saint-Gaudens created a revolving finial to surmount the tower of White's Madison Square Garden (completed in 1891). Although already occupied with other commissions, Saint-Gaudens welcomed the opportunity to create what would be the only female nude in his oeuvre. His son Homer later recalled that the sculptor took on the project as a labor of love and consented "to give his work upon it, provided White pay the expenses." Known for his realistic and often heroic portraiture, Saint-Gaudens found in Diana an opportunity to work in an ideal vein. His interpretation of the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt eschews the traditional full-bodied huntress, instead focusing on simple, elegant lines and a strong silhouette reminiscent of a New England weathervane. Installed in 1891, Diana was designed to rotate easily with her bow and arrow as the pointer and her billowing swath as the rudder. Saint-Gaudens and White soon realized that the 18-foot-high Diana was disproportionately large for White's tower and that the figure could not revolve in the wind, as intended, because it was too heavy. After removing this version in 1892, a 13-foot-high Diana (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) was hoisted onto the Madison Square Garden tower the following year. This version, also of hammered and gilt sheet copper, retained the flying drapery of the larger version, but with refinements. The Metropolitan's gilt bronze Diana is a half-size model of the second version, produced posthumously in 1928 from an original cement cast owned by the White family. It lacks the flying draperies of the original versions.

Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 24, 2009

Lectionary: 629

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
Rv 21:9b-14

The angel spoke to me, saying,
“Come here.
I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain
and showed me the holy city Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven from God.
It gleamed with the splendor of God.
Its radiance was like that of a precious stone,
like jasper, clear as crystal.
It had a massive, high wall,
with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationed
and on which names were inscribed,
the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
There were three gates facing east,
three north, three south, and three west.
The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation,
on which were inscribed the twelve names
of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18

R. (12) Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.


Gospel
Jn 1:45-51

Philip found Nathanael and told him,
“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
But Nathanael said to him,
“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him.”
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Do you believe
because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than this.”
And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Travel: 36 Hours in Oslo

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.


By STUART EMMRICH

THE first thing anyone who knows Oslo says when you mention that you are headed there is, “It’s really expensive.” The second thing they say is, “No, I’m not kidding. It’s really expensive.” And, indeed, a visit to Oslo brings with it immediate sticker shock: a bottle of water costs the equivalent of $6, a small glass of beer will set you back $10 or more, and a bottle of wine at dinner can practically equal a month’s mortgage payment back home. But you quickly, if grudgingly, accept the damage done to your wallet after a few hours strolling around this beguiling city — particularly in summer, when the sun’s last rays still haven’t faded by 11 p.m. and the locals, unshackled from the oppressiveness of the Scandinavian winter, seem to be in a nonstop party mode.

Friday

4 p.m.
1) ROYALTIES

If you walk down Karl Johans Gate, the main drag of central Oslo, a tree-lined promenade bordered by restaurants, cafes and upscale stores, you’ll eventually find yourself face-to-face with the Royal Palace, the mammoth, cream-colored home of the Norwegian royal family. As such, the palace (Henrik Ibsen Vei 1; 47-22-04-87-00; www.kongehuset.no) is open to the public only a few hours each day. In summer, one of those times is 4 p.m. on Friday, when an English-language tour (95 kroner, or $15.15 at 6.27 Norwegian kroner to the dollar) is given to visitors. You’ll get a CliffsNotes version of Norwegian history from the informative guides as well as a spectacular view of the city from the windows that open to the royal balcony.

5:30 p.m.
2) SAY ONKEL

For a predinner drink, you might want to join the lively crowd at Onkel Donald (Universitetsgata 26; 47-23-35-63-10; www.onkeldonald.no), an open-air cafe opposite the National Theater, where the inviting aroma of burgers being cooked on a huge outdoor grill wafts over the young patrons as they share pitchers of Ringnes beer (245 kroner) and bowls of moules frites (159 kroner).

8:30 p.m.
3) FRUIT OF THE SEA

The restaurant Solsiden, set in a converted warehouse on the waterfront, offers an ideal setting for dinner, particularly when staff members roll up the huge canvas window shades and patrons can watch the sun as it begins its slow descent across the Oslo Fjord. Local seafood is the specialty at this spot (Sondre Akershus Kai 34; 47-...; www.solsiden.no; dinner only), which is open only from May to September, with many diners starting off their meal with a huge platter of fruits de mer. Dinner for two, including dessert and wine, should run about 1,600 kroner.

10 p.m.
4) ON THE HOUSE

When the Oslo Opera House (Kirsten Flagstad Plass 1; 47-21-42-21-00; www.operaen.no), designed by the hot Norwegian firm Snohetta, opened in 2008, the Norwegian capital got more than a world-class performing arts center. It also got an unlikely playground. At almost any time of the day or night, hundreds of visitors scramble all over the building’s sleek, gently angled Italian marble surface, inching their way up to the plaza-like rooftop. Think of it as a cultural institution that doubles as a jungle gym.

Saturday

10:30 a.m.
5) ON THE FJORD

The sun’s been up for hours by now, so stir yourself and enjoy its rays while taking a boat trip around the Oslo Fjord, gliding past bucolic islands dotted with the colorful summer homes of the city’s well-to-do residents. Boats (Radhusbrygge 3; 47-23-35-68-90; www.boatsightseeing.com) leave from a dock opposite the Oslo City Hall, and a two-hour ride costs 230 kroner.

1 p.m.
6) ON THE TABLE

After returning to land, head over to nearby Aker Brygge, a lively waterfront development of bars, restaurants and a huge indoor shopping center. There are plenty of dining options here, but probably the best place for lunch is Lofoten Fiskerestaurant (Stranden 75; 47-22-83-08-08; www.lofoten-fiskerestaurant.no), particularly if you can snag an outdoor table. Summer offerings include mussels in white wine (139 kroner) and baked sea pike served with lemon risotto (268 kroner). Reservations essential. Afterward, stroll around the area, popping into the Nobel Museum, City Hall and perhaps the shopping center, where among dozens of shops you will find a stylish Scandinavian housewares store called Kitch’n (Stranden 3; 47-22-83-45-20), selling everything from elegant salad bowls (495 kroner) to brightly colored rolls of toilet paper (29 kroner each).

4 p.m.
7) A PLAYWRIGHT’S HOUSE

Yes, behind every great man is said to be a woman. But how many women all but chained their elderly husbands to their desk for two and a half hours each morning, demanding that they put in a full quota of work before letting them escape down the street for a leisurely lunch and a welcome drink? That seems to be the legacy of Suzannah Thoresen, the wife of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, as entertainingly recounted by the English-language guides at the Ibsen Museum. (They also let you know that she was so penurious that Ibsen had to go behind her back and secretly order the expensive French fabric he coveted for the drawing room windows.) There’s more here than the retelling of domestic squabbles, however, as you walk through the painstakingly restored home where Ibsen, long self-exiled from his home country, spent his final years and wrote his last two plays, “John Gabriel Borkman” and “When We Dead Awaken.” (Henrik Ibsen’s Gate 26; 47-22-12-35-50; www.norskfolkemuseum.no; 85 kroner for a guided tour.) Don’t miss the short black-and-white film about Ibsen’s life and career, which includes newsreel footage of his funeral. It’s shown in alternating Norwegian and English versions. (The Norwegian one is oddly compelling, even if you don’t speak a word of the language.)

8 p.m.
8) TRY THE REINDEER

For a sampling of traditional Norwegian cuisine, like medallions of reindeer in a sauce of port and raisins, head over to Engebret Café (Bankplassen 1; 47-22-82-25-25; www.engebret-cafe.no), a quietly elegant restaurant set in a low-slung 17th-century building. If the weather is nice, grab one of the 20 or so outdoor tables, where the voices of the other patrons are softened by the sound of the bubbling fountain in the adjoining courtyard. Dinner for two, including dessert and wine, will run about 1,400 kroner.

10:30 p.m.
9) NIGHTCAP OR NIGHT STARTER

After dinner, walk down to the waterfront until you encounter the park surrounding the famed Akershus Castle, a cannon-protected fortress that offers romantic views of the Oslo Fjord. Following the winding path will eventually lead you down to the bars of the Aker Brygge promenade, like the barge-like Lekter’n (Stranden 3; 47-22-83-00-60), where many of the city’s youth are getting ready for their night to shift into high gear.

Sunday

11 a.m.
10) WE ALL SCREAM

Two words: “The Scream.” You can’t visit Oslo without seeing this masterwork by Edvard Munch, which is on view at the National Gallery (Universitetsgata 2; 47-21...; www.nasjonalmuseet.no), with helpful signs leading you along the way. But take a few moments to check out other, lesser-known works, like several pieces by the painting duo of Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude, whose “Bridal Voyage on the Hardanger Fjord” is described as “one of the most important in Norwegian art.” A total immersion in Edvard Munch, both of his own work and of the art he collected, can be found across town at the Munch Museum (Toyengata 53; 47-23-4...; www.munch.museum.no).

1 p.m.
11) SCULPTURAL PARK

The Vigeland Sculpture Park (www.vigeland.museum.no) is the work of the sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), who not only designed the park itself but also created the more than 200 sculptures that dot its grounds, including the massive Tower-of-Babel-like centerpiece known as the monolith, with its collection of writhing, naked bodies carved out of a single granite block. The park, which you can reach either on a short ride on the No. 12 tram or through a pleasant walk through a lovely residential neighborhood, is extremely popular with the locals. On a recent afternoon, the crowd included picnickers, sunbathers, families out for a stroll, and even two groups of rival cheerleading squads practicing their routines. (Was “Bring It On” a big hit in Norway?)

THE BASICS

Continental has nonstop flights from Newark to Oslo Airport Gardermoen, with airfares starting at about $610 round trip for weekend trips in September. Slightly lower fares can be found on US Airways and SAS, but they require a stop along the way. The best way to get into downtown Oslo from the airport is Flytoget, the express train, which leaves every 10 minutes and takes about 20 minutes to get to Central Station. The one-way fare is 170 kroner ($27 at 6.27 kroner to the dollar) if you buy it from a vending machine; 200 kroner if you buy it from a ticket clerk. (A taxi could cost as much as 775 kroner, or about $125, one way.)

First Hotel Grims Grenka (Kongens Gate 5; 47-23-10-72-00; www.firsthotels.com/en) is a modern, sleek hotel in the city center, right next to the National Museum of Architecture. Free Wi-Fi in the rooms and a lively bar on the rooftop. Rates for a double room start at about 1,550 kroner, about $247, a night, based on a recent check on the hotel’s Web site.

The Thon Hotel Opera (Christian Frederiksplass 5; 47-24-10-30-00; www.thonhotels.com), part of a popular, midrange Norwegian chain, is across from Central Station. It has views of the nearby Opera House from many of its 434 rooms, as well as from the glass elevator rising from the sleek lobby, the terrace bar on the fourth floor, the inviting Scala restaurant and the treadmills in the hotel’s vest-pocket gym. Rates for a double room start at around 1,140 kroner a night, when booked through the hotel’s Web site.

Memorial of Saint Pius X, pope

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 21, 2009

Lectionary: 423

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22

Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land;
so a man from Bethlehem of Judah
departed with his wife and two sons
to reside on the plateau of Moab.
Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,
and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women,
one named Orpah, the other Ruth.
When they had lived there about ten years,
both Mahlon and Chilion died also,
and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband.
She then made ready to go back from the plateau of Moab
because word reached her there
that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her.

Naomi said, “See now!
Your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god.
Go back after your sister-in-law!”
But Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you!
For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge,
your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Thus it was that Naomi returned
with the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth,
who accompanied her back from the plateau of Moab.
They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!


Gospel
Mt 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Memorial of Saint Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.


August 20, 2009

Lectionary: 422

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
Jgs 11:29-39a

The Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah.
He passed through Gilead and Manasseh,
and through Mizpah-Gilead as well,
and from there he went on to the Ammonites.
Jephthah made a vow to the LORD.
“If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said,
“whoever comes out of the doors of my house
to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites
shall belong to the LORD.
I shall offer him up as a burnt offering.”

Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them,
and the LORD delivered them into his power,
so that he inflicted a severe defeat on them,
from Aroer to the approach of Minnith (twenty cities in all)
and as far as Abel-keramim.
Thus were the Ammonites brought into subjection
by the children of Israel.
When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah,
it was his daughter who came forth,
playing the tambourines and dancing.
She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her.
When he saw her, he rent his garments and said,
“Alas, daughter, you have struck me down
and brought calamity upon me.
For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot retract.”
She replied, “Father, you have made a vow to the LORD.
Do with me as you have vowed,
because the LORD has wrought vengeance for you
on your enemies the Ammonites.”
Then she said to her father, “Let me have this favor.
Spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountains
to mourn my virginity with my companions.”
“Go,” he replied, and sent her away for two months.
So she departed with her companions
and mourned her virginity on the mountains.
At the end of the two months she returned to her father,
who did to her as he had vowed.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 40:5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10

R. (8a and 9a) Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Blessed the man who makes the LORD his trust;
who turns not to idolatry
or to those who stray after falsehood.
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me.
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.


Gospel
Mt 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables
saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Hoover Dam, Finished in 1936, Is Still a Hugely Interesting Place

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.


The dam built between Arizona and Nevada controlled the Colorado River and provides electric power to millions of people. Transcript of radio broadcast:
11 August 2009
VOICE ONE:
This is Bob Doughty.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Hoover Dam. It was the largest and most difficult structure of its kind ever built when work started in nineteen thirty-one.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:

Our report today about Hoover Dam must begin with the Colorado River. This river made the dam necessary. The Colorado River begins high in the Rocky Mountains. It begins slowly, during the dark months of winter. Heavy snow falls on the Rocky Mountains.
The snow is so deep in some areas that it will stay on the ground well into the hot days of summer. But the snow does melt. Ice cold water travels down the mountains and forms several rivers -- the Gila River, the Green River, the Little Colorado, the San Juan, the Virgin and the Gunnison rivers.
These rivers link together and form the beginnings of the Colorado River. The Colorado River flows through, or provides water for, the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Then it crosses the border into Mexico.
VOICE TWO:
The Colorado River has always been extremely powerful. The river created the huge Grand Canyon. The violent water cut hundreds of meters deep into the desert floor of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is proof of the power of this great river.
The Grand Canyon was cut into the desert floor beginning thousands of years ago. But the power of this river has been demonstrated in more modern times.
Between nineteen-oh-five and nineteen-oh-seven, the Colorado River caused great amounts of flooding in parts of Arizona and California. Huge amounts of water ran into a low area in the dry, waterless desert that had once been an ancient lake. In two years of flooding, the Colorado River filled the ancient lake. That lake is called the Salton Sea. Today, it is about fifty-six kilometers long by twenty-five kilometers wide. It is even larger in years of heavy rain.
VOICE ONE:
The flooding that created the Salton Sea also flooded homes, towns and farming areas. Many people were forced to flee their homes. Government leaders knew they had to do something to prevent such floods in the future.
In nineteen eighteen, a man named Arthur Davis proposed building a dam to control the Colorado River. Mister Davis was a government engineer. He said the dam should be built in an area called Boulder Canyon on the border between the states of Arizona and Nevada.
VOICE TWO:
Building the dam would not be a simple matter. The people of seven states and the people of Mexico needed and used the water of the Colorado River. Much of that area is desert land. Water is extremely important. Without water from the Colorado River, farming is not possible. Without water, life in the desert is not possible.
On November twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-two, officials signed a document in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That document is called the Colorado River Compact. The document tells how the seven states would share the water of the Colorado River. It was agreed this could be more easily done with the aid of a dam. Later an agreement was signed with Mexico to supply it with water from the Colorado River.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:

A high scaler working on the walls of Black Canyon in 1932
The area chosen for the dam was called Black Canyon. The walls of Black Canyon rise almost two hundred forty-three meters above the river. An ancient volcano formed the rock in Black Canyon. Engineers decided the rock would provide a good strong support for the proposed dam.
However, the area also presented problems. The nearest railroad was sixty kilometers away. There was no electric power. And, in the summer, the temperature in the desert in Black Canyon could reach as high as forty-eight degrees Celsius.
A great deal of work was done before operations started on the dam. Workers built a town called Boulder City to house employees working on the dam. They built a large road from Boulder City to the area of the dam. They built a railroad from a main line in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Boulder City. They built another railroad from Boulder City to the dam area. And they built a three hundred fifty kilometer power line from San Bernadino, California. This provided electric power to the area where the dam was being built.
VOICE TWO:
The work on the dam began in April of nineteen thirty-one. Workers called "high scalers" were some of the first to begin building the dam. They were suspended from ropes as they used heavy air-powered hammers to break any loose rock away from the face of the canyon walls. When they could not use hammers, they used dynamite. One high scaler became very famous. His name was Arnold Parks. He caught another worker who had fallen off the top of the canyon.

One of the tunnels dug to send river water around the construction area
Mister Parks held the worker to the wall of the canyon until others came to help. Today, visitors can see a statue of the men who worked as high scalers to build Hoover Dam.
The high scalers worked on the sides of the canyon. Other workers dug huge tunnels deep in the floor of the canyon. This was done to permit the Colorado River to flow away from the construction area. This had to be done so the floor of the dam could be built.
On June sixth, nineteen thirty-three, workers poured the first load of a building material called concrete. Men in two special factories worked day and night to make the concrete building material for the dam.
Huge equipment moved millions of tons of rock and sand. In the summer months, the terrible desert heat slowed the work but did not stop it. Men who worked at night on the dam suffered less, but the heat was still as high as thirty degrees Celsius.
VOICE ONE:

The dam was made of concrete blocks of different sizes like these
Slowly the great dam began to rise from the floor of the canyon. From the canyon floor it reaches two hundred twenty-one meters high. Workers poured the last of the concrete on May twenty-ninth, nineteen thirty-five. They had used almost four million cubic meters of concrete in the dam. Workers also used more than twenty million kilograms of steel to strengthen the concrete in the dam.
VOICE TWO:
The work was dangerous for the more than five thousand men who worked on the structure. The extreme temperatures, falling objects and heavy equipment caused accidents. The workers were provided with medical care and two emergency vehicles to take them to a new hospital in Boulder City. However, ninety-six men lost their lives during the building of the great dam.
The companies building the dam had been given seven years to complete the work. They did it in only five. The dam was finished on March first, nineteen thirty-six.
Other work now began. This work would make the dam into one of the largest producers of electric power ever built. The dam was built to control the powerful Colorado River. But it was also meant to use the river to produce large amounts of electric power.
Today, seventeen huge machines use the river's power to produce electric power. The states of Arizona and Nevada share the power. So do many cities in California, including Los Angeles, Burbank and Pasadena.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
When the Hoover Dam was finished in nineteen thirty-six, it was the largest dam in the world. It was also the tallest. And it was the largest power producer that used water power to make electricity. Today this is no longer true. Taller dams, larger dams and a few that produce more power have been created. But Hoover Dam is still a huge and interesting place.
Visitors to Hoover Dam drive on a small road that passes Lake Mead. They enter a special visitors' center to learn about the dam and the men who built it. They ride high-speed elevators that go deep inside the dam. They see the huge machines that produce electric power.
Many visitors say they thought the name of the huge structure was Boulder Dam. They are told that Hoover Dam is often called Boulder Dam. However, it is named after former President Herbert Hoover.
Before he was president, Mister Hoover worked for many years to make the construction of the dam possible. It was officially named to honor him in nineteen forty-seven.
Visitors leave the great dam with an understanding of how difficult the project was. They learn that it still safely controls the great Colorado River. And it also provides water and electric power to millions of people in the American southwest.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.

Formal Garden at Schloss Schonbrunn

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.



When people looked at the plants in such gardens, during the height of their popularity, they were not interested in the plants in their own right, but only as material to shape and to arrange in patterns. An inquiry about a particular plant would be similar to an inquiry about the kind of material used in the making of a sofa today.

From this point of view, nature is imperfect and in need of improvement through human intervention.

Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Lectionary: 421

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
Jgs 9:6-15

All the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together
and proceeded to make Abimelech king
by the terebinth at the memorial pillar in Shechem.

When this was reported to him,
Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim and, standing there,
cried out to them in a loud voice:
“Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you!
Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves.
So they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’
But the olive tree answered them, ‘Must I give up my rich oil,
whereby men and gods are honored,
and go to wave over the trees?’
Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come; you reign over us!’
But the fig tree answered them,
‘Must I give up my sweetness and my good fruit,
and go to wave over the trees?’
Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come you, and reign over us.’
But the vine answered them,
‘Must I give up my wine that cheers gods and men,
and go to wave over the trees?’
Then all the trees said to the buckthorn, ‘Come; you reign over us!’
But the buckthorn replied to the trees,
‘If you wish to anoint me king over you in good faith,
come and take refuge in my shadow.
Otherwise, let fire come from the buckthorn
and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’”


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 21:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. (2a) Lord, in your strength the king is glad.
O LORD, in your strength the king is glad;
in your victory how greatly he rejoices!
You have granted him his heart’s desire;
you refused not the wish of his lips.
R. Lord, in your strength the king is glad.
For you welcomed him with goodly blessings,
you placed on his head a crown of pure gold.
He asked life of you: you gave him
length of days forever and ever.
R. Lord, in your strength the king is glad.
Great is his glory in your victory;
majesty and splendor you conferred upon him.
You made him a blessing forever,
you gladdened him with the joy of your face.
R. Lord, in your strength the king is glad.


Gospel
Mt 20:1-16

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
he found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Undine Rising from the Waters

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Chauncey Bradley Ives (American, 1810–1894)
Undine Rising from the Waters, ca. 1880–92
Marble, 60 1/2 x 19 x 15 1/2 in. (153.7 x 48.3 x 39.4 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Alice A. Allen, in memory of her father, Simon Sterne
1926.116

Undine was the heroine of a popular French nineteenth-century romantic novel in which a mermaid princess forsakes the carefree life of a water-spirit to gain a soul by marrying the mortal knight she loves. When her husband proves unfaithful, Undine is forced by the laws of the water-spirits to kill him. Ives depicts the moment when the mournful Undine, cloaked in a white veil, rises like a fountain from the castle's wellspring to claim her husband's life. The exquisitely carved wet drapery is one of the most notable American examples of see-through illusionism popular in mid-nineteenth-century sculpture.

Today's Reading

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 18, 2009

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 420

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
Jgs 6:11-24a

The angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrah
that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite.
While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press
to save it from the Midianites,
the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said,
“The LORD is with you, O champion!”
Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us,
why has all this happened to us?
Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fathers
told us when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’
For now the LORD has abandoned us
and has delivered us into the power of Midian.”
The LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have
and save Israel from the power of Midian.
It is I who send you.”
But Gideon answered him, “Please, my lord, how can I save Israel?
My family is the lowliest in Manasseh,
and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.”
“I shall be with you,” the LORD said to him,
“and you will cut down Midian to the last man.”
Gideon answered him, “If I find favor with you,
give me a sign that you are speaking with me.
Do not depart from here, I pray you, until I come back to you
and bring out my offering and set it before you.”
He answered, “I will await your return.”

So Gideon went off and prepared a kid and a measure of flour
in the form of unleavened cakes.
Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot,
he brought them out to him under the terebinth
and presented them.
The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and unleavened cakes
and lay them on this rock; then pour out the broth.”
When he had done so,
the angel of the LORD stretched out the tip of the staff he held,
and touched the meat and unleavened cakes.
Thereupon a fire came up from the rock
that consumed the meat and unleavened cakes,
and the angel of the LORD disappeared from sight.
Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the LORD,
said, “Alas, Lord GOD,
that I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”
The LORD answered him,
“Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die.”
So Gideon built there an altar to the LORD
and called it Yahweh-shalom.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 85:9, 11-12, 13-14

R. (see 9b) The Lord speaks of peace to his people.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD–for he proclaims peace
To his people, and to his faithful ones,
and to those who put in him their hope.
R. The Lord speaks of peace to his people.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. The Lord speaks of peace to his people.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.
R. The Lord speaks of peace to his people.


Gospel
Mt 19:23-30

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich
to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Again I say to you,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,
“Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said,

“For men this is impossible,
but for God all things are possible.”
Then Peter said to him in reply,
“We have given up everything and followed you.
What will there be for us?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you
that you who have followed me, in the new age,
when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory,
will yourselves sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Bald Eagle

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. At one time, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless. Bald eagles are found throughout most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold for bald eagles. They flourish here in part because of the salmon. Dead or dying fish are an important food source for all bald eagles.
Eagles are a member of the Accipitridae family; which also includes hawks, kites, and old-world vultures.
Scientists loosely divide eagles into four groups based on their physical characteristics and behavior. The bald eagle is a sea or fish eagle.
There are two subspecies of bald eagles. The "southern" bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus, is found in the Gulf States from Texas and Baja California across to South Carolina and Florida, south of 40 degrees north latitude.
bald eagle The "northern" bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus, is found north of 40 degrees north latitude across the entire continent. The largest numbers of northern bald eagles are in the Northwest, especially in Alaska. The "northern" bald eagle is slightly larger than the "southern" bald eagle. Studies have shown that "northern" bald eagles fly into the southern states and Mexico, and the "southern" bald eagles fly north into Canada. Because of these finding, the subspecies of "northern" and "southern" bald eagles has been discontinued in recent literature.
Bald eagles were officially declared an endangered species in 1967 in all areas of the United States south of the 40th parallel, under a law that preceded the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
Until 1995, the bald eagle had been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 43 of the 48 lower states, and listed as threatened in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Washington and Oregon. In July of 1995, the US Fish and Wildlife Service upgraded the status of bald eagles in the lower 48 states to "threatened."
On June 28, 2007 the Interior Department took the American bald eagle off the Endangered Species List. The bald eagle will still be protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. The Bald Eagle Protection Act prohibits the take, transport, sale, barter, trade, import and export, and possession of eagles, making it illegal for anyone to collect eagles and eagle parts, nests, or eggs without a permit. Native Americans are able to possess these emblems which are traditional in their culture.

Today's Reading

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 17, 2009

Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 419

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Gospel

Reading 1
Jgs2:11-19

The children of Israel offended the Lord by serving the Baals.
Abandoning the LORD, the God of their fathers,
who led them out of the land of Egypt,
they followed the other gods of the various nations around them,
and by their worship of these gods provoked the LORD.

Because they had thus abandoned him and served Baal and the Ashtaroth,
the anger of the LORD flared up against Israel,
and he delivered them over to plunderers who despoiled them.
He allowed them to fall into the power of their enemies round about
whom they were no longer able to withstand.
Whatever they undertook, the LORD turned into disaster for them,
as in his warning he had sworn he would do,
till they were in great distress.
Even when the LORD raised up judges to deliver them
from the power of their despoilers,
they did not listen to their judges,
but abandoned themselves to the worship of other gods.
They were quick to stray from the way their fathers had taken,
and did not follow their example of obedience
to the commandments of the LORD.
Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, he would be with the judge
and save them from the power of their enemies
as long as the judge lived;
it was thus the LORD took pity on their distressful cries
of affliction under their oppressors.
But when the judge died,
they would relapse and do worse than their ancestors,
following other gods in service and worship,
relinquishing none of their evil practices or stubborn conduct.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 106:34-35, 36-37, 39-40, 43ab and 44

R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They did not exterminate the peoples,
as the LORD had commanded them,
But mingled with the nations
and learned their works.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They served their idols,
which became a snare for them.
They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They became defiled by their works,
and wanton in their crimes.
And the LORD grew angry with his people,
and abhorred his inheritance.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Many times did he rescue them,
but they embittered him with their counsels.
Yet he had regard for their affliction
when he heard their cry.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.


Gospel
Mt 19:16-22

A young man approached Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”
He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good?
There is only One who is good.
If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He asked him, “Which ones?”
And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
honor your father and your mother;
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man said to him,
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions.

painting: Declaration of Independence

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.





John Trumbull (American, 1756–1843)
The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776, 1786–1820
Oil on canvas, 20 7/8 x 31 in. (53 x 78.7 cm)
Trumbull Collection
1832.3

The Declaration of Independence was begun in Paris, most probably at the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson, chief author of the document, who provided Trumbull with a first-hand account of the event in the Assembly Room in Independence Hall where Congress had met. Trumbull combined a desire for historical authenticity with a mission to commemorate a moment of transcendent importance. Jefferson stands at the center, surrounded by John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin, and presents the document to John Hancock, president of Congress. Trumbull chose to have the whole committee present the document rather than a single spokesman, which would have been historically accurate.

Today's Reading

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

August 16, 2009

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 119

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading 1
Prv 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding.”


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.


Reading II
Eph 5:15-20

Brothers and sisters:
Watch carefully how you live,
not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not continue in ignorance,
but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.


Gospel
Jn 6:51-58

Jesus said to the crowds:
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.”