NYT : Last-Minute Winter Getaways

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February 28, 2010

By JANE MARGOLIES

WELL, O.K., maybe you miscalculated. You thought you’d be able to tough out a New York winter without getting away. But now, with the cold, dreary weather — not to mention blizzards — dragging on, you find yourself craving a hit of warmth and sunshine. What you need is a quick, last-minute, long-weekend escape, to get you over the final hump of winter.

Your prospects are good. There are plenty of destinations within easy shooting distance of New York (no connecting flights, no puddle-jumpers). New and remodeled resorts await, some offering discounts of up to 60 percent on room rates, others throwing in a third night free or other “value added” extras like spa treatments and meals for kids. We have found seven destinations with compelling reasons to visit right now (and one more option for those who don’t feel like getting on a plane). So here’s your ticket to a poolside chaise, on land and sea, and a welcome escape from winter’s punishing final weeks.

CANCÚN AND THE RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO

The eastern edge of the Yucatán peninsula, easily reached by nonstop flights that pour into Cancún, has long been in the business of selling sun and sand. But in recent years there’s been less and less of that sand. Erosion, combined with a terrible 2005 hurricane season, washed away a lot of beach, leaving some hotels sitting right on the water’s edge and causing sand-seeking travelers to look elsewhere. (According to Jean Agarrista, president of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, the area south of Cancún has had a 20 percent drop in hotel occupancy over the last five years owing to the diminishing beach.) But now, thanks to an $80 million government-financed sand restoration project in the state of Quintana Roo, the beach is back. The project, which began in September and was completed earlier this month, involved barges bringing in 106 million cubic feet of sand, dredged northwest of Cozumel. Nine miles of beaches along Cancún and the Riviera Maya have been widened up to 600 feet.

Hotels are celebrating with beach bashes — and room discounts of 20 to 50 percent. In Cancún, on the thin strip of land known as the Zona Hotelera, the Gran Meliá Cancún (52-998-881-1100; granmeliacancun.com) has slashed rates 35 percent and is offering a free upgrade in room type and up to $200 in resort credit. On the Riviera Maya, two all-inclusive Occidental resorts (800-858-2258; occidentalhotels.com) have discounted prices: the adults-only Royal Hideaway Playacar, 45 minutes from the airport, which cut rates 30 percent; and the family-friendly Allegro Playacar, just next door, which has reduced rates 57 percent.

Carmine Feola, President of Travel Leaders in Kendall Park, N.J., who calls Mexico “the best value from the New York area” and sends 85 percent of his clients to Cancún and the Riviera Maya, recommends squeezing in your mini-vacation soon — before the spring breakers descend on Cancún. “It begins earlier than you might think,” he said, warning that some schools have vacation the week of March 22.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Dominican Republic, of course, shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, where the earthquake in January devastated the capital of Port-au-Prince. Since then, Dominicans have donated money, supplies and expertise to Haiti. Travel agents in the New York area report some skittishness among Dominican Republic-bound customers, who perhaps are not aware how far Haiti’s capital is from, say, Punta Cana (about 250 miles), where many all-inclusive resorts are, or who are uncomfortable with the idea of living it up on one side of the island while people struggle to survive on the other.

The tourism ministry in the Dominican Republic has sought to reassure travelers that its several international airports and all its beaches and resorts are open for business. And package deals in the country are certainly plentiful, with many resort companies offering chain-wide discounts. Dreams Resorts & Spas, with properties in Punta Cana, Palm Beach and La Romana — all accessible via nonstop flights from New York — has cut rates up to 40 percent and is providing $200 in resort coupons for bookings of three nights (dreamsresorts.com). Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts is offering discounts of up to 60 percent at Zoëtry Agua Punta Cana, which opened in November, and up to 50 percent at Golden Bear Lodge & Spa Cap Cana (888-496-3879; zoetryresorts.com), which opened in December. The adults-only Secrets Sanctuary Cap Cana has discounted rates up to 45 percent and will provide $200 in resort coupons for stays of three nights (866-467-3273; secretsresorts.com/sanctuary). Dreams, Zoëtry and Secrets, all managed by AMResorts, say they will donate $5 for each booking to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund and encourage guests to bring items for distribution to Haiti.

MIAMI CRUISE

Sure, it would be convenient to catch a weekend cruise out of New York. But there aren’t many two- and three-night cruises originating in New York these days, and that’s not enough time to reach warm climes anyway. Three-night cruises departing from Florida and heading for the Bahamas, however, can get you onto balmy seas faster than you might think. And although these mini-sails aren’t on the newest or biggest ships, they are “a very good value and an excellent sampler for anyone who has never tried a cruise,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of Cruisecritic.com.

For New Yorkers, Miami is the best departure point for a Friday-to-Monday Bahamas trip — a taxi or a cruise-ship transfer gets you from Miami International Airport to the Port of Miami in under a half-hour. Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, a midsize ship renovated in 2007, stops at the cruise company’s private island, CocoCay, and Nassau before returning to Miami. Rates start at $239 a person through April 30 (866-562-7625; royalcaribbean.com). To get the best price, let a travel agent — one associated with a cruise Web site or a bricks-and-mortar travel agency — find promotions for you.

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Sorry, escapists. The W Retreat & Spa-Vieques Island — a low-rise compound with 157 rooms and Alain Ducasse’s first culinary outpost in the Caribbean, all on the island eight miles off the coast of Puerto Rico known for its beautiful, empty beaches — won’t officially open until April 1. It is now accepting reservations; a Surrender to Your Senses package, $359, includes an upgraded room, breakfast and other extras, for a two-night minimum (954-624-1768; starwoodhotels.com).

But travelers in for the weekend and seeking a hip vibe needn’t venture farther than the San Juan Water & Beach Club Hotel in the Isla Verde district, just five minutes from the San Juan airport (spotted on the premises recently: Snoop Dogg, Benicio Del Toro and Kid Rock). The new management, Morgans Hotel Group, will soon add “beds” to the hotel’s scene-y rooftop bar; rooms from $209 (888-265-6699; waterbeachclubhotel.com). Or drop your bags in Condado, at the newly mod Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza (866-317-8934; condadoplaza.com). Rooms start at $199, and through March 31 guests booking the Winter Escapes Package for a two-night stay get breakfast for two, plus a $50 resort credit. It can go toward a meal at the homegrown celebrity chef Wilo Benet’s Pikayo, which recently relocated to the hotel and has been luring diners to its communal table for lobster empanadas and bay scallop ceviche.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.

Spring training draws Major League baseball fans to this Sonoran Desert city for preseason games from March 3 through April 4. While the players wind up, guests of the Fairmont Scottsdale (fairmont.com/scottsdale), 30 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, can wind down. In January the resort capped off a four-year, $45 million renovation with the opening of La Hacienda from the Mexican-born chef Richard Sandoval, offering mole poblano and prickly pear margaritas in a wood-beamed, flagstone-floored space.

The Fairmont Scottsdale’s Willow Stream Relaxation Package (from $479 a night) includes a $200 daily credit at the three-level Willow Stream Spa. The building is topped by a lap pool that provides views of the McDowell Mountains, which turn purple at dusk. Inside, there are 27 treatment rooms for eucalyptus salt scrubs and golf performance-enhancing massages (that’s the 18-hole TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course, home of the annual Phoenix Open, next door). A massage by the spa’s waterfall — just position yourself under the cascade — comes at no extra charge. Maybe hiking Pinnacle Peak can wait.

ST. LUCIA

JetBlue, which in the fall introduced three-times-a-week nonstop flights from Kennedy Airport to Hewanorra International on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, has made it easier for New Yorkers to heed Oprah Winfrey’s advice; in O magazine she advised readers to make the 27-mile-long island and its Pitons, those twin peaks rearing up out of the sea, one of the “five places to see in your lifetime.”

Known for resorts with rates of $1,000 and up, the island also has less-extravagant options. While the opening of the Hotel Chocolat on the Rabot Estate cocoa plantation has been postponed until May, travelers can get their cocoa tea — and slatted-door villas, private plunge pools and outdoor showers — at Stonefield Estate Villa Resort & Spa (954-353-4785; stonefieldvillas.com), an inland hideaway on a former plantation in Soufrière. Rooms start at $270, breakfast included, and if you book by March 15 you get a rate discount of 10 percent or a candlelight dinner in your room.

ST. PETE BEACH, FLA.

Thanks to the recent opening of the retro-themed Postcard Inn, in St. Pete Beach, hipsters have joined retirees and vacationing Floridians in this Gulf Coast town a half-hour south of Tampa International Airport.

B.R. Guest Restaurants took a circa 1957 Travelodge on a stretch of beach dotted with mom-and-pop motels and seafood restaurants and tricked out the 196 rooms with wall-size photos of sea grass and surf, molded-fiberglass chairs and vintage surfboards leaning in corners (no two rooms alike). Rates start at $119, including breakfast (800-237-8918; postcardinn.com).

Be sure to sample the baby back ribs at the hotel’s Wildwood BBQ & Burger restaurant — even if you opt for the more conventional rooms down the beach at the Don Cesar (800-282-1116; loewshotels.com; from $274; the Delicious Deals package includes $50 dining credit with a two-night stay), a Loews hotel occupying a 1928 pink palace, or the plush accommodations at the Renaissance Vinoy (888-303-4430; marriott.com; from $219; through March 28, get a $50 resort credit by using promotional code RPH) in downtown St. Petersburg. The hotel, a Spanish-style landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, is just a couple of blocks from the Dalí Museum, whose new $36 million space is scheduled to open early next year.

CLOSE TO HOME

For those who can’t swing a weekend trip out of town, there are, of course, ways to approximate a warm-weather getaway in still-wintry New York. Guests at the Peninsula New York, on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, won’t find palm trees and sand, but there is a 22nd-floor glass-enclosed pool, where the air is a Bahamas-like 72 degrees, the pool water is 84, and the views of Midtown are as staggering, in their own way, as any you’ll find seaside. Wrap yourself in a terrycloth robe and sprawl on a woven-rattan-style chaise between treatments at the ESPA spa, which opened last year, part of a hotel refurbishment that includes guest-room redos (all to be completed by May). New Yorkers seeking sun should ask for an east-facing room on a newly remodeled upper floor (see if No. 1702 is available, for a gasp-inducing view of a Beaux Arts beauty across Fifth Avenue). The Value Your Weekend package (800-262-9467; peninsula.com), which includes continental breakfast and a 60-minute spa treatment, is $495 a night.

If that’s too pricey, you can always head to Spa Castle, the 80,000-square-foot Korean-style water world in College Point, Queens (718-939-6300; nyspacastle.com). Get yourself a day pass — $45 on weekends —and spend a couple of hours steeping in hot tubs and plunging into cold baths. Don’t forget to order a piña colada at the new bar.

Reading on Second Sunday of Lent

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February 28, 2010


Lectionary: 27

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel
Reading I
Gn 15:5-12, 17-18
The Lord God took Abram outside and said,
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

He then said to him,
“I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land as a possession.”
“O Lord GOD,” he asked,
“how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
He answered him,
“Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat,
a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought him all these, split them in two,
and placed each half opposite the other;
but the birds he did not cut up.
Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses,
but Abram stayed with them.
As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram,
and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.

When the sun had set and it was dark,
there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,
which passed between those pieces.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: “To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14.
(1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper: cast me not off.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
reading II
Phil 3:17—4:1 or 3:20—4:1
Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers and sisters,
and observe those who thus conduct themselves
according to the model you have in us.
For many, as I have often told you
and now tell you even in tears,
conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Their end is destruction.
Their God is their stomach;
their glory is in their “shame.”
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified body
by the power that enables him also
to bring all things into subjection to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
in this way stand firm in the Lord.

or

Brothers and sisters:
Our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified body
by the power that enables him also
to bring all things into subjection to himself.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
whom I love and long for, my joy and crown,
in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved.
Gospel
Lk 9:28b-36
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.

Reading on Saturday of the First Week of Lent

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February 27, 2010

Lectionary: 229

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading I
Dt 26:16-19
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“This day the LORD, your God,
commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:
he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways
and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,
and to hearken to his voice.
And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:
you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;
and provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory
above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,
as he promised.”


Responsorial Psalm
119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Gospel
Mt 5:43-48
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

NYT Travel: 36 Hours in Telluride, Colo.

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February 28, 2010

By LIONEL BEEHNER

TELLURIDE almost begs comparisons with Aspen. A Colorado mining town affixed to a world-class ski resort; rugged locals brushing elbows with the occasional celebrity; white tablecloth restaurants serving up foie gras next to taco dives. “It’s like Aspen was back in the ’70s, but less pretentious,” said Bo Bedford, a self-described Aspen refugee who is a manager at the New Sheridan Hotel. “It hasn’t gone Hollywood yet.” There is, of course, a certain star-studded film festival. And Telluride does count Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Cruise among its regulars. Yet, the town stays true to its hardscrabble roots. Dogs roam off-leash, folks rummage for freebies at a so-called Free Box, and residents zip up in flannel instead of fur coats.

Friday

4 p.m.
1) DAS BOOT

Ski shops are often staffed by workers straight out of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Not Boot Doctors (650 Mountain Village Boulevard; 970-728-8954; bootdoctors.com), where Bob Gleason and his team of “surgeons” run a kind of operating room for your ill-fitting equipment. But don’t expect a sterile ward — it looks more like a torture chamber, with pinchers and clawlike tools to stretch, squeeze and custom-shape any size boots (prices range from $20 for a boot stretch to $175 for a custom-molded sole).

6 p.m.
2) BROADWAY MEETS OPRY

Film and theater buffs will take comfort in Telluride’s abundance of preserved art-house theaters. Take the intricately stenciled balcony and the maple floors of the Sheridan Opera House (110 North Oak Street; 970-728-6363; sheridanoperahouse.com), which dates from 1913. Part ’30s vaudeville, part Grand Ole Opry, the stage has been graced with everything from Broadway musicals to bluegrass bands, and is the hub of the Telluride Film Festival, in its 37th year (held Sept. 3 to 6 this year).

8:30 p.m.
3) HIGH STEAKS

If the New Sheridan feels like the kind of joint with a secret poker game going on in a smoky backroom, well, that’s because it is (H. Norman Schwarzkopf is said to be among the regulars). But the real draw of this Victorian hotel is its newly refurbished Chop House Restaurant (233 West Colorado Avenue; 970-728-9100; newsheridan.com), which serves large platters of prime steaks (starting at $26). Like the hotel, which was reopened in 2008 after extensive renovations, the musty dining room has been spiffed up with plush booths and crystal chandeliers. After dinner, sneak away next door (there’s a secret passage in the back) to the New Sheridan bar, which looks much as it did in 1895 — with its crackling fire and carved mahogany bar — but has added a billiard room in back and, yup, a poker table.

Saturday

7:30 a.m.
4) BISCUITS AND GRAVY

With its red-checkered tablecloths and folksy service, Maggie’s Bakery (300 West Colorado Avenue; 970-728-3334) holds its own against any ski town greasy spoon. A healthy-size biscuit and gravy goes for $7.45. Another popular spot, Baked in Telluride, burned down in early February, though its big, red barn is expected to be rebuilt.

9 a.m.
5) GOLD RUSH

Telluride feels as though it belongs in the Alps — with its 2,000-plus acres of backcountrylike terrain and above-the-tree-line chutes, European-style chalets and snowy peaks framed by boxy canyons and craggy rock formations. Throw in thin crowds and short lift lines, and what’s not to like? To warm up, take the Prospect Bowl Express over to Madison or Magnolia — gentle runs that weave through trees below the gaze of Bald Mountain. Or hop on the Gold Hill Express lift to find the mountain’s newest expert terrain: Revelation Bowl. Hang a left off the top of the Revelation Lift to the Gold Hill Chutes (Nos. 2 to 5), recently opened to skiers and said to be some of the steepest terrain in North America.

Noon
6) WINE AND CHEESE

Telluride does not believe in summit cafeterias, at least not the traditional kind with long tables and with deep fryers in the kitchen. Its hilltop restaurants come the size of tree forts. Case in point is Alpino Vino (970-708-1120), a new spot just off the Gold Hill Express Lift that resembles a chalet airlifted from the Italian Alps. Diners in ski helmets huddle around cherry-wood tables and a roaring fireplace, sipping Tuscan reds ($15), while neatly groomed waiters bring plates of cured meats and fine cheeses ($15). Arrive by noon, as this place fills up fast. For more casual grub, swing by Giuseppe’s (970-728-7503) at the top of Lift 9, which stacks two shelves of Tabasco sauce and a refrigerator full of Fat Tire beer ($5) to go with home-style dishes like chicken and chorizo gumbo ($8.99). After lunch, glide down See Forever, a long, winding trail that snakes all the way back to the village. Detour to Lift 9 if you want to burn off a few more calories.

5:30 p.m.
7) FULL PINT OR HALFPIPE?

A free gondola links the historic town of Telluride with the faux-European base area known as Mountain Village. Just before sunset, hop off at the gondola’s midstation, situated atop a ridge. For a civilized drink without cover bands, you’ll find Allred’s (970-728-7474; allredsrestaurant.com), a rustic-chic lodge with craft beers on tap ($7). Grab a window seat for sunset views of the San Juan Mountains, or relax by the stone fireplace to the soothing sounds of Bob Israel on his piano. Shaun White wannabes, however, will want to continue down to a new terrain park with an 18-foot-high halfpipe. Illuminated by klieg lights until 8 p.m., it is one of Colorado’s few halfpipes where you can flip a McTwist under the stars ($25 entrance fee).

8 p.m.
8) NO VEGANS

Carnivores should feel at home in Telluride. At some spots, steak knives look like machetes and the beef is said to come from Ralph Lauren’s nearby ranch. For tasty Colorado lamb chops ($28), try the new Palmyra Restaurant (136 Country Club Drive; 970-728-6800; thepeaksresort.com). Opened last December at the Peaks Resort & Spa in Mountain Village, the glass-walled restaurant has dazzling fire features and romantic valley views. Or, for hearty grub you might find at a firehouse, head into town and loosen your belt at Fat Alley BBQ (122 South Oak Street; 970-728-3985), a no-frills joint with old, wooden tables and a counter where you can order Texas-style barbecued spareribs and breaded-to-order fried chicken. Most items run $10 to $15, except the Schlitz beer, which is $1.

10 p.m.
9) GETTING HIGH

If the high altitude and lack of oxygen leave you winded — and they probably will — pull up a bar stool at the Bubble Lounge (200 West Colorado Avenue; 970-728-9653; telluridebubblelounge.com), a grungy bar that serves craft beers, Champagne and, yes, oxygen. Choose from a two dozen scents (cherry and lemon grass, among others) served in bubbling beakers that light up like DayGlo bulbs and look like a mad scientist’s lab ($10 for 12 minutes).

Sunday

10 a.m.
10) STOMPING GROUNDS

The snow-carpeted trails that roll past wide meadows and frozen waterfalls in this pocket of southwest Colorado are ideal for snowshoeing. Stock up on snacks and water before riding to the top of Lift 10, where you’ll find a warming teepee run by Eco Adventures (565 Mountain Village Boulevard; 970-728-7300). Eco offers guided snowshoe tours, with ecological lessons thrown in, for $45, including equipment.

2 p.m.
11) OUTLAW TOUR

Did you know that Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank on Main Street in 1889? Or that the town’s red-light district once had 29 bordellos? These and other historical tidbits give Telluride an added sense of place that’s missing from newer, corporate-run resorts. For an entertaining tour, call up Ashley Boling (970-728-6639), a D.J., actor and self-appointed guide who offers 90-minute tours that are encyclopedic and long on stories ($20 a person). He’s hard to miss: he’s the one walking around with cascading blond hair under a cowboy hat, stopping every few minutes to say hello to friends — unless it’s a powder day, in which case Telluride turns into a ghost town.

IF YOU GO

The closest commercial airport is Telluride Regional Airport, about seven miles from town. There are daily (turboprop) connections from Phoenix and Denver, but the airport closes often because of bad weather. It can be easier and more reliable to fly into Montrose Regional Airport, a larger airport about 90 minutes away by car. Continental flies nonstop from Newark to Montrose (from $347 in March, according to a recent search), but only on Saturdays. A car is not needed to get around. A free gondola connects the town of Telluride to the Mountain Village till midnight.

In Telluride, the New Sheridan Hotel (231 West Colorado Avenue; 970-728-4351; newsheridan.com) reopened in 2008 with 26 renovated rooms that kept the Victorian touches, like the old-style light switches. Doubles start at $199.

In Mountain Village, lumière (970-369-0400; www.lumierehotels.com), a modern boutique hotel, opened in 2008. Each of the 29 chocolate-carpeted units offers a steam shower, and a few come with balconies with breathtaking mountain views. Doubles start at $349.

Reading on Friday of the First Week of Lent

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

February 26, 2010

Lectionary: 228

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel
Reading I
Ez 18:21-28
Thus says the Lord GOD:
If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed,
if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him;
he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced.
Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked?
says the Lord GOD.
Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way
that he may live?

And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil,
the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does,
can he do this and still live?
None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered,
because he has broken faith and committed sin;
because of this, he shall die.
You say, “The LORD’s way is not fair!”
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?
When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed,
does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Responsorial Psalm
130:1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8
R. (3) If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the LORD
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
Let Israel wait for the LORD.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?


Gospel
Mt 5:20-26
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you,
unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother, Raqa,
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

Georgetown University: $6.9 Million Gift to Benefit Catholic Programs

Georgetown University: $6.9 Million Gift to Benefit Catholic Programs

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Reading on Thursday of the First Week in Lent

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February 25, 2010

Lectionary: 227

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel
Reading I
Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25
Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish,
had recourse to the LORD.
She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids,
from morning until evening, and said:
“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand.
As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.

“And now, come to help me, an orphan.
Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion
and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy,
so that he and those who are in league with him may perish.
Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”

Responsorial Psalm
138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8
R. (3a) Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.


Gospel
Mt 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.”

Reading on Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

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February 24, 2010


Lectionary: 226

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel
Reading I
Jon 3:1-10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’s bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe,
covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his nobles:
“Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God;
every man shall turn from his evil way
and from the violence he has in hand.
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.

Responsorial Psalm
51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.


Gospel
Lk 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

NYT: Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally

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February 22, 2010

By MOTOKO RICH

Readers can modify content on the Web, so why not in books?

In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.

Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.

While many publishers have offered customized print textbooks for years — allowing instructors to reorder chapters or insert third-party content from other publications or their own writing — DynamicBooks gives instructors the power to alter individual sentences and paragraphs without consulting the original authors or publisher.

“Basically they will go online, log on to the authoring tool, have the content right there and make whatever changes they want,” said Brian Napack, president of Macmillan. “And we don’t even look at it.”

In August, Macmillan plans to start selling 100 titles through DynamicBooks, including “Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight,” by Peter Atkins and Loretta Jones; “Discovering the Universe,” by Neil F. Comins and William J. Kaufmann; and “Psychology,” by Daniel L. Schacter, Daniel T. Gilbert and Daniel M. Wegner. Mr. Napack said Macmillan was considering talking to other publishers to invite them to sell their books through DynamicBooks.

Students will be able to buy the e-books at dynamicbooks.com, in college bookstores and through CourseSmart, a joint venture among five textbook publishers that sells electronic textbooks. The DynamicBooks editions — which can be reached online or downloaded — can be read on laptops and the iPhone from Apple. Clancy Marshall, general manager of DynamicBooks, said the company planned to negotiate agreements with Apple so the electronic books could be read on the iPad.

The modifiable e-book editions will be much cheaper than traditional print textbooks. “Psychology,” for example, which has a list price of $134.29 (available on Barnes & Noble’s Web site for $122.73), will sell for $48.76 in the DynamicBooks version. Macmillan is also offering print-on-demand versions of the customized books, which will be priced closer to traditional textbooks.

Fritz Foy, senior vice president for digital content at Macmillan, said the company expected e-book sales to replace the sales of used books. Part of the reason publishers charge high prices for traditional textbooks is that students usually resell them in the used market for several years before a new edition is released. DynamicBooks, Mr. Foy said, will be “semester and classroom specific,” and the lower price, he said, should attract students who might otherwise look for used or even pirated editions.

Instructors who have tested the DynamicBooks software say they like the idea of being able to fine-tune a textbook. “There’s almost always some piece here or some piece there that a faculty person would have rather done differently,” said Todd Ruskell, senior lecturer in physics at the Colorado School of Mines, who tested an electronic edition of “Physics for Scientists and Engineers” by Paul A. Tipler and Gene Mosca.

Frank Lyman, executive vice president of CourseSmart, said he expected that some professors would embrace the opportunity to customize e-books but that most would continue to rely on traditional textbooks.

“For many instructors, that’s very helpful to know it’s been through a process and represents a best practice in terms of a particular curriculum,” he said.

Even other publishers that allow instructors some level of customization hesitate about permitting changes at the sentence and paragraph level.

“There is a flow to books, and there’s voice to them,” said Don Kilburn, chief executive of Pearson Learning Solutions, which does allow instructors to change chapter orders and insert material from other sources. Mr. Kilburn said he had not been briefed on Macmillan’s plans.

Mr. Ruskell said he did not change much in the physics textbook he tested with DynamicBooks. “You don’t just want to say, ‘Oh, I don’t like this, I’m going to do this instead,’ ” he said. “You really want to think about it.”

Mr. Comins, an author of “Discovering the Universe,” a popular astronomy textbook, said the new e-book program was a way to speed up the process for incorporating suggestions that he often receives while revising new print editions. “I’ve learned as an author over the years that I am not perfect,” he said. “So if somebody in Iowa sees something in my book that they perceive is wrong, I am absolutely willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

On the other hand, if an instructor decided to rewrite paragraphs about the origins of the universe from a religious rather than an evolutionary perspective, he said, “I would absolutely, positively be livid.”

Ms. Clancy of Macmillan said the publisher reserved the right to “remove anything that is considered offensive or plagiarism,” and would rely on students, parents and other instructors to help monitor changes.

Reading on Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

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February 23, 2010

Lectionary: 225

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading I
Is 55:10-11
Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.


Responsorial Psalm
34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19
R. (18b) From all their distress God rescues the just.
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. From all their distress God rescues the just.
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. From all their distress God rescues the just.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Gospel
Mt 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This is how you are to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

NYT: Division and Its Discontents

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February 21, 2010, 5:46 pm

By STEVEN STROGATZ

Steven Strogatz on math, from basic to baffling.
Tags:

'my left foot', division, dollars and cents, fractions, integers

There’s a narrative line that runs through arithmetic, but many of us missed it in the haze of long division and common denominators. It’s the story of the quest for ever-more versatile numbers.

The “natural numbers” 1, 2, 3 and so on are good enough if all we want to do is count, add and multiply. But once we ask how much remains when everything is taken away, we are forced to create a new kind of number — zero — and since debts can be owed, we need negative numbers too. This enlarged universe of numbers called “integers” is every bit as self-contained as the natural numbers, but much more powerful because it embraces subtraction as well.
More in This Series

* From Fish to Infinity (Jan. 31, 2010)
* Rock Groups (Feb. 7, 2010)
* The Enemy of My Enemy (Feb. 14, 2010)

A new crisis comes when we try to work out the mathematics of sharing. Dividing a whole number evenly is not always possible … unless we expand the universe once more, now by inventing fractions. These are ratios of integers — hence their technical name, “rational numbers.” Sadly, this is the place where many students hit the mathematical wall.

There are many confusing things about division and its consequences, but perhaps the most maddening is that there are so many different ways to describe a part of a whole.

If you cut a chocolate layer cake right down the middle into two equal pieces, you could certainly say that each piece is “half” the cake. Or you might express the same idea with the fraction 1/2, meaning 1 of 2 equal pieces. (When you write it this way, the slash between the 1 and the 2 is a visual reminder that something is being sliced.) A third way is to say each piece is 50 percent of the whole, meaning literally 50 parts out of 100. As if that weren’t enough, you could also invoke decimal notation and describe each piece as 0.5 of the entire cake.

This profusion of choices may be partly to blame for the bewilderment many of us feel when confronted with fractions, percentages and decimals. A vivid example appears in the movie “My Left Foot,” the true story of the Irish writer, painter and poet Christy Brown. Born into a large working-class family, he suffered from cerebral palsy that made it almost impossible for him to speak or control any of his limbs, except his left foot. As a boy he was often dismissed as mentally disabled, especially by his father, who resented him and treated him cruelly.

A pivotal scene in the movie takes place around the kitchen table. One of Christy’s older sisters is quietly doing her math homework, seated next to her father, while Christy, as usual, is shunted off in the corner of the room, twisted in his chair. His sister breaks the silence: “What’s 25 percent of a quarter?” she asks. Father mulls it over. “Twenty-five percent of a quarter? Uhhh … That’s a stupid question, eh? I mean, 25 percent is a quarter. You can’t have a quarter of a quarter.” Sister responds, “You can. Can’t you, Christy?” Father: “Ha! What would he know?”

Writhing, Christy struggles to pick up a piece of chalk with his left foot. Positioning it over a slate on the floor, he manages to scrawl a 1, then a slash, then something unrecognizable. It’s the number 16, but the 6 comes out backwards. Frustrated, he erases the 6 with his heel and tries again, but this time the chalk moves too far, crossing through the 6, rendering it indecipherable. “That’s only a nervous squiggle,” snorts his father, turning away. Christy closes his eyes and slumps back, exhausted.

Aside from the dramatic power of the scene, what’s striking is the father’s conceptual rigidity. What makes him insist you can’t have a quarter of a quarter? Maybe he thinks you can only take a quarter of a whole or of something made of four equal parts. But what he fails to realize is that everything is made of four equal parts. In the case of something that’s already a quarter, its four equal parts look like this:

Since 16 of these thin slices make the original whole, each slice is 1/16 of the whole — the answer Christy was trying to scratch out.

A version of the same kind of mental rigidity, updated for the digital age, made the rounds on the Internet a few years ago when a frustrated customer named George Vaccaro recorded and posted his phone conversation with two service representatives at Verizon Wireless. Vaccaro’s complaint was that he’d been quoted a data usage rate of .002 cents per kilobyte, but his bill showed he’d been charged .002 dollars per kilobyte, a hundredfold higher rate. The ensuing conversation climbed to the top 50 in YouTube’s comedy section.

About halfway through the recording, a highlight occurs in the exchange between Vaccaro and Andrea, the Verizon floor manager:

V: “Do you recognize that there’s a difference between one dollar and one cent?”
A: “Definitely.”
V: “Do you recognize there’s a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?”
A: “Definitely.”
V: “Then, do you therefore recognize there’s a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents?”
A: “No.”
V: “No?”
A: “I mean there’s … there’s no .002 dollars.”

A few moments later Andrea says, “Obviously a dollar is 1.00, right? So what would .002 dollars look like? I’ve never heard of .002 dollars… It’s just not a full cent.”

The challenge of converting between dollars and cents is only part of the problem for Andrea. The real barrier is her inability to envision a portion of either.

From first-hand experience I can tell you what it’s like to be mystified by decimals. In 8th grade Ms. Stanton began teaching us how to convert a fraction into a decimal. Using long division we found that some fractions give decimals that terminate in all zeroes. For example, 1/4 = .2500…, which can be rewritten as .25, since all those zeroes amount to nothing. Other fractions give decimals that eventually repeat, like

5/6 = .8333…

My favorite was 1/7, whose decimal counterpart repeats every six digits:

1/7 = .142857142857….

The bafflement began when Ms. Stanton pointed out that if you triple both sides of the simple equation

1/3 = .3333…,

you’re forced to conclude that 1 must equal .9999…

At the time I protested that they couldn’t be equal. No matter how many 9’s she wrote, I could write just as many 0’s in 1.0000… and then if we subtracted her number from mine, there would be a teeny bit left over, something like .0000…01.

Like Christy’s father and the Verizon service reps, my gut couldn’t accept something that had just been proven to me. I saw it but refused to believe it. (This might remind you of some people you know.)

But it gets worse — or better, if you like to feel your neurons sizzle. Back in Ms. Stanton’s class, what stopped us from looking at decimals that neither terminate nor repeat periodically? It’s easy to cook up such stomach-churners. Here’s an example:

0.12122122212222…

By design, the blocks of 2 get progressively longer as we move to the right. There’s no way to express this decimal as a fraction. Fractions always yield decimals that terminate or eventually repeat periodically — that can be proven — and since this decimal does neither, it can’t be equal to the ratio of any whole numbers. It’s “irrational.”

Given how contrived this decimal is, you might suppose irrationality is rare. On the contrary, it is typical. In a certain sense that can be made precise, almost all decimals are irrational. And their digits look statistically random.

Once you accept these astonishing facts, everything turns topsy-turvy. Whole numbers and fractions, so beloved and familiar, now appear scarce and exotic. And that innocuous number line pinned to the molding of your grade school classroom? No one ever told you, but it’s chaos up there.

NOTES:

George Vaccaro’s blog provides the exasperating details of his encounters with Verizon.

The transcript of his conversation with customer service is available here.

For readers who may still find it hard to accept that 1 = .9999…, the argument that eventually convinced me was this. They must be equal, because there’s no room for any other decimal to fit between them. (Whereas if two decimals are unequal, their average is between them, as are infinitely many other decimals.)

The amazing properties of irrational numbers are discussed at a higher mathematical level here.

The sense in which their digits are random is clarified here.

Thanks to Carole Schiffman for her comments and suggestions, and to Margaret Nelson for preparing the illustrations.

NYT: Obama Pitches Education Proposal to Governors

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February 22, 2010

By PETER BAKER and SAM DILLON

WASHINGTON — President Obama kicked off a drive Monday to upgrade American education, unveiling a plan requiring states to adopt new reading and mathematics standards and committing his administration to “breaking down some of the barriers to reform.”

Meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House, Mr. Obama stressed the importance of education to America’s economic competitiveness in a tough global marketplace, a theme he has cited in recent days to undergird a number of his domestic priorities.

He said the depth of the competition was brought home to him during a visit to South Korea last year, when he was told of that country’s determination to educate its children to out-compete American children.

“That’s what we’re up against,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s what’s at stake — nothing less than our primacy in the world. As I said at the State of the Union address, I do not accept a United States of America that’s second-place.”

The president’s proposal, part of the administration’s recommendations for a Congressional overhaul of the No Child Left Behind education program initiated by President George W. Bush, would require states to adopt “college- and career-ready standards” in reading and math to qualify for federal money from a $14 billion program that concentrates on impoverished students.

The No Child Left Behind law required states to adopt “challenging academic standards” in those subjects, but left it up to the states to decide what qualified as “challenging.” The result was that the standards set by states varied widely, with some as rigorous as those used in high-performing countries like Japan, but others setting only mediocre expectations for students.

Mr. Obama singled out Massachusetts for raising its performance so that its eighth graders now tie for best in the world in science. But overall, he said, American eighth traders rank 9th in the world in math and 11th in science, and under No Child Left Behind, 11 states actually lowered their standards in math between 2005 and 2007.

The president praised efforts by 48 states — all but Alaska and Texas — to develop common standards in math and reading, coordinated by the National Governors Association. The collaboration was a bipartisan project at variance with the highly polarized political mood in Washington that has frustrated many of Mr. Obama’s top priorities in Congress.

“We’ve been tasked to not only see this country through difficult times, but to keep the dream of our founding alive for the next generation,” Mr. Obama told the governors. “That’s not something to shy away from. It’s something to live up to. And I intend to work closely with all of you — Democrats and Republicans — to do just that.”

Mr. Obama used his meeting with the governors to defend his economic policies, particularly the stimulus package, which has, among other things, helped many states close their own recession-widened budget gaps. He gently chided those Republican governors who have criticized the stimulus program, noting that most of them took the money and used it for projects in their states.

“I’ve seen the photos and I’ve read the press releases,” Mr. Obama said. “So it must be doing something right.”

Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle

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February 22, 2010


Lectionary: 535

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading I
1 Pt 5:1-4
Beloved:
I exhort the presbyters among you,
as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ
and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed.
Tend the flock of God in your midst,
overseeing not by constraint but willingly,
as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.
Do not lord it over those assigned to you,
but be examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd is revealed,
you will receive the unfading crown of glory.


Responsorial Psalm
23:1-3a, 4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Gospel
Mt 16:13-19
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

NYT: Alaskan Road Trip, 500 Feet Up

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February 21, 2010
Journeys

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

IT was a windy, snow-whipped morning in early winter, and as I stood on a spit of land jutting into Kachemak Bay in the Alaskan town of Homer, I was surrounded by natural wonders. Or so I was told. The Harding Icefield, rugged mountaintops ensconced in interconnected glaciers, was just off to the northeast. Ten miles away were rivers where in spring phalanxes of brown bears stand paw deep in the water, practically posing for photos as they snap up spawning salmon midleap.

But in Alaska, a vast state covering 663,267 square miles, much of the terrain is completely cut off from roads. By conventional means, a tourist can get only so far — or rather, so near. Standing at the end of the Homer Spit, I’d reached the end of the road: a few feet in front of me, the pavement dropped off into the sea.

Fortunately, there’s another option: take to the air.

While in Alaska to interview people living in remote areas for an article, I learned how vital air travel is in reaching spots inaccessible by road. I also found it to be the best way to see the state’s many stunning sights — a discovery thousands of visitors are making as the proliferation of pilots in Alaska has led to an array of aerial jaunts.

Known as flightseeing, these tours — via small, sturdy aircraft capable of landing in uneven terrain — help open up Alaska to the average traveler. From the air, the rare view of a glacier’s back becomes democratic, no longer reserved for extreme sports enthusiasts who can clamber up its icy sides. Once on the ground, reclusive animals come into focus, and hard-to-reach fishing streams are just steps away.

“You’ve only got five highways,” said Norm Lagasse, director of the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum, across a state more than twice the size of Texas. North of Anchorage and Fairbanks, for example, with the exception of dogsleds, terrain is accessible mostly by aircraft, Mr. Lagasse said. “There’s no railroad, there’s no highway, there’s just no transportation infrastructure that is based on the ground,” he added.

Accordingly, Alaska has about one registered pilot for every 58 residents, and 14 times as many airplanes per capita as the rest of the United States, according to online information collected by the state’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Mr. Lagasse said pioneer pilots took their first flights over the countryside in 1913.

Cruise ships also claim to provide unique access to Alaska, but the view from the deck reveals few of the details — no bird’s-eye view of the creatures that wander along the peaks, like woolly white Dall sheep and rams almost as big as donkeys. And though by ship you can float close to a mountain’s foot, you can’t see the jewels hidden in its crags: valley lakes turned Technicolor, tinged a glowing green from “rock flour,” the ground-up minerals that pour from the meltwater of a glacier and hang suspended in the lake.

There are 304 commercial airline operators in the state, according to Kathie Anderson of the Alaska Air Carriers Association, which advocates for the local airline industry. They include lodge owners who fly guests to their remote guesthouses, guides who lead bear hunting treks, and small commuter airlines.

The best viewing, I was told, was in spring, when you can pinpoint bears below you and land to snap their picture. Zack Tappan, chief pilot at Homer Air, flies over and around the smokestacks of as many as four active volcanoes on trips to bear breeding grounds. After landing on the shore across Kachemak Bay from Homer, Mr. Tappan leads visitors to within 100 yards of placid brown bear. “I wouldn’t say they have a relationship with us, but they’ve seen us enough that they understand what we’re about,” he said.

BUT even in winter you can personally view those sequestered green lakes as I did, flightseeing via Alaska’s answer to the tour bus: a Piper Navajo double-engine plane buzzing through Lake Clark Pass. Setting out from Anchorage toward the town of Port Alsworth, you see Alaska distilled, said Glen Alsworth Jr., who runs Lake Clark Air and along with his father is something of a local aeronautical legend. “You see the oil derricks and the industrial part of Alaska,” he said, “and you get into the transitioning part of the wilderness, where it’s all still being glacier-carved.”

What hadn’t occurred to me was that all this beauty has a price: the vagaries of nature. The plane’s light frame puts it at the mercy of atmospheric lumps and bumps, though they don’t seem to faze the bush pilots in the slightest. Just as Alaska’s native people have multiple words for snow, pilots have multiple descriptions for turbulence. I may have experienced them all. I even recognized a few of the terms. Yawing, when the plane shimmies across its course as a gust buffets first one wing, then the other? Check. Hitting rough air, when the plane stutters and hiccups across clear sky that has suddenly become as potholed as a dirt road? Check.

“When it’s beautiful, it’s really beautiful, but when the weather’s not nice, it’s treacherous,” said Mr. Lagasse, who flew for the Air Force for 22 years and continues to fly recreationally.

And yet, as the plane stumbled around the sky, I took heart in my pilot’s calm, businesslike manner. Glen Alsworth Sr. has logged more than 24,000 hours in the air, and his team is well seasoned. On this day we flew above the peaks, but Lake Clark Air is skilled in slipping small, hardy Stinson planes between the mountains’ flanks to land midriver on gravel bars. Though the Federal Aviation Administration’s lowest permitted altitude is generally 500 feet, over unpopulated areas planes are permitted to dip lower.

With stout wheels, the small bush planes can land on just about any flat-ish surface — patches of snow between spruce trees, or stretches of sand. Landings on beaches beside lakes are standard for catch-and-release fishing tours in the spring, when Arctic char and rainbow trout are the attraction. For trips in which scrub brush and rocks prevent touchdown, Mr. Alsworth uses float planes with banana-shaped buoys to land in the teal water.

Though whipping winds prevented a daring landing this time, my views from aloft were enough. The Chigmit Mountains were a stupendous sight; the pass that ran through them was an icy version of a Grand Canyon. The interlocking peaks were encrusted with snow, forming a filigree of white as if a doily had been casually tossed over their stony backs. I caught my breath — for once not because of turbulence. As Mr. Tappan of Homer Air put it, with flightseeing, “you’re out there in the wilderness in a really remote setting; you’re a guest in someone else’s house.”

IF YOU GO

There are a number of small carriers in Alaska offering a range of itineraries, from day flights to weeklong excursions. The Alaska Air Carriers Association (alaskaaircarriers.org) is a good place to start when searching for a flightseeing trip, but there are more operators out there.

Homer Air (800-478-8591; homerair.com) is in Homer on the Kachemak Bay, itself a prime location for spotting bald eagles. It offers a tour of 40 glaciers via the Harding Icefield route ($166 to $355 a person depending on duration and number of people) as well as a volcano-and-wildlife-viewing trip, about six hours, where you touch down to visit bears ($700 a person).

Lake Clark Air (888-440-2281; lakeclarkair.com) is a family-operated airline specializing in the Lake Clark National Park area, roughly an hour’s flight from Anchorage. A tour starts with a scenic trip from Anchorage through the Lake Clark pass, plus lunch and a small flightseeing go-around ($400 a person). The family also runs the Farm Lodge, in remote Port Alsworth, where you can set up base and take daily excursion flights to fish, view bears and hike to hidden lakes (up to $12,000 per person for the week, depending on number of activities).

Talkeetna Air (800-533-2219; talkeetnaair.com), located about 100 miles north of Anchorage at the Talkeetna State Airport, has the ability (and permits) to land on a glacier in Denali National Park. Participants can see the peaks of Mount McKinley as only a climber could. The company also provides drop-off service for backcountry skiing and climbing. (Grand Denali Tour, two hours, is $280 a person, and with the glacier landing costs $355 a person).

Reading on First Sunday of Lent

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February 21, 2010


Lectionary: 24

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading I
Dt 26:4-10
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
‘My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.’
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence.”


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15.
(cf. 15b) Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.

reading II
Rom 10:8-13
Brothers and sisters:
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
No one who believes in him will be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”


Gospel
Lk 4:1-13
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered him,
“It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It is written:
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

Reading on Saturday after Ash Wednesday

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February 20, 2010


Lectionary: 222

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel
Reading I
Is 58:9b-14
Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you,
“Restorer of ruined homesteads.”
If you hold back your foot on the sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
If you call the sabbath a delight,
and the LORD’s holy day honorable;
If you honor it by not following your ways,
seeking your own interests, or speaking with maliceB
Then you shall delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.


Responsorial Psalm
86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (11ab) Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.




Gospel
Lk 5:27-32
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

NYT: A Florida Town Where Turtles, and Even Humans, Can Relax

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February 19, 2010

By GERALDINE FABRIKANT

BOCA RATON, Fla.

WHEN Ludwig, a giant sea turtle, lived at Sea World in Orlando, he exhibited severe anger management issues. First this 99-pound, 60-year-old rare Kemp’s ridley turtle bullied his tank mates. Then he began snipping at his handlers.

It went from bad to worse until five years ago when Sea World lent Ludwig to Gumbo Limbo, a nature center here that had taken care of another temperamental turtle.

The once tense Ludwig is now mellower and easier on his caretakers. For Ludwig — and it seems for a good many of its 80,000 year-round human residents — it is better in Boca.

Who knows why? Maybe Ludwig is more mature and does better with his own space, or maybe it is the laid-back atmosphere in Boca Raton, the resort area north of Fort Lauderdale and south of Delray Beach and Palm Beach.

But for visitors Boca can be an acquired taste. If Miami is the livelier tourist destination (think of tight white Capri pants), and Palm Beach is the snobbier destination (think of white silk pants and pink silk tops), Boca is khaki shorts and flats.

It is a casual resort that lets visitors relax on its pristine public beaches, check out a rash of restaurants, visit some of the state’s prettiest gardens and drive to Delray or Palm Beach for more action, if one has the craving.

Boca benefited from the influence of Addison Mizner, the legendary architect who created Palm Beach and brought the Spanish-style estate to southern Florida with a vengeance. In 1925, eager to make an even bigger splash and fortune than Palm Beach had provided, Mr. Mizner turned his sights on this sleepy town with an agenda of building an entire vacation community from scratch.

He didn’t get far. Almost immediately after creating the 100-room Ritz Carlton Cloister Inn, he suffered financial reversals. In 1927 Clarence Geist, one of his major investors, bought the hotel at auction.

In World War II the hotel was turned into Army barracks. After the war the Schine family bought it, painted it pink to match its movie theater chain and expanded it. Today it is the Boca Raton Resort and Club, with 1,047 rooms on 356 acres.

But even if the giant hotel is a force in Boca, the town itself never had a center in part because the hard-charging magnate Henry Morrison Flagler, who used part of his Standard Oil Fortune to develop the first railroad along the eastern coast of southern Florida, did not create a passenger stop in Boca Raton.

“The station that Mr. Flagler had built for Boca Raton close to 1900 was not comparable to those in adjacent towns,” said Derek Vander Ploeg, an architect in Boca Raton who has studied local history. “The station was more of a freight station for produce than a passenger station. It was not until the late 1920s that Mr. Geist had a station with a regular passenger service built.”

Other towns grew up around the stations, but Boca got slowed up again because of the boom and bust cycles, Mr. Vander Ploeg maintains.

Today Boca remains something of a sprawl. The town and West Boca have a total of 200,000 residents, often lodged in gated communities. Peek behind a hedge and find a community or a golf course.

John Grogan, the author of “Marley & Me” who moved his wife, his two kids and their Labrador, Marley, down to Boca from West Palm Beach in 1994, and stayed for five years, is not a big fan of the architecture. “This is ersatz Mediterranean, and the homes are surrounded by Home Depot-style instant landscaping with palm trees, shrubbery and carpets of sand,” Mr. Grogan said. “There are native Floridians here, but they are hidden away.”

Boca has fought to emerge from suburban sprawl. In the late 1980s the Community Redevelopment Agency bought a small mall, had it razed, and redeveloped it in the Mizner style with terra cotta roofs; awnings and balconies are typical.

The redevelopment agency helped arrange for the expanded Boca Museum of Art and an amphitheatre to have a home there. Last year the museum attracted 230,000 visitors, in part because of an annual arts festival, which was held this month..

For those for whom shopping malls do not hold great allure, hidden treasures in the area include the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, just a short drive away in Delray Beach.

The garden grew out of an effort at the beginning of the 20th century by Mr. Flagler and Jo Sakai, a Japanese businessman, to bring over people from Japan to develop agriculture in South Florida. In general the effort failed, and many eventually returned home. George Morikami stayed, and was singularly successful as a farmer. Sixty years later he donated his land to Palm Beach County to be preserved as a park. Today the 200-acre garden features paths for strolling around its two lakes so that the views of the plants, trees and cascades change continually. The gardens have been rated the eighth best Japanese garden outside Japan according to Journal of Japanese Gardening.

And just across the road a 4000-square-foot greenhouse that belongs to the American Orchid Society Visitors Center and Botanical Garden holds an array of orchids and a gift shop that makes one wish to live in Florida because the prices of plants are so much lower than in the North.

Those who prefer animals can hang out at Gumbo Limbo, which is dedicated to the study of turtles and other marine life. Recently it has been swamped with turtles “stopped cold by the cold weather spell,” as Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo, put it. “Their body temperature dropped so low that they were in danger of dying.”

Over the last months Gumbo Limbo has served as a hospital for 170 freezing turtles, some of which have a form of cancer that can be fatal unless treated.

Just across the way are Boca’s public beaches, which have been maintained by the local government and seem relatively pristine.

That is not to say that Boca does not have a busy local society. Just ask Mr. Grogan. It was he who called the nouveau-riche women of Boca the “Bocahontases” in his popular Sun-Sentinel column while he was still living in West Palm Beach.

But then he moved to Boca because of the school system, the parks and a good local government. “I had to swallow my pride,” he recalled.

It took the Grogans a while to fit in. Even Marley had trouble. Once, tied up at a restaurant, Marley pulled free, dragging the tablecloth and everything on it with him as an army of teeny dogs, tucked into the buttery leather handbags of their Bocahontas owners, looked on, Mr. Grogan said. Still, the Grogans adjusted. “It is a sleepy town,” he said. Most people come to visit family members who have retired here. “But I grew to like it.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT TO DO

Boca Raton Museum of Art (501 Plaza Real, (561) 392-2500, www.bocamuseum.org.) A diverse collection of paintings, photographs, and African and pre-Columbian objects.

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center (1801 North Ocean Boulevard, Boca Raton, (561) 338-1473, www.gumbolimbo.org) A small nature centered focused on sea turtles.

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens (4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach, Fla., (561) 495-0233, www.morikami.org) Extensive Japanese gardens and a museum.

WHERE TO STAY

Boca Raton Resort and Club (501 East Camino Real, (561) 447-3000, www.bocaresort.com) The sprawling hotel complex built around Addison Mizner’s original hotel.

Marriott Renaissance Boca Raton Hotel (2000 Northwest 19th Street, (561) 368-5252) A comfortable hotel located near the trendy Town Center Mall.

WHERE TO EAT

Max’s Grille (404 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Fla., (561) 368-0080, www.maxsgrille.com) A lively restaurant in the center of the Mizner Mall.

Jake’s Stone Crab (514 Via de Palmas, Boca Raton, Fla., (561) 347-1055, www.jakesstonecrab.com) A casual restaurant that specializes in crab dishes.

Reading on Friday after Ash Wednesday

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

February 19, 2010

Lectionary: 221

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel
Reading I
Is 58:1-9a
Thus says the Lord GOD:
Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,
lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness,
and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day,
and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just
and not abandoned the law of their God;
They ask me to declare what is due them,
pleased to gain access to God.
“Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

Responsorial Psalm
51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.


Gospel
Mt 9:14-15
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.”

NYT: A Dutch Home With Some Serious Whimsy

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February 18, 2010
On Location

By GISELA WILLIAMS

AMSTELSCHEG, the Netherlands

THE kitchen in Don and Sylvie Murphy’s home, on the suburban edges of Amsterdam, is orange, about the same shade as their goldfish, their food processor and Ms. Murphy’s car, a vintage Fiat 500 parked outside. It could be seen as a sign of fanatical nationalism — orange being the color of the Netherlands — but it is not: Mr. Murphy is from Ireland, and Ms. Murphy is British.

“Orange is our color,” Ms. Murphy said.

Her husband explained: “Sylvie was wearing an orange dress when I first met her.”

Having a signature color is not the only way the Murphys stand out. Their house, a futuristic bunker-like structure that Mr. Murphy designed and built for about $1.4 million (or around a million euros), is surrounded by traditional thatch-roof bungalows.

“People have shouted abusive things at us,” said Mr. Murphy, a founding partner of VMX Architects in Amsterdam, referring to neighbors who have voiced their disapproval of the modern design. “They’ve written notes that say, ‘How is it possible to build this house here?’ and left them in our mailbox.”

But like the house he built, Mr. Murphy, 44, has a tough facade. He and his wife, a stay-at-home mother to Oscar, 14; Ava, 13; and Edan, 3, said that their vision for the home was more important than what the neighbors thought.

“If we just produced another thatched cottage, we might as well still be living in caves,” he said.

As it happens, Ms. Murphy, 40, once lived in a thatched home — she grew up in a 15th-century house in England — and she was particularly intent on maintaining their modern, urban aesthetic.

“Having a modern house in the country is the best of both worlds,” she said.

Their two-story house, on a tiny island overlooking a canal, was completed in August and has about 5,300 square feet of living space. The structure — which is made of concrete block, insulation and a metal cage — was sprayed with concrete, an extremely labor-intensive technique that “created a building that looked as monolithic as possible,” Mr. Murphy said.

The top floor — the designated living area — is a long loft-like space divided into three areas: a living room with a piano, an open kitchen and a casual sitting area with a fireplace and flat-screen television. It has slate-gray floors coated in an epoxy, a finish often used on museum flooring, Mr. Murphy said; the walls and ceilings are made of a similar-colored plaster.

Sloping glass walls offer views of snow-covered fields and one of the neighboring thatched houses.

Throughout the top floor, they have installed a constellation of bare incandescent light bulbs in different shapes and sizes that screw directly into the ceiling, creating a night-sky effect.

All four bedrooms are on the ground floor and have glass walls facing east, so they get plenty of sunlight in the morning.

“We get so much light in here,” Mr. Murphy said, “that some mornings when I bring Sylvie her tea, I have to bring her a pair of sunglasses as well.”

But the teenagers, he said, love the basement — a 1,335-square-foot space that doesn’t get any natural light, but does have a home theater, a spinning disco ball and a set of drums. The Murphys plan to add a fitness area, office space and a library.

Only six months after moving in, everyone seems content. Mr. Murphy recalled something a friend told him just a few weeks ago. “This house is so like you — on one hand, it’s strange,” the friend said, “and doesn’t appear to fit in. On the other hand, it’s comfortable and charming.”

Reading on Thursday after Ash Wednesday

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February 18, 2010


Lectionary: 220

Reading 1
Responsorial Psalm
Reading 2
Gospel

Reading I
Dt 30:15-20
Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”


Responsorial Psalm
1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Gospel
Lk 9:22-25
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Then he said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”