Larry King to End Show in the Fall

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June 29, 2010

By BRIAN STELTER

In the face of falling ratings, the CNN host Larry King announced Tuesday evening that he would end his long-running talk show, “Larry King Live,” this fall.
Jonathan Klein, president of CNN’s domestic channel, said that Mr. King, 76, was ending the show “on his own terms,” just after his 25th anniversary. Mr. Klein said he would announce a new 9 p.m. program over the summer.
Mr. King will stay at CNN part time; in an announcement on his show, he said that he would host an undetermined number of specials “on major national and international subjects.”
“Larry King Live,” the centerpiece of the CNN prime-time schedule, has seen its ratings drop sharply in recent years, particularly in the last six months, leading to widespread talk that Mr. King’s current contract, which will expire in June 2011, could be his last. Asked by Bill Maher, his guest on his Tuesday night show, about the speculation in the media, Mr. King said “that had nothing to do with it.” He said he approached CNN management about the change and they “graciously accepted.”
It will give “more time for my wife and I to get to the kids’ little league games,” he said on his show. Mr. King and his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, reunited in May after having filed for divorce a month earlier.
In the last few weeks, executives at CNN, a unit of Time Warner, have repeatedly had to deny that they were close to signing a deal for Mr. King’s replacement. Piers Morgan, a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” has been rumored to be talking to CNN about a job. Others likely to be seen as candidates are Katie Couric and Ryan Seacrest.
On Tuesday night, he said he would recommend Mr. Seacrest, “if he has a great interest in politics.”
Humbly, he added, “I’m sure there’s a ton of people that could do it. Come on, it’s Q.&A.”
The timing of Mr. King’s announcement came as a shock to many at CNN, where “Larry King Live” has been the only consistent part of an ever-evolving lineup.
Presidents and CNN chiefs have come and gone since the talk show started at 1985. Mr. King noted that his show was recently recognized by the Guinness World Records as being the longest-running show with the same host in the same time slot.
“With this chapter closing, I’m looking forward to the future and what my next chapter will bring, but for now it’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders,” he concluded in a blog post that he read on the air.
Mr. Klein told his employees that CNN would “celebrate tenure in proper fashion over the coming months.”
Attention will quickly turn to hiring a new host for one of the most coveted and potentially one of the most lucrative time slots in cable. Asked what viewers should expect from CNN in prime time, Mr. Klein said in an interview, “informed opinion, insightful analysis, real reporting. That’s what we do.”
“We’re positioning ourselves to be even better at it in the years ahead,” he said.
CNN has shown a willingness to try new formats this year. In the 7 p.m. time slot, it replaced Lou Dobbs with a political news show. In the 8 p.m. time slot, it is preparing to replace the news show “Campbell Brown” with an as-yet-untitled discussion show with Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former New York governor, and Kathleen Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist at The Washington Post.
On Mr. King’s show Tuesday, TV stars like Regis Philbin and Diane Sawyer called in to praise the host, whom Mr. Maher called the “Mickey Mantle of broadcasters.” Though sometimes criticized for going easy on guests, Mr. King was admirably versatile, able to interview a singer and a president in the same week (he did so this month, with Lady Gaga on a Tuesday and President Obama on a Thursday).
In recent years “Larry King Live” has lost a substantial amount of its audience, mirroring CNN as a whole, which has struggled to figure out how to compete in a sharply partisan cable news environment. Andrew Tyndall, a TV news analyst, said CNN depended for too long on Mr. King and his once-formidable audience. “They decided to cash in on his high ratings and postpone refreshing the whole lineup,” he said.
Now the ratings are a source of embarrassment for the channel. In the second quarter of this year, Mr. King’s show averaged 674,000 viewers, its lowest viewership in at least a decade, according to ratings from the Nielsen Company. It ranks well behind most popular cable news show at 9 p.m., “Hannity” on Fox News, as well as the No. 2 “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.
Those shows are nothing like Mr. King’s. On a special 25th anniversary show this month, he reminisced about a career’s worth of interviews — every sitting president, Frank Sinatra, Tammy Faye Bakker, Marlon Brando, Ross Perot — and he said he had found that most of his guests were willing to open up to him. “If you work at it long enough and hard enough,” he said, “you can draw people out.”

Bill Carter contributed reporting.

Do Names Make a difference?

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Parents are being warned to think long and hard when choosing names for their babies as research has discovered that girls who are given very feminine names, such as Anna, Emma or Elizabeth, are less likely to study maths or physics after the age of 16, a remarkable study has found.
Both subjects, which are traditionally seen as predominantly male, are far more popular among girls with names such as Abigail, Lauren and Ashley, which have been judged as less feminine in a linguistic test. The effect is so strong that parents can set twin daughters off on completely different career paths simply by calling them Isabella and Alex, names at either end of the spectrum. A study of 1,000 pairs of sisters in the US found that Alex was twice as likely as her twin to take maths or science at a higher level.
Part of the reason is that names provide a powerful image of a person and influence people's reactions to them. An Isabella is less likely to study maths, according to the theory, because people would not expect her to. 'There are plenty of exceptions but, on average, people treat Isabellas differently to Alexes,' commented David Figlio, professor of economics at the University of Florida and the author of the report. 'Girls with feminine names were often typecast.' Figlio pointed to the controversy that arose over the first talking Barbie's phrase, 'math is hard'. 'It is a stereotype, and girls with particularly feminine names may feel more pressure to avoid technical subjects,' he said. Not that they were any less capable. When the Isabellas, Annas and Elizabeths took on their tougher-named peers in science, they performed just as well.
To carry out the study, to be published in the Journal of Human Resources, Figlio calculated a linguistic 'femininity' score for each name. It was arrived at by using 1,700 letter and sound combinations that could be associated as either female or male and matching them against the names on 1.4 million birth certificates.
He also showed how harmful giving your child a 'chav' or lower-status name can be. In a study of 55,000 children, the exam marks of those with 'lower-status' names - often spelled in an unusual way or including punctuation - were on average 3 to 5 percentage points lower than siblings with more traditional names. One of the reasons was that teachers had lower expectations of them.
Edyta Ballantyne, a primary school teacher in north London, said she would often be given the names of children in her class before meeting them and admitted that it was hard not to form judgments. 'I think most people get an image in their head when they hear a name,' she said. 'If you treat a child differently because of their name, then they will behave differently. That is why the issue for every teacher is to look beyond their name.'
In his book Baby Name Report Card, UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian tested a host of names to see how attractive people found them. Some names immediately aroused images of success, others of popularity or kindness. On the whole, people judged to have more traditional names such as Rachel and Robert did extremely well. More alternative names scored badly. Breeze, for example, was given 16 out of 100, while Christopher received full marks. 'A name is part of an impression package,' said Mehrabian. 'Parents who make up bizarre names for their children are ignorant, arrogant or just foolish.'
Figlio argued that people should be more aware of the power of names. 'In ways we are only beginning to understand, children with different names but the exact same upbringing grow up to have remarkably different life outcomes,' he said.
'If you want to give your child a name that connotes low status, then you need to be aware of the consequences.'
Mind what you call them
Popular names and their 'femininity rating'
Isabella 1.21
Anna 1.04
Elizabeth 1.02
Emma 0.97
Jessica 0.93
Samantha 0.83
Sarah 0.78
Olivia 0.74
Hannah 0.70
Emily 0.68
Lauren 0.66
Ashley 0.63
Grace 0.50
Abigail 0.48
Alex 0.28
Journal of Human Resources

June 30, 2010 Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

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June 30, 2010
Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1
Am 5:14-15, 21-24

Seek good and not evil,

that you may live;

Then truly will the LORD, the God of hosts,

be with you as you claim!

Hate evil and love good,

and let justice prevail at the gate;

Then it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,

will have pity on the remnant of Joseph.

I hate, I spurn your feasts, says the LORD,

I take no pleasure in your solemnities;

Your cereal offerings I will not accept,

nor consider your stall-fed peace offerings.

Away with your noisy songs!

I will not listen to the melodies of your harps.

But if you would offer me burnt offerings,

then let justice surge like water,

and goodness like an unfailing stream.

Ps 50:7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 16bc-17

Responsorial Psalm

R.    (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Hear, my people, and I will speak;

Israel, I will testify against you;

God, your God, am I.”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,

for your burnt offerings are before me always.

I take from your house no bullock,

no goats out of your fold.”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“For mine are all the animals of the forests,

beasts by the thousand on my mountains.

I know all the birds of the air,

and whatever stirs in the plains, belongs to me.”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“If I were hungry, I should not tell you,

for mine are the world and its fullness.

Do I eat the flesh of strong bulls,

or is the blood of goats my drink?”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Why do you recite my statutes,

and profess my covenant with your mouth,

Though you hate discipline

and cast my words behind you?”

R.    To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Mt 8:28-34

Gospel

When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes,

two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him.

They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.

They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God?

Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?”

Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding.

The demons pleaded with him,

“If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

And he said to them, “Go then!”

They came out and entered the swine,

and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea

where they drowned.

The swineherds ran away,

and when they came to the town they reported everything,

including what had happened to the demoniacs.

Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus,

and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

June 28, 2010 Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr

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June 28, 2010
Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr

Reading 1
Am 2:6-10, 13-16

Thus says the LORD:

For three crimes of Israel, and for four,

I will not revoke my word;

Because they sell the just man for silver,

and the poor man for a pair of sandals.

They trample the heads of the weak

into the dust of the earth,

and force the lowly out of the way.

Son and father go to the same prostitute,

profaning my holy name.

Upon garments taken in pledge

they recline beside any altar;

And the wine of those who have been fined

they drink in the house of their god.

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them,

who were as tall as the cedars,

and as strong as the oak trees.

I destroyed their fruit above,

and their roots beneath.

It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,

and who led you through the desert for forty years,

to occupy the land of the Amorites.

Beware, I will crush you into the ground

as a wagon crushes when laden with sheaves.

Flight shall perish from the swift,

and the strong man shall not retain his strength;

The warrior shall not save his life,

nor the bowman stand his ground;

The swift of foot shall not escape,

nor the horseman save his life.

And the most stouthearted of warriors

shall flee naked on that day, says the LORD.

Ps 50:16bc-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22-23

Responsorial Psalm

R.     (22a) Remember this, you who never think of God.

“Why do you recite my statutes,

and profess my covenant with your mouth,

Though you hate discipline

and cast my words behind you?”

R.     Remember this, you who never think of God.

“When you see a thief, you keep pace with him,

and with adulterers you throw in your lot.

To your mouth you give free rein for evil,

you harness your tongue to deceit.”

R.     Remember this, you who never think of God.

“You sit speaking against your brother;

against your mother’s son you spread rumors.

When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?

Or do you think that I am like yourself?

I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”

R.     Remember this, you who never think of God.

“Consider this, you who forget God,

lest I rend you and there be no one to rescue you.

He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;

and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”

R.     Remember this, you who never think of God.

Mt 8:18-22

Gospel

When Jesus saw a crowd around him,

he gave orders to cross to the other shore.

A scribe approached and said to him,

“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,

but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”

Another of his disciples said to him,

“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”

But Jesus answered him, “Follow me,

and let the dead bury their dead.”

June 27, 2010 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Reading 1

1 Kgs 19:16b, 19-21

The LORD said to Elijah:

“You shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah,

as prophet to succeed you.”

Elijah set out and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat,

as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen;

he was following the twelfth.

Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him.

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said,

“Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,

and I will follow you.”

Elijah answered, “Go back!

Have I done anything to you?”

Elisha left him, and taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them;

he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh,

and gave it to his people to eat.

Then Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant.

Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Responsorial Psalm

R.     (cf. 5a) You are my inheritance, O Lord.

Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;

I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.

O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,

you it is who hold fast my lot.”

R.     You are my inheritance, O Lord.

I bless the LORD who counsels me;

even in the night my heart exhorts me.

I set the LORD ever before me;

with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

R.     You are my inheritance, O Lord.

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,

my body, too, abides in confidence

because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,

nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

R.     You are my inheritance, O Lord.

You will show me the path to life,

fullness of joys in your presence,

the delights at your right hand forever.

R.     You are my inheritance, O Lord.

Gal 5:1, 13-18

Reading 2

Brothers and sisters:

For freedom Christ set us free;

so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters.

But do not use this freedom

as an opportunity for the flesh;

rather, serve one another through love.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement,

namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

But if you go on biting and devouring one another,

beware that you are not consumed by one another.

I say, then: live by the Spirit

and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.

For the flesh has desires against the Spirit,

and the Spirit against the flesh;

these are opposed to each other,

so that you may not do what you want.

But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Lk 9:51-62

Gospel

When the days for Jesus’ being taken up were fulfilled,

he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,

and he sent messengers ahead of him.

On the way they entered a Samaritan village

to prepare for his reception there,

but they would not welcome him

because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.

When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,

“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven

to consume them?”

Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him,

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus answered him,

“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,

but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”

And to another he said, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”

But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.

But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord,

but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”

To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow

and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

June 25, 2010 Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

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June 25, 2010
Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1
2 Kgs 25:1-12

In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign,

on the tenth day of the month,

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army

advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it,

and built siege walls on every side.

The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.

On the ninth day of the fourth month,

when famine had gripped the city,

and the people had no more bread,

the city walls were breached.

Then the king and all the soldiers left the city by night

through the gate between the two walls

that was near the king’s garden.

Since the Chaldeans had the city surrounded,

they went in the direction of the Arabah.

But the Chaldean army pursued the king

and overtook him in the desert near Jericho,

abandoned by his whole army.

The king was therefore arrested and brought to Riblah

to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him.

He had Zedekiah’s sons slain before his eyes.

Then he blinded Zedekiah, bound him with fetters,

and had him brought to Babylon.

On the seventh day of the fifth month

(this was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar,

king of Babylon),

Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard,

came to Jerusalem as the representative

of the king of Babylon.

He burned the house of the LORD,

the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem;

every large building was destroyed by fire.

Then the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard

tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard,

led into exile the last of the people remaining in the city,

and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon,

and the last of the artisans.

But some of the country’s poor, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard,

left behind as vinedressers and farmers.

Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Responsorial Psalm

R.     (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

By the streams of Babylon

we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

On the aspens of that land

we hung up our harps.

R.     Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

Though there our captors asked of us

the lyrics of our songs,

And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:

“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”

R.     Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

How could we sing a song of the LORD

in a foreign land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

may my right hand be forgotten!

R.     Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

May my tongue cleave to my palate

if I remember you not,

If I place not Jerusalem

ahead of my joy.

R.     Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

Mt 8:1-4

Gospel

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,

“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,

“I will do it.  Be made clean.”

His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,

but go show yourself to the priest,

and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

Al Gore: Toward Sustainable Capitalism

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 June 24, 2010 : 7:48 AM

My op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal:
"There are several well understood advantages inherent in capitalism that make it superior to any other system for organizing economic activity. It has proven to be far more efficient in the allocation of resources and the matching of supply with demand, far more effective at wealth creation, and far more conducive to high levels of freedom and political self-governance. At the most basic level, however, capitalism has become the world's economic ideology of choice primarily because it demonstrably unlocks a higher fraction of the human potential with ubiquitous organic incentives that reward hard work, ingenuity and innovation."
"For these reasons and others, markets lie at the foundation of every successful economy. Yet the recent crisis in global markets (following other significant market dislocations in 1994, 1997, 1998 and in 2000-2001), has shaken the world's confidence in the way modern capitalism is now operating."

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Clinton hops on U.S. soccer bandwagon

PRETORIA, South Africa – Weezer’s “Represent” was blaring across the delirious, victorious American locker room about the time Bill Clinton strolled in.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton attending Wednesday's USA-Algeria match. (Michael Sohn/AP)

Landon Donovan’s injury-time game-winner over Algeria had sprung the United States into the knockout round and set off parties from here to back home. The most important moment in American soccer history is what team officials were calling it, at least until Saturday afternoon’s game against Ghana.
The players knew the 1-0 victory was big, but the enormity hit home when – out of nowhere – Clinton just sort of walked in. He appeared more in awe of the players than the players of him.

Someone handed the former President a soda. He put his arm around Donovan. He sought out coach Bob Bradley. The party went on. Clinton wound up just hanging out for 45 minutes; some think he would’ve stayed hours longer if, you know, the guys didn’t have to actually get dressed.
This was no politician photo op. He was chatting up the players like the most excitable USA fan on the planet, a group whose numbers are growing by the moment in what may prove to be an historic run.
Somewhere in the middle Clinton cleared his throat and gave a brief speech. The room finally went silent; everyone crowded around.
He thanked them. He praised them. Then, according to the players and officials, he delivered signature lines.
“As someone who cares about our country,” he said, “you made me proud to be an American.”
“Surreal,” Jonathan Bronstein said with a shake of his head. “Just surreal. The former President is telling us we made him proud to be American?”
The whole thing went surreal Wednesday for U.S. Soccer. These cardiac kids, these injury-time heroes, these never-quit stars had done the impossible by continuing to do the impossible.
America, for the moment at least, loves its men’s national soccer team.
The USA has gone deeper in World Cups before. They’ve featured bigger stars before. They’ve garnered huge media attention before. They’ve never done it this big, though, thanks in part to a flair for these dramatic, near buzzer-beating, Cup-saving goals. What’s not to love about a team that holds a lead for just two total minutes over three games and wins its World Cup group anyway?
“We’ve had [previous success] before but not with this much interest,” said Sunil Gulati, president of U.S. Soccer. “The country was tuned in like never before. It would’ve been a missed opportunity.”
No, soccer isn’t going to become the national sport or replace football or basketball. Maybe it doesn’t develop into much more than a once-every-four-year diversion.
What’s wrong with that, though? What’s wrong with another small step toward appreciation and admiration? What’s wrong with soccer causing people to cheer in work break rooms and crowd into bars in the middle of the day? What’s wrong with a few more flags flapping in the air? What’s wrong with everyone feeling a dose of American pride during a time when the recession keeps lingering and the wars keep going and the oil keeps leaking?
Soccer isn’t going to get the unemployed a job or bring the troops home or clean up the Gulf. No one here would suggest such a thing.
But what’s wrong with a little fun; with Bill Clinton and Weezer and a team that keeps winning these desperation games? Or with thousands of Americans traveling all the way to this rickety old stadium and winding up singing and dancing and hugging the night away. They even inspired Jozy Altidore to try to leap a security fence and land in an impromptu post-victory fan mosh pit?
“It was amazing,” he smiled.
“I used to see the game we play as just a game,” Donovan said. “I think I’m realizing, partly during this tournament, that it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity to inspire.”
So here were the Americans trying to drive home the simple inspirational proof of their success.
They deal with adversity. The team didn’t fall apart when, once again, a referee error disallowed a goal Wednesday or when player mistakes left scoring chances blown. They just got tougher.
“[Clinton] said he liked how we never give up,” Altidore said.
They stick together. Players and officials say that this USA team, more than any other in recent memory, is tight. There are off-the-field friendships. The coach has a son on the team. Black, white, Hispanic, it’s a melting pot of unity and support. When someone fails, fingers aren’t pointed.
“We all care for each other, on and off the field,” DeMarcus Beasley said before calling Donovan his “brother.”
They pursue greatness. This is U.S. Soccer, where history demands the expectations remain limited. Just don’t tell these players. They aren’t going to stuff their cleats in their mouth and verbalize their confidence, but they were not surprised they won their group for the first time since the first World Cup in 1930.
“Now it’s a one-off game, anything can happen,” Altidore said. “We’re playing to play in the final.”
The final? Of the whole thing? By then the bandwagon that Bill Clinton is leading might collapse. This band of Americans, half a world from home, is willing to risk it. A year ago, here in South Africa, they stunned the soccer powers with a magical run to the finals of the Confederations Cup.
Now they’re back for more. More success. More drama. More dare-to-dream moments that cause a nation to rally around a sport too often dismissed as dull and drab.
Bill Clinton showed up in their rocking locker room Wednesday and never wanted to leave. “You’re amazing,” he kept saying.
It’s surreal in South Africa and these guys swear they aren’t even close to being done.

June 24, 2010 Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

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June 24, 2010
Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Mass during the Day 

Reading 1
Is 49:1-6

Hear me, O coastlands,

listen, O distant peoples.

The LORD called me from birth,

from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.

He made of me a sharp-edged sword

and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.

He made me a polished arrow,

in his quiver he hid me.

You are my servant, he said to me,

Israel, through whom I show my glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,

and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,

yet my reward is with the LORD,

my recompense is with my God.

For now the LORD has spoken

who formed me as his servant from the womb,

that Jacob may be brought back to him

and Israel gathered to him;

and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,

and my God is now my strength!

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,

to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the survivors of Israel;

I will make you a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15

Responsorial Psalm

R.     (14) I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

O LORD, you have probed me, 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.    I praise you for I am wonderfully made.

Truly you have formed my inmost being;

you knit me in my mother’s womb.

I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;

wonderful are your works.

R.    I praise you for I am wonderfully made.

My soul also you knew full well;

nor was my frame unknown to you

When I was made in secret,

when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.

R.    I praise you for I am wonderfully made.

Acts 13:22-26

Reading 2

In those days, Paul said:

“God raised up David as king;

of him God testified,

I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;

he will carry out my every wish.

From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise,

has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.

John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance

to all the people of Israel;

and as John was completing his course, he would say,

‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.

Behold, one is coming after me;

I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’

“My brothers, sons of the family of Abraham,

and those others among you who are God-fearing,

to us this word of salvation has been sent.”

Lk 1:57-66, 80

Gospel

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child

she gave birth to a son.

Her neighbors and relatives heard

that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,

and they rejoiced with her.

When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,

they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,

but his mother said in reply,

“No. He will be called John.”

But they answered her,

“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”

So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.

He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”

and all were amazed.

Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,

and he spoke blessing God.

Then fear came upon all their neighbors,

and all these matters were discussed

throughout the hill country of Judea.

All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,

“What, then, will this child be?”

For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

The child grew and became strong in spirit,

and he was in the desert until the day

of his manifestation to Israel.

nyt: Food Is the Thrill at Some Bachelor Parties

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

June 22, 2010

By OLIVER STRAND

BY tradition, a bachelor or bachelorette party is a night of Dionysian excess. How that unfolds is a matter of taste.
For some, it entails a liberating number of drinks and a close encounter with the taut, spray-tanned skin of an exotic dancer. But for one recently married man and his friends, it meant bottles from a good winemaker to accompany the crispy, golden skin of a roast suckling pig.
“For the groom, carnal pleasure involved eating,” said Archie McAlister, 43, explaining why he reserved the chef’s table at the Breslin in Manhattan for a bachelor party he held earlier this month for Theo Peck, 38, a cook. “They brought the pig, then this slender girl came over and butchered it down for us and chopped it into little pieces. I don’t mean this in a leering way, but that was the female entertainment for the evening.”
Rounding out the feast were roasted fennel, potatoes cooked in duck fat, broccoli rabe, salsa verde and generous pours of a dry albariño from northern Spain and a fruity young Beaujolais-Villages. According to Mr. McAlister, a cabinet maker, the evening satisfied all the senses without getting anybody into trouble.
“A lot of these stags run into each other,” he said. “It’s just another night of drinking. Whereas I don’t know how many people will sit down and have a suckling pig for dinner.”
It was one of a number of recent events where future brides and bridegrooms have decided to trade in the bump and grind for the tasting menu. Some have made pilgrimages to the temples of haute gastronomy, while others rolled up their sleeves and made an elaborate dinner with their friends. A culinary bachelor party, participants say, can be a night to remember. Which stands in contrast to some pre-wedding excursions, where the activities are best forgotten, or at least denied.
“It’s not just going out and getting wasted,” said Elissa Crum, a 30-year-old nursing student, who booked the private room in May at Colicchio and Sons for a bachelorette party for her best friend from high school. “Later on, we could talk about dinner and say things like, ‘Do you remember the agnolotti with the octopus and the pork belly?’ ”
Restaurants like Per Se and WD-50 in New York and Coi in San Francisco have catered to bachelors and bachelorettes with tasting menus and wine pairings that might last three hours or longer. Hen parties have taken over some of the cabins at Blackberry Farm, an inn on 10,000 acres in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, where meals are often a luxurious multicourse events: foraged morels stuffed with homemade sausage, saddle of rabbit wrapped in Benton’s country ham.
Even in Las Vegas, where selective memory is a civic virtue, memorable meals have been the focus of stag and hen parties. Recently, a group of men took over the Krug Room, a private room at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesars Palace, and paired a seven-course dinner with seven vintages of Krug. The wine brought the bill to more than $1,000 a person.
“The groom specifically requested the black truffle and artichoke soup,” said Franck Savoy, the restaurant’s general manager. “They were extremely sophisticated and knew what they wanted. It was the opposite of ‘The Hangover.’ ”
Andrew Loewenstern, 37, a software developer and a dedicated gourmand, flies around the world with his friends, descending on destination restaurants. Last year they went to Spain for a meal at El Bulli. Mr. Loewenstern celebrated his bachelor party two weeks ago at Alinea in Chicago. His friends converged on the city, flying from San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. (Bonus: Phish was playing in town, too.)
The five men had the 25-course “tour,” a tasting menu that lasted late into the night and included a king crab presentation that Mr. Loewenstern is still talking about.
“You eat the crab morsel” in a small depression in the center of a plate, he said. “Then they remove the cover and there is another, more elaborate and even more beautiful crab preparation inside. Then you think they’re taking the dish away, but they remove the center piece and there is actually a third crab preparation,” what he called “the best crab au gratin you could imagine.”
The dish may be the contemporary bachelor’s equivalent of a woman jumping out of a cake.
“This type of experience is as much fun as you can have with your clothes on,” Mr. Loewenstern said of the meal, before launching into Jermaine Stewart’s 1986 hit, “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off.”
Grant Achatz, the chef and an owner of Alinea, said that the restaurant has hosted around 10 bachelor and bachelorette parties in the last year. “When you think about a bachelor party, what are you really trying to focus on?” he asked. “For some people, it’s ‘I want the best meal of my life.’ Yes, it’s about the food and wine. But it’s still a bachelor party. There’s an energy that is palpable. They’re out to have fun. But they’re doing it their way, which is cool.”
Darcy Miller, the editorial director of Martha Stewart Weddings, noted a decline in “cookie cutter” bachelor and bachelorette parties. “People want to do something unique,” she said. “A sit-down dinner where you’re having a real conversation and having toasts is a more intimate experience than running around and bar-hopping.”
The intimate conversations aren’t just taking place at restaurants. “Cooking schools do a lot of these parties,” Ms. Miller said.
Indeed, the Brooklyn Kitchen, a cookware shop in Williamsburg with classes on subjects like home brewing and canning, has hosted six bachelorette parties in the last year. Most are multicourse dinners made from scratch, with plenty of wine and snacking while the meal is prepared. A pickling party is scheduled for next month.
Caroline Fey of the Mariposa Kitchen in San Francisco recently guided a bride-to-be and her bridesmaids through a five-course meal with the honeymoon in Tuscany in mind: roast pork with rosemary, sage and garlic; fried baby artichokes with aioli; lemon ricotta tart.
“It’s a communal experience,” Ms. Fey said. “It’s a good environment for bridesmaids coming in from all over the country. You work together in a cooking class, so even if you don’t know each other, you get to know each other.”
When Casey Oetgen, a lawyer, helped organize a bachelorette party at Pizza a Casa on the Lower East Side, almost every one of the 17 women brought a bottle of prosecco or another wine. They made more than two dozen pies, from the classic margherita to one with truffled honey and Grayson, a funky taleggio-like cheese from Virginia. During downtime they played games like “Guess the Ex.”
In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that women go in more for do-it-yourself group activities, while men are more likely to sit back and be served. Restaurateurs also suggest that the bachelorettes are more rowdy.
“The women will get goofy,” said Wylie Dufresne of WD-50, who has stood in his open kitchen posing for photographs with more bachelor and bachelorette parties than he can count. “They have an active sense of fun. In general, women are louder, men are bigger consumers.”
Still, the steak-and-a-stripper formula may never go out of style. Some epicures see a Michelin-starred meal as just the start of the night’s amusements. Others have tried to mix the two, which can lead to complications.
At St. John, the London restaurant where nose-to-tail eating was first elevated to an art form, bachelor parties are such a regular event that men who ask about holding one are sent a letter outlining a code of conduct.
“We’re appealing to a sense of good manners,” said Thomas Blythe, the general manager. “I don’t mean it’s an Edwardian list of etiquette. It’s more to let them know that they’re not the only group in the dining room.”
The letter is clear on that point. “Stag groups can be noisy and we therefore do not recommend coming to St. John if the expectation is for a rowdy, bawdy and boisterous evening,” it reads. “We do not tolerate abusive, disrespectful or destructive behaviour. Cleaning and or damage costs will be added to the bill at the manager’s discretion on the evening. We do not serve rounds of shots or chasers.”
Not everybody is dissuaded. “A long, long time ago, a policewoman walked into the bar,” Mr. Blythe said. “We were concerned at first, but then an observant bartender recognized that she was wearing stilettos.”
The management approached her before she could start removing her uniform, Mr. Blythe said. “We explained that we weren’t that kind of establishment.”