Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label #Dayhoff5EasyPieces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Dayhoff5EasyPieces. Show all posts

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Carroll Co. Times Dec. 9, 1977: Kevin E. Dayhoff and workman installed a memorial to the late W. H. Davis


Carroll County Times December 9, 1977: Kevin E. Dayhoff (kneeling - 2nd from right) and workman installed a memorial to the late W. H. Davis, a well-known Westminster city leader and philanthropist this week in a small park area on the corner of Bond and Main Street. The plantings and bronze plaque were donated to the city by Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Davis.

Carroll County Times December 9, 1977: Kevin E. Dayhoff (kneeling - 2nd from right) and workman installed a memorial to the late W. H. Davis http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/1977/12/carroll-county-times-december-9-1977.html


Dayhoff press clippings, #Dayhoff5EasyPieces, Dayhoff self-portraits, History 1970s Westminster, History 1970s, History 1970s Carroll County, Westminster, Dayhoff Landscaping
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Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Carroll County Times December 9, 1977: Kevin E. Dayhoff (kneeling - 2nd from right) and workman installed a memorial to the late W. H. Davis

Carroll County Times December 9, 1977: Kevin E. Dayhoff (kneeling - 2nd from right) and workman installed a memorial to the late W. H. Davis http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/1977/12/carroll-county-times-december-9-1977.html

Carroll County Times December 9, 1977: Kevin E. Dayhoff (kneeling - 2nd from right) and workman installed a memorial to the late W. H. Davis, a well-known Westminster city leader and philanthropist this week in a small park area on the corner of Bond and Main Street. The plantings and bronze plaque were donated to the city by Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Davis.
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Dayhoff press clippings, #Dayhoff5EasyPieces, Dayhoff self-portraits, History 1970s Westminster, History 1970s, History 1970s Carroll County, Westminster, Dayhoff Landscaping

Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Friday, October 09, 2015

The 309th person


The 309th person

Kevin E. Dayhoff art from July 23, 1973… An East Winston Org exile on Main Street in Wilmington, NC, while looking for Angela Davis; Voltaire was watching TV while reading the Chicago Tribune about a dairy farmer named Roger McAfee.

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Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/




New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/


Scribd Kevin Dayhoff: http://www.scribd.com/kdayhoff
Kevin Dayhoff's YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/kevindayhoff

Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/ 

Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/ 


Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Carroll H. Staggs, Jr., 75, of Westminster


Carroll H. Staggs, Jr., 75, of Westminster


Carroll H. Staggs, Jr., 75, of Westminster, died unexpectedly early Saturday morning, August 1, 2015 at Carroll Hospital Center.

Coach Staggs was my Westminster Junior High School basketball coach and my science teacher. He was wonderful in both positions.

As a science teacher he helped instill and reinforce what would become a life-long interest in botany – and later horticulture. I later made a meager living farming by raising nursery stock and often thought of Coach Stagg’s science classes…

He was friendly, kind and passionate about his work and it was infectious.

As for basketball; I loved to play basketball but alas, in the end I was such a horrible basketball player that I later turned to wrestling for a winter sport in high school.

But I will always remember that he once put me in a basketball game in the old Taneytown High School gym. I was thrilled. Bill Fourhman passed the ball to Mark Causey who passed the ball to me and I scored a bucket. The only two points I ever scored in competitive high school basketball in my entire life. Thanks to the kindness and passion of Coach Staggs who put me in the game even when it was obvious that I could not dribble a basketball and breathe at the same time.

Visitation at the Myers Durboraw Funeral Home was quite hard. There were many pictures from the 1960s that caused a flood of memories of the Westminster I knew growing-up in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a friendly and affirming small town where we cared for each other and looked after each other. We were somewhat isolated and probably quite naive.

The war in Vietnam had not quite hit home and challenges of urban strife could only be found in the pages of the News American, or the Morning and Evening Sun – I was a Morning Sun person…

Westminster was a friendly and fun town unfettered by the hastiness of today’s day-to-day subsistence existence. This was long before the oustlanders– the newcomers - came to Westminster and Carroll County to call to our attention all our shortcomings and save us from ourselves. It was not a perfect town. There is no such thing. But my memories of growing-up in Westminster are perfect. And a legion of folks like Coach Staggs helped make it perfect.

According to Coach Staggs’ obituary:

Born December 6, 1939 in Cumberland, he was the son of the late Carroll H. Staggs, Sr. and Mary Fern Tressler Staggs.  He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Waltraut Flender Staggs.

Carroll was a graduate of Frostburg State Teachers College with a degree in Education and earned his Master’s Degree in Education from Frostburg. 

He loved teaching, and was a Science teacher at East and West Middle Schools for 38 years, where he coached middle school basketball. 

He was very passionate about his church and family and was a very active member of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, serving as the Usher Coordinator, chair of the Worship and Witness Committee, Past President of the Consistory and rang the bell on Memorial Day.  

Carroll was very active in the Carroll County Education Association and was a representative of CCEA Retired Teachers.  He was a member of Carroll County Old Timers Baseball Association and was an avid sports fan of the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates and attended many local high school and college basketball games. 

He was always looking out for others and was willing to lend a helping hand.  Other loves were spending time outdoors, tending to his garden, fishing and hunting.  He travelled on bus trips, attended dinner theatres, and enjoyed having breakfast with family and friends.

Surviving in addition to his wife is a daughter, Laura McClelland and husband, William, of Finksburg; son, Jeffrey Staggs and wife, Theresa, of Westminster; brother, David Staggs of Frostburg; nieces and nephews, and a great-niece.  He was predeceased by a brother, Roger Staggs.

A Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, August 5th at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 17 Bond Street, Westminster, with his pastor, Reverend Marty Kuchma, officiating.  Burial will be private in Deer Park Methodist Cemetery.  The family will receive friends on Tuesday from 2-4 and 6-8 PM at the MYERS-DURBORAW FUNERAL HOME, 91 Willis St, Westminster, MD.  

Memorial contributions may be made in his name to the St. Paul's U.C.C., 17 Bond Street, Westminster, MD  21157, American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 11454, Alexandria, VA 22312 or to the National Kidney Foundation  1301 York Road Suite 404, Lutherville, MD   21093.





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Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Changes




Kevin E. Dayhoff

Last night I covered the Westminster mayor and common council meeting for the newspaper: “Broad range of topics discussed at the Westminster mayor and common council meeting Monday night http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2015/08/broad-range-of-topics-discussed-at.html. And I had spent almost all day in church at Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster. 

At the end of the day, as I was writing the article on the council meeting, I could help but to recall one of my all-time favorite sermons about change.

Both Westminster city government and Grace Lutheran Church need to continue to change in order to continue to relevant.

Fortunately, Grace Lutheran, under the leadership of Pastors Martha and Kevin Clementson, and church council – especially Council President Ron Fairchild are continuing in the correct direction of adapting with the times.

Along with my sister-in-law, United Methodist Church Pastor Sarah Babylon Dorrance, this simply must be some of the brightest and best church leadership around.

Same goes with the Westminster city government.

As I sat last night in the Westminster council chambers beside city attorney Elissa Levan, I reflected upon the fact that I have now been going to Westminster City Hall since the late 1950s and have always been impressed with the level of care, diligence and expertise exhibited by our government at work.

But the current administration simply must be one of the best in the state of Maryland – and the current mayor and common council are going some great things. We should all be proud and help in any way we can.


So, anyway, this one of my all-time favorite sermons…. June 14, 2001: "Sharing Faith in a New Century” By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche

"Sharing Faith in a New Century”
By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche

** Here is the text of the sermon by Lutheran Synod Bishop H. Gerard Knoche at Synod Assembly Opening Worship, June 14, 2001, based on Acts 17:16-34; given at Western Maryland College in Westminster, MD.

Permission is given for congregations to reproduce it for their own use.

This one of my all-time favorite sermons…. June 14, 2001: "Sharing Faith in a New Century” By Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2001/06/thisone-of-my-all-time-favorite-sermons.html

Labels: #Dayhoff5EasyPieces, Change, History This Day in History 0614, Religion Grace Lutheran Church, Religion Lutheran, Religion Lutheran Bishop H. Gerard Knoche, Religion Shrinking Church - See more at: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2001/06/thisone-of-my-all-time-favorite-sermons.html#sthash.MTtrx3fN.dpuf
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If we do not share faith in the new century many of the congregations in the Delaware-Maryland Synod will die.  I am sorry that my first words as a preacher at Synod Assembly carry bad news.  But in my travels around the synod in these last nine months, I have come across too many congregations where the largest demographic group in the congregation is over 55.  Two urban churches have closed since I took office, both being sold to other denominations that expect to make a go of it.  If they can do it, why can’t we?  It was almost shocking last Sunday to be in a congregation where there were more teenagers worshiping than in any other church I have attended (20 or 25 at least).  “If this church can do it, why can’t others?”  I asked myself.  Churches that will survive, that will grow, are churches that have, as our assembly theme suggests, learned how to share the faith in a new century.

The lesson from Acts tells the story of Paul sharing the faith with a group of people who are new to him.  Paul has been left in Athens and is depressed to see the city is full of idols.  Apparently there were beautiful statues to every imaginable Greek god or goddess throughout the city.  He is waiting for Silas and Timothy and so decides to argue for the faith with the Jews in the synagogue and with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.  Like other Athenians, the text says, they “spent their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.”
This evening I would like to look at Paul’s speech to see what it might tell us about Sharing Faith in a New Century.  First, Paul went out to the Areopagus, the public square where folks gathered to talk.  Unlike times past, we cannot expect folks to come to church looking for us.  Those who do that are largely those who have had some experience with the church in their background.  Increasingly, there are many Americans who have had no contact with Christianity, know nothing about it—and may even feel it is irrelevant or may be hostile to it.  A telling commentary on our culture is the fact that ”spell check” in Windows 95 does not have all the books of the Bible in its list, much less many of the Biblical names.  They are not part of the general basic knowledge base.  In campus ministry it was not unusual to have a student come in timidly saying, “I’m dating a Christian.  I have no idea what that means.  Can you tell me?”  To share faith in the new century we will need to go to the unchurched where they are.

Secondly, Paul knew the world-view of those with whom he wanted to communicate.  He had discovered their altar to an unknown God and he knew that they shared his belief that God had created all things.  He spoke the gospel to them in a form they were most likely to understand and accept.  We need to be more attentive to our audience.  Leonard Sweet is one of the writers who has researched what the postmodern culture is like. I don’t have time to share all the characteristics, but I will say that it is a culture more interested in spiritual experience than spiritual arguments.  They want to feel God more than they want to understand God.  Stories of personal belief are more convincing than explanations of doctrine.
Today’s culture also seems to be able to hold two contradictory notions at the same time.  F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the test of a first-class mind is the ability to be able to hold two opposing ideas in the head at the same time and still be able to function.  Book titles catch the doublespeak with ”Ordinary Miracles” or “Open Secrets” and movies with “True Lies.”  More significantly, it is true that new houses are bigger while families are smaller; more farmers are making big bucks and more farmers are facing financial catastrophe; more people are becoming rich than ever before and more people are becoming poor than ever before.  The postmodern is able to handle paradox, which in other days we have called dialectics.  We need to understand the worldview of the unchurched if we are to share the faith in a new century.

Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously, we need to know the gospel ourselves. 
Paul makes his connection to their thought world and then moves on to talk of
God’s judgment, of their need to repent, and of the resurrection.  It pains me to read that pollsters have determined that four out of ten folks who call themselves Christians are unable to name the four Gospels.  If the way that
Jesus speaks to us and guides us in our life is through the Scriptures, then
if we don’t know the Scriptures we don’t know Jesus very well either.  There
is no question in my mind that the key factor in churches that are reaching
out to share the faith is the rostered and lay leadership.  Folks who know Jesus, know the Bible, and are excited about sharing that relationship with
others do it best.  To share faith in the new century, we need to deepen our
Biblical knowledge and our love of Jesus, so that we will have something
fresh and dynamic to share.

One of the fears about changing the way things have always been with new
music or the use of the Internet or coffee house churches is that what is most precious to us will be lost.  The story is told that in the early days of the Tennessee Valley project, a dilapidated homestead was going to be torn down.  They were damming the river and the valley would be flooded out.  A new split-level ranch house was built for the Appalachian family on a hillside nearby.

The day of the flooding arrived and the bulldozers were there to tear down the old house.  The family refused to move out of the homestead.  Finally, out of desperation, a social worker was called to find out what the problem was.  “We ain’t goin’ anywhere” was the reply.  The social worker pleaded with them to tell her what the problem was and why they would not move into their beautiful new home.

”See that fire over there?” the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the
primitive hearth of the log cabin.  “My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago,” the man explained.  “He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to the neighbors’.  Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I tended it. None of us let it die, and I ain’t goin’ to move away and let grandpa’s fire go out.”

The social worker got an idea.  She arranged for a large apple butter kettle
to be delivered to the home.  The hot coals would be scooped up and transported to the new home, kindling would be added, and the grandfather’s
fire would never go out.  The Appalachian family accepted and moved up to the
split-level rancher on the hillside after they knew that they would have the
fire of their ancestors.

As we share faith in the new century, we will keep the fire—of water, of bread and wine, of the book that is a love letter from God, but we will move to new places, where we do things differently, lest the flood of modernity wipe us out.  Paul and Jesus would want it that way.  Then, just like with Paul, some will scoff; others will hear us again; and some will become believers.
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Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

News Reporter eaten alive


News Reporter eaten alive July 31, 2009 @kevindayhoff http://tinyurl.com/kwyt9q

News Reporter Eaten Alive

July 31, 2009

Update: January 14, 2015: Kevin Earl Dayhoff @kevindayhoff
News reporter eaten alive #partylikeajournalist Breakfasting on the local journalist #eatlikeajournalist https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff



Hat Tip: Gawker A Decade of Truth From the Weekly World News: via my blog at http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/ - or rather Jamie Kelly’s blog at: jamiek


Caption contest: New Reporter eaten alive by 80-foot Dinosaur.

I can immediately come up with several captions, such as – oh, well, ah, nevermind.

How about you?  Any ideas as to a caption for this?


http://twitpic.com/cac9j Caption contest: News Reporter eaten alive http://tinyurl.com/kwyt9q


20090731 sdosm fb twitpic News Reporter eaten alive

*****

Monday, July 26, 2010

Charles Theatre: "5 Easy Pieces" Final Show Tonight!

OMG - One of my all-time favorite movies...

FINAL SCREENING TONIGHT.

FIVE EASY PIECES

Restored Print

Showtime:
Monday, July 26 - 7 PM.
No Thursday Show!


1970 Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson, Karen Black. 98 m. Technicolor.

"In one of his finest performances in a run that established him as one of the great film stars of his generation, Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, an angry young man working in the oilfields of Southern California.

Bobby lives a white trash life with his sweet but dim girlfriend Rayette (Black), and goes boozing with his buddies. But he is escaping from his upper-class, musically talented family and he is forced into a painful reunion with them when his father suffers a near-fatal stroke.

Blending the road movie with social critique, the film offers a brutally enlightening picture of America during the Vietnam era. Bobby is the embodiment of the time and the country - part drifter, part redneck, part patrician.

The split between Bobby's upbringing and his adult life is expressed in the film's soundtrack, which is divided roughly half and half between classical piano pieces and the country songs of Tammy Wynette, beloved of Rayette.

It is an urgent, funny, bleak film with Nicholson electric in the lead, relishing the surreal scene in which he plays a piano on the back of a truck in the midst of a traffic jam, and the famous chicken salad sandwich set-piece in the roadside diner". (Channel 4)

Charles Theatre: "5 Easy Pieces" Final Show Tonight!

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/ or http://kevindayhoffart.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/ or http://www.westgov.net/ = www.kevindayhoff.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net Explore Carroll: www.explorecarroll.com The Tentacle: www.thetentacle.com

Monday, November 30, 2009

A reprint of Living and loving in the age of asparagus from Oct 2 2007

Living and loving in the age of asparagus

or

Mary Katherine Ham to Alicia Silverstone: Go Hunting

October 3rd, 2007

Although I have spent a large portion of my life as a vegetarian; as I grew older and life got particularly hectic, I gave it up – for now anyway. Who knows, tomorrow, I may go back. Whatever.

A number of years ago, as I was attempting to reason with an unreasonable person and losing miserably, a colleague said to me:

“You know what your problem is?”

“Ugh.” I really did not need advice at that particular moment; however, I prized his friendship and sheepishly asked: “What?”

“It's a dog eat dog world out there, and you're a vegetarian!"

We solved that by going out to a sub shop where I gave up the anorexic bliss of salads and voraciously scarfed down a cheese-steak sandwich.

It was a road to Damascus experience

I still lose miserably with folks who accept narcissistic fiction as fact, however, I am bigger now and I figure that if I am to be eaten alive, I might as well give folks a flavorful super-sized meal.

Then again, to be candid, I was never good at being a vegetarian. I never stopped eating animal crackers and every once and awhile at Moms, I’d dive into a steak – and I can rarely remember missing turkey at Thanksgiving.

I have a number of colleagues and some family members who are, at the moment, practicing vegetarians - and I respect that choice. Besides, I really like vegetables. Then there are folks who don’t like vegetables or are otherwise broccoli intolerant. To them I say, ya really ought to “give peas a chance.”

A member of my family, who is an avid vegetarian, recently gave some seafood a try.

Bold.

Writing for the Washington Post, Joel Achenbach says:

“Certain kinds of seafood, such as lobster, clams and crabs, are honorary forms of meat, but a small filet of a low-fat white fish should be viewed as essentially a vegetable. Raw oysters are manfood, as is any fish served with the head on and the mouth gaping in horror.

Me, I could live off of Dr. Pepper, coffee and grits. Hey, don’t knock the cooking with Dr. Pepper book. There are some great recipes in there.

I never tried the “vegan” approach. I often wondered how the term came about. When I was quite young I had a great deal of confusion over the term “vegetarian.” If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?

Mr. Achenbach calls to our attention a savior for vegans, who every once in awhile, go Jonesing for a milkshake – “soy cows.”

In the column he was initially singing the praises of his new “Fabulator 5000.”

What is a “Fabulator 5000?” I am so glad you asked. I was fascinated about this development since I am still using the Fabulator model No. 1953.

I’ll let Mr. Achenbach ‘splain:

“I love my new food printer, the Fabulator 5000, which makes the previous food printers look not just clunky but positively medieval. There's no more click-and-point nonsense on the screen, no more waiting five or six interminable minutes for the food to print. You just tell the Fab 5 what you want. The food comes out in about three or four seconds, complete with garnish and a complementary wine.”

Oh, the “soy cows?” Apparently Mr. Achenbach recently “took the kids … to Homewood Farm to see a good old-fashioned agricultural enterprise…”

“I got a look at the new soy cows, grazing in the large field just north of the orchard. The USDA apparently felt that soy milk could be produced much more efficiently if it came from cows made of soy. These cows are so green they nearly blend into the landscape. They say the soy milk is a lot better tasting (not as beany, somehow) than the stuff derived from plants, and the soy burgers are more tender. But you've probably read about how the soy cows dry up badly in drought conditions -- they literally wilt -- and even catch fire. Bored teenagers have been blamed for setting some of the cow fires.”

There is much to be appreciated by the vegetarian lifestyle; nevertheless my goal was to not be evangelical about it all.

But – and ya know there was going to be a “but” in here soon – I’ve never been fond of PETA’s Strindbergian gloom and bleakness approach to advocacy.

When I was a practicing vegetarian, invariably, some folks would suggest some linkage to me, a vegetarian, with PETA’s in-your-face humorless lactose intolerant militancy. An approach which often seems more oriented to being obnoxious and annoying instead of being compelling and persuasive to what is otherwise, a perfectly fine lifestyle, vegetarianism, for which PETA routinely does an injustice....

At a local government - social event, a local elected official’s wife was horrified that I was a vegetarian. “How can a big strapping former Marine be a vegetarian,” she gasped.

I solved that in quick order. She was a dog lover and the owner of a huge dog. I mean huge – about the size of a water buffalo.

I asked her if she had ever eaten dog. When I was in the Marines, a South Vietnamese ranger once cooked-up a mess of dog.

It tasted like chicken.

I suggested to my scowling friend that her St. Bernard could feed an entire village… And one wonders why I lost my last election?

Recently Alicia Silverstone did an ad for PETA that has garnered a great deal of attention. I can’t believe that it is winning over any converts to vegetarianism, but it has attracted attention to PETA.

Whether it is really the sort of attention that an advocacy organization wants is a bigger issue for which there is not right or wrong, it just isn’t my cup of tea.

Nevertheless, in age of so much strife and discord, I yearn for a time when peas will rule the planets, and love won’t be such a fuss. I long for the dawn of the age of asparagus.

Enter stage right, Mary Katherine Ham. Ms. Ham has done a spoof on the Ms. Silverstone ad that is a real crack-up.

Please enjoy it:

####

No animals were hurt in the writing of this column.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

http://www.kevindayhoff.net/

E-mail him at: kevindayhoff AT gmail.com

His columns and articles appear in The Tentacle - http://www.thetentacle.com/; Westminster Eagle Opinion; http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ and Winchester Report.

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Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/

Monday, May 11, 2009

Dayhoff: A brief review of the Westminster Navy, and its role in American history

Dayhoff: A brief review of the Westminster Navy, and its role in American history Published April 1, 2009 by Westminster Eagle

Folks have been asking where they may find my brief review of the Westminster Navy, and its role in American history… Here you go:

The Westminster Eagle column for Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Kevin Dayhoff (649 words)

She was once a proud ship, a ruler of the waves and a queen of the sea. The “Patapsco Militia Ship Westminster” was her name.

The days of glory for the PMS Westminster are now gone as she sits askew on the ground with a list and sigh on the shores of the Patapsco River in back of the Westminster utilities work shop on Manchester Road.

The once proud ship is hardly noticed by passersby in their hustle and bustle traveling to and from Westminster. It's an inglorious plight for the once proud master of the seas.

No one knows, for example, that the PMS Westminster was the ship used by George Washington in his famous crossing of the Delaware River.

This event has become confused with the passage of time. Initially George Washington crossed the Patapsco River on his way to the Battle of Brandywine.

The event stirred such emotion and passion that the news media wanted it recreated for the 5 o'clock news. By then General Washington had travelled far from the Patapsco River so they used the Delaware River for the reenactment.

It's only fitting that the Patapsco River near Westminster should have such a rich and colorful nautical history.

This area of Carroll County was founded by the Carthaginians shortly after the 3rd Punic War which raged in the Mediterranean Sea from 149 to 146 BC.

After Carthage was destroyed by the Romans, a small band of seafaring Carthaginians set sail for a new home and settled in the valley by the natural port offered by the Patapsco River in what we now know as the Lucabaugh Mill Road and Manchester Road area near the new Westminster Cranberry water treatment plant.

The Carthaginians named the Patapsco River after Patroclus, the gentle and amiable friend of Achilles in Homer's “Iliad.” A rival group of natives at the time confused Patroclus to be "Petapsqui" – the Native American word for backwater or tide water covered with foam which was actually the froth formed by the discharge pipes of the large stills operated at the time by the Patapsipiss tribe of brewing Native Americans.

The well read Carthaginians were also aware that the site where Ulysses successfully sailed past the Sirens was actually on the Patapsco River.

The exact spot is the bridge over the railroad and the Patapsco River on Manchester Road just north of Westminster.

The Sirens, if you'll remember, were sort of a sea goddess who lured to destruction those who listened to their songs. When Ulysses sailed under the bridge towards Westminster to attend a public hearing, he stopped-up the ears of his companions with wax and had himself tied to the mast of his ship.

Ulysses thereupon passed safely, and the Sirens, disappointed at their loss, drowned themselves – which is exactly what many of us want to do after attending most public hearings in Westminster.

George Washington wrote in his “Maxims: Transcripts of Revolutionary Correspondence” that he felt that Westminster-on-the-Patapsco ought to have been the site of the nation's capital. The planners confused the name Patapsco with the name Potomac and well, the rest is history.

When President Abraham Lincoln began his trip to Gettysburg to deliver the Gettysburg Address; the plan was for him to travel up the Patapsco River on the PMS Westminster, disembark, and travel by land for the balance of the trip.

Upon reaching Westminster, Lincoln was thereupon informed that Carroll County's road system was a bad collage of stoplights, confusion, and overcrowded roads which go from nowhere to nowhere. So he took the train.

These are but a few of the legendary exploits of the PMS Westminster and the Westminster Navy. A proud heritage only a few Carroll Countians know. Now you know it too!

Well, maybe not. Happy April Fool’s Day.

That’s my two-cents. What’s yours?

I’ll look forward to your comments in the readers’ comment section below.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster.
Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)
SDOSM 20090510

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