My tweets

• 08:14 morning all! #
• 09:50 @tug : did u know that Nadeem is the Test Manager for iPlayer? #
• 10:01 @tug : i'm having dinner with him tomorrow so will ask for you. #
• 14:29 @urbanbohemian : what is a threadless t-shirt? Made out of Mylar?? Never heard of such a thing. #
• 17:26 @urbanbohemian : oh, duh! never heard of them but got it now... #
• 23:30 back from lodge of instruction...a lot of acrimony tonight... :-( #
• 23:32 now time for bed...sleep tight, all. #

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Happy birthday, phornax

...and many happy returns of the day.

Today's Trash URL

I know that people often say that a newborn baby looks like the father, or the mother, but this is ridiculous!

Will someone rid me of this troublesome priest?

So might Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, say about the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who has associated himself with Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Whispers in the Loggia, probably the pre-eminent Roman Catholic blogger in the United States if not the world, has a long story and comment on the situation. It boils down to Cardinal George asking Father Pfleger to take a short (3 week) leave of absence to reflect on the controversy and how to dampen it down. Pfleger is a long-time activist in the poor neighbourhood of Chicago in which he works, and is a self-admitted thorn in the side of every archbishop of Chicago he meets. But the key to the mystery is this: he has been pastor of St. Sabina's Parish since 1981. That's 27 years, folks.

People may say that term-limits for priests serving in parishes (and I do not exclude Anglican parishes from this) are unfair. However, having a priest serve in one parish for 27 years is unhealthy for the priest, unhealthy for the parish, and can cause a lot of upset in the diocese.

Fr. Pfleger is only 57 years old, He has 18 years of active service in the ministry before he must retire. He should move to another parish and concentrate on helping his new flock to become closer to God. His current parish is rumbling about protests against his leaving. He should quickly ask people to accept that he will not be there forever and to help him and his successor, rather than become angry about a possible reassignment.

There may be trouble ahead...

Today's Sexuality URL

Most of my Singaporean Live Journal gay friends have seen Sex and the City and loved it. HWMBO and I haven't seen it yet but as he loves the TV series I expect he'll love the movie as well. Here's the story of someone who saw it and had a different reaction.

Today's Malthusian URL

...comes from Australia, where a TV show seems to have achieved the impossible task of ridding us of rug rats while simultaneously being greener than green.

Today's Happy Ending URL

Many of you will know that the writer Jan Morris was originally James Morris. He divorced his wife in 1972 and then had a sex change. However, they continued to live together in Wales, and have now been cohabiting for 58 years.

So this week, on a BBC book program, Jan Morris announced that she was making an honest woman of her former wife. They were joined in a civil union last week.

Now that is the heartwarmingest story of the day.