h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Absolutely. "The Road to Wellville" Exactly.
If I remember correctly, there was also a 'muscular Christian' movement in England, too.

http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/teaching/jb2/pcn/sport

That was an interesting site, TR! I'd not come across the quote about the introduction of the penalty area. How times change.

Muscular Christiantiy in England? Well this article mentions it, however I can't say I know much about it. I know of the 'Health for all' movement in the fifties - all terribly clean cut stuff. I know little of what went before it.

Lots of people at the meet were talking about someone on site (can't remember who, but he was 'X the Preacher' who makes Josh the Genius sound liberal.

Aha! A couple of minutes research and:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/U197974

'Nuff said.

I'm not sure who is pulling who's leg.

But the simulacrum does have a point.

There is an ancient tradition of 'conquered' 'pagan' cultures subsuming the 'victor's' culture and religion and producing a third
melding of the former twain.

Unfortunately, in the case of 'Christianity', there is a rather advanced case of ignoring the canon, in that the 'gospel' says to preach, but that if the message is not accepted, to 'shake the dust of that place from your feet', which kind of lets down the forceful proselytizers.
Or hangs them by their own petard.

I'll see what else I can find on 'Muscular Christianity'.
It was a kind of mercantile and educational antithesis to the 'ascetic' and monastic version of holiness, in that the middle class nouveau riche that had benefited from the industrial revolution felt that white British sovereignty could best be represented by well-fed, in-shape, um, stereotypical Anglo-Saxons, so that there would be an immediate visible difference between them and the 'little brown brothers'.
Unfortunately, as with poodles, who originated as a hunting breed, it is possible to breed the brains out of otherwise good stock and produce a vacuousness that is hard to overcome. I'm not saying the results were stupid, but they were in many cases unimaginative and a trifle bit two-faced.
On this side of the puddle, Teddy Roosevelt was a previously asthmatic and weak boy with bad eye sight who managed to pull himself into a vigorous manhood and a philosophy that was also described as one of 'Muscular Christianity', in which the police forces and the military became the exemplar against which the immigrants and the denizens of our putative 'protectorates', such as Panama and the Philipines, were compared.

If this seems to smack of the slightly later efforts of the fascists and the bolsheviks, there is no way of explaining that similarity away. The striving for an 'ideal' man who mates with the 'ideal' woman is not a new effort in the history of races and countries, but is to be hoped that it becomes an 'old' one real soon.

Poodles were hunting dogs??? Were they really? The mind boggles.

I'm sure there was something in Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose' about a people wanting Jesus to carry a purse and to put the emphasis away from poverty and not putting emphasis on money and possessions. It's many years since I read it, but I have a strong memory that it came up several times in the book.

'Shaking the dust of that place from your feet' rings a bell, but I can't remember where in the Bible it comes.

Christian Scientists, of course, believe that we are all created perfect and that matter is an illusion. If you are sick, then it's because you don't believe firmly enough in the truth.

Yes, I seem to remember something like that.
But, they still make a great international news service.

"The Name of the Rose"...wasn't that made into a movie with Sean Connery?

Not to be confused with those awful 'Brother Caedfel" shows on the tube.

I find medieval television to be depressing.

Aw, crud. I spent a few minutes trying to find that 'dust' quote.
I think it's in Matthew.
I'll look.

Did you know DNA was an Atheist?

Yes. I liked Sean Connery, but he didn't seem to me quite the character I had read in the book, they changed the story (the girl was burnt at the stake and didn't get away in the book) and the book was full of complicated arguments, which the film completely ignored.

I quite like the Brother Cadfael books, but then I've read them and I like Derek Jacobi.

I've just got back from my penultimate day on the leaders' course. It's very tiring. We had presentations to do and someone read some very moving poems and there were tears round the room including from the presenter and me.

Do you know, I'm not sure whether I knew that DNA was an atheist. I remember that Spike Milligan thought that when you die (or as he put it, snuff it) that's it for eternity.

Well, there is the Einsteinian idea that energy and matter are neither destroyed or created, they just get transferred from one form to another.
Without getting into the areas of the soul, I believe that something as tenacious as the human spirit finds other things to do...

but I'm always kind of bothered by the fact that dead actors movies go on for a long time after the actor is gone...
and that eulogists are always harping about this singer or that musician will 'live on in their music'.

An immortality based on popularity after death has always been a strange thing to me. Particularly if it involves living, hopefully thinking, people carrying on a dead person's tradition by imitation when the dead person was supposed to be an innovator.

If imitation is the 'sincerest form of flattery' and you are imitating an innovator, wouldn't the sincerest form of imitation to do a little innovating yourself?

I've heard various theories about life after death, including a rather sweet one that people/ghosts live as long as they are remembered. I'm not at all sure I subscribe to that one. I tend to believe in reincarnation. My mum, funnily enough, also believes in it.

I would agree with you that it is incongruous for people to dress as Elvis, for example. My thinking on this is that these people do not believe that they are as talented or clever, lack self belief and hide behind another's personality.

I'm having big problems with this posting, so I'll finish here and try to post again when my computer is behaving itself better.

Good news. I'm still not certain about my computer, however, mum and dad have said that they will help me towards a newer one, so I'm going to look around.

Watch out for the candy-coloured ones.
Try to get as little stuff as you can on the hard drive, so you can add what you wish.
A lot of discount computers have a buncha junk on them like Corel Photo editor and Disc burners.

The spousal unit got a hair up this morning at 5AM and decided to have a yard sale.
It is now 3:22PM and she made $16.00.

I slept through most of the day, as my sleep pattern has been very disturbed this week.
I took the daughter to the church's "Music Camp" which is run by the choir director. She will be eligible for regular Youth Choir this coming fall.
She is learning to carry a note.

I'm thinking of an Apple Mac. They seem to have better build quality and fewer problems. I've been having a poke around to see what's available. We went out in the car earlier to see if the local store had Apples, but by the time we got there, it was closed. As we weren't going to buy, it was not a big deal.

I've just completed the second part of a six day leadership course. I may have told you this already. We were fairly close in the end and I felt some regrets about leaving the other people, particularly as I can only receive e-mails at present - I can't send them.

I'm told that children whose parents sing to them from early on have better musical abilities and that everyone has some. Having said that, I can remember one person who could not tell whether a note was going up or down. Now *that's* what you call tone deaf. I remember a previous boss at work (now no longer with us), who was told as a child, when it was time to sing, 'Not you Watkins!' and he had a very pleasant voice, I remember.

What does 'got a hair up' mean?

It's like a bee in her bonnet, only the other end.

You might be able to pick up last year's model with the Apples.
Don't have anything to do with rebates.

And don't leave without opening the box to make sure all the cords are there.

Leadership. Was that for a Continuing Education credit?

The tail end or the foot end?

Don't forget that we probably get stuff much later here than in the States? Latest stuff here is the pretty iMac with the dome base and the flat screen. They do do refurbs, so I may look at those. Only on Wednesdays, though.

The leadership course was a module on an MA degree, although as I only took the module and not the MA I may or may not get accredited for it. To get accreditation, if it is available, I will have to do a 5000 word assignment. I thought about depression and bullying in the workplace, however, there seems to be a lot available on that already.

How about 'bring your lunch, but leave your brain at home' sydrome in the workplace?
Or 'we hired you for your experience, but we don't want to hear about it' syndrome.
Or 'if you learn what we tell you, you won't need to learn anything else'?
Or 'we want workers, not innovators'.

Sorry. Series of bad work experiences.

Or 'Family Values'-based businesses that get so much value out of their employees that they don't have any left for the family?

Sorry. Bad attitude.

Or 'Leadership from the bottom up: Every private has a marshall's baton in his napsack'.

I think one of the Mountbattens said that.

The course was organised on a women's circle principle - quite different from most management courses and quite refreshing.

Well the authority I work for is quite good at considering its employes and I negotiated leaving twice a week at 3 pm to pick up infant from school. I still had to do the number of hours in the week and it was manageable - just.

I've not faced those attitudes where I work at present. I do have a couple of people who are resistant to change and that's life.

I've heard the 'marshall's batton in their rucksack' quote and you may well be right about its origin.

Warning: what follows is sarcasm.

A 'woman's circle principle'?

Like a coven?

Warning: that was sarcasm.

I have been thinking on society's traditions involving women and the law.

It is very confusing.

More later.