Tom Lehrer’s “Irish Ballad”. Only certain schools have internationally-renowned mathematics professors also teaching Musical Theater. UC Santa Cruz is one of those schools and Tom Lehrer is that professor. (Yes, I am totally proud to be a fighting banana slug!) Some of my friends were in the last university class he taught in 2001 and he used to sing his songs in class. My favorite of his songs has to be his “Irish Ballad” which talks about an Irish girl murdering her family in gruesome way and when the police come around, she admits to everything… because she knew lying was a sin.
It’s most likely NSFW and definitely NSFK (not safe for kids), especially if your last name is Donaldson.
This is Lehrer himself singing it.
In looking for a video of Tom Lehrer, I found this version by Ann Murray. I love it because she’s dressed up in her operatic finery… and singing something silly.
Messy Faith. This article had me at the title. I find that very few things are black and white — there’s too much grey in my world. I also have found that the more I read the Gospels, the more I am convinced that Jesus did not live in a nice little sanitized bubble. He lived in a world with very severe differences between the haves and have-nots and where those in power abused it. In other words, it was a world much like today. His means of death was also messy — crucifixion is the last punishment you’d want if you wanted a sterile environment. Lots of blood, lots of sweat, lots of tears.
Orphans. Do you see these two darling children?
Brett (on the left) needs a mama and Kaia (on the right) has a family who needs help raising the funds to bring her home so she can start kindergarten (hopefully this autumn). If you can help out at all, click on their pictures. Please and thank you!
Cleaning up my diet. I can totally believe that the claims made in Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss are true. I’ve been focusing on a clean diet this week because of the ulcers and I’m totally craving a quarter pounder with cheese/fries/Coke right now. Our brains are being rewired to crave all these things and it’s disasterous for our waists, our health, and our environment. Granted, I am still using a marinade on my chicken that is produced by Wishbone but I’m finding that I like the plain chicken without the bun, the sauces, etc. Coke has been the hardest to give up but my fear of the ulcers in my stomach causing bleeding is keeping me on track. (Fear is a serious motivator.) It’s been hard to do this because it creates even more food issues and food guilt for me and I probably need to blog this out at a later time. I’m thankful for FitDay.Com — it’s been enlightening to see what I’m eating and what the actual portion sizes, carb counts, etc. are.
Not the stereotypical California girl. I’m fleeing to my parents’ house this weekend because it will be cooler than Sacramento. We’re supposed to come close to hitting triple digits this weekend where I live while the temperatures will be in the high 80’s at my parents’ house. I’m not the stereotypical California girl — I hate heat and I love rain. I also love four distinct seasons and actually miss snow.
Being so young to be so sick. I can guarantee you that I will start thinking about ways to kill you if you tell me that I’m too young to be so sick. Believe me… I’m totally aware of this and it just makes me resent it when you vocalize it.
Support me in the Promise Walk. I’m participating in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia on June 23rd for my third year in a row. You know you TOTALLY want to sponsor me, right? I’m a survivor of HELLP Syndrome and doing this helps me to ensure that other women aren’t going to face the severe illness that I did or the after effects of high blood pressure and “preeclampsia brain” where I have short term memory loss to the point where my normally photograpic memory is no longer that way.
For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.
