Coffee Klatch

The final book of the Harry Potter series has finally had its title announced. Yahoo! News ran a story yesterday about how Scholastic Inc. (J.K. Rowling’s U.S. Publisher) had announced the name of one of the most anticipated books of all time.

Do you want to know what the title is? You’ll have to play a little game of Hangman to find out. First visit www.jkrowling.com and navigate your way through a bunch of hidden links to find the Hangman game. If you don’t want to guess and stumble through it on your own, here’s the list of steps you need to take:

• First, click on the eraser. That will take you to a room with a window, a door and a mirror.
• In the mirror, you’ll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree.
• Click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a wreath will appear.
• Then click on the top of the mirror and you’ll see a garland.
• Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear.
• Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right.
• Drag the chime, which will turn into a key, to the lock to open the door.
• Click on the wrapped gift behind the door to open the gift.
• Then click on it again to play a game of hangman and figure out the new title.

So there you go. Jump through all those hoops and you’ll find out for yourself what the name of the final Harry Potter book is. I’ve done it, but I won’t give away the title here. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.
And, no, there’s no date announced yet for when the book will be released. And HecklerSpray says that the announced title is really a hoax to make you think that Harry Potter might come to a bad end. The “real” title, they say, is Harry Potter And The Lovely Rainbow-Coloured Munchkin Rabbits Of Bibbledy Bobbledy Lane.

[tags]harry potter, rowling, books, fiction, hogwarts[/tags]

Here are some games for you to play in your free time during the holidays. They’re all Christmas related or seasonal. I’m not sure if they’ll be available year round or just for the season, but I’m guessing they’ll be there for quite a while.

• Snowball Fight
• Ice Slide (my best: 247)
• Snow Day
• Nordic Chill (my best: 25,300)
• Make-a-Flake

Do you have a favorite game like these? Leave a comment with a link to your game.

Thanks. And enjoy!

A familiar quote from Handel’s Messiah, which we hear frequently at this time of year, is a quote from the 40th chapter of Isaiah. It involves a prophecy about the Messiah to come. Here are the first five verses:

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

If you’ve heard Handel’s Messiah before, these verses will sound very familiar. This is the King James Version that Handel used directly in his oratorio. A week or two, I heard a sermon that at one point referred to the part in verses 3 & 4: “Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” And the comment, which made total sense when seen in this light, was about how this referred to the coming of a king.

When a king was going to visit a place, a messenger would be sent ahead of him, telling the people that he was coming and giving them time to prepare. They would especially fix the roads, smoothing out the rough roads, etc., to make it easier and more enjoyable for the king and his entourage to get to their town.

In this case, it was John the Baptist telling people that The King (the Messiah) was coming and that they needed to prepare. But it was their hearts and lives they needed to prepare. Instead of physical roads, they needed to prepare the spiritual roads and themselves for His coming.

Pretty cool, huh? And it definitely brings more sense and understanding to a passage that many of us have sung without really pondering the meaning.

May we all today prepare our hearts and lives during this Advent season so that Christmas may renew our relationship with that same Messiah and King.

Current music: Medieval Christmas, by Kemper Crabb

There is a very interesting case going on in Italy right now, concerning a man named Piergiorgio Welby, a poet who has been battling muscular dystrophy for 40 years and who has been hospitalized and on a respirator for 9 years.

He’s wanting to be taken off life support and be allowed to die. And he’s been blogging about it with one hand and a pencil tapping the keys on the computer keyboard. Plus, he just got a book published, called Let Me Die. He’s ready to die now but isn’t being allowed to have himself taken off life support.

To decline forced medical treatment is allowed under Italian law, experts say, but Italy has another law that makes it a crime to assist in a death, even with consent. So a doctor could not detach the respirator without risking prosecution.

It’s also more complicated in Italy because of the influence of the Catholic Church in politics, society, and life in general. The Catholic Church has always been a very firm supporter and defender of life. That explains their opposition to abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, and contraception. So what’s the problem here? The Church is also against artificially prolonging life.

So you can’t purposefully take him off the machines because that’s assisting in his death. And yet you shouldn’t artificially prolong his life. What a conundrum! Isn’t removing artificial life support the same as assisting in death? It’s a paradox that will have to be resolved before long.

As Welby asks:

“What is natural about a hole in the belly and a pump that fills it with fats and proteins? What is natural about a body kept biologically functional with the help of artificial respirators, artificial feed, artificial hydration, artificial intestinal emptying, of death artificially postponed?”

Be sure to click the link at the top of this post to read the full story from the New York Times.

Current music: A Christmas Together, by John Denver and the Muppets

[tags]euthanasia, life support, welby[/tags]

One of the most familiar stereotypes when it comes to crime is the concept of big cities having the most crime. In particular, New York City is one of those cities that is thought of as being a crime haven. It’s surprising, then, to hear that New York actually has the LOWEST amount of crime out of the 25 biggest cities in the U.S.

Apparently the number of murders is up (12%, or eight times the national rate), but other crimes have gone done, for a total of a drop of 7.2% in serious crimes. The numbers are based on the first six months of 2006.

Read the story at Bloomberg or New York Times.

[tags]crime, NYC, New York[/tags]

Joe Barbera, the creator of Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, and Tom & Jerry, and half of the Hanna-Barbera team, died today at the age of 95.

Hanna-Barbera had to be the most prolific cartoon-making team ever. Granted, many were lame and only lasted one season, and most of the shows were similar and had the same people doing the voices, but you have to give them credit for trying so much and for creating some really famous and well-loved standards.

Check out the list of 326 productions that Hanna-Barbera put together.

Read Yahoo’s Obituary for more information about the life of Joe Barbera.

[tags]obituary, barbera, hanna-barbera, yogi bear[/tags]

According to the London Sunday Times, via This Is True:

Britain feels very sorry for its prison inmates. A total of 198 inmates who were imprisoned and had to go through “cold turkey” withdrawal from heroin and other drugs sued the government, claiming the withdrawal was “assault”. They also argued “trespass” since they did not consent to not being allowed to use drugs in prison. Because government lawyers predicted the government would lose the cases, the Home Office awarded each of the inmates up to 5,000 pounds (US$9,800) to settle the suits.

And we thought stoopid, frivolous lawsuits were a special prerogative of the United States!

[tags]lawsuits, prisoners, drugs[/tags]

Camber is 5 years old (6 in February) and when we were getting out Christmas decorations this year we found a stocking that said CAPEE at the top of the red part, right below the white cuff. We knew it was his stocking and that he’d decorated it a year or two ago, but didn’t know why it said that. Eve figured that he’d just put some letters on there and that’s what “came out.” After thinking about it for a while, I figured it out.

It was supposed to say “PEACE” but I think he was trying to spell “Camber” and ran out of letters after C-A.
So now Camber’s stocking is hanging above the fireplace with the rest of the family’s stockings and it says CAPEE on it. His new nickname: Capee!

That’s what failed on my Dodge Neon. Just an $8 part. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when it started leaking last week I ended up putting in a quart of oil every couple of days, because the car left puddles everywhere it went.

The problem is that the camshaft seal is right above the timing belt and the parts that control the engine’s timing. When the oil leaks from there, it gets all over the timing elements, eventually causing the timing belt to slip off or break, which basically totals the engine. So they have to replace the whole thing, not just the one seal. And this is also where the water pump is, and they highly recommend replacing that at the same time, since it’s $240+ labor just to get in there. If I didn’t change out the water pump and it started having problems later, it would be that much more again to just get in there to replace it. So I had them change the water pump today also. Turns out that it had indeed started leaking, so I was vindicated.

By the time everything was totalled that needed to be done, the estimate was over $900. The weird thing is that they had another Neon in there right before me with the exact same problem. Apparently the other car was in worse condition, because the owner had let it lose too much oil and driven it too much without getting the problem fixed. The engine was still working, but the repair place couldn’t guarantee the engine’s condition or performance. The benefit to me was that they’d just done this job when they started on mine, so they knew the routine and were able to shave a couple of hours off the expected labor time (4 hours instead of 6). So that saved me over $60.

Large, unexpected expense, to be sure (stoopid cars!), but at least I got to save a little money and now have a car that’s solid and performing well again.

You Are a Tree

You love every part of the holidays, down to the candy canes and stockings. And you’re goofy enough to put a Christmas tree ornament on your tree!

You Are a Fruitcake!

You taste like nothing else in this world. And get ready, you’re about to get tossed!

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Christmas Story

Loving, fun, and totally crazy. Don’t shoot your eye out!

You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money

You’ve either been really really good this year… Or Santa is trying to pay you off!

Current music: Songs from the Big Chair, by Tears for Fears