Mother sardine to her children upon seeing a submarine: "Don't worry, it's only a tin of people."

Still home alone. It's Thursday, June 24, 2010, and I am expecting 'she who must be obeyed' to be back home today. We learned that wife designation from a PBS-BBC series we loved to watch entitled "Rumpole of the Bailey". It was a very funny show that featured an aging barrister who had given that nickname to his wife Hildebrand. He, of course, was not able to say it to her face so he always mumbled it under his breath and when she would ask what he had said, he had to come up with something clever but he never revealed that pet name to her. It has been a running joke in our house for some time but if you've never seen the show, and vast millions have not, you would likely not get the full measure of the joke. You can watch excerpts of the 44 episodes out on YouTube and I highly recommend that you do. The late Leo McKern who played Rumpole was, in my opinion, as President George W. might say, one of the most miss-underestimated comedic talents to have ever performed. I am looking forward to my wife's return. I understand she has become quite the fisher woman since making her trek over to the Toledo Bend Lake area. That's all I need is for her to come back all stirred up about a bunch of fishing stories. Typically, she comes back from these family gatherings overly hyped up anyway and it takes me several days to calm her down. She may already be thinking about starring in her own fishing show on ESPN although I doubt if they would do one devoted to Bream fishing. I'm just wondering who baited her hook because I'm not sure she is up to dealing misery to a sweet little cricket.

Please don't write me any hate mail from your Cricket Lover Association because most folks don't do well fishing without bait, and last time I checked the earthworms were not too excited about being threaded onto a hook either. And, I almost forgot, what about the fish? I suppose someday we will all end up grazing out in the pasture to keep from hurting any other living thing but by then there will be a Grass Lover Association and then what? You think that's over the top? Just hang on because given how things are going, we haven't seen anything yet! But, just for the record, how in the world are you doing, anyway? You can tell that I look for things that bring a smile. I work at it. It can be hard work at times because we are living at a time in our history where there's plenty of grief to go around. I heard a book reviewer talking about a new book out that chronicles the invention of hedge funds and the role this played in destroying the economy. She said the book was well written as it sets forth the small cadre of people who used this facility to become multi-billionaires. The name of the book was a shocker, "More Money than God", but she added this at the end of her report. She said it was a wonderfully well written book and the characters come alive but it was next to impossible to have any respect for those who in the process of becoming fabulously wealthy, even though it was legal, they destroyed the lives of so many hard working, decent people. She said she had unemployed family members that knew all too well about the cost paid to make these folks rich.

First of all I would send a message to her and everyone else that the book title is not only off base, it is also an absurdity because God as Creator owns it all and He has the right to do as He pleases without regard to hedge funds, high powered people, or hell itself. Greed did run amok during this economic debacle that we are living through and I just read that the super rich have now recovered most of their losses and are pretty much back where they were before the crash. I suppose that's good news for them but its little consolation to the multiplied millions who continue to languish. What's the answer? The only answer I know that makes any sense is God Himself. Not hedge funds. Not manipulating the system. Not trying to swim with the sharks. Seeking God is the only way for us to get back to where He would have us to be, and when we do that, we will have His presence and His blessing and when all is said and done, we cannot, ever, under any and all circumstances, do better than this! Folks, people need the Lord, and that includes us all, you, me, every single person who breathes air on the planet, including those who will be returning today with a whole bunch of unsubstantiated fish stories about the ones that got away. Have a blessed day and may God bless us all, and may He heal our nation. Amen. ......More later.