Wednesday, December 17, 2003

11:28 PM Kevin McCullough offers a moving tribute to Bob Murfin, beloved longtime host of “Morning Clock” on WMBI who died yesterday at the age of 82. 2:28 PM Time to go shopping again—I didn’t get much done yesterday. Kathy and Mia wanted to know why I was starting so early this year—a week before Christmas is a record for me. Then there was this from Joanne Hale in Whittier, CA: “You’re scaring me! You shopping for Christmas a week and a half before Christmas! I remember the dish washer on Christmas eve!” (I had forgotten about that.) And Barb King writes from Albany, New York:

I emailed your Monday weblog entry about shopping to Mike, thinking he would get a kick out of it as he’d rather do anything than shop (you remember we’ve discussed this before). I forgot about it and then a little while later, while I was downstairs, I heard him laughing and laughing upstairs. Seems he enjoyed it tremendously and laughed so hard it made him cry – especially the part at the end. So thanks for a little holiday humor. Hope you get shopping soon – only 8 more shopping days!

2:26 PM Christmas greetings to Kent and Linda Ragsdale, missionaries in Haiti. And a big hello to Harry and Millie Bollback, Rick and Linda Warken, John and Elizabeth Nelson, Larry and Cindi Bollback—all with Word of Life in Schroon Lake, New York. 11:18 AM For fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, here’s a link to a book called Finding God in the Lord of the Rings. Might make a good Christmas gift. 8:06 AM Rabbi Daniel Lapin shares some important insights for Christians and Jews from the capture of Saddam Hussein. In his fascinating article, Rabbi Lapin asks what people of faith can learn from the fall of a tyrant. He notes that tyrants come to power during periods of chaos, and as they take over, they become virtual objects of worship. An excerpt:

Biblically based faith helps to maintain freedom by holding together the invisible framework of social stability. This might be one lesson that we Jewish and Christian Americans of faith can draw from the historic capture of Saddam Hussein.

8:03 AM A hearty hello to Bob and June Gray who are enjoying the warmth of a beautiful day in sunny Marco Island, Florida. 7:59 AM Terry Eastland explains how President Bush’s Christian faith explains a great deal about his decisions and his enemies. 7:58 AM Walter Williams says we have lost our liberties and it is hard to know how we can get them back. 7:54 AM I woke up — or more precisely — was awakened at 4 AM when Nick came in. What as he doing out so late? Seems that the latest Lord of the Rings movie opens today and he and some friends bought tickets for the showing that started at 12:01 AM. It was Nick and John Mark and Rachel and another Rachel and Josh Edwards and Madeline and some others from Allied Force. Nick’s review: Loved the movie, maybe the best of the trilogy, packed theater. He loved “Return of the King.” I was still sleepy and he was tired so we didn’t go into the finer points of plot development, set design, etc. But before he went to bed, he said, “It was great.” So there you have it, folks. It’s great. Go see it. Now playing in theaters everywhere.