THE INTERNET MONK SATURDAY BRUNCH

”It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”

Well, so far, approaching and during Lent at our Internet Monk Saturday Brunch, we’ve featured pancakes, soup, and beer. What shall we highlight today?

How about bread?

• Here’s a good recipe for a whole wheat bread.
• Here’s a recipe for Lagana Bread, eaten on “Clean Monday” to begin Lent in Greece.
• This recipe for Serbian Lenten pogacha (POH-gah-cha), also spelled pogača, uses no eggs, milk or butter, so it is perfect for fasting times.
• Capirotada is a family favorite on most Latin tables during Lent. It’s a bread and cheese casserole with blackberries.
• Here’s a couple who makes pretzels as their official bread for Lent.

Finally, here is an article about “Fasting Bread for Lent” at Catholic Cuisine. Not only is there a recipe and description, but a lesson on the ingredients you can share with children, and this beautiful prayer, which we’ll use as our Lenten Quote of the Week:

Heavenly Father, Let us enter the season of Lent in the spirit of joy, giving ourselves to spiritual strife, cleansing our soul and body, controlling our passions, as we limit our food, living on the virtues of the Holy Spirit;

Let us persevere in our longing for Christ so as to be worthy to behold His most solemn Passion and the most holy Passover, rejoicing the while with spiritual joy. Amen.

BEFORE SINGING, WE MUST EAT

Mockingbird ran a wonderful piece by Rebecca Florence Miller on the tradition of the Lutheran Lenten soup supper held in the church basement.

Here’s a savory sip to whet your appetite:

There is a holy hovering around the sacramentally bubbling soups, an anticipation of the sustenance, laughter, and fellowship to come. After repeatedly being urged to get this party started, the pastor lifts his voice and leads a table prayer, even as a few sneaky folks slide over a wee bit closer to the table. “Amen!” Everyone falls into formation in two lines, one on each side of the table—mothers, dads, gray-haired ladies, bald old fellows, the proper and coiffed, the off-the-cuff and blue-jeaned. Laughing, smiling, anticipating. We, the church.

Some settle into familiar tables, as if resting into the relief of a well-worn pew. But familiar groupings also mix with unfamiliar ones. After all, soup supper isn’t coffee hour. You can sit literally anywhere. Old timers compliment young folks—“great recipe!”—and the favor is returned. Stories flow with the black coffee from the old, silver percolator. Someone remembered to plug it in early; nothing worse than coffee you can see through, as everyone knows. Well done, good and faithful servant, you old bubbling purveyor of koinonia. Without coffee, the people perish, I think it says in the good, old Book.

LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR…WITH CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Here’s one of my favorite stories of the year so far.

Last week, an elderly resident of Homewood, Alabama – affectionately known as “Mr. Frank” – went to his mailbox and found a hate-filled letter. This is what it said:

“We are a group of your neighbors who are concerned about the appearance of some homes on the street (and property values.) We are writing to you to ask you to remove your Christmas decorations!!! Also, please consider cleaning up your yard and remove the plants along the edge of the yard.

“It might be in your best interest to consider selling your home so the yard can be properly landscaped and the house torn down (so a new one can be built that is more fitting with the other homes on the street.) Thank you.”

I’ll let Carol Robinson at AL.com take it from there.

“Mr. Frank,” who grew up in his family home and moved back after his mother died, confided to a neighbor about the letter and soon word of the nastiness got around. “He was devastated,” said another neighbor, Carrie Engle. “It horrified all of us that knew about it.”

So they took action. Dozens of neighbors – at least 30 of them – went into their attics and basements and pulled out their own Christmas lights in a brightly-colored show of solidarity. “He told our neighbor the reason he keeps his Christmas lights on his tree is because he sits on his porch and sees people constantly run our stop sign and he’s afraid they’ll hit his tree and get hurt,” Engle said.

As for “Mr. Frank’s” yard, Engle said it’s beautiful, and a source of pride for all of the neighbors. “He works in his yard nonstop and personally I think he does nothing but increase the value of my home,” she said. “He’s taught me more about gardening than anybody. He’s a gentle, kind soul.”

Engle said the neighborhood has turned it into a teaching moment, for both adults and kids alike. She has three children, ages 16, 13 and 9, and said the ordeal has upset them. “I was telling them that this was bullying, and we’re taught to love our neighbors so that’s what we should do,” she said.

Already loved, “Mr. Frank” has become increasingly popular in recent days. Engle estimates that he’s received between 50 to 100 cards in his mailbox, as well as baked goods. Here’s what her own 9-year-old, Cade, wrote to him: “Dear Mr. Frank, I’m so sorry that that person rote (sic) that note. We do not want you to leave. Don’t put your Christmas lights up, keep them up. It looks so pretty.”

Thank you, Homewood residents, for loving your neighbor.

TEN THOUGHTS ON LOVE FROM A WEDDING WRITER

Lois Smith Brady writes for the wedding pages of the NY Times. She’s used to hearing clichés about love, but when someone says something truly original it gets her attention. She wrote an article discussing ten of those contributions.

Here are a few of them:

• “I now know what love is,” one man said. “It’s when someone becomes part of every breath, in what way I do not know. But I couldn’t breathe without her.”

• “In a sense, the person we marry is a stranger about whom we have a magnificent hunch.”

• “Of my own accord, I present myself, my days, my nights and my life. I present them freely and willingly because they cannot be better spent than in your company.”

Few things nourish the heart more than love well spoken.

YES! A WIN FOR THE OXFORD COMMA!

I myself have always been a fan. I guess that puts me on one side of a bitter debate. Do we use the “Oxford comma,” or is it unnecessary?

Here’s the debate: In a list of three or more items — like “bread, milk and vegetables” — some people would put a comma after milk, and some would leave it out. A lot of people feel strongly about it. I myself always do, for I feel it distinguishes each separate item on the list, whereas without it, it might be implied that the second and third items have a different relationship between each other than the first and second.

How much does it matter? Possibly up to $10 million.

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in a recent 29-page court decision, made a ruling that could cost a dairy company in Portland, Me. that much.

Here’s the story:

In 2014, three truck drivers sued Oakhurst Dairy, seeking more than four years’ worth of overtime pay that they had been denied. Maine law requires workers to be paid 1.5 times their normal rate for each hour worked after 40 hours, but it carves out some exemptions.

…The debate over commas is often a pretty inconsequential one, but it was anything but for the truck drivers. Note the lack of Oxford comma — also known as the serial comma — in the following state law, which says overtime rules do not apply to:

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:

(1) Agricultural produce;

(2) Meat and fish products; and

(3) Perishable foods.

Does the law intend to exempt the distribution of the three categories that follow, or does it mean to exempt packing for the shipping or distribution of them?

Delivery drivers distribute perishable foods, but they don’t pack the boxes themselves. Whether the drivers were subject to a law that had denied them thousands of dollars a year depended entirely on how the sentence was read.

If there were a comma after “shipment,” it might have been clear that the law exempted the distribution of perishable foods. But the appeals court on Monday sided with the drivers, saying the absence of a comma produced enough uncertainty to rule in their favor.

And who said grammar doesn’t matter?

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

• What might the five points of Calvinism look like as a series of pulp detective novels?

• Am I my brother’s keeper — and does health care have anything to do with it?

• What should you do now to prepare for a future pandemic?

• Who has the healthiest hearts in the world?

• Why am I just no good at memorizing Scripture?

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC…

We had a wonderful opportunity to have a house concert last night in our home, welcoming Frank Lee and Allie Burbrink to share their old time songs along with phenomenal banjo and guitar accompaniment.  About 25 of us gathered, had a St. Patrick’s Day feast with Irish stew and shepherd’s pie and some good Irish beer, and enjoyed some fantastic music.

Here’s a taste of Frank & Allie…

THE INTERNET MONK SATURDAY BRUNCH

”It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”

Welcome to a special edition of the Internet Monk Saturday Brunch. The last thing you might expect to be served at a Lenten brunch is beer, right?

Ah, but this is one of the reasons Internet Monk is such a special place. We know what our readers want and we know how to loosen tongues for good conversation around the table.

So welcome to this Lenten Beer Fast edition of our IM weekly soirée.

According to Crux:

Back in the 1600s, Paulaner monks moved from Southern Italy to the Cloister Neudeck ob der Au in Bavaria. “Being a strict order, they were not allowed to consume solid food during Lent,” the current braumeister and beer sommelier of Paulaner Brewery Martin Zuber explained in a video on the company’s website.

They needed something other than water to sustain them, so the monks turned to a common staple of the time of their region – beer. They concocted an “unusually strong” brew, full of carbohydrates and nutrients, because “liquid bread wouldn’t break the fast,” Zuber noted.

This was an early doppelbock-style beer, which the monks eventually sold in the community and which was an original product of Paulaner brewery, founded in 1634. They gave it the name “Salvator,” named after “Sankt Vater,” which “roughly translates as ‘Holy Father beer,’” Zuber said.

HERE is the account of a contemporary man who tried out the monks’ beer fast for himself.

And so, this fine Saturday, we join him and all the monks in raising a glass to the end of another week in Lent. Welcome to brunch!

LENTEN QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Or, as many have sung since…

WRONG TIME TO GIVE UP BEER…

Leandra Ruiz is crying in her beer. The woman from Harlingen, Texas entered an online contest to win a home delivery from Budweiser driven by their iconic Clydesdales.

Then she gave up beer for Lent. O ye of little faith.

Surprise, surprise, she won the Budweiser contest! And the whole neighborhood turned out as Ruiz watched the impressive horses trot down the street and pull up in front of her home to deliver the prize. As the winner, she even got a ride around the block.

Whaddya wanna bet she broke her Lenten fast to celebrate?

WRIGLEY GETS ITS OWN BEER

It used to be, whenever one thought of the Chicago Cubs, Old Style beer came to mind, and in Harry Caray’s day Budweiser came to the fore.

⚾︎

Well, last week the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and Chicago-based Goose Island brewery (now owned by Anheuser Busch) expanded their partnership, announcing a Cubs-themed craft beer – the 1060 Wit. The brew will be unveiled on April 10 at Wrigley Field, and will only be available on draft at kiosks around the ballpark and at Goose Island’s taprooms on Fulton Street and Clybourn Avenue.

The press release described the beer like this: It is “inspired by traditional Belgian Wits, using a lot of unmalted wheat along with orange peel and coriander. It’s lightly fruity and a touch spicy with low bitterness that is a natural fit for the ballpark and refreshing on hot Chicago days.”

Doesn’t sound hardy enough for Lent, but in the bleachers? Yeah, I can go for that.

THE NEW “BEER HOTEL” — HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH?

And then there’s this, from the Washington Post:

There’s a craft beer company from Scotland called Brewdog that hasn’t sold any beer yet here in the United States. But it plans to. How to get the word out? Many business owners would resort to the traditional methods like advertising or marketing campaigns. But the owners at Brewdog have decided to do something different to create a buzz and build a community. They’re starting a hotel. A beer hotel.

Located in Columbus, Ohio and conveniently next to Brewdog’s 100,000 square foot brewery, guests at the company-owned hotel called The DogHouse will soon be able to enjoy certain amenities that only super-serious beer loving lunatics will appreciate.

According to the Daily Mail, the hotel will feature a “craft beer spa, complete with hop face masks, malted barley massages, “Hoppy Feet” pedicures, plus hop-infused shampoo and shower gels.” (hop-infused shower gels?). But that’s not all. Rooms will overlook the feeders inside the brewery and there will be mini-fridges filled with specially chosen craft beers…located in rooms and in the showers, of course. The brewery’s finest offerings will be on tap throughout the facility and guests can enjoy brewery tours as well. Oh, and let’s not forget the “deluxe beer-infused breakfasts, lunches and dinners, with beers matched to every course.” Yum. Burp.

I see a possible location for our first Internet Monk retreat!

FOOD AND WINE’S LIST OF THE 25 MOST IMPORTANT CRAFT BEERS EVER BREWED

To cap off our special emphasis today, here’s a ramble through the history of craft beer in the U.S., courtesy of Food and Wine. These are not necessarily the “best” craft beers today, but they represent important developments in the craft beer movement.

Here’s how F&W compiled the list:

To help better appreciate the history of American craft beer, we reached out to 21 experts from across the American beer scene, including legendary brewers like Ken Grossman and Jim Koch, industry representatives like Julia Herz, and veteran writers like Aaron Goldfarb and Joshua Bernstein.

We asked each voter to nominate five to seven American beers that they consider to be the “most important of all time.” The only stipulations were that the beer must have started production after 1960, and it must have met the generally-accepted definition of “craft beer” at the time it was introduced. Voters were limited to two beers from any one brewery and encouraged to diversify their choices across years, states and styles. In the case of brewers, they were allowed to vote for themselves; however, every single beer on this list received multiple votes, meaning a brewer’s self-endorsement only counted if it was seconded by another voter. The final order was determined strictly by the votes received, with the exception of any ties, at which point we used our editorial judgment to determine ranking.

Read the list and see what you think. And then, feel free to chime in. Which craft beer(s) got your attention and moved you to become a fan?

LIAR, LIAR…

According to an article at NBC News, “Reports of electronic cigarette batteries exploding have been documented across the country. Battery malfunctions have been known to cause burns on the hands and face, fractured bones and even loss of eyesight.”

It couldn’t have happened to a more stereotypical victim.

Stephen Gutierrez is a defense attorney in Florida who was representing a client in an arson case when his pants appeared to spontaneously combust, and he began to feel the heat. He rushed out of the courtroom with smoke pouring out of his pocket, and ran to the bathroom where he emptied some e-cig batteries from his pants and into a basin of water.

[Insert lawyer joke of your choice here.]

THE BOY WHO PLANTED TREES…

One of my all-time favorite stories is Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees, the tale of a shepherd who, day after day, planted seedlings in an effort to reforest an area in the foothills of the Alps. It’s a lovely tale that reinforces the practice of doing small acts of good over a long period of time to accomplish remarkable things.

There’s a young man today who’s taking this story seriously.

Nine year old Felix Finkbeiner was a fourth grade student in Uffing am Staffelsee, south of Munich, Germany, when his class studied climate change. The boy’s attention perked up, and he pursued the subject so passionately that he was invited to speak to the United Nations General Assembly as a teenager.

National Geographic reports that the young Finkbeiner, still not out of his teens, now leads “a remarkable environmental cause that has since expanded into a global network of children activists working to slow the Earth’s warming by reforesting the planet.”

Today Finkbeiner is 19—and Plant-for-the-Planet, the environmental group he founded, together with the UN’s Billion Tree campaign, has planted more than 14 billion trees in more than 130 nations. The group has also pushed the planting goal upward to one trillion trees—150 for every person on the Earth.

The organization also prompted the first scientific, full-scale global tree count, which is now aiding NASA in an ongoing study of forests’ abilities to store carbon dioxide and their potential to better protect the Earth. In many ways, Finkbeiner has done more than any other activist to recruit youth to the climate change movement. Plant-for-the-Planet now has an army of 55,000 “climate justice ambassadors,” who have trained in one-day workshops to become climate activists in their home communities. Most of them are between the ages nine and 12.

Truly, a little child shall lead them.

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

• What implications might an SBC investigation of Russell Moore have for predominantly black SBC churches?

• Why did this little book become a defining text of American evangelicalism?

• Is there a difference between being “essentially Christian” and “fully Christian”?

• Are baby boomers, as a generation, sociopathic?

• Are the American suburbs, as we know them, dying? (Here’s the whole series on this question.) (And here’s an interview with the project’s editor.) (Here are some thoughts on what this might mean for suburban churches).

• Why can’t Republicans do healthcare?

• Why did Rio de Janeiro’s mayor skip Carnaval this year?

• What do these 25 songs tell us about where American popular music is going?

LENT WITH NEIL YOUNG: THE PRETTY SONGS

This old guitar ain’t mine to keep
Just taking care of it now
It’s been around for years and years
Just waiting in its old case
It’s been up and down the country roads
It’s brought a tear and a smile
It’s seen its share of dreams and hopes
And never went out of style

• This Old Guitar (from Prairie Wind)

Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush and Harvest were two of the albums most important to me in my coming of age years. At that time, I spent a lot of time learning to strum and pick my acoustic guitar, trying to write songs, and expressing my own feelings as a youth while “Mother Nature [was] on the run in the 1970’s.”

It was Neil Young’s folky, “pretty” songs that inspired me back then. The intimate poetry of his lyrics, his use of major 7th chords, his vulnerable voice — they all spoke to me in a deeply personal way.

Over the years, Neil Young has continued to produce appealing folk songs, some commercially successful, but others embedded like jewels in his many album releases. Here’s a list of 24 of my favorites from his career. It’s a great resumé.

1. Expecting to Fly (with Buffalo Springfield)
2. Tell Me Why (After the Gold Rush)
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (After the Gold Rush)
4. Helpless (with CSN&Y)
5. Heart of Gold (Harvest)
6. Old Man (Harvest)
7. The Needle & the Damage Done (Harvest)
8. See the Sky About to Rain (On the Beach)
9. Borrowed Tune (Tonight’s the Night)
10. New Mama (Tonight’s the Night
11. Long May You Run (with Stills-Young Band)
12. Comes a Time (Comes a Time)
13. Lotta Love (Comes a Time)
14. Sail Away (Rust Never Sleeps)
15. From Hank to Hendrix (Harvest Moon)
16. Harvest Moon (Harvest Moon)
17. One of These Days (Harvest Moon)
18. Dreamin’ Man (Harvest Moon)
19. Silver & Gold (Silver & Gold)
20. The Great Divide (Silver & Gold)
21. The Painter (Prairie Wind)
22. Falling Off the Face of the Earth (Prairie Wind)
23. Here for You (Prairie Wind)
24. This Old Guitar (Prairie Wind)

One of Young’s very best songs from the list is the utterly romantic “Harvest Moon,” from the 1992 album of the same name. Here’s the “Unplugged” version. Love the broom!