The month got off to a rough start for Del's Maxima which needed new spark plug wires. Remember when new wires cost a dollar apiece and you replaced them in an hour in the driveway? Now they call them "Ignition Coils" and they cost $100 apiece. $600 dollars and a day later, the car was running smoothly again.
We picked up our Frazier Fir at Home Depot and put it into its watering stand right away to get it ready for a busy Christmas season. Two great movies at the theaters this season and we saw them both: "Master and Commander" and "The Return of the King." (See movie blurbs below.) See these on the big screen, our advice.
Writing-wise, I spent the month finishing up the Earth stage of my intensive review of "An Outline of Occult Science" which you can read about below. I'm currently reading Edward Reaugh Smith's new book, "The Soul's Long Journey", David Ovason's "The Two Jesus Children", Philip Toshio Sudo's "Zen Computer", Andrei Belyi's "Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner", and Rudolf Steiner's "Riddles of Philosophy" --- so you might look for one or more those books to be reviewed for next month's digest. 
Our new Schnauzer puppy, Ita, has kept us close to home for the past six months, but we did manage to take a couple of day trips this month. (During one of these trips, Ita got into our neighbor's yard and ate some cat food -- her own food dish had gone dry.) Next issue we have to deal with is that she's coming into estrus (heat) for the first time and Steiner, our male Schnauzer, is encountering that phenomenon for the first time, up close and personal.
We had a fun trip up to Baton Rouge to babysit for our two toddler grandsons while their Dad went to a Christmas party. Del and I listened to lectures on the Iliad and talked about Greek myths during the trip. Stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall for a great dinner at CrackerBarrel and some Christmas shopping on the way up. My job was to get the baby, Kyle, to sleep. I put him 
in his baby recliner and bounced the springy seat slowly. When he tried to get out of the seat, I bounced it harder and he would lie back down. After several iterations he finally gave up and went to sleep. We drove back home that night, still refreshed and had a great trip all the way.
Listening to the tale of Achilles and Hector, I came to understand the differences between the two men as indicative of the evolution of consciousness between earlier Greeks (Achilles) and the more domestic Greeks of Hector’s ilk. Achilles was part god, an immortal — and “immortal” was what the Greeks of the time called their distant ancestors. They were called “gods” or “immortals” because they were able to see into their past lives and understand the karmic working out of their lives in a way that had been forgotten by Hector’s time. Achilles as an atavistic Greek shows us the attributes of the much earlier Greeks. The Iliad is, among other things, a demonstration of the evolution of consciousness of the ancient Greeks. It is perhaps the most detailed ancient written records we have of any people on the Earth.
I received a link to a demonstration of Joe Newman's Energy Machine which shows a machine powered by 600 watts producing over 5,000 watts in AC output. This is the first full-scale prototype that shows conclusively the validity of Joe's theory. The next step will be to charge the input battery from the output and produce a generator that will be able to power a house completely disconnected from an electric grid, without requiring any fuel except that contained within the copper wires of its coil. If this sounds too good to be true, stay tuned. Meantime, check out the video yourself at:
http://www.josephnewman.com.
The first Saturday in December we spent with some friends at the Fairgrounds Race Track. The horses were racing out on the oval, but my attention was more focused on the small screen with the USC, OU games. USC won, OU lost. The BCS rating were being scrambled, and if LSU won the SEC later that night, who knows, but LSU will play for a National Championship. Well, they did and they will. I admit that I was watching the LSU game with the Don Johnson movie, "Word of Honor", on a side screen, which was rather a challenge, even to an expert multi-screen viewer like me. Luckily, they did an encore of the movie, but even so LSU was still involved in soundly whipping the University of Georgia.
Let me get on my Purple-and-Gold soapbox and tell you how sweet this victory over UGH, er UGA, was for me. I was a freshman at LSU when we last won a National Championship in 1958. That year we did not win the SEC championship, incredible as it may seem. There were no playoffs for the SEC championship, and LSU didn't play UGA that year. Both teams finished undefeated in the SEC, and even though LSU was undefeated in all its games and won the National Championship, UGA ended up as co-champion of the SEC with LSU. Thus, 
you can understand why I should be so happy that we beat UGA two times this year! The first game was close, but the second one was a blowout. There'll be only one SEC champion this National Championship year. By the next morning when we heard the news, LSU with its stronger schedule of opponents edged USC with its weaker schedule and was chosen by the BCS to play Oklahoma University for the National Championship in the Sugar Bowl on the floor of the Superdome in New Orleans.
Pardon me if I point out another salient event in my football life this season. I graduated from Hahnville High School whose colors, like LSU, are Purple and Gold, and whose mascot is also the Bengal Tiger. This year HHS went undefeated in 14 games and beat Evangel High School, the best the team in the State --- according to them --- in the Superdome to win the State Championship. Soon, on January 4th, my college alma mater will play on that same field in the Superdome to beat Oklahoma University, the best team in the Country --- according to them, to win the National Championship. The game hasn't been played, but this has been one wonderful season for a bunch of championship football players from Baton Rouge. When the roar of the crowd is over, we can suppose that the Saban-toothed Tigers will have their claws on the trophy, God willing. EAT-O-TWIST!
A sad note --- Don "Moose" Jamison, a long-time disk jockey died. For over twenty years he held down the 11 AM slot on WWOZ.org, FM 90.7, and he always led off his show with a song that begins:
“There’s sadness on the streets,
The best bartender in the land
Has gone off to meet his maker,
Come on strike up the band.”
His funeral was Monday at 11 AM at St. Augustine's Catholic Church on St. Claude Avenue. The church was filled with music from 8 AM till the Mass began and it was filled with music during the Mass. The priest was a wiry little black man with close cropped silver white hair in a floor length white alb with embroidered outlines of gold squares. The liturgy of the Mass which fills the content of some masses was like invisible scaffolding on which music, tributes, hand-holding sadness, and jubilation were hung. The priest who looked to be 60 years or so young, several times ran up the aisle shouting “Hosanna!” or “Allelujah!” or “Praise Jesus!” Samira Evans, who was given her start by Moose, sang a song she said that she first sang to her brother , who requested that she sing it four hours before he died. She told us that she didn’t knowhe was going to die so soon at the time she sang it. A very familiar song, but her anecdote adds a meaning to the song I had never encountered before. The “somebody I’m longing to see” in the song becomes “Jesus Christ”. The song is by George Gershwin entitled, "Someone to Watch Over Me" --- as you read it, let the music of these familiar lyrics fill your spirit (Cap's added):
There’s a Somebody I’m longing to see,
I hope that He turns out to be,
Someone Who’ll watch over me.
I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the wood
I know I could always be good
To One Who’ll watch over me.
Although He may not be
the Man some girls think of as handsome
To my heart, He carries the key.
Won’t you tell Him please to put on some speed,
Follow my lead,
Oh, how I need
Someone to watch over me.
This song is on her album “Give Me A Moment” (Label: Misha).
There were over a half dozen eulogies, both verbal and musical tributes. The organist was incredible. His voice in one song let us know that his voice was the most powerful instrument he had at his fingertips. A black singer played and sang at the the piano. A white musician played a song on his saxophone that he wrote the night that John Coltrane died. He told us, “Moose loved the saxophone. He was the one DJ that would play my music.” His music drew echoes of Coltrane’s spirit into the cavernous vault of the ancient church. Another white musician played a beautiful trumpet melody he wrote especially for Moose.
Outside the church, the Tremé Brass band was waiting for the coffin and the mourners and played dirges up St. Claude Avenue, right on Rampart Street, right down to the entrance to Louis Armstrong Park where the events in the continuation of the song Moose played every Monday happened: “the preacher cut loose the body and the band began to play: 'Over in the Glory Land, he’s gone to meet the Holy Man, Over in the Glory Land'.” That began the up tempo Second Line into Armstrong Park to the WWOZ studios. And you aint' heard an up tempo song till you've been in a New Orleans Second Line at a Jazz Funeral, and this was one of the best Jazz funerals New Orleans ever danced to. Can I get an amen to that?
AMEN! ! !
Two other funerals filled out the month. The wife of John Murdock, Margaret, was buried at Schoen's on Canal Street, and the sister of my father, nee Elaine Marie Matherne, was buried at Immaculate Conception Church. May their souls rest in peace as they "meet the Holy Man, over in the Glory Land."
On a happier note, I visited Annette Fuselier, a friend who survived a serious accident when in October a pickup truck she was driving was hit by a fast-moving freight train. She had to be removed by the "Jaws of Life" from the wreckage. She showed me this pre-cognitive artwork and poem she had done several months earlier. She is recovering slowly. Walking now with a cane, but still has some memory loss, and "some good days and some bad days." She still has some healing to do, so please hold her in your prayers for a total recovery.
The second Saturday in December Del and I took a day trip with the Louisiana Landmarks Society to the Pointe Coupee area. We visited several landmarks and restoration projects in various states of restoration. With excellent tour guides and hosts at the various places we went, it was a marvelous day, in spite of rather cold and at times wet wintery weather. The blazing hearths at the Samson House and the La Cour House were most welcome.
In short, we visited these places:
St. Francis Chapel: Built in 1895 near the Mississippi River on what is known as the Coast of Pointe Coupee. It replaced the churches of 1738 and 1760. It is Gothic Revival architecture and contains furnishings and artifacts from the 1760 building. A knowledgeable local architect, Mr. Glenn Morgan was our guide.
We toured the Samson House: c.1835. A Creole plantation house moved to New Roads, on logs pulled by mules, to escape the encroaching waters of the Mississippi. It has beautiful rear gardens with pools and patios. It is now a Bed & Breakfast. We were greeted "Sam" our delightful hostess and the wife of Jim McVea.
We had lunch at Satterfield's Restaurant on the lakefront of False River, which is the last great Oxbow Lake on the Mississippi. It was cut off from the River about 1722 creating a River-Lake.
We toured the La Cour House, c.1700s. Once the home of Nicholas LaCour, it is thought to have been part of the military fort called Poste de la Pointe Coupee. The house was moved to its present site and lovingly restored by Dr. and Mrs. Jack Holden. Here is Bobby enjoying the warm fire of the hearth. Also see the photo of the dining set for a large Christmas dinner.
We walked through and oberved the construction in progress at the Jaques Dupre House: c.1780s. A "collection" of historic buildings are on the site. The main house is the Jaques Dupre house. It was moved from S1. Landry Parish and thought to be the home of the first Commandant of Ope1ousas. The barn is also an 18th Century structure and was moved from Cecilia, Louisiana. The cottage, c. 1870, is of bousiage construction (See wall close-up.) and was moved from a farm nearby. Home of Ms. Marjorie "Sis" Hollensworth.
When Del left to go to the "Pretty Parlor" which is what we affectionately call her hair dresser's salon, I asked her to give my thanks to Renelle for "the 52 Christmas gifts she has given me over the past year", an obvious reference to the weekly hairdo's she has performed on Del's hair. That Friday after a morning hair-do, Del and I went to see the 3 1/2 hour completion of the "Lord of the Rings" movie (see blurb below), then I went to the Bonnabel High School Christmas Party as guest of my daughter Maureen, the head of the Art Dept there. Here's a photo of me with her and her daughter, my granddaughter, Tiffany. After that I drove home to pick up Del to complete our Christmas Hat Trick, the Waterford 3 Christmas Party at the Airport Hilton. There we met many of our friends from my "unclear plant" years. There were Ken and Gail, Sharon and Tom, Max and Joyce, Audrey and Jerry, Don and Monica, and a host of other friends. Got our photo taken on a bearskin rug. Del didn't go for my suggestion about how she should pose on the bareskin rug, so here's how it came out. When we got home that night, we had a houseful of children and grandchildren waiting for us.
The next day our houseful expanded with more children arriving. Look for the photos below in the Digest of Wes and Kim and their brood. The next morning, Dec 21st, was Katie's 13th birthday, and we had a table full of presents ready for her to open and some candles to blow out as she celebrated entering her teenagership.
After they left, we went caroling in Jackson Square in the French Quarter that night.
For Christmas Eve we picked up a Honey Baked Ham and headed for my dad's house where Buster and Emily had provided the venue for my siblings and their offspring to congregate and share gifts. Photos of the various family groups are provided in the Digest. Place cursor over photo to reveal names.
Christmas morning was a quiet time for me and Del and the little ones, Ita and Steiner. We gave "Eetie" her Christmas gift allowed her to finish opening the pig ear inside the wrapping that she had started on earlier when we caught her. Then Del and I shared gifts --- a large new briefcase bag with lots of pockets for Del and pole chainsaw for Bobby, among other things. Here's a photo of Bobby in the middle of the unwrapping process. 
That afternoon we went over to Del's folks house in the penthouse overlooking the Mississippi River to exchange gifts there. Herbrother and his wife were in town for the festivities. The rest of the year involved exchanging gifts at the stores, me watching Saints games, Del baking more cookies, and one more present swapping on the 27th at Timberlane with Jim and Gina and the kids. Photo, of course.
Did I get everything I wanted for Christmas? Well, there are two things that would make the year end on a wonderful note and make the Sugar Bowl even sweeter: A win over USC by Michigan State in the Rose Bowl, and a win by LSU in the BCS Championship Game on our son Stoney's birthday, January 4th.
Dear Santa, are you listening?
Whichever way the fates decide, I wish all of you Good Readers a very HAPPY NEW YEAR as we in 2004 A. D. continue to ring in the New Millennium!
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The best source at the best price is to order your copies on-line is from the publisher Random House/Xlibris's website above.
“The Return of the King” — the best movie I’ve ever seen, all-time, and I started going to movies in 1945 so I’ve watched a lot of movies from all periods on the large and small screen. It is the best of the trilogy. We had watched the first two episodes of the trilogy when they came out and had acquired the extended DVD versions of those two. We watched “The Fellowship of the Ring” one night, the “The Two Towers” the next night, and then we were pumped and ready for the grand finale on the big screen at the AMC Palace nearby. When Sam talks about the girl he’d like to marry, we remembered her from the beginning of the first movie serving tables in the pub. This is not a trilogy, by the way, and this is important for moviegoers to understand. Tolkien wrote one large book entitled “The Lord of the Rings” which his publishers broke into three books and gave the name to each part. It is a trilogy in name — it is one story, one epic, broken into three parts for convenience. Thus it behooves every viewer to watch all three movies in sequence to gain the best understanding of “The Lord of the Rings.” These three movies with their immense popularity are sure to bring an understanding of spirituality at a deep level that is much needed in this new millennium where we face many of the trials and tribulations that the peoples of Middle Earth did, and we will need a Frodo from time to time to arise and unselfishly lead us to safety.
“The Shipping News” – HEADLINES: “Inksetter from Poughkeepsie makes Headlines in Newfoundland” “Dweebie Reporter Buys Boat, Re-enacts Childhood Drowning” “Yacht Owner Loses his Head” “Resurrection in the Glenn” “House Blown Away, Reveals New Found Land” “Great Movie Rises from DVD” 
“The Pianist” A guided tour through WWII Warsaw, Poland which explains in graphic detail why Poland is the most pro-American of all the Western European countries today – why they of all the large continental countries have troops stationed in Iraq in support of Iraq’s freedom from a cruel regime. They know cruel only too well. The pianist knew cruel only too well. He survived to play again, actually touching the keys of the piano playing out loud again, after the Russians rolled into Warsaw finally and changed Poland from a German-occupation to a Russian-occupation. The pianist, Spielmann, whose name means, “Play-man”, lived on to play until 2000. A remarkable man and a remarkable movie which takes a hard look at hard times in Warsaw.
Innocent victims of federal investigations everywhere should take heart and learn lessons from what Gallagher was able to do. “We are all smart people in here,” he says at a key point. Some were too smart and lost their jobs. Fine acting jobs all around support an excellent script.
Background on Green Beans and Potatoes:
When I was growing up in Westwego, my mom cooked beans and rice almost every day. Red beans, white beans, lima beans, field peas, crowder peas, black-eye peas, butter beans, and of course green beans. Since the green beans were plentiful in season, she usually canned dozens of jars of it and cooked it year round. I ate green beans till I was green in the face. I couldn't bare to face another green bean in my plate and swore them off FOREVER. But I thought beer tasted bad at that age also. So, at age 45 when my dad was growing green beans, I decided to stop on the way home from the nuclear power plant to pick a "mess" and I would sometimes snap the ends off and snap them in two as I drove home. I of course did this with no one else in the car or they would have freaked out. Then I'd cook the beans and discover how they tasted, seemingly for the first time. They were delicious. Dad's no longer growing the beans, but I still cook them in season, never from a can or jar, and Del and I enjoy them all the time, every time.
