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In a recent Coffee Hour Rain shared with us one aspect of Portlanders' passion for food. Here's my weirdo variation on that theme, as relates to my own city.

San Francisco in cookware (by Zhan Wang)

There's a rather quirky race shaping up in Salt Lake County for the Utah state legislature, one with significant implications for queer folk.

The challenger, Mel Nimer, is gay. He is also the president of Utah's Log Cabin Republicans, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Utah Pride Center. The incumbent, Ben McAdams, is a straight Mormon Democrat — and one of Utah's most prominent supporters of LGBT equality.

I'm kicking off a new weekly series (hopefully).  I'm a big information junkie and I'm sure many of you are as well, and am always spotting interesting little stories here and there.  Well, in honor of school starting, and our own never-ending quest to broaden and expand our horizons, I'm sharing some of my finds and hope you share some of yours.

In a world measured in nano-seconds and instant on, you have to be fast when you are late.

I'm late.

Not late like the third base runner who takes off a zillionth of a second after the ball leaves the short stops hand. That's too late. " You're outta there."

There is no way to slide in at S/P. Your just flat late.  Words must hit the page, spelled in a recognizable manner even if not on time. It takes time.

Even when you are late. Hurry. Hurry up DD.

Zooming past the fold.

In the human energy system there is a rainbow bridge made up of the seven main energy vortices called chakras. There is, of course, controversy surrounding whether or not chakras even exist, and it is easy to understand. First they are not physical, in different cultures they are understood to radiate different colors and in some cases there is even disagreement regarding the actual location and functions of certain chakras. No human body, mind, nervous system is exactly the same as any other; on a gross level we all have the same equipment, but that equipment is tuned differently in each of us. So in my opinion, it is only natural for people and different cultures to perceive subtle energies differently.

A note to chakra skeptics, please feel free to disregard what you find here. I share this as a matter of general interest and as a primer for pieces that will come later. What follows is a very basic description of the seven main energy centers.

Welcome to Coffee Hour! Pull up a chair, pour your favorite beverage, and tell us about your day!

McDoc likes to tease me by saying that I have agoraphobia, because I have a bad habit of not leaving the house often enough. I'll start the day with the best of intentions about running errands or going to park or what have you, but then I'll get so caught up in some creative, usually computer-based task, that by the time I finally get my shoes on, it's nearly sunset.

Okay, I confess, a lot of that time gets eaten up by simply farting around online. If you're reading this, I'm sure you know what I mean!

I don't like Ken Mehlman; his responsibility as a Bush Administration flackey® and anti-gay culture warrior cannot easily be dismissed (or forgotten). But I am distressed, and frankly, irritated, by the harshness displayed by so many progressives — of all sexual orientations — in reaction to Mr. Mehlman's belated coming out (confirmed last week in a piece by The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder). The reaction I'm talking about is perhaps most succintly expressed by blogger Joe. My. God.:

Repulsive Anti-Gay Quisling Homophobic Scumbag Asshat Closeted Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman Has Come Out

How is this kind of rhetoric in any way useful?

From the Ministry Institute at Mater Dei ( Full post )

As I've blogged here in years past, we always got the day after Halloween off. As young kids, we thought it might be to recover from the fun of the night before and have a day to barter candy from siblings. We thought this even though the nuns told us again and again the reason we had it off was because it was a feast day (and the mandatory Mass was a reminder it wasn't just a fun, fun day.) ( Full post )

Father Dan's Jubilee homily contained some great Jesuit history. And now the big challenge facing the Jesuits is lower numbers than the society once had. Interesting side note: California politico Jerry Brown was a year ahead of Father in the Society. He left in his fourth year. ( Full post )

From Britain's newspaper The Telegraph: ( Full post )

Blog reader Kipling L. McVay was in search of information about Mary Magdalene and her condemnation by Pope Gregory. (See post below.) ( Full post )

When Jesuit Dan Kendall was a novitiate in 1957 in California, the young men worked the seminary's vineyards. ( Full post )

The last Catholicism for a New Millennium lecture for the Fall will be this Thursday, November 29, at 7:30 at the Gonzaga Law School. John Perry SJ, from the University of Manitoba speaking on “Torture: Religious Ethics and National Security” ( Full post )