Over the summer, we have seen both the Chef de Cuisine and the Sous Chef at the restaurant leave for other places. Actually, the latter followed the former, which is not unusual in restaurant circles, but that’s a story for another time. Both guys were there when I joined the staff; they have been the…

Here is the manuscript of a sermon I preached this morning at our church. Peace,Milton ________________________ I would like to begin this morning with a sentence that I’m fairly sure has not been uttered by many people. Here it is: some of my favorite sermons have to do with punctuation and grammar. Seriously. I’ll give…

Yesterday marked the twentieth anniversary of Ginger’s and my engagement. We celebrated with a quick trip to Boston (my first since we moved), including a Sox game and a meal at the Hard Rock, which is where we ate on August 12, 1989 (except at the one in Dallas, which is no more). For our…

I guess tonight might be the blogging equivalent of clearing off my desk. I have not written as regularly as I would like over the last couple of months for a variety of reasons, this week however, it was not for lack of ideas. Before the time gets away, I want to comment on a…

I came across this video through my neighborhood association listserv. It gives a good sense of this cool little city. Peace,Milton

Sometimes, the way we look at the world swings on a sentence. A small, well chosen collection of words can change not only what we are reading or hearing, but also how we see and hear everything around us. The Great Gatsby holds (at least) one of those sentences for me, as Fitzgerald describes Gatsby…

There are no stars tonight.We see only clouds andhear the storm gatheringon the edge of town likebandits in a Western. There are no stars tonight,so we say, waiting for rain,listening to the thunder,cosmic talking drummerstelling an old, old story. There are no stars tonight,but there will be stars –stars outshine storms;light beats clouds every time:paper,…

Because of some wonderful happenings in the lives of our Associate Pastor and her partner, I was the substitute preacher today. Those of you who read the blog regularly will see a few references to some recent posts, though they are in a new context. The passage was Mark 6:30-52. Thanks, as always for reading….

Driving through Birmingham, I passed a Jewish Community Center whose billboard encouraged its members to take a “J-cation” by using their facilities. We are all now familiar with the concept of the stay-cation, now so over-used by our media. Here, in the closing moments of my week away from work, I began to wonder what…

I was in ninth grade when they came to town. The town was Nairobi, Kenya and they were Up With People. Members of the American community provided host homes for the group and so a couple of them stayed at our house, and in the homes of my friends from Nairobi International School. It was…