Oil Painting

 Title: Boulders in Dusk

Medium: Oil on canvas paper

Size: 12 in. x 16 in.

I'm your huckleberry

 From Urban Dictionary:

1. 

19th century slang which was popularized more recently by the movie Tombstone. Means "I'm the man you're looking for". Nowdays it's usually used as a response to a threat or challenge, as in the movie. 

"Who thinks they can beat me?"

"I'm your huckleberry." 

 2.

The etymology of the phrase is traced back to Aurthurian Lore. Huckleberry Garlands were said to be given to Knights of the Kingdom for coming to the service of a damsel. They would approach the lady, lower their lance, and receive the small branch as a symbol of gratitude; much like a medal.

Therefore, "I'm Your Huckleberry" literally means "I'm your Hero."

In current adaptations, in reference to the movie Tombstone, it means "I'm your man." as an affirmative response to a challenge.

3.

All these responses are silly assumptions!

In the movie he didn't say "I'm your huckleberry", he said "I'm your HUCKLEBEARER". His accent in the movie makes it hard to hear. In the 1800's little handles on a coffin were called "huckles", an English term. Instead of pallbearers the people who carried the coffin were called "hucklebearers" at the funeral.

This is why the other guy got so bent outta shape when Doc said "I'm your hucklebearer". He was telling the other guy "I'm your pallbearer" or literally I'm causing your funeral. This is why it was so offensive and the shooting started.

4.

I'm your huckleberry comes from a very classic and hot western movie called tombstone. this phrase means I'm the perfect man for the job. 

Jimmy: Who here wants to fight?

Holliday: I'm your huckleberry

Jimmy: Well come on then pus.

Holliday: Pulls out 12 gauge shottie

-Boooooom- Jimmy dies 

5.

You play 'Tom Sawyer' and I will be your 'daddy' in this game as Tom 'kinda' looked up to Huck (in my humble opinion). Ala Mark Twain.

And I will jump into your game Like 'Huck Finn', and give you a "shel·lack·ing" (As the most Hon. Sir Sean Connery could only say properly). And we will "tear-this moTHa-out". +))

Your boss comes by and asks you to justify your 'ExisTenz' by telling him how you deserve to get a paycheck this week.
And you reply: "...I'm your huckleberry..."

From Wikipedia:

Huckleberries hold a place in archaic American English slang. The tiny size of the berries led to their use as a way of referring to something small, often affectionately as in the lyrics of Moon River. The phrase "a huckleberry over my persimmon" was used to mean "a bit beyond my abilities". "I'm your huckleberry" is a way of saying that one is just the right person for a given job. The range of slang meanings of huckleberry in the 19th century was fairly large, also referring to significant persons or nice persons.

So...is it "I'm your huckleberry" or "I'm your hucklebearer" that Doc Holliday says in Tombstone?

You decide.

"Fight's not with you, Holliday."

"I beg to differ, sir. We started a game we never got to finish. Play for blood - remember?"

"I was just foolin about."

LOL! Because boy you can bet that Ringo knows what he's up against with Doc Holliday. The Doc can jerk that pistol like nobody's bisness - and at that, while being consumed by tuberculosis! One of the things the movie gets correct about the real Doc Holliday. A posthumous gunslinger who could out-sling anyone! I do believe he also died a Catholic convert!






ROFL!








I love Bill Paxton's look when they start speaking Latin. LOL!

Borage!

As happens with borage, the ones from last year sowed themselves and came up sure as anything this year. You just pull up the ones you don't want and let whatever masses you want do their thing. I like them because of all the insects the flowers attract - especially honey bees. The flowers taste good too. I like to nibble on them. They're sweet.

I was concerned because while I saw different insects on the flowers, I didn't see any honey bees, or bumble bees. Usually they are swarming borage like gangbusters.

But I saw them out today, in spite of rainy cloudy weather.

It was a relief to see the honey bees.

I let the overwintered kale from last year go to seed in the hopes of collecting the seed. But I noticed as the pods dried (the immature pods are quite tasty if somewhat chewy, by the way) something was splitting them and taking the seeds.

Then one day I saw a pair of birds in the patch. One of them has a bright red head. I don't know what kind of birds they are, but they are nice. They look somewhat rare. And they really love the kale seeds.

Misc.

Summer! South west coast also means cool nights, generally. Hi southern Ontario! And no mosquitoes as one gets them in those other places. Hi prairies!

I particularly hate mosquitoes because mosquitoes particularly love me. I've been in provinces where mosquitoes proliferate, around the campfire, and literally, everyone else would be left alone while I would get eaten alive, in spite of repellant.

I thought it was pretty random of the mosquitoes.

*

I listen to Beethoven sporadically when painting. I listen to his piano stuff mostly when I do listen to him. Do you ever find...now, how does one put it? Do ever find the sheer - and I mean in a very physical sense - do you ever find...sometimes...the sheer tonal vibrations...to be...threatening to drive you insane?

That's when I say, "Alright! Time for Rachmaninoff!"

Is there any modern composer greater than that Russian genius? To people who say he's "overblown" I say: maybe it's time you should put away the Mozart and the Raffi and start listening to real music, yes?

*

Anyhow, LOL. Mozart was a genius. I'm JOKING. And I listen to Mozart. Not Raffi.

But as it turns out, two long years before Duck Dynasty was a glint in A&E's eye, that show called Swamp People was letting us see those Cajuns - whose ancestors were exiled from Canada - giving alligators' heads hefty doses of Cajun spice. By which they mean putting bullets into the heads of alligators. Ten times more real than Duck Dynasty, Swamp People, which documents the 300 years' tradition handed down from father to son, is still going strong, though I haven't watched any of the later seasons.

I hate to say it, but Duck Dynasty is sooooooooo fake. And that's saying it after all the expected fakeness of reality television is taken into consideration and accepted. Fakeness is inevitable with reality television, where unscripted life scripts itself. Or rather, where scripts are drawn from life as it is becoming aware of itself as a television show. But Duck Dynasty...holy crap - it's almost as lame as this blog.

That being said, a lot of Americans really like it. That's fine. I don't care to try to know why - just like with Croustillant Crème and Christopher West and "Save the Liturgy, Save the World" bumper stickers and Imperialism in general.

Though really, I do know. It's because of the characters. You gotta love them. I totally love Uncle Si and Godwin! They do crack me up.

Man, I love that show.

*

What's up with the white man's fear of immigration anyways? It's clearly nothing but the inevitable fruit of sterility - of deciding to not have children, but to have sex - and then if a child does come, then killing the child.

The fear of immigration is nothing but the fruition of this mindset, of this way of sterility. It doesn't mean you have to be the one using birth control either. You wonder if there are Catholics who don't use birth control and who speak against it but are secretly thankful for those sinners who do use birth control, even if they don't articulate it to themselves, amplified by the fact that they don't adopt. Self-satisfied and complacent, they enjoy thinking of themselves as the Remnant. Contracepted. Producing no life. The Remnant.

You notice how some Americans are all gung-ho about having their troops in other countries but no sir, no immigrants in their own country? Without the immigrants all your parishes would be getting shut down more than they already are. The white man is sterilizing himself out of existence. The white man thinks he can tame sex like the way he plans everything else. So many Catholics have bought into the world's commodifying commoditifying of sex. It's just another thing with a bar code.

Our only life is the body of Christ. And you cannot take the body of Christ into yourself while you contracept. You are, in essence, contracepting Christ. Just like you want the sex without the life that follows, so you take Christ - on your own grounds. You drink judgment upon yourself. You have contracepted your own parishes - drunk judgement upon your parishes. They are now getting shut down.

People do not believe in the world to come. So likewise, they don't believe in any generations to come - including immigrants.

*

The crisis in liturgy was already going on prior to Vatican II. Just read Ratzinger to find that out. Crisis of liturgy includes "pre-reform" times.

If that weren't obvious enough.

*

I've said it before and I'll say it again: life goes by like a bird flying past a window.

That's what a dying woman said on her deathbed. An old Italian priest I know repeated her words in his homily once.

"My life has gone by like a bird flying past the window." Those were her words.

If you think about it, if you live to be 130 years old, all what it takes is for you to be on your deathbed, and suddenly those 130 years are like a bird having flown past your window.

LOL. Death: that thing which only the Catholic Church can give you before it comes for you.

In dying before death comes for you: that is the only place you will find peace.

And it is dying to your entire old self.

It's scary.

We find new life scary.

*

One of the things I love so much about Pope Francis is the hysterical, banal hand-wringing from conservative reactionaries, sickened unto death with their own afflictions - to the point that they will actually say he is espousing Statism. LOL. It makes you think. It makes you say: well, what IS it that has got up their noses so bad? It's interesting. Holiness has that effect upon a man: it will reflect back to him his own faults with nary any effort.

*

Fukishima happened in what, 2011? And here we are in 2014...and...

this cannot be good

*

Blogs are so passé?

Time-Stamped

Fr. Angelo of Mary Victrix

is one of those teachers on the blogosphere whose comments in response to comments are worthy of posts in themselves.

I always learn at his blog. It has that particular Catholic stamp of richness and deepness that comes from thinking with the Church, rather than asserting that one knows what is good for the Church. And he is unafraid of the polemical propaganda of the red pill restorationists.

Take his comment from this post for instance:

Actually, that the N.O “theogically impoverished” is your personal opinion and not the teaching of the Church. So in your personal opinion does that make the N.O. valid and licit but not pleasing to God, or not as pleasing to God? And what does attending the N.O. in “good faith” mean? Does that mean those in “good faith” are in error, but unaware? Or uninformed, but following the postconciliar Church without knowing better?

And is theological impoverishment a numerical or qualitative problem? Is it that the signs (matter, gesture and words) are fewer or less distinct? Or that they are no longer capable of signifying what Christ intended in Instituting the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist? In what sense does the N.O. not capture the fullness of Catholic doctrine about propitiatory sacrifice?

Are you sure that Christ does is not satisfied with the N.O. celebrated according to the mind of the Church, or that He is less satisfied? And I assume if you are, you would assert this as a matter of reason, and not divine faith? Or is it otherwise?

You can go on and on about the problems of abuse and the lack of faith, but that does not really answer the theological question at hand. And that is the real question, because it is the only one you raised. And the only conclusion you can come to is purely a personal opinion which neither you or anyone else can impose on anyone or expect to use as a policy to control the behavior of other people, especially those who do not and have never believed such things.

I certainly admit a legitimate range of opinion on the matter, as long as it is presented as purely non-authoritative opinion. The problem is when this is translated into slogans like “save the liturgy and save the Church,” or “of Mary and the liturgy there is never enough.” And it becomes more of a problem when it becomes the policy of a religious community, whose members are free to adhere to the teaching of the postconciliar magisterium and cannot have imposed on them the purely personal opinions that you hold. Indeed, they have at least as much right to resist such opinions, if not more, than you do to expect the toleration of them.

One last thing: There is a very bad habit on the part of many in the Church today, whether progressive, conservative or traditionalist to confuse apologetics, polemics, politics and journalism with theology. Theology is not agenda driven and it only works well when it exercised in full communion with the Church.

The essential problem you are dealing with concerns the theological relationship between the sign and its signification, which are distinct. This distinction is the reason why, for example in the East the epiclesis can play a far more prominent role and occur after the Institutive Narrative. The sign is different than the Western Rite, but the signification is not, or at least, not so much. The relationship between these two things is neither purely physical nor mathematical. It is not like programing code. The relationship is metaphysical and related to the Institution of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is not a political question, nor is it going to be solved by the inside baseball of agenda driven liturgical ideology.

I totally agree that the liturgy, even the current one, may develop and be corrected and improved, but the problem cannot be lifted from its ecclesiological and metaphysical context. And it certainly is not going to be solved by bloggers and armchair theologians.

A feast of sanity is found at his blog.

Time-Stamped

Misc.

My rosary went through the wash, something that never happens. Being a sturdy rosary of sure copper linkage and wooden beads of a honey hue, it stayed intact. But to my horror the deep lustre which the beads had attained from over a decade of de facto hand polishing was completely stripped. Stripped as in Borax stripped. Because I add Borax to my laundry detergent. Because I like the stiffness it gives to clothes.

Back to square one.

Funny, I made an idol of my de facto hand polishing and I didn't even know it.

*

If statues and images of Jesus and Mary and the Saints are just dead wood and dead stone then the letters in your Bible are just dead letters.

Hah, right back at you.

*

Wendy's has fallen from a great height, I'm sorry to say. Their beef patties used to be thick and juicy and their fries chips were vastly superior to what they are now. Their burgers are not as substantial as they used to be - and oh, that is so annoying the way they put a huge chunk of whole lettuce leaf in the burger.

Take a cue from McDonald's and Burger King: their lettuce is chopped. McDonald's lettuce is more shredded, but Burger King does the lettuce the best. In fact, Burger King has the burger condiments down perfect (by which I mean the lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions and all of that). McDonald's burgers are nothing but sliders - all of them. A&W is great, but man the saltiness...wow. But seriously, no one can beat A&W's root beer milkshake. That is just awesome. And their onion rings are nice.

But nope, I will say it: of the fast food burger chains, Burger King's double whopper with cheese is the best. Better than what Wendy's now offers. And yeah, I'll take it over A&W.

Why?

Because the flame-broil.

And because of the general circumference of their burgers. The circle is wider. The others are not.

And this is Canada. We don't have White Castle. Yet.

*

How can people eat Krispy Kreme Crispy Creme Crispy Cream Croustillant Crème donuts doughnuts? Even Tim Hortons Tim Hortons' Time Horton's Tim Horton's' are disgustingly sugarfied. But Krispy Kreme Crispy Creme Crispy Cream Croustillant Crème is just...holy crap, how do you people even eat one of them, let alone half a dozen, or a dozen?

They are not donuts doughnuts. They are half-baked squishy sugar-flour somethings - with more sugar on top.

Don't think just in terms of health here, but what are doing to your palette? A palette actually needs to be developed. When you eat things like Krispy Kreme Crispy Creme Crispy Cream Croustillant Crème you are dulling it, turning it into a one-note monochromatic screaming little brat that refuses to eat real things - you know, like actual real donuts doughnuts.

Says the man who voted Burger King.

*

And who does the best coffee?

Me.

*

Stop it with the word "random". Random this, random that. Own what you say. Like, more than half the girls in church are like randomly wearing like nothing. It's like so random!

*

I'm not interested in any discussion about immodesty exciting the lusts of men or any other such thing. I would just like to say this, and I say it with sincerity. Ladies, girls, women: you do not have the right to come to church dressed like that. Take that and digest it. There is no difficult thing here. If everything you substantially change about yourself must have some babyish basis in a feminist justification, well then, yeah, you might want to try Hinduism - Hinduism in the western experience, without the butt-naked ascetics.

I don't care about "the subject". The issue, insofar as to "what to wear to church", has in my opinion been largely sidetracked by talking about modesty. It has derailed the main point.

As to the wearing of those articles to church...let me repeat it, and this isn't me talking here, but the Church: you do not have the right. Go to Rome if you want to find that out.

Let me repeat it a third time: You do not have the right to come to church dressed like that.

Think about that for a span of five minutes straight, if you can. Notice where the emphasis in that statement lies. It does not start with "the modesty issue" and its concomitant "Well, real modesty begins in the heart and the intentions..." discussion/debate.

It doesn't mean burka or ankle-length dress or anything you wouldn't naturally wear. Dress casual if you want. If it's not cooking out, I'll typically throw on a cashmere or something with long sleeves or a light jacket over the t-shirt.

That's the general rule. General coverage: good. Purposely designed to reveal either by exposure or tightness: bad. Really, it's not hard. Do you not own a mirror?

Life is short and every little thing we do with it has immense consequences. The Church's consecrated spaces where Christ in the Blessed Sacrament abides should be a no-brainer.