A Song for Good Friday

This week the mail brought us (and by "us," I mean Andrew the scalper) a gift from the U2 fan club. And since the CDs can't be of much use to Andrew in Ethiopia, I just took the liberty of adding them to my iTunes folder.

The song called Jesus Christ just seemed like a good song for today. Here's the lyrics:

Written by Woody Guthrie

One, two, three, four

Well Jesus was a man
Who traveled through the land
A hard working man and brave
Well he said to the rich 'Give your money to the poor'
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
For they layed Jesus Christ is his grave

Well he went to the preacher
He went to the law
And told them all the same
He said sell all your jewelery and give it to the poor
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave

When Jesus came to town all the working folks around
Believed what he did say
Well the bankers and the preachers
They nailed him on a cross
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave

And [hard] working people
They followed him around
They sung and shouted gay
Well the cops and the soldiers
They nailed him in the head
And they layed Jesus Christ in his grave
Oh, hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave

Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave

Well this song was written in New York City
A rich man, preacher and slave
Well if Jesus was to preach what he preached in Galilee
They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave
One, two, three, four!

Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
Hale, halelujah
For they layed Jesus Christ in his grave

And here's a couple links if you want to hear it yourself:

• A YouTube video
• Download it to Real Player

This song makes no mention of the resurrection--there'll be a different song for Sunday.

Smoky Skies

There are wild fires west and north of the Dallas area, so the skies were full of smoke this afternoon and early evening. After a quick dinner we drove to the dam at Joe Pool lake and wandered around. I may have even spotted a new bird for my life list, but I"m trying to get some help identifying it first.

Birds of the Equinox and My Personal 100

Several days ago I participated in Birdstack's community event to take note of birds during the spring equinox. I didn't really see many birds that day, but if you click the photo above, you'll see some reports of what we all saw along with a couple of cool bird photos and one evidence-of-bird photo.

Birdstack helps you to keep track of all the different species you've seen (called a 'life list') so I'm here to tell you that my list is up to 100. That sounds impressive until you realize that there are at least 10,000 different kinds of birds worldwide (in other words, 100 is pathetic!). Also, I'll readily admit that I might not really have identified all those 100 birds perfectly, because I'm strictly an untrained amateur. But I have fun trying.

Speaking of having fun, today I stopped off at the local duck park and immediately regretted not bringing my camera with me. There was a great egret that seemed quite tame even though lots of people were around. I saw it spear a rather large fish, maybe 6-8 inches long, and swallow it. I'm not sure, but I think it got stuck in the egret's throat for about 5 minutes. The bird just stood there with a big, uncomfortable looking bulge in its long and skinny throat.

Then as I walked around the tiny lake I saw a mama mallard with 15 miniature ducklings swimming at the mucky end of the lake away from everybody else.

Grooming

Did you know that my name in Malaitan languages means 'louse egg'?

Two Pizzas for Two People

The problem an empty nest has is that when one makes homemade pizza, who's to eat it?