The Omnifarium

St. Christopher

Category: Bowling
Thu, 24 Feb 2005, 22:04

One evening a week, I bowl in a five-pin league. Sometimes I do well, but other times not. Some days I make a minor change to my technique, get into a groove, and then think I have the game figured out. But then the bowling gods get annoyed by my impertinance, and my game goes downhill yet again.

There are, of course, no bowling gods. Bowling wasn't around yet when the gods were invented. But what about the next best thing, a patron saint?

Googling turned up a few on-line retailers selling medallions with Saint Christopher on one side and a bowler on the other. Several varieties of Saint Christopher bowler medals are available, with either a man or a woman bowler, with or without a chain. Saint Chris is very popular, being patron saint of a variety of activities. Most commonly, he's associated with travellers. But he's also popular with archers, cab drivers, mariners, bachelors and sportsmen.

Christopher made a name for himself by carrying the baby Jesus across a river. This was a laborious task for Christopher since the baby Jesus himself carried the weight of the world. I suppose this makes Chris an appropriate patron saint for bowlers, who have to lob heavy spherical masses down the alley.

Further research on Saint Christopher turned up another interesting fact. It turns out that he was dropped from the roster of saints for the simple reason of not actually having existed. This might come as a shock to many travellers and bowlers. But more significantly, if actually having lived is a hard and fast requirement of sainthood, several other popular early saints should also have their sainthood taken away. But that's a topic for another weblog category.

Anyways, keep your balls out of the gutter!

Hans

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Model Railroading Is Fun!

Category: Trains
Tue, 22 Feb 2005, 18:50

"Model Railroading is Fun!" This slogan graced the cover of one model railroading magazine for years. Is model railroading fun? Of course! It should be an obvious statement for anyone, even for those who are not rail fans. For me, there are few things I enjoy more than sitting in the middle of my layout and watching a train run around the room.

Unfortunately, some modellers need to be reminded of this from time to time. Occasionally, people write things like "Remember, model railroading is supposed to be fun". It is unfortunate, but the reminder is sometimes necessary.

I don't mean to pick on one particular person, but one modeller illustrates my point nicely. He built an award winning layout that he proudly displayed at several model railroading meets in Europe. But he wasn't satisfied. He stripped the layout down to the baseboards and rebuilt it. Previously, the layout represented a small mainline station in 1920's Bavaria. After the reconstruction, the layout represented, get this, another small mainline station in 1920's Bavaria.

Did he have fun? I wonder. On a public discussion board, he claims to enjoy his pastime. But in contrast, he also described the anxiety he experienced working overtime getting the new layout ready for one particular exhibition.

Maybe this is an extreme example of a model railroader who takes the hobby a bit too seriously. Or perhaps I'm the one who's out of synch with the rest of the railroad modelling community. If I'm the oddball railroad modeller, then so be it. I've pretty much sworn off all the on-line railroad discussion groups. And that one little step has actually increased my enjoyment of the hobby.

Hans

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Here We Are!

Mon, 21 Feb 2005, 17:01

I woke up this morning to find a deep carpet of snow on the ground. Wanting to avoid a normally dreadful drive to work, I decided to claim a vacation day and stay home. For a while now, I had wanted to start a "blog". I thought today would be a good day to set one up.

And so, here we are. The Boldt's have joined the "Blogosphere"!

Why yet another blog? Why not? Like most people, we have opinions. Lots of opinions. Opinions on politics and religion. Opinions on hobbies and entertainment.

I don't think we could possibly have any expectation to change anyone's mind on any issue. At best, I would hope that we will provide additional food for thought on issues that interest us.

Hans

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We Want Animaniacs on DVD!

Category: Television
Mon, 21 Feb 2005, 16:45

Over the years, the Warner Brothers studios have produced some of the best animated cartoons ever made. In the early days, the stars of the cels were Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. My earliest memories of television from the 1960's include the classics shown on "The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour". (Those were the days before the WB cartoons were edited, supposedly to remove the most violent bits.)

After we bought a DVD player, the first boxed set we bought was the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, an assortment of 56 WB cartoons. This past Christmas, we eagerly added Volume 2 to our collection. But the brothers Warner still have lots more cartoons in their vault to re-issue on DVD.

Why, oh why, must we wait for the Animaniacs to come out on DVD? The Animaniacs offered up some of the most refreshing and original animation in years. Wakko, Yakko and Dot added much needed vocabulary to the English language. No one was exempt from their antics, as they attacked various individuals and institutions.

If WB issue a box set containing all Animaniacs shows, I will happily buy it. If they issue one season of episodes every six months, I will buy them, but I'd be less happy to have to wait for the complete run.

One rumor says that the Animaniacs might be released in 2006. I think Yakko, Wakko and Dot need to make a visit to the head of WB and convince him (boingy, boingy) to release the DVDs sooner.

Hans

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