Very Late Seven

1. Why does my reaction to this make me feel like William F. Buckley Jr., standing athwart history yelling "stop"? Blech, blech, blech. Is it blasphemy, or just brainless lack of taste? I can't decide. I do know two things: (1) it makes me happier than ever to be Orthodox, and (2) if I showed this to our archpriest, exhausted as he is from Lent and Holy Week, I think he might cry.

2. It's Earth Day! Please don't turn your significant other into fertilizer, like the day's founder did. Instead, eat at Arby's and think of the rainforest. Well, at least that's what I always do...

3. In a related note, Two came home from school yesterday and announced he knew what "The 3 R's" were: reduce, re-use and recycle. He is now being homeschooled, and is grounded until he's 30. Almost kidding.

4. Have you seen all the kerfluffle about the implosion of Three Cups of Tea writer Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute? 60 Minutes ran a piece on it last week, and Jon Krakauer has written a longer article called Three Cups of Deceit, which is available on the new (and very cool) website, byliner.com. Apparently it boils down to this: lots of those "Pennies for Peace" you dropped in the jar at your kid's school? They went to pay for private jets and book tours, not schools. Sad - not for Mortenson, who will get what he deserve (one hopes) but for all the people who depended on him and his organization for help. But a good lesson for would-be shysters: do NOT accept $75k donations from investigative journalists and expect them to ignore any shenanigans you engage in.

5. One and I have been enjoying smoothies from recipes posted by Kristen Howerton last week. I've monkeyed with the recipes a bit (as usual), but the tropical fruit/spinach combo Green Machine smoothie is to die for. Two? He can't be persuaded to get near any of them: he has years of fruit and vegetable awareness training under his belt, and he's not going to eat anything he isn't completely certain didn't come from a plant.

6. I posted this on Facebook already, but seriously: the new "energy safe" lightbulbs shouldn't be used anywhere near people? I put one in Husband's closet over a year ago. Guilt. Sob. Guilt.

7. Simcha Fisher wrote a piece at the National Catholic Register last week about the very interesting St. Anthony "Wet House", run for alcoholics who have repeatedly failed to stop drinking. The home provides them with food and a roof over their heads, and they are allowed to drink the alcohol they provide themselves in a specific place in the house. I read the story with interest, and the comments with much more interest. They are divided pretty much between (1) God wants us to help those in need, and (2) isn't this a sin? we need to make sure it's not a sin before we help others. I definitely fall into the first camp, thinking it more compassionate to give someone a home and food rather than force them to sleep under a bridge; their own sin is between them and God. But I found it rather interesting that there was such a legalistic component to the thoughts one would have before extending a hand to the least of these.

There are no official "7 Quick Takes" this week at Jen Fulwiler's site, but check out all the goodness over there anyway, if you like.