LOST on Flash Forward

LOST makes an appearance on the pilot of the new pre-apocalyptic show Flash Forward. Anyone see the reference?

H/T the illustrious Tom Peeling.

100 Confessions: Birthday

(76) Like Smeagol, I take advantage of my birthday.

Four days before my birthday:
Wife: What do you want to make for dinner?
Greg: Let's go out! It is my birthday next week.

Two days before my birthday:
Wife: Wow, it's cold in here. (Signal that I should turn up the A/C)
Greg: Yes, it really is. Can you turn up the air. It is my birthday in two days.

This week I started four days out and found success. Next week, I'm going to try a whole week in advance and see if I can stretch the birthday privileges....

StormTroopers and 9-11: Too Soon?

Oooh. Kinda funny but...too soon?

100 Confessions: Foucault

(75) My first semester in grad school, I literally read Foucault in every class. Don't know who he is? If you pursue a graduate degree, you will. Promise.

The guy is everywhere. He's brilliant yes.

Does anyone really know what he's saying?

Kinda.

100 Confessions: American Catholic

(74) My oddest Church experience:

I was in Washington, D.C. for a semester internship. One Sunday, my roommate and I decided to adventure out and try some random church. I didn't have my glasses on and from a distance I saw a sign for an "American Catholic" Church. What is that? Sounded good though. So I walked up the church, met the priest. The priest was dressed in all red and had torso-length dreadlocks.

After I took a seat it struck me that this wasn't a very diverse congregation. The priest came up to talk with us.

Me: "How is American Catholic different from Roman Catholic?"
Priest: "Actually, it's African-American Catholic. You all sit tight and enjoy the service!"

It did seem odd to us when a girl came out and did a sort belly dance on the altar. The priest got in there and did some dancing too. As it turns out, the priest was a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who started his own church after allegedly molesting a young girl. He argues that it's all a lie and the Roman Catholic church is racist.

Wild experience.

GopherLink! Calvary Nudist Baptist Church of Tyler, TX. Only in Texas. Is this real? Should I be able to ask that question? Website (clean) here. H/T Rod Dreher

100 Confessions: Copy Editing

(73) I did a brief stint in copy editing at my first newspaper job. It didn't last because I would get crazy stories. Really crazy stories. One reporter would commonly turn in 6000-word stories. The news hole was 600 words. And my job was to make it fit.

I would basically end up rewriting the story. One time the reporter in question covered a local council meeting that was completely a transcription, no journalistic structure in the midst of it. In the middle of the story, I finally found a quotation. There was no attribution and to this day, I have no idea was it's about. But I ended up nearly on the floor.

"She likes to do it. She's so good. I really like the way she does it for me. Let's keep having her do it."

There may have been some reference to lawn-mowing about 1000 words higher. But I had to bring the quote to my editor and say "Look, I know you want a quote for this piece, but what the heck do I do with this?"