POINT COUNTERPOINT

Today's topic... cookies

Sarah: "I like 'em kind of crispy. I like girl scout thin mints. I like to put thin mints in the freezer and eat them cold and frozen."

Josh: "I like my cookies soft. I especially like those soft molasses cookies you can buy in the store. Molasses cookies are my favorite, but they have to be soft."

MEET YOUR SPOUSE- THIS OR THAT

300 years in the past?

or

300 years in the future?

URGENT MESSAGE

I have just learned that Justin Timberlake is trying to bring sexy back. Please write your senator and congressional representative. Maybe... just maybe... we can stop him.

Happy Birthday to my friend Steve Maxon!!!

I love this picture from my wedding because it looks like one of those pictures taken by a remote camera placed strategically beside a well used game trail in the hopes of capturing Big Foot on film. Instead that crazy kook of a "scientist" got a Maxon and a Tate loping through the night.

They also got a picture of a deer, a raccoon, and even a bear, but alas... no bigfoot.

Happy Birthday Steve!

UNCLE JOB HAS ARRIVED!!!

MEET YOUR SPOUSE- THIS OR THAT

Golf Course or
Ferry

For my snow-weary friends in the northeast

Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snowbank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate'er you do tonight,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit's crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o'er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.

ROBERT FROST

See, This is what I'm talking about!

I found the following in the latest volume of U.S. News and World Report. It seems that Senator Leahy hasn't learned that this is annoying yet.

OK, so Washingtonians can't drive in the snow. But do we have to be sneered at by smug snow senators like Vermont's Patrick Leahy? On a day last week when a few inches shut down much of the District, Leahy opened a committee hearing with some Green Mountain State chest-pounding. "A little snow's not going to stop us," he bragged at the sparsely populated hearing. "We had 2 feet of snow overnight," he says of his home state. "I'm told that a number of places opened as much as an hour late. It's a new generation, and they go slowly."

My Dad, Barry Joe Tate, on Camp Maranatha's summer staff in 1963.

That's him, the one with red hair, right in the middle.

This is proof that my father once wore shorts. I know I've never seen it.

SORRY JOB!

They're calling for snow this weekend. We'll have to take a field trip for some sunshine. It's a good thing we are just 25 minutes from palm trees. California delivers on sunshine, palm trees and flip-flops, even when Idyllwild does not.

For dinner I say lets have shoe
We'll dice one up into a stew,
And when it's through,
Me and you,
Together we will chew on shoe;
Then wash it down with berry brew,
Morning dew,
And nectar too,
And when all's through
I'll say to you,
"Thank you and I bid adieu!"

POINT COUNTERPOINT

Today's Topic... BEETS

Josh: I love beets. They are my favorite vegetable and I think they are delicious in a way that no other vegetable can even approach.

Sarah: Beets taste like dirt. Nasty!

Taylor Park in Beautiful Downtown St Albans, VT

SWING SET

The smell of pine and wood smoke flavored the night air as I walked through the deserted campground. A fine drizzle, just a little stiffer than mist, was falling in soft sheets across the beam of my flashlight. I took a deep breath through my nose, held it for a moment, and then watched as my warm breath curled away- escaping from my mouth. It felt good to be out walking.

I had no destination in mind…just walking. I swung along past the center grass, past the Big Pine Lodge and behind the Sunset Bowl. On a whim, I turned off the road and descended down into the gully, walked across its broad sandy bottom, and clambered back up the opposite side. I found myself standing in front of the old swing set, which sat atop the gully’s rim. The dark dripping forest hemmed in behind it, and, in the dark, it was hard to differentiate one tree from another. The woods were a dark ominous mass- a wild place- and the swing set stood on its edge like the last remote outpost of a civilization.

My breath was ragged from the climb so I slumped down heavily into the nearest swing, and instantly felt the cold rainwater soak through my pants and underwear.

Off in the distance, the quiet night was shattered by the sirens of a fire engine racing up rt. 243, and from somewhere on the ridge behind me a pack of coyotes answered with a frenzied chorus of yips and howls. I began to swing in the rain; pumping my legs and keeping my feet clear of the puddle which had formed in the trough beneath me. I went higher and faster until my outstretched feet nearly grazed a cedar branch above me and my hands were red and uncomfortable from gripping the wet chains in the cold night air.

A LITTLE VT IN CA

The word on the street is that Uncle Job is going to grace the Occidental Tates with a visit next week. The best bet is that he will fly into Palm Springs on Thursday evening and stay for an undetermined number of days before returning to the 802. This is the most exciting news that our little clan has received in a long time. Bowden and I talked about it in hushed tones last night as I was putting him to bed. In the dark I heard him say in a whisper "Daddy I am so excited!" I asked him why he was excited and he said "Because Uncle Job is exciting."

Can't wait to see ya Job. Let me know if there is anything you want to do in So. Cal. and we will make it happen. We have deserts, mountains, palm trees, beaches and, for a time, we will have Job Tate.

WHAT I WISH I SAID...

On a winter night like so,
When the ground is white with snow,
There's plenty of light to show
What you two were doing.

Don't argue as though you might
Bring question onto my sight;
We both Know that I'm right;
I saw what you were doing.

I'VE NOTICED THIS

Why is it that people have this need to convince people that where they live is the absolute nastiest place to live?

You start talking about the weather in your home state and, of course, you paint the gloomiest picture possible... 40 below, feet of snow, everything closed... or maybe... mosquitoes, sooooo muggy, that's the worst part- the mugginess, I could handle the the 110 degree heat if it weren't so muggy.

It goes on and on like that with both sides whipped up into a frenzy trying to convince everyone in earshot that where they live is truly the nastiest, coldest, hottest, most forbidding and unwelcoming habitat that was ever attempted by mankind.

I'm guilty of this too, or at least have been in the past, but I have noticed this trend, and I have observed that it is annoying, and I will stop. You?

They were powerful words and spoken well;

Properly weighted as they fell

Through funnel ears and down the spout;

Flowing...crashing... swirling about;

Stirring up the sediment sin

Layered deep over the years within,

And, oh, that rising flood of grace

Overflowed as tears upon my face,

And through the tears He heard me say

"Please, oh Lord, wash my sins away."

BROTHER JOHN MAKES A.C. WEEKLY NEWS

I stole this picture from the weekly e-publication put out by my denomination. They were covering an annual youth event in the West Virginias called "Big Ski." I'm lovin' the Bill Cosby sweater. There are very few who could pull that off, but my brother is one.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

If you had to choose one professional sports team (from any sport) to replace our government for a period of five years, which team would you choose?

All three branches of government would be taken over by the players and coaching staff of the team of your choice.

I say the Redskins.

After all they're already in Washington.

MY SUPERBOWL PREDICTION

I will eat until I get sick.

I will drink a delicious beverage.

I will comment that the commercials weren't as good this year.

Someone else will disgaree with me and say they liked this commercial or that one.

I will stick to my guns and say "That one was alright, but I still don't think they're as good overall."

The aforementioned someone will then say "whatever."

At halftime I will get up, stare at the food, and even though I am not even remotely hungry anymore I will force some more calories down the old food shoot.

It's the way of my people.

I will root for the colts.

The Bears will win by ten points.

Final score 24-14.

"The only rules we have are the ones that we enforce."

Daniel Chamberlain (Former President of Houghton College)

BE YE EASY!!!!!!

MORBID QUESTION OF THE DAY

If you had no choice- you have to know the answer to one of the following questions, which one would you choose? You can't know both and you can't choose to not know the answer to either (which of course is most everybodies natural prefeence).

Which one would you choose to know?

How will I die?

or

When will I die?