Odds and ends and Alaska

Thanks to my friend Thomas Fortenberry (without whom this blog would be dull), this story of pure stupidity. The reason religions should be banned.

Soccer game for priests, imams canceled

The Associated Press

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — A soccer game between Muslim imams and Christian priests at the end of a conference to promote interfaith dialogue was canceled Saturday because the teams could not agree on whether women priests should take part.

Church of Norway spokesman Olav Fykse Tveit said the imams refused to play against a mixed-gender team of priests because it would have gone against their beliefs in avoiding close physical contact with strange women.

The church decided to drop its female players and the priests' team captain walked out in protest.

Hours before the game was to end the daylong "Shoulder to Shoulder" conference in Oslo, the church released a statement saying it had called off the match because it was sending the wrong signal.

"Because we thought it would be a nice conclusion of the conference we didn't want to call it off, so we decided to stage an all-mens team game instead," Tveit said. "We realize now that it will be wrong to have a priest team without women."

Stupid doesn’t cover it.

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And to finish the fifty states, Alaska.

Poetic States L - Alaska

Flight

Second to the right, and straight on till morning.
--Peter Pan

He took me west of the Tanana
towards the Bering Sea, flying
at two hundred feet in a two seater.
A pair of swans glide below us
with the grace of Inuit dancers
to settle on a backwoods lake.
No albatross has touched down better.

Below where bogs cover the permafrost,
black spruce and highbush bilberry
attempt survival with ever-damp feet.
A bull moose lifted its head from a pond,
water and swamp weed draining
from its antlers like glacier ice
into Kenai Fjord under July’s sun.

Although, we could not hear him
bellow over the rumble of the engine,
we knew he was unhappy
we had invaded his territory.
As we climbed to return home,
Denali gave us a rare smile
before closing her cloak of clouds.

When my wife returned
from her flight, she exclaimed,
“Where can we buy one of these?”

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See you next week.

Smiles.

Gary