It's just not going to happen this Lent.

My schedule has changed, so there will be no Friday Afternoon Sermons this Lent.

Aw, shucks, you say?

Well, you can create your own. The topic for this week is the idiocy of "Baby on Board" placards. Remember those from the 80's. It seemed that every boomer parent had one. Then they got spoofed and went away.

Guess what? The boomer spawn have grown up and I am seeing them anew.

Speaking of boomer spawn, I was a bit shocked to read of a "Tyler" something or other who was in the Olympics. I always think of the "lers" as little kids (anglo boomers loved those ler names: Tyler, Skyler, Tayler, or Taylor, whatever, it's still pronounced ler). Now they are all growed up and have "Baby on Board" placards of their own. I wonder when they will discover cheesy jazz fusion and white zinfandel.

So, rant away for this Friday. Have fun.

Meanwhile, paid writing and unpaid cooking beckon. I like both.

By the way, iPods are amazingly cool inventions. You hit shuffle and it is like listening to the best free-form radio in the world. Scarlatti to Amalia Rodrigues to George Jones. You tell me where I can find programming like that on the radio.

And, I was asked about the NPR report on the Oakland murder rate. It is bad around some parts, mostly far to the south and far to the north of us (by a peculiarity of geography we call the northernmost part of town "West Oakland" and the southernmost part of town "East Oakland," which are both the bad parts of Oakland. Technically we live in East Oakland, but are not that far into it, so none of the really bad stuff happens in our neighborhood). In our area crime tends to be more along the lines of property crimes, domestic violence, and drug offences, and my guess (not based on any data collecting by the police or anything that scientific) is that the rates are pretty steady. When we moved into the area, they were dropping pretty fast. I think they have probably stabilized, but will continue to decline.

What is going on in the other parts of town, on the other hand, is pretty ugly. I have no theory as to the causes, because I avoid those areas (for the most part), and do not have any direct observations. Often I wonder how it is possible for any ghetto to remain, given the cost of housing.

We have a mayoral race going on, however, and the outcome will be bleak, no matter who wins. The best man for the job (Ignacio de la Fuente) is as appealing as a wet loaf of bread. The worst man for the job (Ron Dellums, a man with no executive experience, and little more pedigree than being a careerist, Leftist-Democratic yes man) makes old Ignatz look like bonafide leadership material.

A move to Berkeley in our future? We will see.