I like going to church, but I have a problem. After a few minutes of sitting on the unyielding wooden bench before the service begins, my back starts to ache. Rather than indulging in praise or penitence, I get distracted by my posture. The right angle of the pew serves as a guide for me to throw my shoulders back and press my lower back into a straight line. The stretch feels good and I try to hold it. After a few seconds of DIY physical therapy, I startle to find myself zoned out and slouching once again. Some might assume I’m reflecting on my virtues and vices but I’m jiving with my own pre-service mantra: Slump, straighten, hold, sigh. Slump, straighten, hold, sigh. After my initial orthopedic warm up, I’m carried along by the liturgy. I love the candles and the music. I particularly love both the familiarity and surprises embedded in scripture, and feel lucky that our priests deliver amazing homilies. More than anything, I’ve always been drawn to the solemn myste...
The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 20 Man Rectifies Cage Joe McDonnell, 79 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently stabilized a tomato cage. "We started off using metal cages," McDonnell tells the press, "but they're shaped like upside down cones and tended to tip over as the tomato plants got top heavy. My wife's father made several wooden cages and when he stopped gardening we started using them. Over time one of them got rotten so I bought some wood and made a new cage. I thought using screws instead of nails would make it stronger and it did, but to save money I only used one screw at each corner. After three seasons my wife noted this newest cage was the floppiest. By putting a small nail about an inch from each screw, the cage became the least floppy of all the cages." In a later report McDonnell says his wife thought her father had made all the cages. "I'll have to tell her the new one was my work," he says. Man Tests Non...