It's not that I'm trying to redeem October, Lord knows, but while I waited for my new tires, I read the only book I could find in my car, Wills's The Rosary.

Of The Visitation, he writes,

"Just as Elizabeth wonders that Mary 'should come to me,' John will wonder that Jesus 'should come to me' for baptism. The humility of Mary's approach to Elizabeth will be repeated in Jesus' humble approach to John at the river Jordan.

Mary is greeted as a victorious Jewish heroine by Elizabeth, who repeats the biblical greetings to Jael and Judith, women who slew enemies of Israel. Deborah proclaims at Judges 5.24: 'Blessed among women be Jael.' And Judith's father says: 'Blessed are you among all women on earth' (Judith 13.18). This is also like Moses' blessing on an observant Israel: 'Blessed is the fruit of your body' (Deuteronomy 28.4). Mary is an embodiment of the Christian people, of its triumph over death, so she sings a victory song based on the Hebrew canticles.

Augustine admonishes us that we cannot 'magnify' God, make him any greater than he is. All we can do is open our hearts to an increased awe and love, to take in more of that greatness, to 'hold him in awe' as Mary says.

Some scholars think the Magnificat was originally a Hebrew poem given a Christian use. But Fathers Brown and Fitzmyer think it is a Christian poem that Luke puts in Mary's mouth to show that the church speaks through her, its symbol and embodiment. Mary takes her place in the long line of Jewish women who heroically stood up for their people. We pray to her and with her, as and in the church that we and she are.

tags technorati : garry wills the rosary

Traditionally, right after a son has entered school, we buy him a new bed.

Chris started school later than his older brothers by about a year. Besides, there was the issue of the house remodel and spending on new furniture for the kitchen, family room and our bedroom. Now that's all over, except Jeff still needs office furniture.

So, on Monday, I browsed the furniture store that we've always used for the kids' bedroom stuff. The older boys who share a room have matching twin beds but I wasn't keen on getting another one of those. Even though they all three insist on me letting them share a bedroom together, I don't think that's ever going to happen again ... as it did during construction.

Just as well because that style of bed ("Roma") is no longer available.

They've improved design and these come with box springs. I'm not a fan of box springs for children's beds but they are low-profile so he ought to be able to get in and out alright. This one is called "Jonah" and I ordered it in the Coffee finish as seen here:

It is also available in white so if he and his sister still share a room in a year or two when she's ready for a bed, I can get the same style. Then, the idea is that the eldest will one day have his own bedroom, so he can use the Jonah and the other boys will share together the twin set.

Now on Monday the salesperson estimated delivery in 3 to 4 months. That seems about twice as long as usual but I said ok. Today when we actually ordered the thing, she said, "How does the end of December sound for delivery?" Terrible, I said, as we will probably be out of town. I really was counting on a Jan/Feb. delivery, you see. Well, whatever.

The other thing is that they were having a sale, 20% off all furniture. Great, right? But not on mattresses and box springs and, even though I haven't priced those things out recently, I'd say the store made up any furniture discount on what they charged for them! I probably should have agreed to go those items somewhere else for less.

And Chris understood when I told him the bed was too big to fit in my car, that a delivery truck would have to bring it.

The cost of four new tires was insane, roughly twice the price quoted me last week. Even $100 more than the price quoted this morning, at which time I approved the work. The service staffer said of today's quote, "That won't be the price," in a tone suggesting the price would be lower.

I broke the news to Jeff and felt bad about trusting the original estimate. I'm not sure why the shop can't price out tires accurately. Are values that fluid? I actually think that the service department staff lied to me, even in presenting that second quote. That's an incredible thing for me to say. It's incredible that a shop I've done business with for eight years would be less than meticulous in their quotes.

Then again, this is the same dealership that doctored a carfax report.

I almost said to the guy as he rung up the charge, "What am I going to tell my husband?" Might he himself be the sort of guy who'd chew out his wife for something like this, not demanding an accurate quote?

The guy showed me that two years ago I pay just $300 less for four new tires. Just two years ago?! Jeff thought these were the original tires. The guy said I got about 42,000 miles on these tires. 42,000 miles in two years?! 400 miles a week?! I drive that much? Where am I going?! I know this: I get 250 miles on a tank of gas and I fill up twice a week, one day earlier each time. 16 miles per gallon. But I hardly ever leave the county.

Jeff said he was a Phillies fan in 1980, my "year of watching television" - MTV, the Royal Wedding and the KC Royals.

(I got to be a "Royal" when I grew up.)

But I sure didn't know how to pick 'em then.¹ And I picked TB this time. Mea culpa.

---

¹ To this day, I remember George Brett and his hemorrhoids.

Editorial Cartoonists Review Election '08 - NPR Morning Edition, 10/28/08:

And both are worried that a victory for Obama could mean hard times for cartoonists.

"He's just going to be very difficult to mock," Luckovich said.

"It's going to be the end of cartooning as we know it," Peters said.

"But maybe Biden will take up the slack," Luckovich said.

I remember Mike Peters from when I used to read the Dayton Daily News.

Kenny is just getting into Harry Potter, so Dawkins might be too late to save him ...

Harry Potter fails to cast spell over Professor Richard Dawkins - Telegraph, 10/25/08:

"I think looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research."

A sort of insidious affect on rationality?

In the case of Professor Dawkins, such stories clearly did.

via Kim at Hiraeth:


I'm somewhat ashamed to say that I have this one in leather and hardcover, both bought from WTS Bookstore during the summers of '05 and '07, respectively. I also have Sproul's RSB in the NKJV, put out by Nelson, bought sometime before that.

I don't know how the notes compare with those of Crossway's ESV Study Bible but it would seem that Sproul isn't interested in competing.

This might be a good opportunity for a church to switch their pew Bible to the ESV, 'though churches don't tend to stock full-blown study editions in their pews. Such a decision may not be entirely expense-dependent either.

Many times I've lamented that I'm not in a study at the moment based on the ESV. And clearly, I need another one of these like a hole in my head. But isn't it hard to pass up a good deal? One can always use his notes for insight into how the other side thinks. That is, exploring contrasts fosters more complete understanding. Protestant catechisms deal in rhetoric juxtaposition all the time: Here's the Catholic view ... and here's the biblical view ... You get the idea.

Link to offer.