Thursday, March 10, 2022

2nd Bite: Cheeseburger Bobbys

Cheeseburger Bobby’s burgers ain’t what they used to be. Smaller. You get two patties and whatever fixins you want (leaf lettuce, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, relish, peppers, and more). Also several choices of sauces. The bun is tasteless, and needs the help of the sauces. Fries are good. Like several places, their milkshakes are expensive, but good.

Still it was hard to pass their offer this week: free cheeseburger with any purchase.

My favorite food? Is it really a hamburger? Probably BBQ tops burgers. A big chicken sandwich, either grilled or batter fried. Pizza. Mexican. Lasagna. Apple, coconut cream, or pumpkin pie. Ice cream. Nothing wrong with a good casserole.

Favorite restaurants (not in order): Ponko Chicken, Moe’s, El Porton, Moxie Burger, Cue, Righteous Q, Fox Brothers BBQ, Baskin Robbins, Jeni’s Ice Cream, Big Daddy’s Burgers, Fuddruckers, Superica, The Vortex.

Wednesday: I wanted to go to Cheeseburger Bobby’s again for their special, but there was a long line. Drove through Taco Bell instead. Should’ve stuck to McDonalds.

Made it to Hot Stove about five minutes early. No Zane Smith. Instead a retired IBM executive who built a whifflehall-sized Fenway Park in his backyard in Vermont. Started holding charity tournaments that eventually raised over $7 million. Moved to East Cobb two years ago to be near grandkids. More details to follow. Didn’t get home until almost 10:45.

Ran/walked 3-1/2 miles at the Y this AM. At the office today but will work from home tomorrow. Rumors that all remote employees will have to return to the office at least two days a week starting next month. We’ll see how hard my coworkers resist.

Man I’ve been burning the gas this week. Since last Saturday I’ve taken four trips downtown plus last night’s excursion up north of Cumming.

Reading Christopher Moore’s irreverent 2002 bestseller “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” speculating about Jesus’ early teenage years. Entertaining, but not sure I recommend it. In this fictional novel Jesus and his pal Levi journey east to find the third wise man, in order for Jesus to learn more about if and how to be the Messiah – while Levi concerns himself with more earthly pleasures befitting a wayward teenage male. Supposedly Jesus received instruction and achieved enlightenment in a Buddhist monastery. The wise man teaches young Jesus the “Three Jewels of the Dao”:

(1) Compassion: the ability and willingness to empathize with the suffering of others, leading to courage.

(2) Moderation: avoiding overindulgence and excess, leading to generosity.

(3) Humility leads to leadership, quoting Jesus’ words “the last shall be first”. Still “The Dao” takes these Christian principles even further than the Bible does, suggesting that all things are “one” and “connected”.

https://sites.google.com/site/jdquirk/articles/three-taoist-jewels

ANDRES GALARRAGA  [SABR Bio] was the first player after Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to lead his league in all three legs of the batter’s Triple Crown. In 1993, the Big Cat led the majors with a .370 BA. In 1996, he led the majors in RBI with 150 and led the NL in HR with 47. He also led the NL in RBI in 1997 with 140. He was the first person to collect 30 RBI in the month of April. In the shortened season of 1994, 30 of his 85 RBI were in the books before 01-May. He was the first player to collect at least 150 RBI in the season he also struck out at least 150 times. In 1996 The Big Cat had 150 RBI and K’ed 157 times. Sammy Sosa did it twice after that.

Denison: US intelligence officials testified before Congress that Putin is likely to escalate the conflict in Ukraine with no concern for civilian casualties, viewing his invasion as a “war he cannot afford to lose” as he sees democracy as impeding his vision for Russia. America’s founders clearly linked freedom with morality, and morality with religion. The future of our cultural freedom depends on us embracing our spiritual freedom in Christ (Gal 5:1 and John 8:31–32). With American society more opposed to Christian truth and morality than ever before, this fact is more crucial than ever.

The more secular our democracy becomes, the weaker our democracy becomes. Princeton scholar Allen C. Guelzo, in reviewing political scientist Jan-Werner Müller’s book Democracy Rules, cites Müller’s argument: “democracy has a deep philosophical affinity with relativism.” Our democracy rests on the two pillars of freedom and equality. As a result we make decisions based on popular voting, not objective truths, and trust that a free media will hold leaders and institutions accountable.

But what happens when fewer participate in our democracy? (Williamson notes Biden was elected by only 24.6% of Americans). What happens when the Americans who do vote are increasingly uninformed about the issues? What happens when the people and the media they trust increasingly insist on tolerance over truth, and seek personal and partisan advancement over the common good? Plato warned that democracy is inherently flawed: freedom is supreme, but when laws are not obeyed then chaos results. To restore order the people vote a tyrant into power and democracy ends. Is this our future?

https://www.denisonforum.org/daily-article/how-a-young-christian-killed-in-ukraine-still-speaks-to-our-future/

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