November 2025 – The Laughing Wolf

Belated Veteran’s Day

While I am not a veteran, I respect and honor all those who have served in uniform over the years. It has been my honor to have been a small part of the parade in NYC a couple of times, and to head up some events at the NASDAQ on Veteran’s Day. I’ve even marched in or helped out a time or two with the Indianapolis parade.

I’m blessed to have met a number of regular readers from here and from Blackfive over the years, and I salute you all. And, per my usual posts there and here, Veteran’s Day is the right day to thank for service and to honor the living (Memorial Day is for those who gave all).

Yesterday was very different from years past. Instead of being involved in events (and raising a glass with real Vets), I spent it going through years of things getting ready for my yard/pre-estate sale this weekend. I was actually surprised at how many assault packs I have, and will be selling them all along with a tactical briefcase and other odds and ends. Lots of clothing and even some artwork. There are some antique tools, a modern drill press, and a grinder/motor stand that is a bit unusual: it was made from scrap at an aerospace machine shop. It is a bit rugged, shall we say. I’ve even decided to sell a few mementos given me over the years. I have no children to give them too, and would rather see them off to a good home while I can rather than risk them hitting the garbage can once I’m gone.

Today I hope to hit the storage unit one last time before spending the afternoon and evening at the Church. I have a meeting with a nun who knows a great deal about liturgics who may be willing to help me as I learn about the same, then Vespers and a class. Also, borrowing two folding tables from the Church for the yard sale. Tomorrow will be spent on final pricing and preparation. Friday morning I roll things out and the adventure begins. If you are in or near Indy and interested, drop me a line and I will give you the addy.

Finally, don’t limit your appreciation of Vets to Veteran’s Day. All this week is a good time to buy a meal on the QT, buy a drink for them, or do other things to say thanks. For some, simply sitting and listening to them is the best and nicest thing you can do, especially our older Veterans.

Getting hit by lightning is not fun! If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, and to start a truly new life, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. If you want to know some of what it is going for, read here. There is also the Amazon Wish List in the Bard’s Jar. It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

Thoughts On A Theological Smugging, Part II

Last week, in this post, I started laying out the foundation of a few thoughts on the early Church and why traditional Churches reverence the Theotokos. Now, as I said then I’m not a theologian nor do I present this in any way, shape, or form as definitive or incisive. To quote: “…rather, it is an opportunity to lay out for your edification and my clarification some points about early Christianity and traditional faiths and how they differ from non-traditional Christianity. Given how many people there are out there today for whom history begins and ends with their own lifetime, it is good to review real history and how a number of things developed within it.”

In a very short recap, the early Christian Church was based on oral tradition, not written. This actually continued up well past 1,000 AD and on some levels continued well into the 1800s with the memorization of verses, songs, and other traditional elements of worship.

For an example of the difference between a written focus and and oral focus, look to the difference between the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Mark. The former was written by a very literate and well-educated man (who actually met with the Theotokos in gathering information for his work) who, while familiar with the oral tradition, was also brought up in and on the written word. As a result, the Gospel of Luke is the most literary of the Gospels included in the New Testament. The latter is built on a clearly oral tradition using both repetition and kai parataxis (the use of “and” to link elements together). This makes it easier to memorize and to chant/sing.

Now, oral tradition does not entirely rule out the use of the written word. “Cheat Sheets” probably were developed about the time of the first written language. Fragments of such exist from early history, and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers not only fill volumes, but there is a wealth of those fragments out there. Often missing context or the information scientists and theologians would give portions of their anatomies for, but they do exist. Keep this in mind, it is on the quiz later.

Just as the New Testament did not come into existence (as we know it) for several hundred years, a unified liturgy for the Church took even longer in many respects. At first, there was no set service and a ‘day of worship’ could mean all day and into the night. Some services were so long that food and drink were provided during breaks in the service. A number of traditional Churches will echo and honor this tradition during Pascha (Easter for you heathens out there *smile*) with nuts and dates, along with a small bit of wine, being offered to participants of one particular service.

Keep in mind that I am, in many respects, just starting to study the history of the liturgy, so this is likely to be a bit sparse and jump around a bit. I would say it was noted early on, even by the Disciples and first Apostles, that it would be nice to have a consistent liturgy. It would help ensure that the right things were said and done, guard against heresy, and make services a bit more timely and manageable.

Complete aside: one of the more interesting things about the early services was that at first, confession was done in public and round-robin. X stood up and confessed their sins before all, sat down, and then next in line/row/whatever Y did the same. While this does provide a strong incentive for one to change one’s ways (so as to avoid embarrassment and such), it does have a tendency (given human psychology) towards incomplete confessions. It also tends to cause a good deal of strife, especially if X stands up and admits an affair with W’s wife. Which is why the Church moved with surprising rapidity (change being frowned upon then and now in traditional venues) to having the priests hear confessions on behalf of the congregation. It’s why in Orthodox Churches it is done at a designated space (often to one side) that is technically in public but offers some degree of privacy to the participants. The current Roman Catholic confessional came, I am told, from the Irish. Keep in mind that while confessions need to be complete, you also don’t want or need to provide such a level of detail that you could lead your priest into sin. Maybe a topic for another day.

Now, back to the topic at hand. One of the first people that we know worked on developing a unified liturgy (worship service) for the Church was no less than James, the half-brother of Christ (more on that later in the series). While he got a good bit done, his martyrdom probably prevented him from doing as much on it as he would have liked.

Not an aside, it is worth noting that James was also known as “James the Just” for several reasons, including references to his ensuring that Mary and Jesus got their just portion of the estate when Joseph entered repose. Again, not in the Gospels, but in Church tradition and some of the writings I’ve mentioned. There is more to come on James and perhaps a few others. Especially since the man who took his work and created the basic service still in use today in Orthodox (and other) churches, St. John Chrysostom, is also noted in Marian issues. I also need to mention St. Basil the Great, as the liturgy he developed is still used on special feast days within the Church and does, in my opinion, tie into the topic. For some of the structure of the liturgy, along with that of a type of hymn/prayer, are things we need to consider in the upcoming posts.

As a final little bit for today, I also want to call out the Greek word for woman. In particular, I am referring to the word presented as γύναι or Γύναι which has the very literal and limited translation as “woman” (gynai, root of gynecology, etc.). It is the non-extremely literal translation I want to get into later, as the use of the particular word in question sheds some interesting lights on scripture and it’s interpretation as it is only used about three times in the entire Bible. Yet one more reason I think trying to interpret scripture entirely on your own and in isolation from everything else is far more an idiocy than a heresy (as discussed last week).

I had hoped to get into a bit more today, but this is a good place to finish some of the foundation for future discussion. There is more to come, and while some may not be definitive, remember that Faith is built on Divinity, not the lack of definity (no, not going to apologize for the word play).

Posts In This Series:

Thoughts On A Theological Smugging

Thoughts On A Theological Smugging, Part II

Jared Issacman: YES!

I am beyond happy that Trump has re-nominated Jared Issacman to lead NASA. It is well beyond time, I don’t think his original nomination should have been pulled in the first place, and the fact that so many in the space-industrial complex are unhappy fills me with great joy.

If you haven’t worked there, it is almost impossible to describe the mess that is NASA. It went from “Can-Do!” to “Can’t Do” with increasing layers of risk-averse management in an amazingly short time. Almost any hint of failure, or the possibility of failure, would get good ideas and programs cancelled. Think I’ve already told the story of the Tethered Satellite System, but it is a classic example of zero-sum safety run amok (the loss of Challenger being different but resulting in the loss of life).

NASA has strayed so far from it’s official and core mission it’s not funny. It’s one reason I’m glad to know that there is already some form of “Athena” (and love the leak as they leaked a Canary Trap). NASA should not be in the launch business (never should have gotten this far), nor should it be the single-route into space on any level.

Issacman is the single best shot we have for saving NASA from itself and those growing rich off it’s indulgences. It needs “Athena” in a big way, as that is the way to ensuring the future of humanity, and that humanity has a future. One can only hope that for once, Congress will move quickly and decisively to get him into position. It can’t happen soon enough.

Also, if he happens to read this, I hope he will move on the necessary research to ensure humanity can reproduce in microgravity and, to quote Bugs Bunny, GET US OUT OF HERE!

Yard Sale

Sorry for the lite posting, but if the weather allows I’m going to have a small yard sale Friday and Saturday. Am thinking I may sell my Wilton drill press and a few other things, along with clothing, bags, rucks, and other items I can’t use anymore.

The goal is to eventually sell off everything but my books, cooking gear, a few sentimental items, and minimal furniture. Want to be able to move light and fast at need, particularly as a return to education may be in my future. Now to hope that the weather will cooperate. Especially as I want to make another trip to the storage unit tomorrow.

Another Old Memory

Again, X strikes again. In response to a post on X, I remembered the time a group of unsuspecting passengers participated in a mock carrier landing with a 747.

My go-to airline used to be Delta, and the second time I worked for NASA I usually made Platinum-level frequent flyer by March of each year. Domestically, Delta at the time was very good. Other than some issues with things being stolen out of luggage (and oddly enough one time returned), things went fairly well.

Internationally however, I had a huge issue with the fact that one of their major partners was Air Chance, aka Air France. There was a chance the flight would not be cancelled, there was a chance it would take off on time, there was a chance it would arrive on time, and you get the picture. It was also a given that Air Chance would lie to your face about any number of things.

I will give them credit for one thing: they knew they were lying and while they didn’t really care, they had a unique way of dealing with the customer service issues. After having been lied to about arriving on time; about having my connecting flight delayed for us on it; and, about a few other things, I and others were put aboard a later flight to the same destination. Pretty much the entire plane was filled with passengers who had been lied to and delayed. The flight crew came down the aisle with carts full of wine and booze. Pick your bottle, shut up, and be quiet we are not going to deal with it. By the time we landed, we may have been still PO’d but we didn’t care. Amazing what a bottle of good cognac will do to help you cope with the unchangeable. I will say that from then on I told the transportation people to not put me on anything Air Chance and have avoided them like the plague.

Which brings me to the story seen above. The flight was supposed to be Delta, but was (of course) Air Chance. We did the trans-Atlantic bit, came into land, and for some odd reason the pilot decided to re-enact a carrier landing. Now, to be fair, I’m not sure that’s accurate as there are several other possible reasons he decided to land on the overrun and stop the plane before the first cross taxiway. Not sure what those could have been (chemically induced perhaps?) but there may have been a reason of which I am not aware.

Had it been a real carrier, I’m pretty sure we would have hooked the first wire. Seriously, I think we hit on the overrun. We hit hard and we braked hard. Not entirely joking that we could have stopped on a carrier deck. To say the plane made odd noises is an understatement. We stopped. We stayed stopped for about ten minutes at a very busy airport.

When we moved, the plane made VERY odd noises and parts of the plane did not appear to move in unison. During our sitting phase, I had already made a mental bet we would have to be towed in. Still amazed we were not. As it is, with a mechanical cacophony, we eventually made it to international arrivals. I heard later that the plane was then towed (with no passengers or other witnesses around) to maintenance.

That was almost as much fun as the time we passed the abort point on takeoff and were still on the ground. Different flight, but another time I thought we were going to make the news in a bad way… Remind me and I will tell that tale one day.

Odd Memory Of The Past

Over on X, this post sparked a memory that still makes me laugh. Not a nice laugh, and by many lights I should be ashamed of it. Yet, I still laugh. To quote from what I posted on X:

“Okay, this reminds me of a story from my past. Courtesy of a relative, I used to do some odd jobs for a local bank, which was part of a much larger bank (eventually). Which led to some odd things needing to be done.

One odd thing was hauling off a few tons of confidential records to a local landfill, where a bulldozer may have made a few passes and neutral steers over the many many garbage bags full of files (to let water and such into them before they were covered) as I watched.

Another was cleaning out a storage room (technically an old vault) at a major branch. Which led to me being given an old vault gate that I eventually sold for scrap. Along with a whole bunch of old medical gear from a doctor’s office. Suspect the elegant wood and glass blood pressure set-up would be classified as hazmat today (mercury spilled into the wood).

It was around that time that someone tried to rob said branch. The worthy in question came in, got a bag of money, and stuffed it down his pants as he ran out the door. About the time he rounded the corner of the building, there was a muffled explosion and a high-pitched scream.

The bank alerted the police, who alerted local hospitals; but, the thief never came in for treatment. The bank did not recover the money (not a huge amount by any means), but they unofficially considered it even as there was reason to believe that the thief had lost most or all of the physical attributes of manhood.

The explosive part of a dye bomb isn’t large, but it is highly exothermal. What didn’t get blown off was likely to have been severely burned, and without proper treatment…

While no official statement was ever made, word did get around. For years afterwards, that was one of the safest branches around. So, for all those contemplating mayhem, remember: it doesn’t take @DollyParton with a gun to turn a rooster into a hen.”

Kapustnica

This last Sunday, we celebrated the feast day of the saint for whom our Church is named: Joy of All Who Sorrow. This is, of course, the Theotokos, known to many in the West as Mary the Mother of God. Being a feast day and not during a fasting period, it means there was a lot of good food at our “coffee” after the service.

While it is called a coffee (and there is some excellent coffee to be had as one of our members has a relative who owns a coffee roasting business), it usually is something of meal. That is because we generally fast from all food and drink (even water) starting no later than midnight Saturday night before partaking of the Eucharist. Some even do longer periods. Technically I’m exempt because of health and now age, but other than enough water to go with the medicines and such I have to take (and I take them about 0300 so that at least six hours have passed before service begins) I do my best to keep the fast.

Since becoming a Chanter, I haven’t been able to cook or do as much with food as I would like to do. There were also some issues that came up with kitchen access where I rent, but those are getting resolved (and I’m developing alternatives). For this day, however, I really wanted to do something nice. So, I had seen a recipe for an Eastern European soup that sounded good, and would be a good (close enough) ethnic fit. That soup is called Kapustnica.

The picture above really doesn’t do it justice, especially since my version really was more a stew than a soup. It is technically a sauerkraut soup; but, reality is that is a bunch of sausage and smoked meats cooked with some sauerkraut, mushrooms, and onions. With good sauerkraut, it is also extremely tasty. Here’s what I did:

To start, I diced a huge white onion medium fine (not coarse, not fine, in between), and sliced three large cloves of garlic as thin as I could. The onion, garlic, and three fresh bay leaves (use dried if you can’t get fresh) then were cooked/sauteed until tender (clear) in a mixture of lard and bacon drippings (a few T, didn’t really measure it). Three tablespoons of sweet smoked paprika were then added and the mixture cooked until the paprika turns dark and roasted.

As I was cooking the onion, I prepared my crockpot. Into the bottom I put the sauerkraut (I used a jar of Polish sauerkraut with some carrot included, mild and good) and a bag of dried mushrooms that I had rehydrated using white wine for a couple of days before use. In this case, I used a white wine from Romania as it both fit the spirit of the recipe and the deli where I got the meats and sauerkraut had it at a decent price. My own take is that a slightly sweet, not dry wine, is best. This one really worked well.

The onion/garlic mixture then went on top of the mushrooms and kraut. On top of that, I chopped up a couple of different types of Eastern European sausage (I picked two that looked good from the meat case), pretty much a whole smoked pork loin, and a small chunk of smoked cured beef. The beef is the only thing I would do differently, as the cure made it hard and it still wasn’t quite tender even after cooking. To be honest, at the meat case, I had just pointed and said: one of those, one of those, one of those, one of those… I went with what looked good.

Since I had drained the kraut (not much draining was needed to be honest), I put in some bone broth and some vegetable broth as liquid to get the cooking underway. I didn’t fill to the top as I had to transport the crockpot to Church, and a full pot will spill. Kept it roughly a couple of inches from the top, but was more than enough to cook the mixture.

It did cook faster than I expected, even on low in the crockpot. Figure about four hours as good. I ended up cutting it off a bit after seven when I went to bed, and around midnight it had finally cooled enough to go into the refrigerator. Once I had it at the Church, I plugged it back in, set it to low, added the water (and took the picture) and then let it go. Some wonderful people got it to the serving table for me, and I did make it to the kitchen in time to get the sour cream out of the refrigerator so people could add a dollop to top the bowls of soup if they wanted.

I will note that it is a rich soup/stew, and adding the sour cream is tasty but may be gilding the lily a bit. It was a hit, and I have very little cleaning to do of the crockpot. I also picked up a box of Russian chocolates to go with the other sweets. Someone did some meatballs, there was homemade fried chicken, and someone did some very nice cabbage rolls as well. Lots of other food, but tried to stay mostly keto.

So, Kapustnica is fairly quick and easy to do (couple of hours on the stove top in a big pot), and is also quite tasty and filling. If you don’t have a good Eastern European deli nearby, use some good smoked sausage (without corn syrup, Meijer brand here is good for that) and whatever other smoked meat you can find nearby. Or, heck, smoke some of your own on the grill or in a smoker and use that. I will simply say that the better the kraut, the better the soup/stew. Don’t have dried mushrooms, use fresh. Thing is, have fun and enjoy.

Random Thoughts This Monday

Tomorrow is an election day in much of the country, and my fond hope is that the yoke of the godless authority gets even further tossed aside. Not betting on it, as I think the people in two areas are about to vote to get it harder and more violently than ever before. Nor do I think what is happening was organic; rather, a massive astroturf that if we are lucky is the last gasp of a major front of the godless authority. Time will tell.

I’ve also been struck this morning by how some people have changed over the years. Sadly, not for the better. Two cases in particular came up this morning.

An early morning text conversation with a friend brought to mind a clinical therapist I knew of years back who I thought might be a good resource for another mutual friend going through a rough time. So, I looked them up to see if they were still in practice. I literally did not recognize them as they have completely altered their physical appearance from the last time I saw them. They have also gone from ‘I’m not Catholic but am Christian and will offer treatment according to Catholic beliefs to help someone’ to ‘trans-queer supporter’ all the way! They apparently are only accepting any new patient (limited number) from that community, and I won’t be recommending them to anyone. Sad.

Also came across some references to someone who used to be a huge “influencer” and figure in domestic political punditry. They started a number of media companies that were bought up and some are still going in fact. I had effectively cut ties with them years ago about the time of my first embed to Iraq, finding them to be a touch strange and odd. If some of what I came across today is true, strange and odd may well be a considerable understatement. Part of me wants to dig in and research; but, frankly, neither they nor any controversy around them are worth that much effort. As with the LCSW above, the best that can be offered up is prayer.

On a more positive note, was and am glad to see a number of people making positive changes in their lives, in some cases to the point of completely turning their lives around. I’ve offered up some prayers for them too as they do one of the hardest and most rewarding things in life.

Feeling sort of lazy today, as the last few days have been busy, to be polite. Lots of time at Church, and having the car gifted to me has been a true godsend in terms of getting there and running errands related to the Church. This week should be a little more laid back, though I need to get to the storage unit as — weather permitting — I’m thinking of having a yard sale Saturday to start selling off a number of things. This time, lots of packs, rucks, and related along with clothing and some electronics. My goal is to eventually sell off pretty much everything but my books, cooking gear, and some holiday/sentimental items. Proceeds will go towards the pilgrimage, possible future pilgrimages, possible religious education, and covering some other expenses.

More soon.