Reviewing them All

Twins 20-17  Braves 26-12

Last night Nate's Boy Scout Troup, had its Court of Honor. Nate received his Tenderfoot Badge and First Aid Merit Badge. Nate is a year behind his normal age group, because he sat out of Cub Scouts during the Webelos 2nd year with his troup in Minneapolis.  This actually worked out just fine for him, as this troup put him in a patrol with a bunch of 6th graders. There is only one other 7th grader, who is also in his patrol. If he'd not sat out 2nd year Webelos, he would have been put in a patrol with the 8th graders and so would have been the youngest in his patrol.  I kind of think Nate wouldn't do "youngest" very well.

I'm almost done reading Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.  The absolute only regret I have about reading this book is now it will not be a good candidate to listen to on tape on the way back to Minnesota, since I've read it now. I really think Bob would have enjoyed it. 

"Devil" is, of course, about the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.  The book centers around two men...the architect who headed the planning commission for the fair, and the serial-killer-doctor who built his own hotel and took only young, impressionable women as boarders.  His hotel was complete with a dissection table, gas chamber and 3,000 degree crematorium. 

A fascinating book...you do have to plow through a lot of semi-dull planning the fair kind of stuff. But once the fair opens, the book rips right along. And you really learn quite a bit about the new stuff that was introduced during the fair, like spray paint, etc.

And now a movie review.  I don't care who you are...how old or young...you have got to see the movie Holes. Based on a Newberry award-winning book, this story is about a youth prison camp where the inmates have to dig a 5 foot deep, 5 foot diameter hole each day in search of buried treasure. This is live action, not animated.  Sigourney Weaver plays the prison warden. We don't see a lot of her, but JON VOIGHT is absolutely hilarious as the head prison guard.  He plays a fantastic Texas "Good Ole Boy". 

And finally, how about a CD review?  As most of you know, we get a lot of free CDs through Bob's job.  They are usually advance copies of CDs that publicists send him in hopes he will ask the artist to write an article or something. 

Sometimes I don't see the CDs for a while. He might bring one home and give it straight to the boys, or he might keep it in his car, etc.  So yesterday I was rooting around in the car for a new CD to listen to and found Chris Rice's new CD "Run the Earth Watch the Sky".  Good one!  Especially the 4th cut, entitled "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)".  This song is about the Christian journey, from pre-conversion, through conversion, through learning times, through hard times, to death.  The chorus is:

"Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus and live".

But through each step(each verse) of the journey, he changes the chorus to "Sing to Jesus", "Fall on Jesus", "Cry to Jesus", "Dance for Jesus", "Fly to Jesus".  Excellent song, excellent CD.

That's it! Time to work!