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July 28th, 1992, fell on a Tuesday. Day 210 of 1992. Decade: 1990s.
27 years, 10 months and 10 days have passed since July 28th, 1992.
Songs that were on top of the music singles charts in the USA and the United Kingdom on July 28th, 1992:
What movie was on top of the box office?
Trending news stories and fads that were prevalent throughout this time period. These are news stories and events that would have been in the media on July 28th, 1992.
Early 1990s fashion saw a continuation of the 1980s. Popular outfits included clothes such as coloured tights, denim overalls, black leather jackets with shoulder pads, neon coloured tops, flannel shirts, plaid skirts and ripped jeans.
"Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton would go on to win a Grammy for 1992's Song of the Year.
Bill Clinton was named as the Time Person of the Year in 1992.
"Unforgiven" won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1992.
Movies released in 1992 included Aladdin, The Bodyguard, Home Alone 2, Lethal Weapon 3, Batman Returns, A Few Good Men, Sister Act, Wayne's World, Alien 3, Bram Stoker's Dracula, White Men Can't Jump and The Mighty Ducks.
Popular music artists in 1992 included Kris Kross, Vanessa Williams, U2, Boyz II Men, Whitney Houston, Madonna, The Black Crowes and Sir Mix-a-Lot.
During this time, The Bosnian War was raging on in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Basic facts and information about this date:
Notable events that occurred around July 28th, 1992:
Zodiac & Birthstone information:
TV shows that you might have been watching around this time.
Children's and Teen TV shows that would have been airing on this date in 1992.
"Barney & Friends" - "The Adventures of Tintin" - "Home Improvement" - "Darkwing Duck" - "Taz-Mania" - "Doug" - "Rugrats" - "The Ren & Stimpy Show" - "Dinosaurs" - "Clarissa Explains It All" - "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" - "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" - "Beverly Hills, 90210" - "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" - "Rosie and Jim" - "Blossom" - "The Simpsons" - "Doogie Howser, M.D." - "Saved by the Bell" - "Noozles" - "Roseanne" - "Garfield and Friends" - "Count Duckula" - "The Wonder Years" - "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" - "Fireman Sam" - "Full House" - "Adventures of the Little Koala" - "Married... with Children" - "Pingu" - "Thomas the Tank Engine" - "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"
Toys and games that would have been popular on this date in 1992:
Celebrities and historical figures that were born on the 28th of July:
Weather information for July 28th, 1992:
Who was the US President on this particular date?
Interesting facts about conception dates.
Popular video games that you might have been playing around this time.
Events that have occurred on the 28th of July:
Enter your date of birth below to find out how old you were on July 28th, 1992.
Looking for some nostalgia? Here are some Youtube videos relating to July 28th, 1992. Please note that videos are automatically selected by Youtube and that results may vary! Click on the "Load Next Video" button to view the next video in the search playlist. In many cases, you'll find episodes of old TV shows, documentaries, music videos and soap dramas.
Here are some fun statistics about July 28th, 1992.
A list of random dates that you might be interested in:


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More Brazilian States Opt for Smoke-Free EnvironmentsTuesday, September 29th, 2009
The push for smoke-free environments continues to march across Brazilian states — how long before federal legislators decide to extend such protections nationwide?
Today the governors of the southern state of Paraná (PR) and the western state of Amazonas (AM) signed new tobacco control laws, joining Ceará (CE), Rio de Janeiro (RJ) and São Paulo (SP) […]
A Smokeless Rio?Monday, August 17th, 2009
If you've ever been to Rio de Janeiro (RJ), you know that it's not exactly a nonsmoker's paradise. Despite all the health warnings and studies issued over the years, quite a bit of smoking still occurs in public places within the state.
Not for much longer.
Or at least that's the stated legislative intent of the measure […]

subset: commoncrawl


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In our regular Sunday feature, FIFA.com presents you with some of the biggest names in football who will be celebrating their birthdays over the coming week.
23. Vicente Del Bosque (62) cemented his reputation as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game by first guiding Spain to a maiden FIFA World Cup™ triumph at South Africa 2010, and then following that up with an historic victory at UEFA EURO 2012. As a Real Madrid player, he won five league titles and four national cups, and was part of La Roja's squad for EURO 1980. Four years later, the Spaniard hung up his boots and embarked on a remarkable coaching career. After starting off with Real Madrid's reserve side, he took command of the senior team, securing two Liga championships, the Spanish Super Cup, two UEFA Champions League titles, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. A brief period in charge of Besiktas and a subsequent three-year sabbatical from football ensued, before Del Bosque was appointed coach of the Spanish national side in 2008.
24. Marcelo Salas (38) is a Chilean football legend, having propelled his nation to France 1998, their first appearance at FIFA's flagship competition for 16 years. His four goals in as many games at the tournament helped the South Americans reach the knockout stages. The explosive forward also took part in the Copa America and three FIFA World Cup™ qualifying campaigns. Salas started his career with Universidad de Chile, where he earned two league winners' medals, before moving to Argentinian giants River Plate, with whom he won three league championships and the Supercopa Sudamericana. He was also named Player of the Year in Argentina as well as in South America in 1997. His success led to a transfer to Lazio, where he collected a host of honours, including an Italian League and Cup double, two Italian Super Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and a UEFA Super Cup. The Chilean striker claimed two further Serie A titles and another Italian Super Cup during a subsequent spell with Juventus, prior to bringing his career to a close with second stints at River Plate and Universidad de Chile.
25. Nabil Maaloul (50) is a prominent Tunisian coach and former player. He participated in the Olympic Football Tournament at Seoul 1988 with the Eagles of Carthage, but an injury prevented him from appearing at the 1994 CAF Africa Cup of Nations. The midfield man enjoyed two separate spells with Esperance in his homeland over eleven seasons, during which time the team obtained five national championships and two Tunisian Cups. He also turned out for Hannover, Saudi Arabian outfit Al Ahli, and Tunisian side CA Bizertin, with whom he attained the league title and the CAF Cup Winners' Cup. After retiring from the game, he tried his hand at coaching, initially overseeing matters at Olympique du Kef before becoming Roger Lemerre's right-hand man in the Tunisian national set-up, and helping the Frenchman to mastermind a memorable victory at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations. Maaloul then returned to club football, taking sole charge at Club Africain and CA Bizertin. Following a hiatus in which he worked as a television commentator, he was handed the reins of the team closest to his heart, Esperance. Drawing on his years of experience, the Tunisian led the capital club to three league crowns, including a league, cup and CAF Champions League treble in 2011. In addition, the latter triumph qualified the club for their first-ever appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, a competition for which they were close to securing a second successive qualification, until defeat by Egyptian heavyweights Al-Ahly in the recent 2012 Champions League final put paid to those aspirations.
26. Hugo Lloris (26) has established himself as his country's first-choice goalkeeper, playing at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa and EURO 2012 as France No1. Named captain of Les Bleus, he is currently involved in a closely contested qualifying campaign for Brazil 2014. A product of Nice's youth academy, Lloris made his name with the coastal club's senior side, before going on to join Lyon, where he lifted the Coupe de France and the Trophee des champions. At the beginning of this current season, the Frenchman made the move to Tottenham Hotspur.
27. Melissa Tancredi (31) is unlikely to forget 2012 in a hurry, having won a bronze medal with Canada at the Olympic Women's Football Tournament in London. In what was her second appearance at the prestigious event, she managed to find the back of the net on four occasions. The powerful striker has also competed at the last two FIFA Women's World Cup™ tournaments. At club level, Tancredi pulled on the jerseys of several American teams, including Detroit Jaguars, Atlanta Silverbacks and Saint Louis Athletica. After a season with Vancouver Whitecaps, she moved to Sweden to play for Pitea, before joining Dalsjofors earlier this year.
28. Sergi (41) proved, during an impressive career, that the role of full-back did not have to be limited to stopping opposition attacks. The tireless left-sided defender represented Spain at two FIFA World Cups™, at USA 1994 and France 1998, as well as at EURO 1996 and EURO 2000, which was his last major international competition. His promotion from Barcelona's reserve side to the senior XI saw him emerge victorious in three Liga campaigns, two Spanish Cups, two Spanish Super Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and a UEFA Super Cup. Sergi then spent three terms at Atletico Madrid, before announcing his retirement. A few months ago, he was installed at the helm of Spanish outfit Recreativo Huelva.
29. Enrico Chiesa (42) will be remembered by Italian football fans for his innate sense of timing and his clinical finishing, as well as for his contributions to Italy's EURO 1996 and France 1998 campaigns. The prolific striker rose to prominence at Sampdoria, and also played for big-name clubs such as Fiorentina and Lazio. Winner of the Italian Footballer of the Year award in 1996, Chiesa held aloft the UEFA Cup – a competition in which he finished top scorer – with Parma in 1999.


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Quote of the Day
"In our Lord's intercession for those who crucified Him we find one more proof of Christ's infinite love for sinners."
~J.C. Ryle (from "forgiving those who killed him?")
Today's Answer
Did Jesus Decend into Hell?
Randy Alcorn
We know from Jesus' statement to the thief that when one dies they enter the presence of God immediately. Luke 23:42 states, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." This statement also tells us that Jesus went to His Father upon death.
Beyond this we know very little about where Jesus was for three days. One must be careful not to read too much detail into a parable or story....
The passage of Scripture most referred to by those holding to the hell theory is 1 Peter 3:18. "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." The words they point to are "in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison." Supposedly, Jesus descended to hell and preached to lost souls. But why? Nowhere in the bible is there any statement that a lost soul who has died can have a second chance. Did Jesus go to hell just to torment the lost souls more? There is a more reasonable interpretation of this passage.
Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but was made alive by the Spirit. The word "made alive" is passive, meaning that someone other than Jesus made Him alive. Either Jesus was made alive by the Spirit, or in His spirit. Either way the Spirit must have been involved. Then the passage continues by telling us who these souls in prison are, they are those who did not listen to Noah (who was preaching repentance in the Spirit's power to the world at the direction of God). Thus, the same Spirit who raised Jesus as a testimony "in order that He might bring us to God" also had spoken in Noah's day to those souls now in prison; and they are in prison because they did not listen at the time of the preaching. In fact, only eight people listened and were saved—"brought safely through the water." The idea of "prison" is figurative. The Bible does indicate that lost souls are removed and restrained inLuke 16:26: "And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us."
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus went to hell during the three days. Actually, very little is said about what went on. The normal assumption is that Jesus' fleshly body remained in the tomb, just as ours will remain in the grave. He went to the presence of the Father, and three days later the Spirit resurrected His body (in the same way that our bodies will be resurrected—the first-born from the dead in Colossians 1:18). The difference is that God did not allow Jesus' body to decay....
Taken from "what happened after jesus died?" by Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries, 39085 Pioneer Blvd., Suite 206, Sandy, OR 97055, 503-668-5200, www.epm.org
Today's Video
how can god die?
Answered by Doug Bookman
Do you have questions about the life, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Get real answers at Jesus.org.


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The Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson's full-service politics magazine, just celebrated three years in business. The Washington Free Beacon, founded by comrades and scions from The Weekly Standard, just turned one. Thanks to them, two administration allies—Sen. Bob Menendez and former Sen. Chuck Hagel—have added that terrifying Washington word, embattled, to their business cards.*
Matthew Continetti, the editor of the Free Beacon, said so in his weekly column for the site. Politico's media reporter, Dylan Byers, had heaped scorn on the Free Beacon for dogging the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for 990 tax forms and a 2008 tape of a Chuck Hagel speech. The tape, once discovered, was a snoozer. But the Free Beacon's reporting had pulled it loose, along with the 990s. And the Free Beacon and the Daily Caller had been asking questions about Menendez's Bill-and-Ted relationship with Salomon Melgen, a wealthy eye doctor who traded trips to the Dominican Republic for a little senatorial clout in his negotiations over a lucrative port deal.
"When Chuck Hagel withdraws his nomination," wrote Continetti, "and Bob Menendez resigns his Senate seat, the usual suspects will bemoan the state of affairs that have allowed horrible conservatives to besmirch the reputations of such honorable and decent men. The usual suspects, of course, will have missed the real lesson: reporting works."
The national Republican Party is splintered, angry, and captivated by infighting. Fox News is putting up surprisingly weak ratings. But the conservative new media is having a great second term. Three sources—the Weekly Standard's blog, the Free Beacon, and Jennifer Rubin's Right Turn blog at the Washington Post—have outpaced the media in leaks and memos from Senate Republicans and revelations from old Hagel speeches.
I discovered that firsthand when I couldn't find a long Hagel quote cited in a Republican memo but absent in the book it was sourced to. In no time at all, the Free Beacon's industrious Adam Kredo produced the evidence—a long tape that the book's author hadn't used. The anti-Hagel universe is small, and despite what Continetti writes, it's not likely to get a withdrawal from a nominee with 60-odd commitments for a cloture vote.
But we're talking about a cloture vote, aren't we? It's also become public knowledge, from New Jersey Democratic dinners all the way up to Jay Leno, that Sen. Bob Menendez is being investigated "for allegedly soliciting Dominican prostitutes." In November, when the Daily Caller published that story, the rest of the media ignored it, and New Jersey politicos knew that a rumor that hadn't been confirmed by other news outlets had found purchase somewhere less reputable. "When it was that weird Daily Caller video," said Buzzfeed's Ruby Cramer, "it was whatever."
And no other outlet has confirmed it. The FBI raided Melgen's office, which kicked off a series of investigative stories on his financial ties to Menendez. Almost immediately, the prostitution allegation was conflated with the financial investigation. Other media, chasing the prostitution story, have totally failed to find the sources. The Washington Post, most hilariously, sent a reporter down to the alleged sex scene and got back a (well-crafted!) travel piece.
Menendez and Hagel tried to ignore this stuff, until they couldn't. Why couldn't they? Former Slatester Mickey Kaus coined and honed the term "undernews" to describe "stories bubbling up from the blogs and the tabs that don't meet MSM standards." Every time a gif is born, it becomes harder for the "mainstream media" to sift out what its readers know—and what its reporters know. In October 2012, when the Daily Caller ran its first Menendez story, political reporters stayed up and tweeted in anticipation of a damaging-looking story previewed on the Drudge Report. No matter how much Drudge gets wrong, whatever runs there surfaces in the "undernews." Only after they get an excuse, like the FBI cracking into Melgen's office, do reporters admit that they knew about this, and start lobbing questions.
It's all very entertaining for Matthew Boyle, who ran the first Menendez story at the Daily Caller and now reports for Breitbart.com. "How many times does this have to happen before the old media catches on?" he asks. "If this story broke in the New York Times, people in the old media would have covered it. If it was about a Republican they would have run it. There's a gutless factor in the media and a double standard when it comes to Democrats versus Republicans. They don't have any balls."
But it's not that simple. From 2004 to 2011, gay rights activist Mike Rogers ran BlogActive, a site that (among other things) "outed" Republicans who voted the wrong way. He got scoops, scaring Virginia Rep. Ed Schrock into retirement with tapes of his escort service calls, but the media didn't chase most of his stories. Oct. 17, 2006, weeks before the midterm demolition of the GOP, Rogers ran an item "call[ing] on Senator Larry Craig to end his years of hypocrisy by leveling with Idahoans about who he really is." Rogers claimed to have traveled from D.C. "to the Pacific Northwest to meet with men who say they have physical relations with the Senator."
Eight months later, Craig tapped his foot in the bathroom of a Minneapolis airport and got arrested for soliciting gay sex. All of a sudden the Post was calling Rogers the "most feared man in Washington," a man who cold-called congressional offices and asked, "Are you gay?" The media's standards kept them from pursuing a story.
Is that what's happened to Hagel and Menendez? Again, it's not as clear as Continetti makes it sound. "Our reporting on Hagel hasn't come up empty," he writes. "Not one bit." That blows right past a Free Beacon story from December about how Hagel "may no longer be President Obama's favored pick to run the Defense Department" and how the cowed administration was moving on. Some of the juiciest stories in conservative new media have speculated on what might be contained in the information Hagel (or Menendez) won't release. This sort of reporting-by-reduction probably peaked when Breitbart.com speculated on a possible donation to a Hagel group by "Friends of Hamas," a group that does not actually exist.
But this reporting has an occasional ally: Senate Republicans. In the Jan. 31 Hagel hearing, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe cited a slam on the nominee that came from Jennifer Rubin's reported blog. In his own questions, which have quickly made him the media's least favorite Republican, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has asked Hagel to prove that he doesn't have unreported funding from foreign creeps. "It is at a minimum relevant to know," he said, "if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from Saudi Arabia, came directly from North Korea." The last best hope of beating Hagel is that in the next 11 days these sorts of questions and allegations will turn up something—a "bombshell," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham calls it—that sinks him.
On Thursday, as the cloture vote on Hagel narrowly failed, Free Beacon reporter Alana Goodman reported on a 2007 speech Hagel (then a senator and potential presidential candidate) gave at Rutgers. According to George Ajjan, a Hagel admirer, the nominee had said something about the State Department working as an adjunct of the Israeli Foreign Minister's office. It was a paraphrase, and no tape or transcript was available, but Goodman got Ajjan to confirm the gist.
Twenty-four hours later, Graham and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte sent an open letter to the nominee.
"Yesterday," they wrote, "the Washington Free Beacon reported that in a 2007 speech at Rutgers University regarding America's relationship with the Middle East you remarked that 'the State Department was becoming an adjunct of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.' Given the importance of U.S. policy towards the Middle East and the Secretary of Defense's direct role in implementing this policy, it is critical that we have a better understanding of your remarks before we vote on your confirmation."
News of this letter first broke in the Weekly Standard.
Correction, Feb. 17, 2013: This article originally misidentified Chuck Hagel as a Democrat. (Return to the corrected sentence.)


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If you have any problems with this product or any, please send us an email: firstname.lastname@example.com.
John, Xie,


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Wednesday, November 10
Thanksgiving Addictions, I Mean Traditions: Sweet and Spicy Rosemary Nuts
Ever since Jeff and I moved to Southern California seven years ago, my parents have flown from Rhode Island to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.
Each year about a week before they leave, Mom calls and asks,"Do you want us to bring anything? Bread from Buono's? What about some soppressata from Venda's?" After taking down our requests, she invariably asks me one question: "Is Jeff going to make those rosemary nuts this year?"
I make the turkey, the stuffing, the cranberry relish, the vegetables and all the desserts. But what do my parents want to know? If Jeff is making the rosemary nuts.
These Sweet and Spicy Rosemary Nuts have become such an integral part of our celebration that none of us can imagine Thanksgiving Day without them. Jeff makes them early in the morning, enticing us with the aromas of earthy rosemary and sweet honey. We traditionally serve them drinks before dinner. When there's about half a bowl left, we take turns, saying, "Put them away. I've had enough."
Then as the day goes on, each of us dips our hand into the bowl for another mouthful. Somehow, unbelievably, we think the other three don't notice. Then when we sit down to dinner, my mom looks at all the food on the table and says, "Oh, I'm so full. I ate too many of those rosemary nuts. Next year I'm not going to do it."
Then the next year she does. And we all follow suit.
Sweet and Spicy Rosemary Nuts
Serves 10-12
Printable recipe.
These rosemary nuts are sweet, spicy and salty, everything a snack food should be. They're quite versatile when it comes to drink pairings, though they taste extra sweet with a dirty martini and extra spicy with a full-bodied, malty beer.
6 cups unsalted mixed nuts, such as almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, and pistachios
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons sea salt
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, divided
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat a large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Place nuts in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a small pan over medium-high heat, add honey, brown sugar, cayenne, salt and 3 teaspoons rosemary. Heat until the sugar dissolves and the sauce is syrupy. Pour over the nuts and toss until evenly coated. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, turning once, or until nuts are golden brown. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn! Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining 1 teaspoon rosemary over nuts. Cool. Break into small clusters. Store in an air-tight container for up to one week. Though they'll never last that long.
You might also enjoy these addictive recipes:
Maple Walnut Popcorn recipe from Food Blogga
Ginger and Honey Roasted Almonds recipe from Purple Foodie
Crostini with Prosciutto, Goat Cheese, and Fig Jam recipe from The Italian Dish
21 comments:
- Cookin' Canuck said...
We make this same recipe (though ours doesn't have honey) and it is fantastic. This mixture also works really well on roasted chickpeas.
- November 10, 2010 at 9:18 AM
- Unknown said...
yum, sounds delish and I totally get the "addiction" thing!
- November 10, 2010 at 9:18 AM
- Jessica @ How Sweet said...
These would last about 60 seconds in my house.
- November 10, 2010 at 9:31 AM
- The Food Hunter said...
I love making these kinds of spiced up nuts and you're right they are so addicting
- November 10, 2010 at 9:31 AM
- Joanne said...
These look absolutely fantastic in every way. I see a bowl of these disappearing into my stomach this holiday season.
- November 10, 2010 at 11:48 AM
- Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...
As an old southern gal, I grew up eating roasted nuts such as these. Great recipe and I adore rosemary in it.
- November 10, 2010 at 1:36 PM
- Cara said...
totally bookmarking this one! What a nice twist on traditional candied or spiced nuts.
- November 10, 2010 at 2:06 PM
- Jersey Girl Cooks said...
I love these nuts. I make a recipe that I think is very similar from the Union Square Cafe.
- November 10, 2010 at 2:50 PM
- Susan from Food Blogga said...
ccanuck-My mom would love the chickpeas only. I'll have to try that.
susiebee-It's easy to! ;)
jessica- Hehe.
foodhunter-You just can't stop yourself.
joanne-Trust me. It happens quickly and easily.
sam-Oh, I'm sure you do. Nothing like Southern pecans and peanuts.
cara-I'm glad to hear it!
lisa-Aren't they great?
- November 10, 2010 at 4:50 PM
- Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary said...
Wow those look tasty. I smiled when I saw Buonos Bakery. I worked with Frank Buono (father of the owner) for many, many years. He would bring bread to our office every week. He passed away a few yrs ago. I miss him (and the bread).
- November 10, 2010 at 5:23 PM
- Courtney said...
Mmm, this sounds like an amazing snack, especially with rosemary! I'll have to try it out :)
- November 10, 2010 at 9:12 PM
- Shaheen {The Purple Foodie} said...
I love the sound of this! I just can't get enough of roasted nuts and I like to use the holiday season excuse to eat as much as I'd like!
- November 10, 2010 at 9:15 PM
- Courtney said...
Mmm, this sounds like an amazing snack, especially with rosemary! I'll have to try it out :)
- November 10, 2010 at 9:19 PM
- AllThingsYummy said...
I received your book today to review. It's so great. I'll be posting about it this weekend.
- November 10, 2010 at 9:50 PM
- cindy said...
ooooh, they sound wonderful...and my family has a thing about rosemary, (doesn't like it) so i could have them all to myself!
- November 11, 2010 at 9:30 AM
- homegrown countrygirl said...
I love this!! Especially the addition of rosemary! Would make fantastic gifts, too. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
- November 11, 2010 at 11:34 AM
- The Teacher Cooks said...
I loved your story and I am sure that I am going to enjoy these sweet and spicy nuts!
- November 11, 2010 at 1:44 PM
- Alanna Kellogg said...
This would make a great food gift for the holidays! I'm keen on nuts too, have several go-to recipes I've collected over the years, one for pecans, two for almonds -- but none for mixed nuts!
- November 11, 2010 at 4:20 PM
- Janae said...
This was a funny post! I look forward to trying this recipe, thanks.
- November 11, 2010 at 7:47 PM
- Julie said...
I made these for pre-Thanksgiving snacks and they were so amazingly addictive. We fought over the last ones, and I've already been ordered to bring them on Christmas. I'm thinking they would make a pretty gift for neighbors, teachers, etc.
Thanks for another great recipe, Susan!
- December 2, 2010 at 12:52 PM
- Caitlin said...
Thank you for this recipe! I made these nuts for our Thanksgiving gathering this year, and they were a huge hit!
- December 2, 2010 at 1:30 PM


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Rays Pitcher's Have No-No Possibilities
6 Comments
You're psychic man!
Not really psyhic at all.
Just know that Garza has been getting drilled on local Sports Radio for no real reason other than the DJ in question always loves to stir the pot of controversy.
That is the reason I never listen to him, but I get people complaining to me all the time.
He is a great hockey guy, but needs a bit of a brush-back as a baseball commenter.
Rays Renegade
I have not won more than $ 10 since they started the Lottery in Florida. I might not be the right guy to buy your tickets.
My luck lies in sports and the telling or writing of them. Not much a stats or money guy, but I can tell you the break vertically on a pitch by watching it…That is where I am lucky.
Rays Renegade
I am going to take the next extra $ 50 I have and put it on black on the roulette wheel. Hopefully some of this good karma will rub off on me financially for a change (lol).
Seriously, it was just a weird and wild night that you felt something in the air, but wasn;t sure of where it was going to lead.
Awesome for Garganzolla Burger boy, plus Matt Joyce got his own piece of Rays history in being the second latest Grand Slam to break up a No-No since NY Mets hurler Frank Viola loaded the bases and let Phillies slugger Dicky Thon take the 4 RBIs.
Rays Renegade


text:
Meu SciELO
Serviços Personalizados
- Citado por SciELO
- Acessos
Horizontes Antropológicos
versão impressa ISSN 0104-7183
Horiz.antropol. v.4 n.se Porto Alegre 2008
An attuned discourse: the catholic episcopate on 'politics' and the 'social'
Ernesto Seidl
Federal University of Sergipe Brazil
Translated by Letícia Maria Costa da Nóbrega Cesarino
Translated from Horizontes Antropológicos, Porto Alegre, v.13, n.27, p. 145-164, Jan./June 2007.
This article analyzes the relations of Brazil's Catholic bishops and their position, as a representative group, regarding "political" and "social" issues. The purpose of the study is twofold: it seeks to shed light on the logic of the mechanisms shaping the representations of the Brazilian high clergy as a homogeneous group responsible for elaborating univocal messages to a heterogeneous public; and to apprehend a vast set of strategies for crafting and presenting official discourses well-adapted to both Brazil's and the world's realities, as a way of legitimizing the Church as an authority on a vast array of subjects.
Keywords: Catholic Church, ecclesiastic elite, episcopate, politics.
O artigo aborda as relações entre o episcopado católico brasileiro e seu posicionamento como grupo de representação frente ao universo da "política" e do "social". A análise procura evidenciar, por um lado, a lógica dos mecanismos de produção de representações do alto clero como grupo homogêneo destinado a produzir mensagens unívocas para públicos variados e, por outro lado, um conjunto variado de estratégias de elaboração e apresentação de discursos institucionais adequados à "realidade do país" e do "mundo" e que visam a legitimar a posição da Igreja como instituição capaz de falar com autoridade sobre ampla gama de temas.
Palavras-chave: elite eclesiástica, episcopado, Igreja católica, política.
I don't consider myself a progressive, but I don't think I'm a conservative either.
I don't think I'm a conservative, much less a progressive. I think
I'm a moderate. That's what I think I am (laughter).
(Brazilian diocesan bishops, between 65 and 70 years old).
This study focuses on the relations between the catholic episcopate in Brazil and its stances as a representative group in the 'political' and 'social' spheres. More broadly, the research questions broached here speak to a series of debates on the structuring, functioning and transformations of the high ecclesial sphere in Brazil from the second half of the twentieth century on. Such debates include the redefinition of the catholic space within spaces of power, particularly the dynamics between the religious and political spheres and their consequences for the mechanisms of recruitment and selection of the Church's ruling elites.1
The dimensions to be analytically explored were educed from this broader problem, and inspired by indications from studies about different contexts (Bourdieu, 1971, 1996; Bourdieu; Saint Martin, 1987; Vassort-Rousset, 1986, 1987), and are presented along two main axes. My perspective contrasts both with approaches centered on the examination or description of the official stances held by the Catholic Church's higher echelons vis-à-vis 'politics' and their changes in time (Azzi, 1978, 1981; Lima, 1979; Morais, 1982), and those aimed at understanding the Church's 'role' or 'function' as an institution that legitimates or questions established political power (Bruneau, 1974, 1985; Della Cava, 1978; Löwy, 2001; Mainwaring, 1989; Serbin, 2001). It seeks, on the one hand, to evince the logic by which representations of the high clergy as a homogeneous group in charge of providing univocal messages to various publics are produced while securing the group's image of internal unity. On the other, it sheds light on a multifaceted set of strategies for devising and presenting institutional discourses supposedly appropriate for 'the realities of the country and the world' which aim at legitimating the Church's status as an institution capable of speaking authoritatively on a wide array of issues.
The bishops and 'politics'
No other topic is probably addressed as homogeneously by Brazil's high catholic clergy as the relations between the Church particularly the episcopate itself and 'politics'. Their position in the ecclesial space demands a high degree of control over the religious body's image of unity. These experts in double meaning and euphemism quite impressively manipulate a univocal rhetoric when talking about the limits between the 'spiritual' domain Churchmen's legitimate realm of action and the 'temporal' laypeople's action field. Underlying the principle of separate 'competences' evoked by members of the high ecclesial hierarchy are fundamental differences between a body of experts in the manipulation of spiritual goods and 'profane' clients divested of such religious knowledge capital. However, as Bourdieu (1996) and Bourdieu and Saint Martin (1987) have argued, it is precisely in the need to maintain the unity of both the institution's religious professional personnel and its actual or potential clients that is, the 'unity of the Church' as a 'whole', or as a 'family' that one can find the logics justifying the refusal to take on the 'excluding', 'combative', and 'dividing' stances typical of political and partisan ideologies.
In tune with the theological argument of non-discrimination of individuals liable to join the Christian group namely, the purported 'universality of the evangelizing appeal' , the systematic dismissal of partisan or ideological adherence invariably found in statements by prelates from the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul is built in opposition to ethic-religious principles which claim to stand above 'political' options which, according to the bishops, 'divide', 'dissent', and 'compromise'. This naturalization of political positions by ecclesial leaders therefore operates by means of a dichotomy between catholic values which are 'general', 'universal', 'common', 'higher', and those that are 'particular, 'partial', 'partisan'. It is thus that, for instance, if social interests manifest in political party ideologies necessarily pit individuals competing against each another what would be fundamentally understood as 'politics' , the Church should be kept at arm's-length from contingent particularities. It should defend 'higher' principles with no ideological identification, that is, that 'politics with a capital "p"', 'in the wider sense of the word', 'true politics' terms which are quite common in the episcopate members' repertoire.
Another aspect I would like to address: How do you see the relation between the clergy, the Church, and politics?
Politics is to me the science of the common good; so we should be involved. I am radically opposed to participation in party politics, because our role as bishops, as priests, as a church, is to unite and not divide. If I choose a party, I am automatically dividing a community, a parish, a bishopric, so I am absolutely against priests participating in party politics. I think there should be a lot of caution and balance, which does not mean we should be omissive, but anything we say carelessly might cause a division which won't heal. [ ] We have to provide principles, and the actualization of such principles is up to the layman. (Diocesan Bishop, 71 years old, consecrated in the 80's).
The first mission of the Church and of the bishop is to evangelize; the problem is to evangelize in the abstract. If people are suffering, we cannot ignore it. [ ] But I believe that, politically, the bishop or the priest should not align himself with a political party. They should align with the common-good party, which stands above all political parties. The common good should be always there for a true education policy to take place, a true health policy, a true media policy, a true housing policy, a true land distribution or agrarian policy, a labor policy. I think this tends to favor those who are in need. We have to guard against political parties. Sometimes this will hurt; we will be labeled, classified. So be it, let them do it. Later on, they will recognize that we are doing no less than our obligation. (Diocesan Bishop, 65 years old, consecrated in the late 80's).
On the other hand, if 'politics' as a declared ideological option is part of the episcopal discursive universe only to negate its legitimacy in the ecclesiastic sphere, the hierarchy's public manifestations on the country's and the world's social, political and economic order those 'pressing issues of our times', which include a wide array of topics not exclusively framed as belonging to 'spirituality' are both one of the most common ways by which the catholic 'point of view' is made explicit amidst major ongoing ideological disputes, and one of the contemporary episcopate's legitimate tasks. The effects of such Conciliar (Vatican II) reorientation toward 'inculturating' Catholicism in the different 'social realities' and attempting at a new catholic framing of social life in its multiple dimensions include, as key elements in the re-articulation of experts-laymen relations, the intensification of manifestations by religious authorities about an increasingly secularized and complex world, as well as deep changes in the ways liturgy is celebrated. Just as the mass and sacraments came to be ministered in vernacular languages in order to become more accessible to the faithful, so too should religious professionals seek to approach their clients through languages more appropriate to ever-increasingly urban, educated, and diffuse audiences.
Indeed, the imposition of religious competence based on scholar or intellectual ability is one of the central regulatory mechanisms of the catholic space. The significant increase in investments in academic degrees by institutional agents as a condition for climbing to higher positions especially visible among members of the episcopate brings into relief the space opened to scholarly-legitimized culture as a tool for adapting the church to more urbanized and educated publics. Indicative of this new direction is not only the expansion of religious training services, but the diversification of the kind of qualification and knowledge forms (among which figure prominently the incorporation of 'non-traditional' theological fields as well as 'profane' disciplines). One of the most visible consequences of the centrality of scholarly knowledge for the Church's forms of symbolic domination has been precisely the redefinition of the ways religious authority is exercised, especially in terms of its 'intellectual' functions. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the re-articulation of religious pedagogic tools by means of their approximation vis-à-vis sites of production of scientific knowledge, notably colleges and universities, was a watershed in the displacement of the intellectual reproduction of the religious body from consecrated educational institutions ('rural', 'closed') to environments much less differentiated from the lay educational world.2
The catholic 'agenda's' homogeneousness and its partial coincidence with the country's 'social and political agenda' are intimately connected with a significant shift in the Brazilian Church's stance towards the social, after the 1964 Military Regime and changes taken place during the last three decades.3 Most prominently, the role of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil, CNBB) with all its specialized units assisted by social scientists and other lay and religious social experts in charge of subsidizing it with academically grounded knowledge as the hierarchy's official body favoring en bloc decision-making was decisive for the elaboration of a 'critical' discourse, and for the display of an image of the episcopate as the group authorized to speak on 'the country's issues'.4 The constant 'declarations' and 'documents' issued by the bishops' representative entity and recognized by Rome provide prelates with an official institutional guideline in relation to which hierarchical leaders, to a greater or lesser extent, devise their orientations at the diocese level always at risk of challenging the 'legitimate problems' (Bourdieu, 1979).
CNBB: 'an opinion that matters'
How is CNBB's position like when it is called to talk about politics in general?
Even if not wanting to, everybody goes to CNBB to find out what it thinks. CNBB is a natural reference in Brazil today. So it doesn't matter whether or not you want to make a statement, they will come and ask: 'what do you think of Fernando Henrique [Cardoso, former President]?, 'what do you think about the energy blackout?', 'what did you think about this and that?'. Then you're forced to get into these issues in order to provide the people with a meaningful and reasonable opinion. It is not that you wish to do that. Whether you want it or not, they will come. Of course I could be discourteous and declare that I don't talk about this, only about Jesus Christ. But then people would say, 'this bishop is out of touch with the world. He is just plain out of it'. (Diocesan bishop, former CNBB president)
So, the practice... Let me tell you something: the bishop is not a bishop as he would like to be, and many times he has to take responsibility, as our CNBB does, and so forth. It is not that we don't like to make so many statements. I think laypeople should do it, but if there's no one to do it, we are circumstantially forced to, the moment makes us do it. I don't think I have been the bishop I'd like to be. Also because of that but circumstances have forced me, and in this regard I am thankful to God. (Diocesan bishop, 65 years old, consecrated in the early 70's)
As institutional leaders of a dominant religion counting on multiple structures scattered throughout Brazil, endowed with cultural resources which are increasingly legitimated by the educational system, and trained in the use of the spoken and written word, bishops regularly resort to the Church's world view which claims to be 'up-to-date' and capable of mobilizing various publics. Differences of intensity and style of intervention stemming from diverse origins and trajectories5 notwithstanding, the approaches taken in pieces and allocutions by currently active prelates in Rio Grande do Sul, as well as in their declarations during interviews,6 show no substantive variation. Along with 'spiritual' analyses (that is, those centered in comments about Gospel's passages, clarification of doctrine or celebrations in the Christian calendar), a broad range of 'social' and 'contemporary' themes ranging from 'economic policy' to 'the environment', 'poverty', 'external debt', 'violence', 'political reforms', 'drugs', 'elections' make up the other chief axis of ecclesial leadership's legitimate 'concerns'.
Even though all prelates have specific means to communicate the 'Church's word' in their dioceses, those who are most notable among them (due to the kind of diocese they head and position they occupy or have occupied) tend to more frequently spouse the ecclesial position about 'polemic' and 'momentous' topics. Especially the Porto Alegre archdiocese and a few central dioceses in the state (Rio Grande do Sul) are led by clergymen bearing the resources demanded by their position and favoring the accumulation of authority capital prominent degrees, excursions abroad, communicational skills, experience in holding national positions. It is from there that the Rio Grande do Sul episcopate's stances resonate most loudly at the state and even national level. It is thus that, for instance, about a month before presidential elections in Brazil, the Porto Alegre Archbishop in his status as the leader of the catholic church in Rio Grande do Sul, based on the state capital, counting with the largest religious structure in the state and with a 'history' of strong 'presence in society'; himself a Licentiate in Canon Law, former staff in the Vatican and author of several books on broad issues convened the press to express the local Church's 'official stance' on the Brazilian government's reforms. The statement below was issued by the Metropolitan Curia's press relations office, a very active unit linked to the Archdiocese's Communication Pastoral, itself directed by a journalist priest:
Archbishop issues brochure on Reforms
Next Monday, September 1st [2002], the Porto Alegre Archbishop will release a Brochure on Brazilian Reforms. Dom Dadeus Grings will meet with the press at 2pm in the Metropolitan Curia. The text presents the Archdiocese Church's official stance on the ongoing reforms and on those projected by the current Federal Administration. For the Archbishop, opening is lacking to a broader debate with society before projects are submitted to appreciation by the Legislature. Dom Dadeus declared that all citizens have the right to participate in such discussions. He affirmed that they cannot be restricted to a small elite, nor to the exclusive debate between professional politicians. The brochure presents the local Church's official stance on reforms being debated in the National Congress, as well as suggestions for debate in society on proposed reforms such as the political and the party-system reforms. The Archbishop asserted that this material presents a firm posture that will hopefully encourage serious debate on the changes the nation needs to effect.
Firmly predicated on the idea of internal unity and alignment with national and Vatican guidelines, the group of rio-grandense bishops manifests understandings of strategies for pursuing catholic religious work that diverge little between themselves and the national episcopate. On the one hand, the group's homogeneous social (see Table 1), ethnic and educational composition marked by 'Roman culture' and 'loyalty to the Pope's orientations' has a decisive weight in the configuration of a widely shared episcopal stance. On the other, the maintenance of the group's outlines through control of member-recruiting mechanisms cannot be ignored. Mostly coming from lower strata of tenant farmers, small merchants and artisans, almost all consecrated bishops after the Second Vatican Council, with Romanized training and virtually lacking professional experience in contexts of extreme destitution (such as urban outskirts peripheries, slums, missions in poor regions), these ecclesial leaders tend to take on a position of 'average virtue'.
Close to accomplishing social self-objectification, these clergymen easily associate their 'simple origins' in the state's immigrant settlers' rural life even though far from the miserable realities common to many regions in the country with a 'balanced' and 'moderate' position. According to them, this position would resonate better with the 'community' universe of 'lesser injustice and social difference' in which they 'grew up' and where they act as religious ministers.
Commonly invoking the situation of dioceses in the Northern and Northeastern areas of Brazil, where the precariousness of life conditions would justify more intense religious intervention toward social change, in a 'vindicatory' tone Rio Grande do Sul bishops claim an 'intermediate' position providing them with a vantage point for the delicate role of producing messages for various social groups without exclusively committing to any of them. Thus, even though their rhetoric is perfectly attuned with the Brazilian and Latin-American Church's mainstream position of 'preferential option for the poor' or a 'Church for the oppressed and unprivileged', these clergymen insist in bringing nuance to the implications of such theological trend in non-reductionist terms.
The straddling-the-fence 'bias'
So, I have participated; however, I do have a bias. And I acknowledge that I have a bias. Let me explain: I'm not capable of reading and becoming a supporter. I'm very critical, so I'm always at arm's-length. Say, the following: I go to an inter-ecclesial [meeting], but I don't jump right in, as a supporter, an unyielding advocate. I watch, and then I say: 'no, this point has not been taken care of, this one I think is better, that one less so'. And it's like that with everything else. Likewise in the movements: I don't belong to any movement, but I take part in all of them. For instance, I participate in the cursilhos, in the charismatic renewal, but I'm not from the charismatic renewal movement nor from the foccolarianos movement. I participate, but I don't belong. I'm not enrolled as an adept of the grassroots Basic Ecclesial Communities, but I participate. I'm even the referential bishop, but I always keep myself at bay, because sometimes it can harm me, it's not a good position to be in. [ ] People always say I straddle the fence, never coming down on either side of any issue. But no, what I want is distance in order to be able to assess, assess. (Diocesan Bishop, 69 years old, consecrated in the early 80's)
The higher the hierarchical position, the greater the demands on its occupant for coming up with a unitary view of the institutional body, as well as for producing messages for broad publics. Episcopal leadership therefore entails mastery over a rhetoric charged with ambiguities and implicit meanings tailored to bring opposites together and be interpreted less as 'critical' than as a 'suggestion' or a 'point of view'.7 When asked to talk about their 'view of the Church', the 'strategies' and 'challenges' faced by contemporary Brazilian Catholicism, prelates are unanimous in responding with an 'evangelizing' discourse. This would be their 'primary task', squarely centered on the 'social dimension' official Church designation for a set of institutional policies and their respective structures, geared toward assisting specific, and commonly unprivileged, publics (landless and factory workers, incarcerated populations, abandoned children, and others). Drifting toward institutional vocabulary, the episcopal discourse on the 'poor' and those 'in need' (the 'sensitivity toward the social', as they use to say) never appears, however, isolated from a broader contextualization of what should be the other targets of evangelical action, or even from challenges to the notion of 'poor' itself ('we have to be careful as to what is understood by "poor", because I cannot take "poor" only in the material, economic, social sense'). In other words, this refusal to take a stance exclusively on behalf of the 'poor' ('it is a preferential, but not exclusive, option', as prelates are used to repeat) or of any other well-defined constituency in order to avoid compromising the plurality of their religious catholic appeal, makes up a central axis of the argumentative scheme of these professionals. They are impressively skilled in devotedly representing the notion of a 'unity in plurality', applicable both to the community of faithful and to the ecclesial body itself.
'Politics' and the 'social' transfigured: CNBB's General Assembly
A privileged opportunity for getting closer to the high ecclesial sphere, directly interacting and observing this hierarchical elite in flesh-and-blood, assembled in a physical space whose access is highly controlled, provided some of the most valuable material for capturing a series of specific situations in order to understand part of the elements making up the social and cultural universe of contemporary Brazil's ecclesial elite.8 Even though far from a full-fledged ethnography of the catholic high clergy, my experience amidst the members of the Brazilian episcopate and other religious agents from various positions within the catholic space (episcopal secretaries, assistants, lay staff, catholic journalists, event staff, and so forth) opened up a new field of analytical expectations. These included the episcopate's internal (unofficial) hierarchies, the ambiguities in their relations with the power and uses of religious authority, and strategies for producing an image and messages in fine tune with dominant perceptions about the 'Brazilian Church' ('united', 'concerned', 'socially active', 'well-informed', and so forth), among many others. Thus, it became interesting to account for not only what was said during the assembly, but also how it was said, under which conditions (in which spaces, for which audience, in which occasion), and by whom. Similarly, I was able to sketch a contrastive outline of the universe of interdictions made up of laughter, jocosity, insinuations, metaphors and silences pregnant with implicit meaning which would be just as revealing of the ways through which the image of the episcopate and the Church as a whole is managed.
Even though the assembly was to last ten days, discussion meetings were concentrated in one week, excluding a day off (Sunday) in which no mandatory activities were scheduled. Each year there is a central theme directing the meeting, and in 2001 it was 'CNBB: life and organization at the service of God'. This was an opportunity to discuss and vote the institutions' new canonic statute. The intensity of the activities distributed along the entire meeting is significant, as it followed a dynamics similar to religious life at large, with first prayers early in the morning and dinner in the early evening. Time schedules were quite strict, and sessions in small or large groups took up entire mornings and afternoons, except for Saturday (retreat) and Sunday (day off). All meetings dealing with CNBB's statute or some other private issues of the episcopate (around four) excluded all other participants, including assistants. Moreover, for topic meetings according to pastoral engagement or episcopal regional jurisdiction, smaller groups met in breakout rooms around the main auditorium.
Various aspects can be singled out for comment on the way sessions are conducted, behavior of clergymen, and the overall environment of more formal moments in the auditorium. If the few religious rituals and some symbols accompanying the sessions (initial and final prayers, representation of Our Lady) were excluded, it is likely that at first it would be hard to distinguish the bishops' from other non-religious assemblies such as those of political parties or certain (mostly male) professional categories. Concern with procedures promoting 'horizontality', 'transparency' and 'democracy' in the assembly socially consecrated rites in the political sphere and various groups along with other forms of euphemizing hierarchical relations were evident. These included from the tone of voice and vocabulary used, especially by the conference's directors, to the practice of consulting with the entire assembly regarding each decision, even the most seemingly trivial. The notion of authority equality among prelates undoubtedly prevailed in their actions on occasions of reconciling and speaking to the public. Manifestations of symbolic power expressed for instance in the greater notoriety of certain bishops were continuously blurred by a bland uniform treatment by those coordinating a session or a meeting, as well as by the absence of prerogatives and gestures of deference. The very attitude of CNBB's coordinating bishops toward the assembly seemed to transpire some discomfort, indicated by minimal intervention by the president and the extreme caution pursued by the secretary-general bishop, the sessions' chief coaching facilitator, while directing the activities.
The 'democratic' character they seek to lend the institution is also evident in the chance all prelates had to verbally manifest their opinion in the pulpit after a presentation or conference, even though oftentimes there was not enough time for all those who signed in to speak (it was thus asked that their intervention be sent in writing to the Secretarial Officers). The first act after the event's official opening was the presentation of the assembly's agenda, which underwent a symbolic vote and was unanimously approved by the bishops who raised their hands in agreement. After that, the floor was opened to communications by prelates who wished to address specific items. Virtually all of them related to particular issues in their dioceses, except for the proposal for discussing a federal Bill of Law establishing the civil union between homosexuals. Similarly, the willingness to 'take into account' the opinions and evaluations of the entire body of bishops regarding the event's general activities and structures was carried out through consultation. This was performed by means of questionnaires including various topics such as satisfaction with punctuality, meals, topics of the spiritual retreat, prayers, meeting outcomes, among many others. Once compiled, each piece of data was graphically presented in the main auditorium's screen, and discussed almost playfully by the secretary-general. The same was true for the presentation of the conference's yearly economic report, during which the joking commentary that 'obviously there were no dividends for the bishops' made the entire audience burst into laughter.9
The division of tasks among the members of the episcopate within the assembly followed the different pastoral coordinating functions performed by part of the responsible bishops.10 Thus, specific debates on dimensions of each pastoral commission took place between their respective prelates and their assistants in smaller rooms. Some of these even took place at nighttime, but never overlapping with the general meetings. On the other hand, certain themes stood out, and were presented to the entire assembly. That was the case of the exposition titled 'The Amazon: reality and challenges for evangelization', offered by a bishop member of the special commission created to debate this subject. The remaining participants in the assembly made up a broad and heterogeneous group, whose complicated affiliations I could only partially grasp through the multiple acronyms in their name tags. Of these, it was those religious and laymen acting as assistants and heads of regional offices who enjoyed the most prestige within the group, stemming from the position they occupied in the administrative structure, their proximity to bishops or even their authority in a certain field of knowledge legitimated by participation in intellectual or academic spheres (especially in the case of assistants).11 These performed a dynamic function of orienting and informing bishops during the meetings, and as far as I could gather were the only ones entitled to speak publically during the event as experts. The expected minimal feminine presence among the assembly's participants which included representatives of bodies linked to CNBB and some of the bishops' assistants contrasted with the prevalence of (especially religious) women in the performance of organizational and manual dynamic tasks (reception, logistics, distribution of materials, institutional press).
The support to interventions, and even to the very presence, of 'notable' lay assistants brings into relief the growing importance of the 'Church intellectual' in its institutional structure. At the same time, it allows a glimpse into the dominant image that the conference seeks to impose both on society and on its own members. The open debate about themes pertaining to the 'national agenda' 'politics', 'economics', 'poverty', 'scandals', 'ecology' within an institution whose participation in social struggles over the definition of such an agenda has been unyielding during the last three decades and is an central source of its legitimacy is not surprising. But it is worth reckoning with the ways in which such debate is made explicit, as well as its terms and visible effects. Similarly, it should be placed within the whole of the assembly's activities, which oscillates between two administrative-institutional lines: one 'internal', encompassing for instance decisions on how the conference operates and how power is distributed; and another one comprising forms of strategic insertion by the Church as well as the renewal of its social agenda. All these activities are interwoven with religious rituals which unify their purposes.
From this perspective, an indication of the relevance of the 'social question' and of the fact that the institution is in tune with it was the long presentation (and reactions to it) in the beginning of the assembly by a well-known 'sociologist of religion' a layman and CNBB assistant titled 'Conjunctural Analysis'. The text was almost entirely read, and was also distributed to the audience. Proposing to offer a 'key for reading reality', it approached 'critically' a vast array of subjects understood as 'the main issues of Brazilian conjuncture since 1989' in order to 'highlight alternatives' involving Church action.12 After the assembly applauded, the speech's somber tone was reproduced in the series of comments by bishops who wished to speak from the pulpit. They consisted of supports and complements to the 'criticism' of the 'national conjuncture', seconded by relatively vague proposals of 'solutions' or 'responses' by means of 'evangelizing' actions. A beacon to the 'social agenda' around which the event was to gravitate, this harsh and clearly pessimistic 'diagnosis' about the country's situation, and even about the global scene, conveyed right at the opening of the assembly seemed also to have served the purpose of instrumentalizing the bishops' discourse not only in meetings, but also in interviews and conversations.13 On the other hand, assistants' declarations to the media on behalf of the institution in press conferences scheduled by CNBB, alone or accompanied by bishops, further suggest a strategic presentation of the conference's 'univocal' image with respect to 'pressing' issues faced by the country. Among such situations, I highlight an individual interview with the sociologist in charge of the 'conjectural analysis', an interview with the assistant ('professor' and 'writer') on Amazonia issues together with three bishops members of the special commission, and an interview with a nationally renowned 'intellectual' on 'political corruption'.
Concerns about the integrity of the episcopate's and the Church's unitary image were generally perceived also in the avoidance to broadcast individual stances or any piece of information suggesting divergence within the group. An example was the request for the press to leave the auditorium when it was time for bishops to make a 'statement on the country's contemporary moment'. By disallowing the presence of persons not belonging institutionally to the conference, the presentation of the document by prelates (rather than assistants) and the individual manifestations that followed were guarded, with the effect of preserving the episcopal group's image of integrity and unanimous decision. On the other hand, moments after this closed session, a two-page synthesis of the document was issued as a press release CNBB's official position was thus revealed.14 This material informing that the four-page long 'declaration' summarized its 'main points', suggested that the bishops' document dealt basically with the same topics approached in the 'conjunctural analysis' presented shortly before. But in contrast to the previous document relying exclusively on lay lexicon and dotted with statistical data, reports from research institutions and newspapers , this synthesis was notable for its multiple references to the Pope's words, to one document from the Puebla Conference, and to one Biblical passage.
All clues lead us to think that in its private meeting, CNBB merely said with its own words and its own way what had already been publically conveyed by one of its 'intellectuals'. Except that now its presentation as a 'declaration' made on behalf of the conference manifested greater commitment. The various procedures aiming at cloaking conflict, direct criticism or divergences within the episcopate followed one of the constitutive logics of the religious universe: the euphemization of social relations. The 'traditional' and never publically admitted fundamental tension within the episcopate revolves around the definition of the Church's tasks and the ways of carrying them out, simplified in the following formulae: favoring an institution more concerned with 'administering spiritual goods' and concerned with 'internal affairs'; or, on the contrary, one more 'engaged' in 'social issues' and manifesting its views on whatever has to do with the human being, not only religion. All this supposed debate remained intangible in the assembly. My multiple efforts were not enough to break the taboo around this topic during private conversations with the prelates, whose evasion only bear out the existence of such distinct positions. The question is further made more complex by the fact that the Church's official position is dominated by a discourse markedly 'engaged' in 'social issues' ('social denunciation', 'critique' of a variety of questions, involvement in movements such as the 'foreign debt referendum'). In other words, it is unthinkable that a bishop will come forward publicly, or even privately to an unknown researcher, to show his discordance vis-à-vis the institution's prevailing 'social line'. That would have threatened one of the group's key legitimating principles; therefore virtually all possible avenues for apprehending such divergent stances remain blocked.
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BRUNEAU, Thomas. O catolicismo brasileiro em época de transição. São Paulo: Loyola, 1974.
BRUNEAU, Thomas. Church and politics in Brazil: the genesis of change. Journal of Latin American Studies, n. 17, p. 271-293, 1985.
CNBB. Análise de conjuntura. [Texto para a 39ªAssembléia Geral]. 2001. Mimeografado. 15 p.
CNBB. Release para imprensa. [s.d.]. 2 p.
DELLA CAVA, Ralph. Igreja e Estado no Brasil do século XX: sete monografias recentes sobre o catolicismo brasileiro 1916/1964. Novos Estudos CEBRAP, n. 12, p. 5-52, 1975.
DELLA CAVA, Ralph. Política a curto prazo e religião a longo prazo: uma visão da Igreja católica no Brasil (em abril de 1978). Encontros com acivilização brasileira, n. 1, p. 242-256, jul. 1978.
FARAH, Paulo Daniel. Novo estatuto da CNBB concentra poder. Folha de S.Paulo, São Paulo, p. A13, 22 jul. 2001.
LIMA, Luiz. G. de Souza. Evolução política dos católicos e da Igreja no Brasil. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1979.
LÖWY, Michael. Rapports entre le religieux et le politique en Amérique Latine. Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, n. 114, p. 61-66, avril-juin 2001.
MAINWARING, Scott. Igreja católica e política no Brasil (1916-1985). São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1989.
MARIN, Richard. Dom Hélder Câmara: les puissants et les pauvres. Paris: Les Éditions de L'Atelier: Éditions Ouvrières, 1995.
MICELI, Sérgio. A elite eclesiástica brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil,1988.
MORAIS, João F. Régis de. Os bispos e a política no Brasil: pensamento social da CNBB. São Paulo: Autores Associados: Cortez, 1982.
ROUSSEAU, André. Les classes moyennes et l'aggiornamento de l'Église. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, n. 44-45, p. 55-68, nov. 1982.
SEIDL, Ernesto. A elite eclesiástica no Rio Grande do Sul. Tese (Doutorado em Ciência Política)Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Política, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2003.
SERBIN, Kenneth. Diálogos na sombra. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2001.
VASSORT-ROUSSET, B. Les évêques de France en politique. Paris: Pressesde la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1986.
VASSORT-ROUSSET, B. Positions politiques des évêques français Projet, n.208, p. 11-20, 1987.
Received 10/10/2006
Approved 15/02/2007
1 The empirical material on which this study is based is part of a broader research enterprise on the institutional structure of the Catholic Church in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, more precisely on the composition and transformations of its ruling elite during the second half of the twentieth century. Data were collected through interviews with a group of bishops (in activity and emeritus) from that state in 2003, as well as through field observation and contacts during the XXXIX General Assembly of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, held in the Itaici convent, in the city of Indaiatuba (São Paulo state) between July 12 and 21, 2001. The full body of findings from this broader work is presented in Seidl (2003).
2 In this regard, see Seidl (2003), especially Chapter 3, "A Igreja em Movimento: dos Seminários aos Institutos de Teologia" (The Church in Motion: from Seminaries to Theology Institutes), and Rousseau (1982).
3 Relevant literature is unanimous in showing the significant inflection in the high clergy's official stance vis-à-vis the Military Regime from the 60's on, as well as the assertion of the institution as a space for opposition and legitimate dialogue with representatives of military governments. In particular, see Azzi (1981), Bruneau (1974, 1985), Della Cava (1975, 1978), Mainwaring (1989), Marin (1995), Morais (1982) and Serbin (2001).
4 On the origins of the National Confederation of Brazilian Bishops and its main stances vis-à-vis 'politics' and the 'social', see Morais (1982).
5 Access to and use of the word, intimacy with the media, and an approach to issues far off from the strictly spiritual universe are directly related to religious trajectories favoring not only the accumulation of cultural authority capital linked to the possession of educational resources no doubt, a fundamental element but also social dispositions that tend to render familiar and common interactions with the press, large events and large audiences, participation in debates and events organized or not by the Church.
6 The analysis is based on articles published weekly by the press, as well as on pieces and notes diffused through the web by Rio Grande do Sul dioceses' communications offices. Less systematically, I have also received this kind of service from other state dioceses.
7 As Pierre Bourdieu and Monique de Saint Martin (1987, p. 2, my translation) have remarked in the opening paragraphs of their work on the French episcopate: 'Of all representative groups, no other goes so consciously and systematically about shaping its own image as the episcopate. This certainly includes the secrecy shrouding the episcopate's plenary assemblies and the sibylline prudence of statements loaded with cunning ambiguities and implicit meanings addressed only to those capable of understanding them; the effort to make most visible those characters better trained for incarnating the representation that the body wishes to have and to ascribe itself [ ]; and above all, a concern with attenuating differences and differents, as well as with showing the unity and homogeneity of a body that holds dear the idea of thinking and acting 'collegiately'.
8 The unexpected decision to travel to the hinterlands of São Paulo state, the conditions and negotiating strategies for having access to the assembly, as well as various other aspects of this stage in my fieldwork will not be discussed here. These are presented in detail in Seidl (2003), Section 5.5, "Um sociólogo em meio aos bispos" (A sociologist amidst the bishops). For a deeper methodological discussion of the research tools used, I refer the reader to Section V of this work's introduction, "Entrando no 'mundo da Igreja': etapas da investigação e seus aspectos metodológicos" (Entering the 'Church world': research stages and their methodological aspects).
9 This immediately brought to mind a section of a piece by Bourdieu (1996, p. 163-203) entitled precisely 'The bishops' laughter'. There, this author remarks that the bishops he had interviewed laughed whenever they talked about the Church's economy. This would relate to the repression of the objectification of the economic (business) dimension proper to anti-economic universes such as the religious. I thank Monique de Saint Martin for having generously provided me with the full transcription of several interviews with French bishops as part of her research with Pierre Bourdieu. The comparison between these and the material I collected about Brazilian bishops has pointed to remarkable similarities between the ways the high catholic sphere in both countries operates.
10 It should be kept in mind that, even though counting with a general coordination and commissions at the national level, CNBB is organized into 16 regional conferences across the country, each with its own administrative structure (president, secretaries, staff) and respective pastoral commissions and corresponding institutions.
11 The number of national-level assistants at the time spanned about 35. Of the resolutions about the new CNBB statute, the central subject of the meeting, it was precisely the attempt at watering down the influence and intermediation of assistants standing between the Vatican and prelates that was received with most polemics as indicated by conversations with some clergymen and by the press (Farah, 2001).
12 As stated in the following passage of its introduction: 'this analysis provides an interpretation for Brazil's economic, social, and political crisis. For this very reason, more than a synthesis of the chief events occurred since the last Assembly, it will offer a key for reading reality'. Among the topics addressed were: 'currency stability', 'loss of ethic density', 'fragmentation of the government's political base and electoral perspectives', 'economic crisis', 'energy crisis and risk of blackout', 'external context: crisis of U.S. hegemony', 'referendum on the external debt', 'outcry from the semi-arid', 'accompanying the law against electoral fraud' (CNBB, 2001).
13 I have noted references to the 'conjunctural analysis' piece both in statements by some of the interviewed bishops and in declarations by other prelates to the press and even during informal conversations.
14 As read in the first paragraph: 'In a Declaration on the Country's Current Moment titled "Brazil: Anxieties and Hopes", Catholic Bishops gathered in CNBB's XXXIX General Assembly in Itaici, Indaiatuba (São Paulo) from July 12 to 21 manifested their "anxieties regarding this difficult moment of the country", but also their hopes, while sharing their commitment as pastors' (CNBB, [no date], emphases in the original). The italicized word 'of' is worthy of note, aimed as it is at disambiguating interpretations that such difficulties would refer to the catholic institution (which could have been the case if it read in the country).


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John Germain, who helped set up the BCSE and donated very generously financial has just passed away. he died suddenly and unexpectedly just over a week ago.
John lived in Jersey and I spend many an hour talking to him on the phone but, alas, just missed meeting him in the flesh a few years ago. A great shame, I must admit.


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Nina Persson, singer and songwriter of iconic Swedish group The Cardigans, has released her new music video "Food For The Beast". Premiered on Stereogum, the video is now also on YouTube.
"Food For The Beast" has established itself as a fan favourite both live and as a highlight on her debut solo album, Animal Heart. The video was made in Sweden and directed by Swedish director Tomas Melinder.
"The video for 'Food For The Beast' was made by these amazing people at Top Dollar in my home town Malmo. A great example of how creativity and imagination can't be bought", espouses Nina.
Animal Heart is out now on Lojinx CD, LP & digital.


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U.S. stocks opened lower Friday, threatening to end the longest winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average in nearly 17 years.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 43 points, or 0.3, to 14,496 in the first hour and half of trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell four points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,559. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,248.
The S&P 500 was six points below its all-time closing high of 1,565, reached in October 2007. On Thursday, the Dow closed out a 10-day winning streak, its longest since November 1996.
Trading was tentative because investors fear that rising inflation will cause the Federal Reserve to retreat from policies aimed at boosting markets. The government said that consumer prices increased in February at the fastest pace in more than three years.
The increase was driven by a spike in gas prices; the core index, which excludes the volatile energy and food categories, increased more modestly. But both figures rose 2 percent compared with a year earlier, enough to get investors' attention, said Peter Tchir, who runs the hedge fund TF Market Advisors.
"It's real and it's a drag, and I think people are growing concerned that it can get out of control quickly," Tchir said. He said signs of economic improvement and inflation "make them wonder if there will be continued market pressure on the Fed" to end its bond-buying programs.
The market's recent rally to multi-year highs was fueled in part by the Fed's efforts to keep interest rates low and encourage investment.
A separate government report showed that U.S. factory output rose strongly in February because of an increase in auto production. Manufacturing is helping to drive economic growth after lagging for much of 2012.
Traders are processing big banks' scores on "stress tests" administered by the Federal Reserve. The Fed said late Thursday that JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs both need better plans to cope with a severe recession. It gave them until September to revise their plans.
Still, the Fed allowed both banks to increase their dividends and buy back their stock, signaling that regulators believe the banks are fundamentally sound.
The stock of JPMorgan fell $1.07, or 2 percent, to $49.93.
Goldman's stock rose 71 cents to $154.73.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to just below 2 percent from 2.06 percent early Thursday, as demand increased for ultra-safe investments.
Among the other companies making big moves:
— Cruise ship operator Carnival Corp. fell 57 cents, or 2 percent, to $35.16. The company said passengers have been booking vacations at a slower pace after a series of high-profile mishaps.
— Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. plunged after saying its fiscal fourth-quarter net income dropped sharply and fell short of expectations. The stock fell $1.27, or 9 percent, to $13.68.
— Teen apparel chain Aeropostale Inc. fell 91 cents, or 7 percent, to $13.60, after posting a loss in its fiscal fourth quarter and saying it expects another one in the current quarter.
Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports .


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Sneak preview of "The road to vital therapy"
Midsummer Nights' Science has become an annual tradition at the Broad Institute, and this year our first lecture in the series offers something extra special: a panel discussion featuring several luminaries from the world of chemical biology and drug discovery. This is the first panel discussion in the history of the series and promises to be a thought-provoking conversation about drug discovery and how we might mitigate suffering from disease in the future.
Stuart Schreiber, director of the Broad's Center for the Science of Therapeutics (or CSofT as it's known around here), is one of the five speakers who will take the stage at the Broad Institute on Wednesday, July 10, at 6 p.m. He will be joined by CSofT leaders Jay Bradner, Aly Shamji, Mike Foley, and Brian Hubbard, with Vivian Siegel, director of education and outreach, moderating the discussion.
Below is an excerpt from a video in which Schreiber describes the aspirations of the Center and the impact that he and his colleagues hope to have on health care. We hope that the video will entice you to join us on Wednesday for a fun evening. As always, Midsummer Nights' Science lectures are free and open to the public, but we ask that you register to reserve your spot.
We'll be live tweeting the event (and asking others to tweet about it too: hashtag #broadtalks) for those who can't join us in Cambridge. We'll also post the full video on our YouTube channel after the event.
Update July 11: Check out a Storify story with live tweets from the talk.
Update July 15: A video of this event is now available on our YouTube channel and in our Video Library.


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One of the most important -- and long forgotten -- campaigns in the history of California was a 1938 ballot initiative that would have guaranteed every Californian, 50 years of age or older, a $30 check from the state every Thursday. The initiative lost, for reasons too numerous to go into here, but there was a bit of wisdom in the "$30 Every Thursday" plan; everybody would have received the same public pension.
That bit of logic is at the heart of the best thinking that is emerging from the current debate over public employee retirement benefits. Mark Paul and Micah Weinberg (full disclosure: they are colleagues of mine at the New America Foundation) have argued for moving to a cash-balance pension plan for public workers in California -- and also sponsoring a parallel plan for private workers to which employers could contribute voluntarily.
Among the advantages of such plans, they write in the Los Angeles Times:
A cash balance plan has two pieces. As in a 401(k), an employer contributes a percentage of a worker's salary into an account that belongs to the worker. But unlike a 401(k), the employer guarantees a stated annual rate of return -- say 5%, or something close to a risk-free return -- on the money in the account.
A cash balance system has advantages for workers and taxpayers. Because it is portable and always vested, workers can move to a new job and take it with them. Because the return on their accounts is guaranteed, workers do not bear the risks of untimely market swings.
For taxpayers, a cash balance plan reduces the risks of pension underfunding and overpromising. The public is liable only to make a defined contribution each year and to pay the guaranteed return on each worker's cash balance. And because the guaranteed return is modest, the money can be in very safe investments.
Over at The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn latches onto this concept.


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J P Howell's Return Warrants Rays Roster Move
With the proverbial clock ticking louder and louder, it is only a matter of hours before the Tampa Bay Rays have to make an executive decision on who might be demoted back to the minors to make a roster space for Southpaw reliever J P Howell to again don a Rays uniform( # 74) in the Rays Bullpen. Believe me, there are plenty of viable candidates for a one-way ticket to Triple-A again.
Surely the first thoughts have to go towards the recent 2 relief pitching additions this month, and that by itself should certainly have the Rays relievers firmly in the harsh spotlight. But could the Rays staff possibly throw in a unforeseen breaking ball and make a move no one seriously saw coming? It would not be unprecedented as this Rays management sometimes likes to ruffle a few feathers with unconventional thought processes and decision as opposed to doing the " normal" route for such transactions.
Most Rays Republic fingers will automatically be pointed towards young relievers Brandon Gomes and Rob Delaney as instant "shoo-ins" to possibly be heading back to the Triple-A Durham Bulls since both have minor league options still at the Rays disposal. Both Delaney and Gomes have also done a few things on the mound recently to gather more and more momentum towards one of the pair getting demoted.
Some have hinted that SS Reid Brignac or possibly 1B/DH Dan Johnson could be in need of a "vacation" to Durham to find their stroke again. It makes sense,but with Inter-League beginning in less than 24 hours against our inter-state nemesis from South Florida, any hitters getting a ticket to Triple-A is as valid as a night of FREE beer at your local wings & things joint…Not going to happen, even with the Mayan's doomsday prediction.
Delaney in particular might be the most recent Rays Bullpen member in Maddon's wine cellar doghouse after coming on this past Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles and not recording a single out in his appearance. Sure he walked 3 Orioles, including 1 Intentionally, which has not been done since former Rays RP Jason Isringhausen performed his own meltdown version in the infamous Cleveland Indian 11-straight runs debacle back on May 25, 2009 (I still blame the RED TB caps).
Somehow it seems like a long time since Delaney's May 8th promotion to the big leagues and his perfect inning of relief work during his 2011 debut in Baltimore. Something seems to have happened to Delaney since his move up to the Rays. Suddenly a guy who was 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in 12 appearances at Triple-A is seeing his MLB ERA skyrocket to 13.50 in just 3 MLB game appearances.
I can Definitely can forecast a red circle on Maddon's sheet in respect to Delaney name possibly sending him down for more Bullpen seasoning in the minors again.
Gomes also left a few Rays open wounds recently fresh on the frontal lobe of Maddon after surrendering 2 earned runs in the top of the 9th inning to the New York Yankees in the Rays final homestand defeat. It was a career high earned run implosion for Gomes.
Heck in 8 innings of Bullpen work so far with the big club, Gomes has given up 3 earned runs in his 7 game appearances. Not the kind of stellar performances that make you invisible at a moment like this.
In Gomes favor is his recent Saturday night romp on the hill where he struck out the side in order, but did give up a double to Orioles 1B Derrick Lee, his first extra base hit surrendered in his short MLB career in the 8th inning.
Gomes has come a long way since his MLB debut back on May 4th against the Toronto Blue Jays and left a massive impression on Maddon when Gomes tossed 2 innings of relief for Rays starter Wade Davis. With a 3.38 ERA in 7 games, seems Gomes might not be the first choice for demotion. Still things can change in a New York minute when you are a relief pitcher. One bad outing can get you sent out and down before you ever get your uniform off.
Weighing the pros and cons of each guy carefully it seems that Delaney might be the guy with the short straw at this moment.
We still have a contest to play tonight, and an implosion by either Gomes or Delaney could seal their own fates in either direction the moment Maddon heads to the mound to take the ball from either pitcher. I throughly expect to see both possibly take the hill tonight in a last ditch relief effort for Maddon and Rays Pitching Coach Jim Hickey to solidify their choice and make it stick before boarding the charter flight back to FL.
Even though I truly feel Brignac might need some time to " find his bat" again, the cards are severely stacked towards a reliever getting a ticket to Triple-A tonight. My gut feeling is that Delaney is the guy in the ledge right now, but Maddon could be playing us all and possibly send down Left-handed reliever Cesar Ramos with Howell eager and ready to go……Still, someone has to go tonight and the last two guys promoted seem to be the logical choices….Right?


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Finish Line - November 2013
Caption Contest
This twin-Roots-blown 1965 Chevy C10 belongs to Tachtwisters Hot Rod and Street Rod Club member Brad Gray of Rockwell, North Carolina.
Name That Doohickey
Hot Rod Trivia
1. What was the first American passenger car that offered a turbocharged V8?
2. When was the first drive-in gas station built and by what company?
3. What was Dale Earnhardt's first race in the Sprint Cup series? (Called the Winston Cup series at the time.)
1. The 1962 Oldsmobile F85 Jetfire, which came with a turbocharged 215ci V8.
2. Gulf Refining Company, which later became Gulf Oil, built the first drive-in gas station in December 1913 in Pennsylvania (according to Portal.State.PA.us).
3. The 1975 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He finished 22nd, one spot ahead of his future car owner, Richard Childress.
Year? Make? Model?
Join In: Like us at Facebook.com/HotRodMag and watch for our posts. If you reply, we will presume permission to publish your quote and profile photo.


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Dramatic sizzle: Summer shows warm local stages
Local stages are continuing to heat up as summer moves along. Live Arts preps for its annual festival; Ash Lawn opera singers rehearse for opening night (July 12); the Four County Players gear up for their yearly Shakespeare production; and Heritage Repertory Theater, the UVA company that just finished its run of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, unveils two new shows this week: Crimes of the Heart and Fully Committed.
Just in time for an after-the-picnic bit of entertainment, HRT begins its rotating repertory with the July 4 opening of Crimes of the Heart. A Pulitzer Prize-winner written by Beth Henley and directed by Marianne Kubik, the play follows one day with the three McGrath sisters.
Lenny's sisters have forgotten her 30th birthday, Meg is home after a failed attempt at a music career, and Babe just shot her husband in the stomach. Audiences will welcome back HRT veterans Nancy Snow (Carousel, Anything Goes) and Jason Odell Williams (Proof, Comic Potential) in leading roles.
The play has been a hit in theaters across the country since it burst onto the scene in the mid-1980's and was made into a movie starring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek, who received an Oscar nomination for her comic portrayal of the youngest McGrath sister, Babe. Henley offers a picture of Southern life and Southern women, in particular, that is both touching and hilarious.
In the Helms Theater on July 8, HRT opens Fully Committed, a one-man comedy directed by UVA acting professor Richard Warner. It's the story of Sam, a struggling actor who works the reservation line at the trendiest restaurant in New York. Dan Perez (of last season's production of Art) portrays a complete cast of characters including Sam, the chef, the restaurant manager, and the desperate callers who cajole and coerce, name-drop and name-call, bribe and browbeat him in their quest for the prime reservation at the perfect table.
Both productions continue through July. For schedules and information, visit HRT on-line at virginia.edu/drama. Crimes of the Heart plays at 8pm and Fully Committed plays at 7:30pm. To purchase tickets, which range from $14-24, contact HRT at 924-3376 or stop by the box office at the Culbreth Theater, 109 Culbreth Road. M-F 10am-6pm.


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The Bar, located on the south side of Milford's downtown, is a fun, friendly, neighborhood watering hole - a gastropub if you will.
Gastropub(n): A new type of eating place bridging the gap between booze joints and upscale restaurants. These cuisine-conscious taverns started to appear about 15 years ago in
. Gastropubs have become the
equivalent of the French brasserie, with good food thats also a good value.
Gastropubs usually have an atmosphere which is relaxed and a focus on offering a particular cuisine prepared as well as it is in the best restaurants. Staying true to the format requires a menu that complements the assortment of beers and wines the gastropub offers.
Breakfast at The Bar
Every Saturday and Sunday
9am until 1pm
Eggs Benedict
Big Bar Omelettes
Huevos Rancheros
Corned Beef Hash
Breakfast Burritos
Fresh Squeezed Juice
Have you tried the best breakfast in town?


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Newsweek's "Hit the road, Barack: Why we need a new president" written by conservative historian Niall Ferguson vs. The Atlantic's article "A Full Fact-Check of Niall Ferguson's Very Bad Argument Against Obama" by senior associate editor Matthew O'Brien are good reads.
The only problem going on here is with me and my frustration in knowing who to believe anymore without having to do my own research to ferret out the truth. If I have to devote one more minute to fact-checking the supposed 'fact-checkers' on facts (not to mean the writers referenced here), I might as well finish the dam research and go the one-more-step and just publish my dam book Liars for Hire for a million bucks advance and get on with my life, hunh? I dream of isolated beaches….aaaaaah
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