Blue Cord

I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. May you all know the joy of the coming of the Christ.

Chris Heard asks what people are doing during the day on Christmas Eve. After lunch with a friend from seminary whom I haven’t seen in four years, I decided to go to a movie. The last movie I saw was in January, so I figured it was time.

After trying to decide whether zombies in New York or a murderous barber in London was more Christmas–y, I decided to go with I Am Legend. Good acting by Will Smith coupled with a plot that starts off strong but dies in the end. I should have gone with Sweeny Todd.

Still, even boring zombies are better than Chris’s yard work.

My son got his Christmas present today. A few weeks ago I asked him if he would like to go to a hockey game for Christmas, and he enthusiastically agreed. He had never been to an NHL game before. So, today we went down to watch the Boston Bruins at the new Boston Garden (unfortunately, the official name is the TD Banknorth Garden). This was my first trip to the Garden as well. We had a great time, although the Bruins lost 4–1. Our seats were only three rows from the top of the arena, but we could still see fairly well. We bought a puck for $5, which I can add to my collection. It sits proudly on my desk next to my Washington Capitals puck. I also have a Hartford Whalers puck, although its precise whereabouts are currently unknown.

I first got introduced to hockey in seminary. A number of us from the seminary would walk down the street to the Yale hockey arena, affectionately known as “The Whale” (if you have ever seen pictures, you don’t need to ask why). My first professional hockey game was the Hartford Whalers, whose logo at the right is one of the most clever ever devised (great use of negative space). I followed them throughout my time in Connecticut. Hartford was never a large enough sports market to support an NHL team, so the Whalers left in the late 1990s to become the Carolina Hurricanes.

I was reminded of the Whalers in the middle of the Bruins game today. During a break in the second period, some music was playing over the loud speakers. I wasn’t paying much attention, but suddenly something clicked in my brain. I realized the song they were playing was “Brass Bonanza”, a.k.a. “The Hartford Whalers Victory March”. It was different instrumentation than the 1970s version played at Whalers games so I didn’t recognize it at first, but it brought back a lot of memories. The Whalers played their first 2.5 seasons at the Boston Garden as the New England Whalers, but “Brass Bonanza” was not adopted as their theme song until after they moved to Hartford.

Through John Hobbin’s post on teaching Hebrew I became acquainted with the blog Random Bloggings, which is written by Calvin Park. Calvin is a first year student at Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary. Since Gordon–Conwell is just down the road from where I work, I got in contact with him. I met him and his wife for lunch today.¹ We had a wonderful conversation about the Bible, Maryland, retail sales, baseball, and denominations. Calvin does biblical studies and youth ministry, while his wife is doing an M.A. in Old Testament and considering a Ph.D.

I am not the first from the biblioblogosphere to meet them, however. They told me that they met Jim Getz for lunch last summer. They had just moved into the area and Jim was getting ready to move to Philadelphia. I can only hope he enjoyed meeting them as much as I did.

1. Calvin’s wife does not use her name in her blog, so I am going to respect her privacy and not use it here. [back]

A friend of mine pointed me to Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. The site answers questions that readers submit. The site is peppered with a good deal of humor, making it an enjoyable read. She does a parody entitled “Grammar Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Her knowledge of English far surpasses her singing ability, so I recommend reading the transcript instead of listening to the mp3.

One of the most enjoyable sections of the site is her photos at Flikr, where she collects examples of poorly worded and/or punctuated signs. Having been working in retail for the past few months, I am amazed at how many people make mistakes when writing signs to be hung in public places. Presumably most of the errors come about through ignorance of grammer and punctuation or through carelessness. But if you are making signage that will be seen by everyone, take the time to do it right. The signs hung in a store are intended to give customers information. You don’t want part of that information to be “Employees can’t spell.”

While we are on the topic of punctuation, I wanted to share a product our store is selling that is driving me nuts. It is a wooden cutout of a snowman holding a sign that says “6 Days T’il [sic] Christmas.” Our sign up front that says “No ice melt till [sic] Friday” is bad enough, but this is a product that presumably had to go through Q.C. at some point. We have about fifteen of these in stock, so they stare me in the face as I walk to and from the break room.

And please, people, for the love of God, stop putting quotation marks around everything in sight!