style

Memory is Treachery

By Tim Winterstein –

Memory is a strange thing. Last week I wrote that I had seen The Machinist during my second summer at college, the first that I did not return home between classes. In one of my periods of sleeplessness last night, I realized that couldn’t be true. As clearly as I seemed to remember picking up that movie at a video place and watching it then, it couldn’t have happened then because I was in college from 1998-2002. The Machinist came out in 2004, which means that if I saw it soon after it came out, I couldn’t have seen it before my third year at the seminary (my vicarage, or internship).

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Finding Church in His Voice

By Paul Koch –

Last Sunday, I actually got to go to church!

That may not seem like much of an event to some, but it is something I don’t get to do very often. It’s not that I don’t find myself in church on Sunday morning, for I do that almost every week. Usually, I’m there as a pastor, one who is called and ordained to hand over the goods for the building up of the body of Christ. But this past Sunday, I got to just go to church, be in the pew for a change, and be a receiver of the gifts.

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My First Lutheran Cruise

By Scott Keith –

(Hello, blogosphere. This little piece of satire was sent to me by a former student who for understandable reasons wishes to remain nameless. I hope you enjoy his first contribution to The Jagged Word.)

My First Lutheran Cruise:

Day 1: Dear Mom and Dad,

Thank you so much for buying my ticket to the S.S.S.S.S.F.S.G. (Steam Ship Sola Scriptura Sola Fide Sola Gratia) Luther; I’m having a really good time on the open seas. I’m normally afraid of the ocean, but I feel safe and secure within the theologically reinforced hull of this LCMS-sanctioned cruise ship. There are even a couple windows in case anyone decides to look outside. However, that rarely happens since there is so much great stuff happening inside. I was grateful to find out that my room was in the very back of the boat. Actually, now that I think of it, that’s where most of the people are staying. I heard rumors that there might be some rooms near the front of the boat, but I believe that they are mostly unoccupied or filled with the few non-Lutherans that are on the cruise. 

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Drink of the Week: Mint Julep

By Paul Nelson –

I was helping a group of colleagues host a happy hour at an annual collegial event earlier this week.  They asked me to bartend and left the choice of libations up to me. Remembering the same event two years earlier, I knew that the most popular alcohol of choice by far had been rye and bourbon whiskey, so I decided to limit the menu to drinks with those as the main base. One option that I added to the list is one I’ve made before but have never been terribly impressed with – the mint julep.

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Flips for Drinks

By Paul Nelson –

Last week, you made the pisco sour, a drink that utilizes the white of an egg to create a thick, foamy topping on the drink. Technically, the pisco sour qualifies as a flip, a variety of mixed drink that utilizes all or part of an egg. The term flip is a bartending adjective dating back to the mid-19th century, and there are any number of variations because there are all sorts of potential liquors to work with. The egg adds thickness and creaminess to the drink.

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Harvey Wallbanger Is My Name

By Paul Nelson –

The Harvey Wallbanger was popularized in the disco era along with other drinks that were sweet, colorful, easy to make, and easy to drink. According to tradition, it originated in the Los Angeles area in the 1950s, named after a surfer with the last name Harvey. You might meet people who poo-poo the drink because of the era it was popularized in or because the flavors are basic and anything but subtle. Lots of people have opinions about drinks. Ignore them. Don’t apologize for what you like to drink or what the people you’re making drinks for like to drink. If it isn’t cool, hip, organic, or whatever, get over it. Sometimes being a rebel and standing out from the crowd simply means continuing to do what others have done for generations.

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Libations

By Paul Nelson –

– The Jagged Word has done it again, we went out and got ourselves our very own bartender! Cheers! –

I have been invited to provide the Jagged Mafia with a weekly cocktail recipe. The fact that I’m an ordained minister as well as a licensed bartender should explain my interpretation of the Biblical stance on alcohol. It should also indicate my level of trust in pension plans and Social Security, but hey, that’s really another blog post all together. In the realm of distilled alcoholic beverages, my exegesis is: God made them possible. Let’s enjoy them responsibly.

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Getting Ready To Go

By Daniel van Voorhis –

So I wrote an article that made an impression with some, maybe a first impression. It was read understood, misunderstood, shared, defended, denounced, etc…. Lesson learned. I’m going to go safe and helpful today. This article is about impressions and first impressions, but on a different level (and one on which I am on decidedly firmer ground).

Scoff if you will, but your first impression of someone could be sullied by wrinkled shirts, flaky skin, oily hair, or scuffed shoes. So, using abbreviated and time-saving techniques can make you look sharp, without too much fuss.

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Losing Rhetoric

By Caleb Keith –

We live in what many call the information age. This label is in significant in part due to the large number of communication platforms upon which information can travel. While modern forms of communication are seemingly infinite, the skill with which we communicate seems to be falling apart. Text messages, status updates, and even blogs focus on distributing raw information rather than making the information compelling or powerful.

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Fashion Is What You Buy, Style is What You Do with it- Musings from the Man About Town

By Daniel van Voorhis –

Greetings from rain drenched, El Niño battered Southern California. While the rest of the country is in its usual winter appropriate gear, we here are wondering if our UGGs are waterproof, bemoaning the possible hazards that water might bring to Awards season, and slowing to a crawl in our cars on the already worst freeways in the nation.

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What Are You Looking At?

By Daniel van Voorhis –

Last week I was at a coffee shop doing some work when I found myself staring into space, lost in a thought or lack thereof. After a few minutes (seconds) I noticed I was getting the stink eye from some young twenty somethings at a table in the direction of my blank stare. I will be charitable, but based on the female’s choice of aggressive language on her T-shirt and the plugs in the gentleman’s ears, they weren’t helping to plan a cotillion nor waiting for their chums from the local prep school.

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The 12 Most Shocking Celebrity Revelations of 2016!

By Daniel van Voorhis –

The Jagged Word has its first scoop of the new year! We tracked down these, well, unflattering pictures of some of the hottest stars on the planet RIGHT NOW! Whether it is celebrities in their “not quite ready for summer” beach bods or an “A”-lister stopping at the local market in jeans and hoodie, we have, over the next few pages, discovered that some of these celebrities are JUST like us!

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Owning It: Power Ballads and Anxiety about “Doing it Wrong”

By Daniel van Voorhis –

It is the first day back to school, or the day of a job interview or meeting, or a first date. Maybe it is just going to a party with people who dig talking about things that intimidate you? We might be nervous on all sorts of levels. This anxiety comes from a number of sources. Will I fit in? Will I say the right thing? Will I be dressed appropriately?

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Rotten Tomatoes and A Few Good Books: The Man About Town Looks Back at 2015

By Daniel van Voorhis –

I tend to not read “best of the year” articles. I glance, but do not put much stock into them. So it makes no sense that I ask you to read this, an article I probably wouldn’t read myself. Except I am going to make my suggestions, mere suggestions with some context AND I am going to say something about Top Gun. So keep reading!

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