September 1, 2005
Well the ripples from hurricane Katrina are reaching even our magazine. Got this Email this morning: “Lynne from NSFS [our subscription service] called today to let us know that issues to southern Louisiana and other areas affected by the hurricane will not be able to receive mail. She said that they will not print labels for these areas until the PO lets them know it is ok to do so.”
—Carole Glenn

At noon today I had a speech out at The Community of Joy Lutheran Church in Glendale. Fellow Lutheran-raised Iowa-Boy, Mike Melrose went with me. I guessed correctly that we’d have chicken with potato salad for lunch. No green jello though (kind of disappointing). The pastor, Dr. Paul Mork, introduced me in the huge auditorium with a full orchestra stage behind us with drum risers and a full set of Rogers cloistered behind glass. Conspicuous by its absence: an organ. Paul admitted he misses the old church music, but the pop tunes makeover is totally dominant today, and, according to Paul, it started about 20 years ago. He told a story that the first Sunday when two guest musicians brought in guitars, a prominent Lutheran woman walked out of the church. Up next? Hip hop, Yo Man, Wassup, Dog? Count on it.

Speech was just okay (I’m a tad rusty, haven’t had a speech in several months). Got a decent stipend for the speech and on the way back to the office I offered to buy gas for Mike’s pick-up but he graciously declined saying he didn’t want to take half my money (we’re at 2.99 unleaded, and 3.18 super). Mike’s parents, Andy and Diane Melrose, of Charles City, Iowa were mentioned prominently in the introduction by Pastor Mork.

We received 23 more framed CGII artwork pieces today. About 25 more to go.

A guy from Texas called the office today and ordered two “I’m Your Huckleberry” t-shirts. He’s blind, listens to the magazine on tape from the Library of Congress. We need to put something up on our site here about this service as there are so many who would benefit from it.

Mark Boardman, Meghan Saar and I went over the cover ideas for the October issue. Got some good things going, although we are still wrestling with it.

”To succeed in the world it is much more necessary to possess the [wisdom] to discover who is a fool than to discover who is a clever man.”
—Talleyrand De Perigord