The Pipe

English is the only language I know well, yet there is always more to learn. Like all languages, English is evolving. I have an idea for a new grammatical standard.

In my comments (but not my posts), I feel that I overuse the exclamation point. The only other alternative is a period. But that seems too dry and dispassionate. For example, read these two sentences.

That's a cool idea!

That's a cool idea.

The first is overly jubilant, and the second is apathetic. Why is there no middle ground?

Allow me to propose a new punctuation mark that applies more emphasis than a period but less emphasis than an exclamation point: the pipe|

Yes, the pipe| That vertical bar shape, lazier than the exclamation point, but peppier than the period|

This interesting character shares the backslash key on my keyboard, but does anybody really use it? Why not put it to work? We have question marks, exclamation points, periods, commas, colons and semicolons, and that's about it| Let's hit the pipe|

Now that's a cool idea|

Folsom Street Fair

It's that time of year again ... the street fair that's not for kids. Like the LoveFest yesterday, I have no photos, because of an allergy outbreak on my hands (which is recovering!) which makes shutterbugging a little difficult. Then again, it's nice to leave the camera behind now and then.

My stats indicate that the most-visited post ever on FreeThought by a FreeThinker is last year's Folsom Street Fair post. I guess inserting this link to the post will keep it at number one!

LoveFest

It's one of those wild weekends, chock-full of fun ... but I have some kind of allergy attack that's making my hands itchy and numb. (Fortunately, the feet can still dance!) So no camera, and no photos of LoveFest to share today. LoveFest? This is the third annual San Francisco Love Parade, but for some reason the original Love Parade organization in Berlin revoked the naming license. So it's a rose by another name, and it was just as much fun as last year's Love Parade.

Jesus Camp

This evening, I watched an advance screening of "Jesus Camp," a new documentary film that peeks into a training ground for America's conservative evangelical Christian movement: a summer camp for kids (as young as six!) that indoctrinates them into a life of proselytizing, tongue-speaking, home-schooling, Bush-loving right-wingers in "God's Army." Scary stuff. This film needs no narration or selective editing to show the fervor and determination of the adult camp leaders and the kids eating it all up. And the near-worship of a lifesize cardboard cutout of President Bush shows this is not just some wacky isolated summer camp: this movement has some high-ranking partisans.

Interestingly, this film is being marketed to Christians (à la The Passion Of The Christ) as well as the usual secular indie audience. The devout might see this film as an admirable call-to-arms, while others might see a growing movement that is harmful for both its participants and the country.

Check out the trailer.

Banana Chase

One of the sillier organized runs is the Banana Chase 10K, which I completed in 57 minutes this morning. Banana Chase? Yes, the gimmick is to beat as many of the runners in banana costumes as you can; the more bananas you beat, the more entries you get in a post-race raffle.

I beat several bananas, but was unable to win anything (or even get a t-shirt) because I was late getting to the Golden Gate Park event, and did not have time to register. Finding parking is always a challenge in this city. By the time I ran to the Starting Line, it was 9:00 AM. The gun was fired, the race began, so I kept on running. No time for warm-up stretches!

This race is a fundraiser for UCSF Children's Hospital, and there's a separate, special race for the kids, so the silliness of chasing runners dressed as bananas is excused.

New Is New; Old Is New Too

Hoo boy, it's hard getting caught up with my blog after my vacation! I have many posts to write, but little time. Meanwhile, life goes on and new things happen worth posting about. So I'm going to add "new" posts and "catch-up" posts as time allows. Please scroll down to see new (old) posts as they get done!

Godfellas

If you have not heard of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, or even if you have heard of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, you may be thinking of the Marcel Marceau type of "pretending to be in an invisible box" silent acting. No. That's pantomime. "Mime" really means to "mimic" or to satirize. And that's what the SFMT does with a new show every year, since 1959. This year's show, witnessed front-row center today, is a freethinking masterpiece called "Godfellas."

The 90 minute show, punctuated with catchy songs and a live band providing the soundtrack, tells the story of the Jesus Christ Loves U Ministry (The JCLU - a front group for the mafioso Ecumenical Syndicate), which tries to take the nation's "faith-based funding" to its logical extreme: the abolishment of that pesky Establishment Clause and creating a new Constitutional Amendment to establish a national mandatory day of prayer. Only a Thomas Paine-loving and quoting schoolteacher can stop this rightward national drift to theocracy, especially after her secular study hall is commandeered by the syndicate's "Academy of Christian Citizenship and Abstinence Studies." She starts the "Citizens for a God-Free America," and a catch phrase, "God can kiss my black heinie!" Even white folks can't resist adopting this slogan.

However, the schoolteacher soon succumbs to the dark side, tempted by the easy money (filthy lucre?) of "faith-based funding." Only after a dream sequence, with Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, does she realize her wrong turn. Reminded that societies thrive with critical thinking and die under blind faith, she gets back on track and saves America from the military-industrial God complex.

This is one rollicking civics lesson, especially in George W. Bush's America. As Thomas Paine once said, "These are the times that try men's souls." And as Thomas Jefferson once said, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Both would be very proud of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.