Friday, September 25, 2015

Celebration: 50th Anniversary

WARM Congratulations to Aunt Office Manager andUncle Bus Driver for 50 years of growing together, weathering all kinds of things, and deep love flowing to and from.

(And, in honor of the coincidence of anniversary with #PopeFrancis' visit to the US blessings to the priest who married them even though Aunt Farm Girl told the priest she didn't believe whatever the priest was trying to teach her.)

Upper two photos: the happy couple.
Lower photos the happy couple with each set of parents.
Lower Left: RantMom and Aunt Office Manager's parents Grandma Schoolteacher and Grandpa Farmer.


Monday, September 21, 2015

Grunge with carpeted walls

RantWoman has been letting these reflections from a recent meeting for worship (before Meeting for Worship for Business) season. God has been bountiful, so bountiful RantWoman does not know what to do, does not know what it means. One reason to let things season.

Psalm 22
Bible Gateway NIV Psalm 22
Where did that come from?


A Friend reflecting on "Am I good enough?"
Ummm, Yes, RantWoman, other people have these frets too.


A Friend is called to sing "What a friend we have in Jesus," and to sing it rather nicely RantWoman had been thinking something along the lines of "to heck with all the people, let's talk about God." Alas, RantWoman is never one to overdo centeredness and in RantWoman's head along came a different version: Jesus is my Friend by Sonseed


Another sometime member of the Quaker Choir did quite nicely with Ubi Caritas, except, NO, of COURSE RantWoman would not stay centered. In fact RantWoman wanted to lay down a grunge track, which RantWoman now does with caution riffing on all the pretty songs but come as you are


Ummm, RantWoman, grunge? Grunge that keeps coming as loud as ever, over and over despite all the carpeting on the walls, despite utter lack of evidence anywhere that there is even a whiff of demand for Nirvana in Meeting for Worship? Grunge that keeps coming despite your ardent prayers that some of what is on your mind come out of others' mouths? RantWoman, just be faithful to your Light.

Uhhhh, are you SURE...?

Riffing: guns, all the pretty songs but come as you are......

Trigger warning: guns, suicidality issues, artistic intensity

RantWoman started out this phase of tonight's Youtube excursion just wanting to be irreverent and plaster some Nirvana into a sequence of songs from a recent Meeting for Worship.

But there were too many guns, x 3 songs, ...don't know what it means ...!

Nirvana: In Bloom

Nirvana Come as you are ..as a friend

Nirvana: Smells like Teen Spirit 


Further riffs, starting with intense guys with stringy hair, on music, lives pulled back from edges, the dynamics of  art
Interview with the producer of Montage of heck
A filmmaker at least as intense as his subjects

Scandinavian Journalist Interviews dave Grohl
Some absolutely wonderful humor moments.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Mary Mendenhall Hobbs

RantWoman answered the call. Adult Religious Education this month is doing a whirlwind one-month tour of Quaker women in history. RantWoman has been asked to present about Mary Mendenhall Hobbs, a figure from North Carolina Yearly Meeting about whom, prior to a Saturday night internet binge, RantWoman knew NOTHING.

Whether or now RantWoman now knows enough to set the framework or at least to hold her own until the presentation whizzes on to someone else is shortly going to be in God's hands.

Resources RantWoman has found helpful:
NCYM Quakers
http://ncpedia.org/quakers

Mary Mendenhall Hobbs
http://ncpedia.org/biography/hobbs-mary
Mary's HUsband Lewis Lyndon Hobbs
http://ncpedia.org/biography/hobbs-lewis-lyndon

Charles Duncan Mciver
http://ncpedia.org/biography/mciver-charles-duncan

Mary and Lewis Lyndon Hobbs' son Allan Wilson Hobbs
http://ncpedia.org/biography/hobbs-allan-wilson

Hobbs and Mendenhall family papers
http://www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/h/Hobbs_and_Mendenhall_Family.html

http://gcvxodinprod.guilford.edu/blog/2013/02/26/lecture-focuses-on-mary-mendenhall-hobbs-march-4/

JamesTown News: Mendenhalls led the area in Education


Mary Mendenhall Hobbs
Mary Mendenhall Hobbs
 
 
 

The Power of Feminity in the New South via Google Books

Note to self: YES, one of these days DEFINITELY invest the time to figure out Google Books navigation with Mr. JAWS. One of these days. Looks like a cool book.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Red Panda Freaking Out Over A Pumpkin!

God suggests rather firmly that RantWoman share soemthing to make people smile.



RantWoman, JUST LET THE RED PANDA PLAY.


Yeah, right.
Say a prayer for someone supporting her Mom's cancer struggle from afar.

Say a prayer for someone else with gnarly elderacre challenges for her mother who also lives far away.

Say a prayer for Mr. Attack Receptionist, first of all because he does not pray and is beset by people who want to pray on his behalf. Say a prayer second because he is in the process of deamping to other realms via Facebook. Say a prayer for RantWoman whose heart aches but not enough to ride two buses to visit but does want to remember some really sweet couple mushiness RantWoman honors between Mr. Attack receptionist and the Late Ms. Attack Receptionist.

Say a prayer for Mr. Accessible Restrooms on SO many grounds RantWoman does not even WANT to go there except another customer has exactly the same behavior and communications issues so say a prayer for the staff that MAYBE

Say a prayer for everyone at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. Say a prayer for all the gravity run amok. Say a prayer for the question of whether someone entangled in the gravity MIGHT also be playing. Say a prayer for someone in a not dissimilar situation who thinks the other gravity sufferer most assuredly is NOT playing.

Say a prayer for all the people who tell us stuff they do not have to tell us. They want either accommodation or appreciation for heroism or both but then cannot accommodate other people who suffer from exactly the same issues.

And say a prayer for RantWoman. Besides all of the above, RantWoman is needing to be focused in a zone where the fact that oldest children sometimes make good cops is on point. Not to mention that RantWoman's the oldest child complex is running amok thinking about the duties and responsibilities of board(S) and officers of organizations. RantWoman keeps asking God to send SOME of this in oother directions and the needle keeps pointing back at RantWoman.

And in the meantime, enjoy watching the red panda play.

Resource Link Kink Aware Professionals

RantWoman commends this item as part of her idiosyncratic resource compilation effort.

Kink Aware Professionals: lawyers, Mental health practitioners, other health care providers.

Really interesting trend comments under the Incident Reporting and Response section

https://ncsfreedom.org/resources/kink-aware-professionals-directory/kap-directory-homepage.html

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Finance Committee Facepalm

Next time it would be fine: Just send email

Dear Madame Clerk of Finance Committee,

Next time could you maybe save the cost of a stamp and just send email?

Actual Popcorn kernels
RantWoman is touched to get a typed letter thanking her for her modest financial contribution to Meeting. RantWoman wants to appreciate the effort. RantWoman wants to appreciate the effort but she is so busy being SEVERELY ANNOYED that she is having trouble appreciating the effort.

RantWoman Severely Annoyed? Is water wet?

The germ of RantWoman's annoyance is something like "we are sending out nice cards but I think you would not see well enough to appreciate it so instead I am telling you something RantWoman does not remember about it and sending you this not overly accessible typed letter instead."

Facepalm.

Headdesk.
Thank you so much for deciding this on my behalf.

Perhaps I would leave the card lying around and someone would see it and admire it.

Perhaps I would rather spend my limited eyeball capacity on something more esthetic than just a typed note.

Perhaps, I really mean it, probably you could just have sent email, not mentioned the nice card, and RantWoman would have felt appreciated and thought nothing more about it.

Word.

RantWoman, as usual far surpassing Holding in the Light and tipping over into Inner Blowtorch.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Sacraments: I want to be a Catholic

RantWoman knows it's the anniversary of 9/11. Here is what RantWoman is called to riff on.

RantWoman's theme here is sacraments and memorials, specifically Catholic memorials in RantWoman's recent experience. Alas this is RantWoman so the sacraments stuff comes tied up with a whole bunch of other themes too. Cope. If God can do it, PROBABLY that of God within you can help you do it too!

Seattle Times Obituary for Douglas Hugh Morrison

Here's what touched RantWoman most about the memorial above:

A few months before Doug's death, he showed up at mass and told the priest he wanted to be a Catholic. The priest, obviously touched telling the story, offered to baptize him immediately, but Doug wanted to study. The priest was very impressed that Doug made it to class every Tuesday. (There's a bus from Doug's apartment!)

The priest recounted Doug's passionate interest in the study, the number of good wishes in Doug's apartment, the picture of Jesus across from his bed. Doug wanted to be baptized at the Easter Vigil with everyone else in his class. He did not live that long, but the story and the degree to which the priest was obviously touched made one thing really clear. It was funeral mass so there was communion. The priest said something along the lines of "this is what we believe about communion and if you do not believe that, feel free to com for a blessing but please do not..." RantWoman found the clarity wonderful. There was already so much Divine presence RantWOman felt NO need even to fuss about communion!


And because Catholic memorials are on RantWoman's mind and she has not yet collected items about Father Bill Bichsel, SJ:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Bichsel

http://ncronline.org/news/peace-justice/longtime-peace-activist-jesuit-fr-bill-bichsel-dies-age-86

http://paxchristiusa.org/2015/03/04/obituary-farewell-to-bix-fr-bill-bichsel-sj-d-february-28-2015/

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/rev-bill-bichsel-86-longtime-peace-demonstrator/


And reprising another memorial in RantWoman's recent experience with a different take on Communion
Funeral Rite for Lu Walls

And for a different sacraments thread
http://johanpdx.blogspot.com/2015/09/theological-mathematics.html

How to observe the 9/11 Anniversary: part 1

RantWoman can think of WAY worse ways to observe the 14th anniversary of 9/11 than this:

Remaining a Pacifist: open letter to Scott Simon

And a RantWoman reflection:
When someone sticks a microphone in your face

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Birdwatching?

2023 update.

RantWoman has been admonished, when reviewing with Chrome browser, though oddly not within Edge that some of the images originally linked here are from sites associated with phishing. 

RantWoman is going to take out what appear to be the offending images, slightly edit wording, and ask readers to use their imaginations.


2015 seeds of post
It's www.BibleGateway.com, complete with cross references!

26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

RantWoman apologizes.If the juxtapositions here make readers just go "huh," RantWoman begs your indulgence. RantWoman may yet massage tight coherence out of this excursion. If not, enjoy the journey or feel free to visit another time.

RantWoman is certain that the world is entitled to RantWoman's thoughts, thought bubbles and mental eruptions even when they do not pop out of her mouth immediately in conversation. RantWoman finds herself particularly certain that the world is entitled to her half, two thirds, three quarters of conversations with certain individuals.  With that in mind, pieces of thought that have not so far made it out of RantWoman's mouth:

In a conversation about RantWoman's fantasy all female presidential tickets, about which the world is still owed a blog post, RantWoman's counterpart said:

"I understand she as a strong personality."

RantWoman "And what would be the problem with that?"
(Would the problem be
--a woman with a strong personality?
--a woman who is president?
--a president of the United States with a strong personality?
--a woman with a strong personality becoming President of the United States?
Never Mind!)

Same Friend talking about the spirit nurturing aspects of birdwatching.
RantWoman: blank look, staring daggers which actually does not work any better outgoing than RantWoman's visual input options.

Look Friend, RantWoman has a large number of Friends who are into birdwatching. RantWoman sometimes delights in details of life lists and the wonder of someone else's sightings. But for a LOTS of species, even the fact of their existence is totally a matter of faith for RantWoman.


(IMAGINE: White seagull in flight, talons extended.

 RantWoman is extremely unlikely to borrow someone's bino's and completely mess up settings in order MAYBE to recognize the small stuff. The large stuff may or may not emerge from RantWoman's inate visual fog for RantWoman's convenience. So NO, even though RantWoman is quite humble actually also about watching others' process for instance of bird photography, birdwatching is NOT automatically a spiritual balm. And if you insist, how about some awesome shots of birds RantWoman can actually see, seagulls, crows, pigeons, species widely considered Varmints? Or YOU go watch birds and have a good time and broaden thoughts of ... some other way!

(Imagine: A whole flock of seagulls in flight)



Some digressions no one imagined they need about crows:

Crows, wires, a pole

Seattle Audobon Society: about the crows

Crow research at the UW


NPR Story: They will Strafe you.



And some pigeons, thankfully not having landed on RantWoman's window ledge and therefore unmolested by the Queen of Spades


(Imagine: Pigeons. Perhaps a pair)




And in case there is ANY further need for silliness, never mind opinions about the ecological issues associated with feeding birds.



Saturday, September 5, 2015

God, Worship, RantWoman, take 2

RantWoman morning dialogue with God, more or less in the vicinity of Meeting for Worship, with humble effort also in the direction of parallel visits to others' spiritual zones which the particular first day in question included a personal call to war tax resistance and the well of universal love, interspersed among the following silent RantWoman eruptions


...Signup Sheet: I'm Not Interested in Your Thought Processes Friend. ... I'm Not Interested in Your Thought Processes Friend...I'm not Interested in your thought Processes Friend. ... Wait... SAY...!

NO, RantWoman, NO!  Just NO!

Not even if I pray REALLY, REALLY hard?

RanntWomannn!

I mean it's IMPORTANT and if phone tag and email are not happening and asking someone RantWoman THOUGHT it would be reasonable to ask....

RanntWomannnnnn, that venue?

Okayyyyy, but ...Oh CRAP, and another topic... The venue...?

God, I have been reading Lloyd Lee Wilson on spiritual authority in Meetings. And I am all tangled up in vocabulary about Ministers elders and Overseers. And I am pretty jazzed and am I supposed to stand up and talk about it?

And besides there is all that vocabulary about disrupters, witnesses bridge-builders
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mercynotsacrifice/2015/08/18/disrupters-witnesses-and-bridge-builders-three-different-tactics-in-the-struggle-for-justice/ the facebook post that elicited the Lloyd Lee Wilson link and some other Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice items on the same vocabulary.

RantWoman, the LLW thing is 45 minutes long. NO, your device is NOT powerful enough just to play it in worship, and playing inspirational audio in worship Just is NOT Done anyway! Plus it's so full of meaty nuggets that if you start now you will go on for hours. So, um...how about an interest group at Quarterly Meeting?

God, are you crazy? There's NO INTERNET there. How ever will I ....?


..earthquakes .RantMom's very first night in MT, the Earth Moved--and it WASN'T premarital sex..nuclear power plants / weapons / waste ...tsunami...plate tectonics...subduction

Yeah, RantWoman but you read earthquake books for fun.

No, not exactly, but I am reading a fun book about earthquakes and just like those nuclear weapon circles that were all the rage in the 80's it's about the human networks BEFORE the disaster....and iterative learning and....

God, I need to talk about problems needing wider discernment than....

And I need to talk about blind consumer groups.

And I need to talk about two groups and how have the members of one either got thrown out or walked out of the other, and how there is plenty of work for borth and ...

RantWoman Remember what happened last time you brought up blind consumer groups?

Yeah, people's brains melted and maybe a couple almost exploded. So I trust that if people hear the concepts again and their brains actually explode, between God and the rest of us maybe we can all handle it???

RantWoman, how about you just put what's on your mind on your other blog?

Yeah, Yeah, okay, but you know those Quakers expelling each other over  same-gender relationships, not to mention that court clerk who refuses to issues marriage licenses...? See any parallels?

Do I gotta read the other blog to see it? Cause if so, there is NO WAY this is all going to make it out of your mouth so's the room can hear it.

Authoritay and that hard, hard love your neighbor, pray for.. stuff.

RantWoman lingering dialogue with God riffing from last First Day, strand 1.

God, I have been reading Lloyd Lee Wilson on spiritual authority in Meetings. And I am all tangled up in vocabulary about Ministers elders and Overseers, not to mention elders and releasing and certain yearly meetings. (For future readers not steeped in current timelines Northwest YM and North Carolina YM; numerous links available)

Besides there is all that vocabulary about disrupters, witnesses bridge-builders
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mercynotsacrifice/2015/08/18/disrupters-witnesses-and-bridge-builders-three-different-tactics-in-the-struggle-for-justice. That article is what evoked the Lloyd Lee Wilson link. Go figure.

God, see, RantWoman has been thinking with GREAT fondness of a sister from NWYM. RantWoman has come to know many delightful, spiritually powerful, and just sweet and entertaining stories from this Friend's life. RantWoman has served multiple times with this Friend on the Pacific NW Women's theology conference planning committee. And RantWoman would never have come to know the details she thiks so fondly of if RantWoman had not been willing faithfully, gently, from time to time to bear with homophobic comments.

RantWoman here honors two other voices attesting to the work of God when people sit together in worship. One voice, SOLIDLY, long attached to Northwest Yearly Meeting speaks frankly of God telling her to go travel among unprogrammed Friends even when it meant rooming with a lesbian witch in a cabin in MT.

Another Friend, the first time she attended the Pacific NW Quaker Women's theology Conference found herself in a worship group with three lesbians. Three. But what matters more to RantWoman was when that Friend many moons later spoke of coming to see Jesus in the eyes of a lesbian near her own age.

RantWoman's meditation's suddenly lurched toward southern county clerks who cannot in good conscience sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples. RantWoman is thinking of Quaker tax resisters and quaker lawyers who refuse to wear ties in court and get told by the presiding judge "you may appear as you are." RantWoman's problem: RantWoman can hear said county clerk saying I feel God has called me to do... 

Unfortunately, RantWoman thinks as well, if God calls you to civil disobedience, God also calls you to deal with consequences. RantWoman is touched, though, by Justice Scalia's observation that said County Clerk might need a different job.

The Quaker releasings were brewing before this year's Supreme  Court rulings on marriage equality. Even though RantWoman disagrees with the county clerk in question, RantWoman finds it easy to relate to the thought that who the hell is the Supreme Court to come between an individual and their God? If RantWoman were thinking as clearly as she aspires to, RantWoman would probably noodle around about different streams of authority, the kingdomd of heaven, the rule of law...

Look, okay, legal recognition is never to be disdained, but being clear in divine calling about one's sexuality does not exempt Friends from all that nasty hard Love your neighbor and pray for those who persecute you stuff.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Reminder from the Drafts Folder: Practice Gratitude

From Worship months ago:



Kindest Editor Ever Friend, lamenting the passing of a friend of several decades, says what he does is to "Practice Gratitude" every day.


 From Facebook:
RantWoman, one of these a day...
RantWoman: Friend, RantWoman is deeply grateful to have both software for blowing things up and enough vision to enjoy the photo, but if too many pictures of the Grand Canyon is the worst problem of your day, perhaps you should say a prayer of gratitude as well.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Pray, baby, pray

Seagulls at the edge day, where the day meets the beach

RantWoman, how are you?

Cranky, Irascible, and Blessed.

And how's that working out for you?

Some people find it deeply amusing and laugh very hard.

Some people find mutual permission to share some or another less than fabulous moment from the day.

Some people find it frightening.

Would RantWoman WANT to frighten people less?

RantWoman really cannot help SOME of the frightening stuff. Sometimes RantWoman finds it helpful to figure out quickly that someone is frightened. Sometimes, please forgive RantWoman whether or not someone else is frightened is just not as close to the top of RantWoman's problem list as other considerations. In that case, hold all and sundry in the Light.

PRAY, Baby, PRAY, Pray like ya mean it!

Tag the Presbyterian photos too, pretty please

Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church, front entrance



RantMom's church

Perhaps RantWoman just should not have looked. RantMom got written up in the monthly newsletter. RantWoman allowed herself the temptation to faint hope that the article would appear also on the church website.

Um, no.

And, no, RantWoman is NOT going to fill you in on details you might have missed or at least not yet while RantWOman meditates some more about both what to make of RantMom's wonderful pastors efforts and what to make of RantMom's version of the story.

RantWoman quite likes what actually IS on the website except for ONE point, besides timeliness: RantMom's church does not know how to tag photos any better than Quakers do. Hold RantWoman's vexation in the Light. Hold the option of speaking up about fixing this in the Light too. Sigh

And for additional imagery, a mosaic:


Mosaic of a hand. Dear Quakers, do you recognize the visual allusion?


From Eighth Grade Passage to f-f-Football?

Can you say “Conflict of Interest?”

Can you say Sensible Auntie and O Quaker Auntie duking it out?

Can you say O Quaker Auntie sitting in Meeting for worship, mentally scrawling on an imaginary chalkboard "I will not make fun of the school mascot. I will not make fun of the school mascot... I will be DARNED grateful Little Sister seems to have gotten over major grumbles about the mere idea of Irrepressible Nephew attending what seems to RantWoman a REALLY GOOD high school choice..I will not make fun of the school mascot. I will not make fun of the school mascot. "

News flash: Irrepressible Nephew apparently wants to play high school football!

 This would not have been an option for his Uncle Rant Brother (or his Auntie RantWoman, who did not care) on medical grounds. But Irrepressible Nephew seems to have inherited his father’s eyes, probably the best of the family lot, no glasses yet for either father or son.

 RantWoman’s dilemma, Grandma RantMom made a comment about well if he does his usual flake out when things get hard thing, we have nothing to worry about.”

RantWoman thinks welllll, if having to keep grades up and  show up regularly to practice gives him structure and community, can we live with the risk of brain injury?

 But back up.

It seems like only last week, RantWoman it was JUNE, when then entire Rant entourage was sitting through middle school passage, speech by principal, commemorative video, parade of students, posing combinations of family members and a buddy for pictures, small piece of data RantWoman just had to FILE.

Graduation pix
Brother in law, Nephew, Buddy
Principal talked about moving from NC where anti-bullying legislation did nt make itthrough the legislature to Seattle where one of the first activities people want ed to do was a day of awreness about LGBT students. 


Passage ceremony featured commemorative video summoned painful-to-watch zigzags before Irrepressible Nephew landed at his school in 4th grade: A really good place for kindergarten, a very attitudinal first grade teacher who did not like her placement for her first job out of college, a mental health professional who thought (Arrrrggggh!) that Little Sister could possibly add homeschooling to her own grueling list of medical appointments, RantMom’s arrival and more than one strand of intense conversations before Little Sister found really nice school with good anti-bullying program and a couple teachers who really clicked with Nephew, wait list for the school where Nephew finished middle school and then Fourth Grade start.

Nephew’s classmates definitely know about the menagerie at home and cheered loudly when it was Nephew’s turn to parade across stage. RantWoman was touched by the social vibe. And in the realm of things falling or not falling through cracks, wellllll, there are matters to hold in the Light.

 RantWoman feels particular appreciation for a number of male teachers, science and gym who seem really to have reached Nephew. The gym teachers always ran activities during breaks. They found ways to pay him for odd jobs. Most of all, someone somehow got Irrepressible Nephew to speak openly and with enthusiasm of Vegetables. (MAYBE summers immersed in Seattle Children's Playgarden also count!)
 
RantMom, Nephew, Sister

Understand, RantMom and Rant Dad were Eat what’s put in front of you parents. This did NOT include arguing about vegetables. So RantWoman can see some basis for adult rebellion. But RantWoman thinks as an adult Little sister started having teeth prblems early and came to shun any form of vegetable that was not WELL diced AND well-cooked. Thus, ducks were well aligned: Irrepressible Nephew expected the teriyaki place to serve him yakisoba noodles and meat, NO vegetables.
He  trained both his mother and his Grandmother that no vegetable could be consumed if Irrepressible Nephew could recognize it in the food. And miraculously the gym teachers or SOMEONE ignited within Nephew interest in all sorts of actual, intact, recognizable vegetables. This miracle is ALMOST enough to help RantWoman over the hump about endorsing the football idea. Almost.

 RantWoman has fingers crossed. But for what?

 His father was really into soccer, that other futbol.

 But Irrepressible Nephew, one of the 4 giants, 8thgrade boys alrday over 6 feet tall and with size 15 feet to boot wants to play football.

 No, he has never played before. But the team site has this wonderful welcoming invitation.
http://www.garfieldhsfootball.com/

http://www.garfieldhsfootball.com/join-the-team/

And the players in the photos all have the same look of congenial innocence that Irrepressible Nephew wears of late.

Yes, RantWoman for one would prefer he make it at least to his 18th birthday without flirting with brain injury. But RantWoman appears not to have any choice in the matter. Soooo, in the interest of trying out the idea oneself, a few moments from an internet search.

 Does all of this mean RantWoman might be induced actually to attend a game?

 Umm, during RantWoman’s own high school career, she attended exactly ONE football game and that was because Spanish Club was running the concessions. And RantWoman does not in the least lament that her senior year, the football team had a perfect 0-9 record. With karma like that, would having RantWoman there actually HELP?

The mascot in question:

Garfield in the House with Bulldog Mascot
 
Can you say O Quaker Auntie sitting in Meeting for worship, mentally scrawling on an imaginary chalkboard "I will not make fun of the school mascot. I will not make fun of the school mascot... I will be DARNED grateful Little Sister seems to have gotten over major grumbles about the mere idea of Irrepressible Nephew attending what seems to RantWoman a REALLY GOOD high school choice..I will not make fun of the school mascot. I will not make fun of the school mascot. "
 
And one more item, stored here because it is contemporaneous