One day as I was on Facebook, I happened to see a post listing 32 examples of so-called “Christian privilege”, things in society that seem natural and expected — IF you happen to belong to the majority faith. The last point was interesting: “You can dismiss the idea that identifying with your faith bears certain privilege,” and that got me thinking. Did I agree with this? My perspective is an unusual one: I was raised as Christian (but with little formal religious training) but became a Bahá’í over 20 years ago, so I could consider these from two perspectives. How would I respond to the points the author makes? Let’s find out.
Category Archives: General
Bye Bye, American Pie – an update
The last time I made an entry in this blog, it was to lament the sad state of the American Pie pizza buffet restaurant in Garden City. Well, it seemed that everyone else got fed up with it too. The restaurant is no longer in business. I wish they’d been able to turn things around, but I guess they couldn’t.
Bye bye, American Pie
There are two pizza buffet restaurants in Garden City in close proximity to one another. One of them, I haven’t visited yet. I think I should, though, because I’m not likely to be visiting the other one again. American Pie on Middlebelt used to be good, but it has gone downhill in recent months.
The pizza at a buffet restaurant will never be the top of the line, but it has the potential to be decent. And American Pie’s pizza is still decent enough. But the atmosphere has really deteriorated over the last few months. On my most recent visit, there were no bowls for the pasta. Until now, there were always bowls provided for the pasta to be served with a marinara or a meat sauce. But not anymore. Sure, you can use a plate, but it’s not the same.
What really gets me is this: the music they play in the restaurant consists of the same songs repeated in the same order on a 30-minute cycle. I guarantee that when you go there, you will hear these songs and only these songs:
– the second half of “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn
– “Say You Love Me” by Fleetwood Mac
– “Rockin’ Me” by Steve Miller
– “Sara Smile” by Hall and Oates
– “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone
– “Reelin’ in the Years” by Steely Dan
– “Boogie Nights” by Heatwave
– “Dreamer” by Supertramp
– plus others that I have mercifully forgotten, although I know I would remember them if I ever went back.
Now these are not bad songs, not at all. They were hits from when I grew up. But to hear these songs over and over — it’s worse than terrestrial radio! How can anyone stand to work there, knowing that this is all they’ll be hearing, day in and day out, half-hour in and half-hour out? It would drive me batty. They used to play a more varied mix of songs. I wonder what happened? Whatever it was, it was enough to drive away a customer.
Spam isn’t just a meat product
I used to keep a blog on this site on two occasions before this current blog. One thing that I remember from the second attempt, and something I’m seeing return with this blog, is spam comments. Every comment submitted to me has been spam; I haven’t received any legitimate comments at all. Now fortunately, I moderate all of the comments, so no garbage is getting posted here. But it would be nice to receive a legitimate comment, for a change.
Hello world!
Welcome to my revamped website. I’ve decided to get with the times and redo my website as a blog. I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting yet; I’ll figure that out as I go along.
Much of the information that was on my old homepage can be found on my About page. Links are on the right side of the page, lower down than they used to be. A link to my old homepage, with the links that may or may not migrate over here, is in the menu at the top of each page.