Evendays

There are two big supermarket chains in Switzerland. One is COOP (pronounced COE-OPE). The other is Migros. Both have big, orange logos. Both offer bargain lines of products, from cell phones to nights at the club to credit cards. The two companies fight it out every year for the hearts of Swiss residents.

Migros (pronounced ME-Grow — I know, really bad grammar) has worked out a deal with an up-and-coming rock group to host a 40,000 seat concert. The only way you can attend the concert is to win a lottery. And the only way you can win the lottery is if you have a Migros fidelity card. They will be “giving” away the 40,000 seats to 20,000 winners.

This is quite a coup. For the afore-mentioned rock group is non other than the Stones. Yes, that mossy, wrinkly, Super Bowl halftime entertainment band will be making a stop in Lausanne. Hosted by the biggest grocery store chain in Switzerland.

Just imagine if Costco brought you the Eagles… If Walmart presented Genesis… If Kmart sponsored Kiss… Makes me want to stay home and order from Amazon.

From Lamin Sanneh’s Whose Religion is Christianity?, pages 64-65:

News of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, did not reach the tribe until a Maasai student returned from the United States to his people with the story some eight months after the fact. Using Maasai narrative form, the student carefully recounted the scale and details of the attacks, including people jumping from windows to escape the fires, and the thousands who perished. This so moved the Maasai that they staged a solemn ceremony in an open field where they blessed fourteen cows as a gift in sympathy to the people of the United States, pledging with their bows and arrows to hunt down the terrorists in question. A bemused senior U.S. embassy official in Nairobi made the trek through the bush to receive the cows. The heart, the sages say, is the toughest part of the body. Tenderness is in the hands. A public acknowledgment of the gift was subsequently broadcast on National Public Radio (June 8, 2002). It spoke of the gratitude of the American people for the generosity and thoughtfulness of the Maasai. You cannot put a price on such gestures of hands extended in friendship, nor count in number their interpersonal effect.

No, I don’t have one. But if you’ve got one, I’d like to use it…

Two things I saw on USA Today’s web page:

Al Gore’s Nashville home used 191,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006 (and I don’t think he’s even there all the time). The average Nashville household uses about 15,600 kilowatt hours per year. The ex VP also has two other homes. What is sure is that if the people in Florida knew how to vote, Al would be in the White House and would be using even more electricity.

45% of women in the USA between the ages of 14 and 24 have HPV. The very good news (no sarcasm intended) is that Merck has developed Gardasil which protects women against the HPV strains which cause 70% of cervical cancer cases. (No where did the article talk about all the other good things (intended) the sexual revolution has brought us.)

There’s a new post up at Biblos for Theobloggers on Yancey’s book: Prayer: Does it make any difference? And keep praying for Randy (house), Sandra (Lex), Greg (job change?), Steve (recuperation from operation). Find their links in the blogroll on the right…