Snow shorts

(above) first snow

(above) Marina Telichkina

(above) Amundsen's U-turn

(above) The race is on

Snow had been forecast for several days, but nevertheless I was startled yesterday morning when Judy and I and our four American guests opened the front door of our apartment building and walked straight into an impressive snowfall.

Usually we don't get our first snowfall until November. I wonder what this winter's early start portends?

---

Last Sunday was election day for local offices in much of Russia. I was intrigued that the candidate lists for the Elektrostal city council did not identify the candidates' party affiliations. Incumbent Marina Telichkina of our electoral district didn't name a party on her campaign materials, either.

A campaign poster for her included the following statement: "If you expect words from your politician, vote for a man. If you expect deeds, vote for a woman."

---

A hundred years ago this month, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen made (or at least revealed) a historic U-turn. Having previously described his plan to make an Arctic polar expedition on the famous polar exploration ship Fram, he announced from Madeira, Portugal, that he was in fact planning to go south to Antarctica. Over a year later, he and his team reached the South Pole. The related New York Times archives (see links in captions at right) make for fascinating reading.

---

Righteous links:

Stan Thornburg, "The Scandal of Christian Faith." Link to PDF here. "Would you be willing to be scandalous in an effort to follow in Jesus' footsteps and/or to go wherever God calls us?"

"Is the [U.S.] Senate broken?" Alicia McBride: "I think sometimes people are scared of lobbying because they think they aren’t an expert. They feel like they won’t be able to give all the facts, and they won’t be able to answer the questions, because they just don’t know enough about the issue. Information is important, but in many ways the relationship is the precursor to whatever influence that information will have."

If you've seen this book (Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy), do you recommend it?

Sergei Nikitin appears on RIA Novosti television: "Death penalty: crime or punishment?" (In English.)

"Who is the face of the Russian opposition?"

---

Wonderful guests plus the usual number of classes = no more time to blog. Until next week, here's a clip to remember the great Solomon Burke by.