PEOPLE BEHAVING BADLY

As a card-carrying AARP member, I grew up in a generation where good manners were the norm and euphemisms expected. A woman was "with child" and heaven forbid you used the word hooters to describe female anatomy! We wore hats, gloves, and stockings to church and modeled our voices in Jacqueline Kennedy's hushed tones. This week we witnessed Joe Wilson's interruption of President Obama's speech, Serena Williams verbally accosting a line judge, and Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift's incredible moment at the VMA Awards.

My elementary,junior high, and high school report cards listed DEPORTMENT as a criteria for proper classroom behavior. Although my academic graces were stellar, my chatty disposition earned me a NI [needs improvement] one six weeks; therefore, I was excluded from some of my favorite activities for weeks. As a member of many school organizations, I remember manners being part of the "hidden curriculum" in school. Respect for others, tone of voice, appropriate greetings to elders/adults, and fair play were attitudes we learned and used in our daily lives. That "Conduct" element on report cards just does not seem to be as important a factor today as compared with earlier generations.

Britain is so concerned with the lack of civility that a report funded by philanthropists called Civility Lost and Found explores the lack of civility in British society and addresses the definition of civility and reports what schools, business, and communities can do to promote civility.

Manners is a word parents often use to teach children respect and proper conduct or behavior and politeness. Family mealtime is important to teach children proper table manners, but if you're taxed for time . . .
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BLUNDERS   children's game teaching manners
https://glammatoys.com/item/36825//

MANNERS quiz

http://www.mydailymoment.com/app/quiz/userquiz/takequiz/237?utm_source=DHTMLgoogle-goodmanners&utm_medium=good-manners-8&utm_term=proper&utm_content=quiz&utm_campaign=MULTIgood-manners-8

JUDAISM

The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History) (Paperback)  Thomas Cahill



Thomas Cahill's historical texts blend humor, history, and magnificent storytelling. This text discusses the beginning of monotheism with narrative accounts of historical figures. Easy-to-read and informative. Take a tour through thre Bible. Look at faith from a historical perspective. Moving account of the Abraham and Isaac story. The Jews taught us compassion,which Karen Armstrong notes as the theme encompassed in the major religions. Their legacy of respect for the individual is clear. I found myself reading and rereading because I wanted to remember how much of our lives have been shaped by Judaism.

THE BOOK OF REVELATION

As an acadenic experience, on Saturday I attended Jeff Cavin's six-hour seminar outlining THE BOOK OF REVELATION from the New Testament. I taught textbook excerpts from Old and New Testament in my World Literature classes for many years, but not the Book of Revelation.

My observation is that practicing Catholics tend to blend church tradition and Bible readings and are generally not known as well as their Protestant counterparts for daily Bible readings. Fascinating as "the end times" literature has been in recent years [LEFT BEHIND series], this first century testimony supposedly authored by John of Patmos, contains rich symbolism, allegory, and metaphor detailing a cosmic battle between good and evil. A literal reading would be not be advisable.  I was fascinated to learn of the cyclical pattern of writing and of the many references to Old Testament readings in this text. A Catholic reader might observe in a very simplistic way that the major message in the Book of Revelation is the Covenant motif and God's love for man.

My Life on the Rock: A Rebel Returns to the Catholic Faith
http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Rock-Returns-Catholic/dp/0965922839/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252969788&sr=1-3

Jeff Cavin's book about his conversion to Catholicism

DINNER WITH JULIA

JULIA AND JULIE
The Art of French Cooking
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+art+of+french+cooking

Julia and Julie is not a chick flick. At an after movie dinner, my friends and I discussed our surprise that while cooking was certainly a theme, marriage relationships, the influence of the McCarthy era, family, gender equity, humor and perseverance led to much spontaneous discussion. Nora Ephron, on "The View," related that her script was based on the many letters that Julia and her friends had written to each other over the many years that Julia and her husband, a U.S, diplomat, lived abroad. I purchased a used but like-new copy of THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, Vol. 1, at Amazon. In the fall, we, using recipes from the cookbook, plan to host a Julia child formal dinner for four couples.