"Nice brain"

Show and tell: bumper stickers

I didn't say it had to be on your car!! This was a gift from my boss. If you can read the small print, it says, "In books we trust." Apparently I at one time mentioned that I liked hers (on her bulliten board at work) and so when she was at ALA's Midwinter Conference, she got me one.

If it weren't really cold outside and I didn't have a touch of the sniffles, I'd take a picture of my own car bumper. On it are four bumper stickers. They are: Lemonjello's, Sunoco, Union Project, and "Love Falls Church."

Lemonjello's is this coffee house in Holland, Michigan. My brother's band played there. My brother's band was called The Nixon Administration. Isn't that a cool name for a band? (Stay tuned for corrections: I may have gotten the wrong president.) Sufian Steven's best friend owns Lemonjello's, stay tuned for a Hope College post.

Sunoco? No, I do not care that they sponsor NASCAR, (sorry Paula) but they were sponsoring a contest a few years back where if they spotted a sticker on your car, you got free gas. Um, I drive at least an hour each day (to and from my workplace), so that sounded cool. You'll see some trucks with four and five Sunoco stickers.

Union Project? The building where my church, The Open Door, meets. Plus, it's a cool logo.

"Love Falls Church"? It's a play on words, sort of. Falls Church (Episcopal) is the church for which the town where my parents live was named. George Washington, our first President, was a vestryman there. The bumper sticker is vague: are you supposed to love the church or the town? Well, I love the town, I hope my parents never move, (unless they move to Pittsburgh).

My father is against bumper stickers. On your car, at least. So my brother had at least ten on the minivan that he drove in college.

My dad and I have been talking about third world debt and the IMF. I am so grateful to have him to talk to about these things. I invited him to come speak at the OD, which he had already considered...he was at a book signing yesterday for Tony Campolo ('s new book, I assume) and since there were only eight people there, he got to ask TC a question. So he asked him about the IMF. My dad is the greatest.

(IMF=International Monetary Fund. Our church recently had a speaker from Jubilee and a bunch of us are wondering if Jubilee is the best way to go in terms of social justice. From my dad's considerable research, it seems not. It seems that Jubilee would be one of the organizations rioting at the IMF meetings.)

The IMF has conditionalities (like balanced budgets) and from what my dad could see on the Jubilee website, Jubilee doesn't like that. I have more info in emails from my dad if anyone's interested. (And wouldn't it be great to have my dad speak at the OD????)

And this just in: HP #7 will be out on 7.21.07. Read up on Book Seven, thanks to Gina (who is writing again at BTS, woo hoo!)