Lessons Learned From A Pork Loin

These days, groceries are expensive. I usually shop for bargains, which are sometimes hard to find. Lately, I've been foregoing most beef products, because the price per pound would deplete the food budget too quickly. So I've been turning to other protein sources. And one of the less-expensive of these has recently been pork loin.

The loin is the part of the pig along the top of the rib cage, according to Wikipedia. I've recently been buying boneless pork loin for around $1.88 a pound, on sale. A 7 to 12 pound pork loin will yield a good number of pork chops, which is what sliced pork loin often becomes. Or a larger section of the loin can become a roast, which we usually cook in the crock pot with carrots, potatoes, and some various seasonings.

So when you strip it all down, a pork loin can be said to be "loin from a pig."

Now, when I was a kid, television was in its infancy. A lot of comedies were shown on TV, and it seems we got to see a lot of the old "movie shorts" featuring the Three Stooges. Curly, as we all know, spoke English with a distinctive accent...and words like "turn" became "toin," "burn" became "boin," and "learn" became "loin." [Some of you may already see where I'm going with this.]

So if pork loin can be called "loin from a pig"...putting this into Curly Howard's voice, just what CAN we "loin from a pig?"

First, pigs like mud. But the reason is, on those hot summer days, the water and the mud form an insulating layer around the pig's skin, helping to keep them cooler. If you've ever seen pigs in the mud, they lie down in it; they roll in it; they immerse themselves in it...often from their piggy snout all the way to their curly tail. So if there's one lesson we can "loin from a pig," that's to totally immerse ourselves in subjects that we love. Roll in it...enjoy it to the fullest. WHY? Because it's cool.

The second lesson we can "loin from a pig" has to do with breakfast. Ever hear the explanation of the difference in the terms "involvement" and "commitment"? When it comes to breakfast of ham and eggs, or bacon and eggs, or sausage and eggs...we can say that the chicken that lays the egg is INVOLVED in your breakfast...but the pig is COMMITTED. The chicken can, after all, walk away after breakfast; the pig cannot. So the second lesson we can "loin from a pig" is to always be fully committed to any projects we take on. We need to go at them "whole hog," as the saying goes, and be committed to their completion and to the perfection of the job at hand. Just being slightly involved, and then walking away...is just plain chicken.

Those are the words of wisdom I have to impart to you today. I hope that when you return to the grocery store and walk by the meat case, you'll be reminded of these lessons you can "loin from a pig" whenever you see the packages with pork loin on sale. I really hope that you'll "loin from a pig" and put these lessons to use in your daily lives as well.

Now...about that bacon that's "fully cured"...was it really sick to begin with?

Christmas 2013

So Christmas is here again...some folks are waxing nostalgic, some folks are waxing philosophical, and yet others are waxing areas I don't even want to talk or hear about. No matter which group you fall into...if you'd lighten up on the spiked eggnog, you wouldn't fall as fast or as hard. Many of you will claim that the fat man with the beard came to visit your homes while everyone was sleeping; the truth is, I never left the house after 7 pm...and I have witnesses.

May everyone who reads this have a wonderful day, no matter what you're celebrating. As for me, I'm going back to bed and hoping I sleep through the rest of the night. Morning will find many of you eating candy you found in your socks...which, any other time of the year, would be a quite disgusting concept. And if you don't end up getting what you want for Christmas, I'd like to ask everyone to focus instead upon all we have, and give thanks for that. Or simply give thanks for the negative things you DON'T have, such as cancer. Others--some of them friends--aren't quite as lucky. There, but for the grace of God, walk you and I.

Appreciate what you have; appreciate as well what you don't have. And may peace be in your life from this day forward.

Just How Big is YOUR God, Anyway?

I see a lot of hand-wringing from folks whose candidate didn't win election this past Tuesday. Many of these folks are upset that the "more Godly" candidate didn't win the election, and that the candidate who won will have destroyed our nation by the time his term in office is over. Yet these people also claim to be people of faith.

So that prompts me to ask them: "Just how big is YOUR God, anyway?" It seems that He's big enough to have created the heavens and the Earth, and all that's in them...yet you seem to think He's not "big enough" to thwart the supposedly "evil" schemes of politicians? Think about that for a moment. You have a God who's big enough to build the universe, who's big enough to put it all in motion and keep it in motion...yet you have worries about His ability to stop a few mere mortals in their quest to perpetrate evil on our land?

Maybe you should try MY God. He's big enough to handle anything. Just because He allows things to occur that aren't in accordance with YOUR will, that doesn't necessarily mean that events are not perfectly in alignment with HIS will. I have faith that MY God can overcome anything that men try to accomplish, and that His will is going to prevail against everything up to and including Satan and Hell itself.

Or maybe it's not your God who has let you down...maybe it's your own faith.

Now, THAT part I can relate to. Being human, sometime my faith wavers. Satan sends his followers to create doubt and fears in our minds and in our souls and in our spirits. He does this much the way God works, through the acts of men and women, and through storms and weather phenomena. But this only occurs to the extent that God ALLOWS it to occur. Consider the story of Job, a man richly blessed by God. Satan was allowed to take all those blessings away, and to even send physical afflictions upon poor Job, just to test his faith in God. But even Job was only allowed to suffer to the extent that God allowed it.

Was it the will of God that Job should suffer? My view is that it was not; God's will is that we follow His words and His ways, and that through doing so, we prosper. But God also tells us, in I Peter 1:7, that our faith will be tested, as gold in the fire. So at times like these we should NOT be filled with despair, as many seem to be. I've read the Book; God's side WILL prevail in the end.

If we dive deeply into despair at what was simply the outcome of a single political election, do we have strong enough faith to prevail when the times of TRUE trial and tribulation are upon us? Let us pray instead, not "for" or "against" any political candidate or party; let us pray for our own faith to be strengthened enough to withstand whatever lies ahead; and let us pray that God's will, and not our own, be done throughout our lives, and even for evermore.

So if YOUR God isn't big enough to handle the results of a single election...maybe it's time to re-examine your God, and your relationship with Him. My guess is, it's not your God that's lacking, but perhaps your faith in Him. I, too, have been guilty of allowing my faith in God to waver...so I'm not placing myself above anyone here. But I'm also praying that my faith will be strengthened daily...and that yours will be, too.

May His peace, that which passes our frail human ability to understand it, be upon you.

OBITUARY: Mary Ellen Knight Plue

from THE CORYDON DEMOCRAT, Wednesday, June 29, 1949

MRS. SCOTT PLUE DIES IN ILLINOIS
REMAINS BROUGHT TO ELIZABETH FOR BURIAL

Mrs. Mary Ellen Plue, 93, widow of Scott Plue, died last Wednesday morning at 5:30 o'clock at her home at Normal, Ill., following a lingering illness.

Mrs. Plue was the daughter of the late Ebenezer and Rebecca Knight and was born and reared in Harrison County. She was a member of the Methodist Church at Elizabeth. The remains arrived at Gehlbach and Resch's Funeral Home last Friday afternoon.

Funeral services were held last Saturday morning at ten o'clock at the Methodist Church at Elizabeth. Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetary.

Surviving are two sons and five daughters, Walter Plue of Meriam, Kansas, Ernest Plue of Peoria, Ill., Mrs. John McWhorten and Mrs. Richard Prido of Normal, Ill., Mrs. O. E. Anderson of Terre Haute, Mrs. Robert Spencer of Louisville and Mrs. C. E. Baker of Jeffersonville. She also leaves one brother, Charles Knight of New Albany and one sister, Mrs. Ida Glaze of Louisville.

Class of '72 40-Year Reunion This Weekend

In some ways, it was a whole lifetime ago...but it sure doesn't seem like it's been 40 years. Tonight we're going to have dinner at Nathan Blank's brewpub in downtown Corydon, on the Square, before its "official" opening...so our class will be their first paying customers. Plans are for all the classmates to sign a T-shirt; then a professional photographer will be there to get a group photo, which will be framed and hung on the wall with the T-shirt, giving our Class of '72 a moment of low-level fame, such as it is. The class isn't charging admission; you just pay for your own food and drink tonight.


Then tomorrow, we plan to have a get-together at Camp Cedarbrook, with a cookout and pitch-in dinner. The class had money left over from the last reunion, so there's also no admission charge for this event...and the class is providing the burgers and the hot dogs, as well as buns, condiments, plates, cups, and utensils. Last time we had a get-together at the camp, the conversations and laughter went from early afternoon to late at night, and it was fun hearing tales told that some of us had never heard before...some of the incidents we saw and heard of while in school suddenly made sense, after hearing the classmate equivalent of Paul Harvey's "Rest Of The Story."


And after our big weekend, we get 2 whole years to plan for our next event. Since most of our class will turn 60 in 2 years, we're making plans to have a "Senior" prom...hopefully we can book the Belle of Louisville for a cruise, as we did for our junior prom back in '71, and again for our 25-year reunion in '97.


Unlike a lot of high school classes, most of our class got along, and we enjoy each others' company. Or maybe we're so old now, we've forgotten enough that it's easier to forgive one another. Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to getting together with the old gang once more.

"Take Our Country Back"??--From WHOM??

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around a lot of what's going on in the political world, at least in America, today. There's a large hue and cry to "take our country back!" that makes me ask...from whom? When did they apparently "steal" it? If we're looking at election results, the "whom" MUST be...the majority of voters. After all, it is the MAJORITY of the voters who have elected our President, our Senators and Representatives. Since one of the basic premises of our constitutional form of government is that the person who wins a plurality of the votes is entitled to hold the office, how is it that our country was "taken" from anyone? If anything, the score is that we voted, somebody won, and somebody lost...simple as that. Nothing was TAKEN from anyone. Just because your candidate or party didn't win, it doesn't mean that anything was TAKEN from you. It wasn't a palace coup, it was an election...and the majority of those who chose to exercise their right to vote simply didn't find your candidate more appealing than the candidate who won. So be adult enough to admit that, and let's drop the pretense that anything was TAKEN from anyone.

Then there's the people who are following candidates such as Republican Rick Santorum, who apparently want to put Christian values into our laws. I suppose that Mr. Santorum and his followers believe that laws abridging the rights of non-Christians to follow THEIR religious beliefs would somehow pass coustitutional muster...yet I fail to see how. In fact, there are state legislatures these days that are considering laws that would ban Muslim "sharia law" form being effective in America...and yet these same folks would want us to live under THEIR religious laws. I believe that the Constitution's first amendment provisions forbidding any laws that would abridge an individual's right to exercise their religious beliefs should be sufficient to cover then needs of our nation.

Conservatives rail that the right to pray has been taken away from our school children. Actually, the "right" of a teacher to FORCE any child to pray in school has been taken away; that's all that has been "lost," and I believe that to be a GOOD loss. Look at it this way: Why is it "right" for a teacher to force a child to pray to a Christian God, but yet it's not "right" for a teacher to force a child to face Mecca and pray to Allah? Because "we" are right and "they" are wrong? If that's how you look at the issue, then you apparently don't truly believe in religious freedon in America. No I don't condone stoning women, nor do I condone cutting off hands or other appendages from people; in fact, I think the Bill of Rights' protection against "cruel and unusual punishment" covers that area already.

Don't get me wrong. I have Christian-based religious beliefs, and I, too, think the Muslims are "wrong." But since I have the right to exercise MY beliefs and possibly be "wrong," why shouldn't others in our great land have the same right to be "wrong?"
I believe that's how our Founding Fathers meant for our nation to operate. And I don't believe that the idea of "taking back our country" [with the subtext of imposing "our" religious ideas on others who--for now,anyway--still have the right to believe as they choose, even if it IS something different from our own beliefs] is something that will bring America back to its ideaological roots.

1906 Knight Family Letter

HERE IS THE TEXT OF THE 1906 LETTER, written by James Knight Kreutzinger to his son, Edmund Philip Kreutzinger:

"Mt. Vernon, Ind. 2-11-1906

Dear Edmund--

I was naturally somewhat surprised to note your request for all possible information concerning my mother's family; these things gradually pass out of our recollection and unless some pride is taken in cultivating the family tree it rapidly falls into decay. All that I know authentically is that Grandfather Knight was born in the year 1791 in the County of Hampshire England. His father was James Knight, a well-to-do and rather intelligent farmer, who had two sons: James my grandfather, and Richard, four years younger. Grandfather became a floriculturist in South London and in 1836 and 1837 was awarded silver medals by the South London Floricultural Society; we have one bearing the date of 1837. Uncle David's family has the other. I do not know the maiden name of grandfather's first wife, who was the mother of 7 children:

Eliza (Dewey)

James (supposed to have been blown from a steamboat)

John (supposed to have died of yellow fever in the south)

Richard and Thomas (who remained in England and whose descendants still remain there, except Jessie Grace who came to America about 10 years ago)

Edmund and

Joseph.

After her death he married Esther, second daughter of Thomas Mayne and Esther Bryan. the latter died during the early childhood of my grandmother, as did the youngest daughter, Anna; and grandmother and her eldest sister, mary, were placed in the family of a relative, mrs. Andrews, where they remained until the latter emigrated to Australia, when grandmother entered the employ of Mrs. Colton as a companion where she was living when she met James Knight. Her faher, Thomas Mayne, was a watchmaker and made each of his daughters a watch, one of which is now in our family in a dilapidated condition. My grandmother claimed relationship with the historian Gibbon, just what degree I am unable to say, but the mother of Esther Bryan was a Gibbon.

Of the sons and daughters of James Knight by his two marriages Eliza, the eldest, married Thomas Dewey, came to America, and became the mother of one son, John, who died upon reaching his majority; his mother died about 1842. James became a civil engineer, came to the U.S. and married becoming the father of 3 children two of whom, with their mother died in the early '50's; the youngest child was brought up by the family of his mother's parents. Uncle James was never heard from after the blowing up of a steamer on her way up the Ohio. John disappeared in an equally mysterious manner; Thomas and Richard who remained in London were goldsmiths, I think as was also their Uncle Richard. The Knights were Regular Baptists and during their residence in London attended the Church of John Stevens, a picture of whom is now in my possession. Those of the family who remained in England were member of Charles Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Edmund, Joseph, Ebenezer, David, Esther and Mary came to America with their parents and all married and reared families except Mary, who died at the age of 16. Samuel, the youngest child, died just before the family left England.

The children of James Knight and Esther Mayne were Ebenezer, David, Esther, Mary and Samuel. The only surviving member of the two branches of the family is Ebenezer, who lives in Harrison County, Indiana at the village of Elizabeth, just below New Albany. We have had no communication with our London relatives since Jessie Grace came to America some 10 years ago. Grandmother Knight was born Aug. 25, 1799, and died in Kansas in 1879. Grandfather Knight died in Posey County Indiana
in 1859. Mary, the older sister of grandmother Knight, died in the latter part of 1858; she never married. This is about all I know for a certainty of our ancestry on the Knight side.

Of course you heard of the death of Rillie Ries by drowning in the YMCA pool at Evansville?

This is all I can think of just now so goodbye. We all send our love.

Yours truly,

/s/ James K. Kreutzinger"

I did some research, and discovered that the South London Royal Floricultural Society was formed in 1835.