Five Minute Friday :: Chocolate

• Five Minute Friday :: Chocolate Linkup on Andrew's blog

Andrew told us he'd be finding fun quotes to accompany his FMF posts; today he only quoted and didn't write anything himself. Check them out!

My relationship with chocolate is unusual.

1. I don't like candy of any kind at all. My mother used to complain she'd throw away my Halloween candy at Easter and she'd throw away my Easter candy at Halloween.

2. People who haven't known me a long time or who don't know me well frequently assume I don't like sweets, but that's not true. I love high end, rich, decadent sweets, though chocolate isn't often my first choice.

3. Partly because certain chocolates in certain forms at certain times of day are migraine triggers for me.


4. But what do I like? Chocolate chip cookies. Especially home baked chocolate chip cookies. I'm partial to the Nestlé Toll House recipe, but others can be fabulous. I fondly recall one of my design school classmates baking dozens from the Splenda recipe. They were lighter and not as rich as some, but they also were in the "can't eat just one" category.

Another favorite was a neighbor who made the Toll House recipe with half lard and half butter. A real wow!

And I love some hot fudge sundaes. You likely know just as chocolate chips differ and people have different preferences, fudge sauces variy in sweetness, bitterness, richness, and other attributes.

What's your chocolate pleasure?

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LACMA Today

Highlights from my Second Tuesday sojourn to LACMA—Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Passing the Petersen Automotive Museum on the way to LACMA reminded me I'm overdue for a visit there.

I took this picture of Chris Burden's Urban Light reclaimed street lamps at the entrance on a LACMA visit before Covid. Look at that blue sky! Today was considerably more cloudy.

Welcome Banner

Ay-O, born 1931
Rainbow Heart
Acrylic on Canvas, 1965-1967

Piet Mondrian, 1872-1944
Composition in White, Red, and Yellow
Oil on Canvas, 1938

Theo van Doesburg, 1883-1931
Stained Glass Composition VIII for the Spengen Housing Project,
Rotterdam, 1918-1919
Stained Glass

Raoul Duffy, 1877-1953
Still Life with Closed Shutters, 1906
Oil on Canvas

Max Beckmann, 1884-1950
Still LIfe with Silver Candlestick [and Cats],1943
Oil on Canvas

Alexei Jawlensky, 1846-1942
The Young Christ, 1919-1920
Oil on Canvas

Looking up from the ground today, 11 November 2025

Five Minute Friday :: Coffee

• Five Minute Friday :: Coffee Linkup on Andrew's home blog! He'll be hosting the next couple of months during Kate's medical leave.


Intro

Coffee. In a previous life I drank twenty (20) or thirty (30) cups a day.

I can't abide the smell of coffee brewing or otherwise readying for consumption, so I mostly drink instant Nestlé Clasico that comes in several varieties aimed at different sectors of the Latinx market. Please make my coffee with any meal black and unsweetened. Coffee as a standalone snack? Creamy, sweet, and flavored. Whipped cream on top is a major plus.

Nowadays I enjoy about 6 ounces of super strong unsweetened black coffee with breakfast every day; my only additional coffee happens about one afternoon each week with a sweet creamy specialty drink from a place like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or Starbucks or Boba Time.

And like Andrew's Sylvia I love coffee ice cream. Especially the kind we got in New England. A few times the now defunct Brigham's ice cream emporia had mocha chip and mocha ripple; that chocolate-coffee fusion is one of my favorites.

About Coffee

I've heard coffee first made inroads in the Western world as an antidepressant. Some people feel better after a cup of coffee. Is it the caffeine content, is it the deliciousness, is it a short time apart from everything else? Some people avoid coffee and they don't drink black or green tea because they identify as highly sensitive to caffeine. I know one person who admitted she quit drinking coffee because the acids got to her gut and her mood; she replaced the coffee with caffeine intensive tea.

Many churches have a coffee hour after or between Sunday services. There's church coffee time, and there's a tradition of friends and acquaintances gathering at Coffee Shops for conversation and snacks—for human and gustatory sustenance. Many eating places designated Coffee Shop have a full bill of fare to satisfy any time of day and any appetite. Tea or a smoothie? Right here. Sandwich, salad, soup, or an entrée? We offer that.

When my PCUSA interim pastor mentioned he'd next be doing an interim pastorate at an ELCA, I told him "Lutherans have three sacraments: baptism; holy communion; coffee." Well, not quite, yet like water, grain, and fruit of the vine, coffee is a gift of creation. Like all of God's good gifts, the coffee plant brings us opportunities to connect with the Creator via coffee itself and via those with whom we savor a hot or cold cup or glass of java.

Theology types like myself in the traditions of the Reformation refer to the sacraments as means of grace because God meets and connects with us not directly, but using an intermediary like water or bread. Coffee in any of its presentations doesn't meet the criteria for a sacrament because gifts of creation need to be coupled with the Word of God to qualify as sacrament, yet many times coffee acts as a vehicle to bring God closer as it brings people closer to each other.


Outro

Johann Sebastian Bach composed reams of music for the church; he also wrote for his aristocratic sponsors and he wrote a secular cantata that's a sort of operetta. You can read his Coffee Cantata lyrics in English translation and in the original German.

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Voting Day

Photoblog from Tuesday 04 November. Proposition 50 passed in California, and we came close to a nationwide blue tsunami. After voting I had my usual Subway Tuesday (chicken sweet onion teriyaki with most of the salad bar) before going downtown. Although I got pics of my sandwich and the Boba Time Hazelnut Frappe on the way back, I'm not adding them this time.

First two pictures are an LA County Vote Here sign and the vote center at the LCMS church where I voted.

I don't know how many Kobe murals are in LA. This one is on Hill near Fifth.

Here's a trio of the always fabulous atrium art at the downtown library. The library currently is hosting an amazing exhibit of many genres of art from artists connected with studios affiliated with the Progressive Art Studio Alliance. One of their artists designed this poster of the library.

Progressive Art Studios/Supported Art Studios are organizations working with artists with disabilities in a professional art studio environment.

This is a tiny example of the rich exhibit offerings.

On Hill looking up Fifth, retro and newer buildings and then a panorama of the Pershing Garden.

Five Minute Friday :: Recognize

• Five Minute Friday :: Recognize Linkup

Re-cognition. Being cognizant (all over) again. Revisit. Relearn.

Kate wrote beautifully and lovingly about a re-visit to South Africa and especially the sensory recognition of what she'd previously known there.

Lately I've been realizing – recognizing – that people I knew in places like City of History Boston-Cambridge and Previous City San Diego remain frozen in the time and situation where I last interacted with them. It might not be difficult to recognize chronological adults, but if someone's offspring was six years old when I saw them ten years ago, they're now sixteen!

The senior pastor at one of my churches in Previous City retired. The congregation called a new pastor, and former senior pastor has been doing a series of interim pastorates. In his newsletter article for another of my several San Diego churches (where that pastor retired a few weeks ago) where he's now interim, he described what each of his kids are doing and—they all are young adults! No!

But it's yes and though I didn't know his kids well at all, if I ran into them I'd need to ditch my previous ideas about them and recognize their adult identity. But I well could make too many assumptions that would interfere with my ability to recognize who they have become these ten years later.

In addition, I'm thinking of the times I spent at that church. According to facebook, they've been building a new fellowship hall. I have great memories of helping cook and serve Thursday night neighborhood dinners, teaching different kids in VBS, facilitating scripture study and saying a lot about the texts when that pastor led, accompanying Holden Evening Prayer on the piano—in the old fellowship hall. If I returned for a visit, would I insist on everything still being the same before I'd be willing to recognize the place and the people as the church I enjoyed in the past?

On this Reformation Day 2025, would Jesus recognize the church he gave us with his promised presence? What would he tell us when we insisted on seeking and finding how things used to be two decades or six years or seven months ago? "Discuss."


Community Note:

Our FMF host Kate will be on medical leave until January, but surprise! The wonderful poet Andrew offered to host us for the next two months, and he's even scheduled every single Friday without a break until Kate returns! Prayers and hope-filled wishes for Kate's recovery and endless thanks to Andrew for helping maintain this important space for writers.

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October 2025 :: Around Town

• Clockwise from upper left:
• Concrete and Alabaster "Lantern" Cross Cathedral window
• Butterfly at LA on the Move art-wildlife exhibit
• Orange marigolds
• Flower street art from Made in LA 2025

• Tuesday, 07 October, and my first time at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels since before Covid. Similar to 911, Covid has become a watershed we can't stop mentioning.

• 555 West Temple Street sounds like Salt Lake City! I love this long view of the Cathedral.

• Changes in the liturgy include that the Presider and Deacon didn't process in; we received the Eucharist in one kind only.

• This beautiful Campanile greets us coming in and going out.

• Then to Union Station. This may be my best and favorite picture I've ever taken of the DTLA landmark.

• LA on the Move in the Union Station Waiting Room Gallery was the major draw for my visit this time.

• An abbreviated version of the art exhibit description from the website:

LA on the Move explores how people and wildlife travel through shared landscapes, following paths that overlap across the Los Angeles area.

Drawing from ecological data provided by the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy, the exhibition showcases the role of various insects, plants and animals play in supporting healthy ecosystems—and how human actions can support or hinder their survival.

Blending science, data, and creative design, the project amplifies the power of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex ecological questions.

Metro's projects strive to protect existing habitat and wildlife corridors, and we use native and climate-resilient vegetation.

• 12 October and another Sunday at Saint Mark's LA

• Tuesday, 21 October, and it's been equally as long since I visited the Hammer Museum. I always enjoy traveling the Wilshire corridor!

• Made in LA 2025 filled almost every gallery

• Fourth Tuesday lunch brunch salad and dessert. We had pizza from a nearby indie pizzeria; it was pretty and it was very good. Can you believe I completely forgot to picture it?