Actually the two characters in the Bible (yes, I am continuing to treat it as a narrative) I have the most sympathy with are Lucifer Morningstar and Judas Iscariot.

Those, and the brother of the prodigal son. The typical Good Child, who did all his parent asked of him, and got overlooked because the flashy "bad boy" took his half of the inheritance and ran off, partied, squandered it, and came home ruined and broke. But did Dad say, "You made your bed, young man. Now lie in it. You can have a bunk and a job mucking out the stables. If you work hard, in time you may move up to cow boss." And then pat his good and faithful child on the head, "I can always count on you boy, and I know and am grateful for it."?

He did not. He welcomed the little brat home, made a feast, invited the neighbors, had a damned block party to celebrate. And told his hardworking, law-abiding child, "Dude, whatever's left now still gonna get split two ways when I'm gone."

How is that fair? How does that even teach the little wastrel anything? What's the moral here? Because it sure smells pretty rotten to me.

PR watchers who are on a delay, even on the west coast, watch out for the New York Times, especially if you have an RSS reader. There's an article about tonight's winner.

PR: Well, I was disappointed but not surprised. He totally was blaming everyone else but himself for the booting.

Idiot!

I'm really excited at how well Jeffrey and Allison did without him. And frankly, amazed that Angela had the good sense to team up with Laura and Michael in order to tone down her worst instincts. I thought that of the "top" designs were good but guessed that Angela's team would win because it was more classic, was cheap and yet looked expensive and I thought would grab a broader customer base.

I tried to tape Hustle while I was watching PR but there is so much storm stuff in the air -- something happened and it just stopped taping. I'm going to try to tape the repeat.

Jesse, what you mean by at Mood? Like, the nightclub? Or someplace else?

It's a fabric store in NYC, ita.

Oh. I should just ignore the whitefont, huh? I got carried away.

I just woke up from a 7-hour "nap." Oops. Oh well, week's almost over. I really should have done laundry, though.

Matt-

In the interest of helping temptation along, it's available used here for about a quarter of Amazon's new book price.

You're evil! Yay, you. Birthday "season" starts next month for me, so sometime soon I'll have to put together a big order o' stuff. And, y'know, get myself a little something. So that might fit perfectly.

How is your dad doing, btw?

Beverly -- That one I can actually understand because it's clearly presented as a parable about God's forgiveness. When the prodigal returns he's planning to ask to be a servant, because he doesn't deserve to be treated as a son. The lesson's already been learned, so no point in further punishment.

And then pat his good and faithful child on the head, "I can always count on you boy, and I know and am grateful for it."?

Though it's probably worth noting how much of my biblical knowledge comes listening to the local fundie radio station for found comedy.

How is that fair? How does that even teach the little wastrel anything? What's the moral here? Because it sure smells pretty rotten to me.

Well... as I read it, he'd pretty much learned his lesson. I mean, if there hadn't been another son, would you still be irked by it, or is it just the unfairness to that other son that bothers you? Because, yeah, it kind of bothers me, but the actual welcoming back doesn't.

The more I think about it, the stranger it is, actually, that there are two sons. Because purely as a story about the prodigal son, I get it, it's cool. But you throw in the other guy, and suddenly it starts to seem kind of unfair.

Does the parable actually say that the prodigal's father split the inheritance after the return?

Mind you, the non-prodigal son had the use of his portion of their father's inheritance for a number of years while his prodigal brother was off carousing, and with compound interest and canny investment, could have made a tidy profit on what he'd been given so far.

ION, it was 87 degrees this morning when I got up. And not a Southwestern sort of dry 87, either. Almost makes you want to turn over and go back to sleep in your air-conditioned bedroom, really.