You know Jacob has to be in the first paragraph. For someone who has been so elusive for so long, he sure was easy to find here!  The dude was everywhere!  But, more than that, he gave us one of the most gorgeous opening scenes of the entire series!  Sitting inside his giant foot (which was a whole statue then), he spun and wove by firelight.  Whoa.  Moments later, he went all Bobby Flay on us and cooked some fish on his rock grill (Lostpedia says it was a red herring…a cool tidbit).  When the second guy showed up, I’m betting I’m not the only one who thought HE was Jacob (it was the beard).  Once the Black Rock appeared and the conversation began, I was sure ONE of them was, anyway.  By the end of the scene, we knew which one was, but the identity of the other remains a mystery.  Can’t say I’m thrilled with that, but being frustrated over mystery on LOST seems kind of like being frustrated about the thrill you feel when you willingly get on a roller coaster!

Once we have established that Jacob seems to be able to control the actions of others and seems to exist outside of time (he brought the Black Rock to the island, apparently to prove that things will play out the same perpetually…except for the mysterious reference he made to “progress”), we see him make his rounds, clearly keeping an eye on those whose lives are tied to the island.  We see Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet as children and I didn’t realize why it was those three until I just typed their names all together.  They were uncomfortably chained to a table on the submarine together, broke out of it together, and stood against Jack and Jughead together…initially.  They came around to see Jack’s view together (well, Sawyer allowed Juliet to run the show, but the ladies were genuinely convinced), and they all ended up at the mouth of the drilled hole that led down to the dreaded “pocket.”  I’m guessing these three will have a lot of screen time in the beginning of season 6.  What?  You think Juliet is dead?  Didn’t you watch the season 2 finale where Desmond turned the key and the sky went all purple and the hatch blew up?  On this island, my friends, being at ground zero isn’t necessarily the end of the game!

Jacob also makes appearances at key moments in the lives of Jack, Sun & Jin, Locke, Hurley, Sayid, and Ilana.  We see Jack’s first major surgery and pick up some history on the “count to five,” technique.  We see Locke apparently resurrected by Jacob after being pushed out of the window that left him paralyzed.  I always wondered how the heck he survived that fall, didn’t you?  It seems, perhaps, that he didn’t.  I loved this setup because it seemed to explain why Locke was alive on the island after being killed by Ben.  That small window of satisfaction was then ripped away from us when we finally saw what was in the crate!   We saw how Hurley came to be in possession of the guitar he carried on board Ajira 316, and we saw Nadia die.  Even though we’ve seen that hit-by-a-car/bus/quarterback film technique a million times, now, I am still amazed by it.  It seems to have replaced the cat leaping out of the dark as the quintessential guarantor of gasps!  Back on point, Jacob touches or gives something to everyone he encounters.  That physical contact was certainly played up as significant, making me wish it wasn’t going to be nine months of waiting to find out more about it.

Okay, so our love triangle of the season are out of the sub (one of the coolest escape scenes I think I’ve ever seen!  I mean, who the heck escapes from a SUBMARINE?) and rushing off to stop Jack when Vincent comes running out of the jungle.  Wait, what?  Aren’t we in 1977?  Oh, so that means Vincent must have time traveled, too.  By the way, that was so clearly not the same dog actor, it was almost distracting as I was trying to process this scene.  But, the moment Bernard and Rose showed up, I let that all go and just drank them in.  Their peaceful hippie vibe made for an outstanding scene!  We’re so accustomed to everyone being all dirty and sweaty and urgently running off to deal with some crisis and right in the middle of that we have this serenity that is just unshakable, even when the happy couple is told they’re about to die.  Priceless!  It did raise one question, though: How is it Rose and Bernard never had any problems with the Hostiles (was it because they were not a threat?) and how did they keep themselves in Dharma provisions?  Okay, that was two questions.  Any thoughts?

Drama, drama, drama while the core is removed from the bomb and carried through Dharmaville out to the Swan construction site.  Sayid gets gut shot and there is a dramatic VW bus getaway that you just gotta love!  Radzinsky continues to be way too intense and annoying and Pierre Chang is doing his darndest to stop the drilling.  Once the bomb core is dropped down the drill hole (nice work covering Jack by the VW bus and the gang, by the way!), we get to watch the faces of Jack, Sawyer, Juliet and Kate up close and teary-eyed as they prepare to never have been to the island.  Then, we get the anti-climax of the century as — well — nothing happens.  But, a moment later, the pocket begins to suck metal and we watch “the incident” unfold.

Yea…Phil is dead by impaling!  That guy was asking for it almost as much as Radzinsky and exactly as much as that annoying dude that was trying to steal Libby from Hurley and got it with a flaming arrow!  Now, let me pause here and confess that I genuinely cried when Juliet was hanging on for dear life in that hole with Sawyer and Kate trying to save her.  The eye contact between her and Sawyer and the stream of “I love you’s,” and “Don’t you leave me’s,” was actually stronger than the grip they had on one anothers’ hands.  That Kate was present and desperately trying to be a part of that moment, but unable to touch either of them was poignant on a number of levels.  This scene was EPIC in the same way as the two reunion scenes between Desmond and Penny (the one on the telephone in “The Constant,” and the one on her ship as the Oceanic 6 were rescued).  That was just great television and there is just no arguing with that.

As creepy as her alien-eque stare can sometimes be, Elizabeth Mitchell deserves serious recognition for her acting prowess here.  The scene where she recovers from her fall, momentarily panics, then causes the bomb core to detonate (another juicy tidbit from Lostpedia says she strikes it “8″ times) puts her on a par with Terry O’Quinn (Locke) and Michael Emerson (Ben) in my book.  I’ve always been ambivalent about her as Juliet, but I think that feeling has made for the best characters on Lost.  My hat’s off to her.  And, now that she has won me over, I’m a bit sad to have read that she is already cast in a remake of the 1980′s schlock TV series, “V,” so there’s no telling if we will actually see her here again.  I know, I said in the third paragraph that this whole episode set her up for season 6, but perhaps that’s not the case.  I’m making this up as I go along, people!

Okay, before we talk about the sky going white and the awesome white ending title screen (oops…I guess I just did that), let’s go back to 2007 and the shadow of the statue.  Ilana asks the now-famous question of Richard, who correctly responds in Latin, “”He who will protect/save us all.”  Whatever that means.  So, even as Jacob is being stabbed and burned to death inside the statue, Ilana is fulfilling her promise to “help” him by delivering Locke’s corpse to Richard as proof that the man who took Ben inside was not the man we thought he was.  This leaves me wondering how this “helps,” since Jacob ends up dead, but there’s one more reason to tune in for season 6.  The man we’ve thought was Locke is now revealed as the bearded man from the opening scene who expressed how badly he wanted to kill Jacob and vowed to find the loophole that would make it possible.  Whatever that loophole actually is, I’m not sure, but this scene and the one where Juliet detonates the bomb seem to tell us definitively that whatever happened didn’t necessarily happen and time can be changed.  Having said that, we have seen so many examples of “course correction,” that I’m currently of the opinion that there are major points that are non-negotiable but several possible ways to reach them.  Whether the bomb was part of “the incident” or not, Chang loses the use of his let arm and the Swan station gets built and he goes on to make the Dharma station orientation films.  If you haven’t noticed,  watch The Swan orientation film to see that his left arm does not move:

No matter what Desmond does to stop it (or even step in as a replacement), Charlie dies.  The Black Rock will land and the people on it will do bad things, though there may be some “progress” involved in the changing minor details.  So, I’m guessing that either Oceanic 815 crashes no matter what, or these individuals who end up on the island will always end up there even if it’s on Ajira 316 or some other way.  Hey, they’ve been touched by Jacob!

Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff “Doc” Jensen has been writing awesome pre- and post-episode articles here.  I recommend signing up for the email alerts if you don’t already.  He’s issued a call for your top 3 mysteries that MUST be answered before the series ends next season.  There are still many unanswered questions and a few new ones just cropped up last night!  But, see if you can get it down to three completely non-negociables — the ones that will make you feel like you just wasted 6 years of your life if they aren’t answered by the big wrap up.  You can submit your responses this week at JeffJensenEW@aol.com, but be warned: His inbox fills up and stays filled up so you might have to try a dozen times and get bounced a dozen times before your message gets through.  Your other alternative is to just post a comment here and we can keep it nice and cozy!  Here are my three picks:

1. Who are the “Adam & Eve” skeletons found in the cave in season 1 and what is the significance of the black and white stones Jack found on them?
2. What is the smoke monster…and I want DETAILS!
3. Who/what is Jacob?

Of course, I want to know about everyone who doesn’t seem to be a “normal” human being, so I could cheat and make my questions more compound than they are, but these are the crucial ones.  I’m very curious about the nature of Richard (“I am like this because of Jacob,”) and Christian Shepherd (is he also an enemy of Jacob taking the form of another person…or perhaps the same enemy?).  I’m curious about the Hostiles in general (if they are truly “indiginous,” where did all of the Egyptian culture come from and why are they speaking Latin all the time?).  Is Claire dead?  Are dead people showing up a good thing or a bad thing? Is Desmond coming back to the island? Who are the new posse headed by Ilana that claim to be “the good guys,” just as Ben did is season 2?  If the outcome is always the same, what ist here to war about and which is acutally the “right” side?  Okay, let’s hear from you!

1 Corinthians 15:35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain–perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord  from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed– 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

My 9-month-old black Labrador, Benjamin, could not watch this enough times!  He stood there and imitated these little pugs over and over and over again!  Let me tell you, there was a great deal of giggling in the old home office tonight!  Do some giggling of your own now, whether or not you have a dog.  If you do, though, go get him before playing the video!

Sorry about the obnoxious advertisement at the end.  I just rewind before it gets there and play it for Benjamin again!

Not a scripture today…but a hymn:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear, and Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear…the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come. T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far and Grace will lead us home. The Lord has promised good to me; His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures. When we’ve been here ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now, I see.

Aaaahhh!  That’s better!  I cannot wait for January 21!

Luke 15:4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do I sound a little over-excited?  Well, I’m a big fan of the first Matrix film.  I can seriously live without the other two, but you kind of have to take them as a package deal, don’t you?  Good Matrix parodies have always tickled my funny bone.  For instance, Here’s another effort from a few college students doing a project for their technical school.  I sure hope they got an “A!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Then, there’s this nearly-identical version based on the same movie trailer, only featuring the South Park cast instead of the Muppets:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And, just to bring you back to live-action for a closer, here’s Dave Chappelle’s hilarious take on things:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You’re welcome.

Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I’ve tried at least a half dozen recipes for spoon bread and have been disatisfied every time.  Then, my stepson Matt mentioned he’d had the perfect spoon bread at a Thanksgiving table several years back.  He got the recipe for us and we made it this year to RAVE reviews!  The key…and I am telling you this is key…is the use of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix.  From scratch recipes and other corn bread mixes just didn’t come out with the intense flavor and texture that reminds me of my favorite Mexican restaurant’s spoon bread.  This one is da bomb!

Kentucky  Spoon Bread
Ingredients
1 Box Jiffy Corn Bread Mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1 8 oz. can of whole corn, drained
1 8 oz. can of cream style corn
1 cup sour cream (I prefer Daisy brand)
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Instructions
Melt the butter and combine the Jiffy mix, corns, sour cream, and beaten eggs in a large bowl.  Pour into a 1.5 quart greased casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until center is firm.  Serve warm.

I doubled this recipe and used a 9×13 glass baking dish with outstanding results.  The bread will be dense, very moist, and utterly delicious!

For our follow-up Thanksgiving dinner Sunday evening with a different group of family, I tried a bread pudding recipe from Penzey’s One magazine.  If you haven’t yet discovered the amazing world of Penzey’s Spices, I encourage you to go visit their website, subscribe to their magazine, and…most importantly…throw away every dried herb and spice in your cupboard and replace them all with Penzey’s.  You will be astounded at the difference in your tried and true receipes.  The magazine always has great receipes…many from readers…and I have never, ever, had a bad result using their recipes and spices.  Going Penzey’s has transformed our kitchen and our culinary life!

This recipe is over 100 years old and was contributed by a Penzey’s One reader whose family has passed it down.  I can see why it has endured, though I have modified it slightly to round out a few ingredients. It calls for a whiskey sauce, which I made the first night, but then made a non-alcoholic vanilla sauce the next night.  Both versions are included below.

Bread Pudding
Ingredients
16 day-old hamburger buns, torn in large pieces
(Leave them exposed to the air, opened up and spread out on a baking sheet overnight. You want most of the moisture out of the bread. Big pieces yield lots of texture, smaller pieces make a smooth, wet pudding.  I prefer the large chunks.)
1 14-oz can evaporated milk (not sweetened, not condensed)
4 cups milk (lower fat milks are okay, not skim)
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
3 tbs cinnamon (oh, yes…go heavy here)
2 tbs plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter

Whiskey Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 – 1/4 cup whiskey

Non-alcoholic alternative is to substitue 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp imitation rum extract for the whiskey, or 1 tsp vanilla extract and leave out the rum extract altogether.

Instructions
Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a large bowl (I needed a punch bowl as my largest mixing bowl was too small), combine the ripped up buns, canned milk and evaporated milk and let soak for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla to make a gorgeous goop! Add to the bread and milk and mix well with a wooden spoon. Take care not to mash the bread chunks too much.  Pour into an  ungreased 9×13 pan and drizzle the melted butter over the top.  If you have a larger one, you may want to choose it, or else place the pan on a lipped cookie sheet.  This will rise high in the oven. and some of the butter may spill out.  Bake until lightly browned and no longer wiggly, about 50 minutes.  Carefully remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes.  Bread will settle and melted butter that may be pooled on top will soak in.

To make the whiskey sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Pour 1-2 tablespoons over individual servings of warm bread pudding.

Well, there you have it.  That oughta keep you away from the scale for a while!  I must confess, I’ve been going back for midnight snacks of this bread pudding…and I never do that!  Something about the warmth and the texture and the cinnamon flavor tastes even better snuggled in bed in front of the tv!  Note that I am not officially recommending that to you…it’s more of a confession, really.

Please comment…they are my favorite snack food of all!

Deuteronomy 16: 14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. 15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

What to Expect, December 1, 2008, Just After Sunset

I’m borrowing the following text from Space.com’s colomnist Joe Rao, since he already did all the work and I couldn’t say it any better myself!  Here is the link to the full article.

Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don’t bother looking up. It’s likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.
A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.

People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two “large silvery stars” happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about “the UFOs” that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.

A very close conjunction of the crescent moon and a bright star or planet can be an awe-inspiring naked-eye spectacle. Also on Monday evening, you may be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called “the old moon in the young moon’s arms.” Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as what we now call “earthshine.”

Those using binoculars or a small telescope will certainly enjoy the almost three-dimensional aspect of the moon, but Venus will be rather disappointing appearing only as a brilliant blob of light, for right now, it’s a small, featureless gibbous disk. That will change in the coming weeks, however, as Venus approaches Earth and the angle it makes between us and the Sun allows it to evolve into a “half-moon” phase in mid January, and a lovely crescent phase of its own during the latter part of February and March.

Jupiter on the other hand is a far more pleasing sight with its relatively large disk, cloud bands and its retinue of bright Galilean satellites. All four will be in view on Monday evening, with Callisto sitting alone on one side of Jupiter, Ganymede, Io and Europa will be on the other side. Io and Europa will in fact, appear very close to each other, separated by only about one-sixth the apparent width of Jupiter.

Please come back and share your experiences if you see this spectacle for yourself!  I know we’ll be out there!

UPDATED TO ADD:

I just took this with my digital SLR, hand held, auto focus, available light (natch!).  Click on the image to view it full size.  What are you seeing?

December 1 sky over Jacksonville, FL

1 Corinthians 15:40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

I have a personal goal of promoting the activities of aweseome people I’ve encounterd on the internet.  Right at the tippity top of that list are Rhett and Link, for those who have never read The Garden Party before (or even taken a peek at the sidebars).  Though my boiz were criminally under-appreciated at YouTube Live on Sunday, they did have an opportunity to perform…in a parking lot…standing in the back of a dressed-up tractor trailer.  It was a pre-show thing.  Friend and fellow Rhett & Link fan, Genevieve, captured a bit of that here (including technical problems):

But, Harnett County, NC gave them all the love they deserve when they got home!  Readers, I give you Rhett and Link on their local news station:

Okay. I can walk away from my computer with a clear conscience now. Please let me know if you enjoyed these little confections.

I haven’t found the organization yet…but I stopped looking for today when my google search led me to this man:  Jaeson Ma.  Here’s his personal testimony.  I believe it is a terrific one to show unsaved young people who may be struggling and in need of the gospel presented in a way they can respond to it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve added a link to Jaeson’s blog under “Christian” over there on the right.  Go check him out if he speaks to your heart.

Revelation 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

I’m no longer a celebrater of Halloween, but this just tickled my funny bone.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.