The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[SuziQ]

Jr. downloaded AOL Instant Messenger yesterday. [shudder]

Well maybe that will stop the 4 am phone calls from the girlfriend!

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah, I can see the pictures here. I'll go try out the york site.

York does have real stable links.... the URLs are long, but they are stable!

[300winmag]

I would like one. And I'd like to contribute to this idea. Let me know how. I may have missed the info on the specifics on that.

I think Hair has the numbers with the details. In summary, these are two related but separate projects. We're buying (at a fabulous discount) two dozen quality pocket knives for WN's son-in-law's platoon. Send whatever you want to her.

The related project is buying one of these pocket knives for yourself. We're trying to get all the knives engraved with something pertaining to the HH, and yours would be done the same way, if you desire. But it's a separate project. Freepmail me directly with your snail mail address. Payment isn't due yet, but I estimate the delivered-to-your-mailbox price at $22.

You can participate in either, both, or none of these two projects. The knives for Iraq are already on their way to me, so I can get them engraved. If you want one too, please let me know before tomorrow, so I know how many to order.

Any other questions, please freepmail me.

[SuziQ]

I know the time is coming. But I don't think he's quite there...yet...

We took the Internet off our son's computer so he couldn't use his IM acct. He got into a discussion with someone claiming to be a teenage girl, and some things were discussed that he, by his responses, obviously didn't understand. We found this just after the discussion had taken place, and cut him off quick before any other chats could take place! We'll discuss these things in the proper time and place with him ourselves!

I didn't know you could go back and get a 'history' of IM chats, but SSQ did. He had been on a Harry Potter chat board, and I guess he got into chats with some people off that board. We should have been paying closer attention then, but we are now!

[Wneighbor]

We can't just wipe out and not rebuild, unless we don't want to control what comes up in Saddam's place.... At this point, we need to control and guide the outcome. IMHO.

I concur. I think W is of the same mind myself. I don't think the appropriate publicity to that effect is coming out but appearances lead me to believe that. IMO, we would only be somewhat above the level of all other countries if we were remiss in this. As it is, I think we are WAY above other countries and we are willing to go the distance. If the IDIOTS would just let it happen.

Note that we did this in Japan and Germany. others also but those were high profile rebuilds.

[HairOfTheDog]

Perhaps the best thing that can happen to a country is that it gets invaded by the United States!

[My back yard]

I never cared for that movie, The Big Gag. Maybe I am too old to have enjoyed it, or something. Can't stand most of the cast. Love the music score though. I think I have it on cassette.

[Wneighbor]

Perhaps the best thing that can happen to a country is that it gets invaded by the United States!

That is a very valid point.

[SuziQ]

I love The Big Chill!
I've never seen that either.

WOW! Girl, you gotta get that one from your local video store. Talk about a blast from the past!

[Wneighbor]

Well, I'll have to let ya'll know. Since I'll be seeing it for the first time this week.

[HairOfTheDog]

I never cared for that movie, The Big Gag. Maybe I am too old to have enjoyed it, or something. Can't stand most of the cast.

Yep.... you're a fuddy duddy, I am afraid!

I love William Hurt, and Kevin Cline... and I love the couple of wimmin in it that are not as known, don't know their names.

I think the point of my enjoyment of it is that they are not people I emulate, but they represent people who are exactly like many of my friends from high school, and college. They are people I know.... and I can picture such a reunion.

[mstar]

Count me in for two knives for our "dudes" overseas. The funds I have already transfered in my new "PayPal" will not show up until about 3 to 4 business days. Or does this go to Wnighbor since it is for the platoon?

[HairOfTheDog]

Once the account is set up, mstar... the transfers don't really take that long, - minutes in fact.

[SuziQ]

but dagnabit, at this point, if we didn't do that.... if we don't rebuild and organize and set up services, we would be remiss.... We can't just wipe out and not rebuild, unless we don't want to control what comes up in Saddam's place.... At this point, we need to control and guide the outcome. IMHO.

I totally agree! There has to be some structure in place for those people to see another way to run their country. They need to see that there is something besides secular or religious totalitarianism. From what I understand, the Iraqis have been well educated, now we need to harness some of that knowledge, freed from the fear of Sadaam's goons, and help them get their country back on it's feet.

I'll have to check out the headlines on the FR site to read more about Uday and Qusay!

[Wneighbor]

Hi mstar. Funds for the platoon will go to me. I will freepmail you my email address so that when your paypal gets in there you can send it here.

But, if you would like an identical knife for yourself you need to let winmag know today. He is taking the funds for that venture.

Freepmail on the way.

[2Jedismom]

So I send you the funds for my knife? I don't want a knife for myself...just for the platoon. Will it have my name and address with it, so they'll know I sent it?

[mstar]

Up and around a bit early. I found this e-mail I had sent to my daughter in school that had to write a theology paper using a movie that spoken to her Christian convictions. Thought I might share it this A.M. with all who are there...anyway, various thoughts and ramblings on Tolkien...
to my daughter:
beginning of e-mail I sent:
"A quote from Philip Yancey in "Soul Survivor" pp.6, "If the gospel comes as a 'eucatastrophe', J.R.R. Tolkien's word for a spectacularly good thing happening to spectacularly bad people, why do so few people perceive it as good news?"

From "Over The Chasm Of Fire: Christian Heroism in The Silmarillion and The Lord Of The Rings" by Stratford Caldecott (Director of the Centre for Faith & Culture in Oxrford, Assistant Editor of the European branch of the C.K. Chesterton Institute,):

"Tolkeien's Tree Of Tales grew from a single seed. In one of his letters he describes the exact moment when that seed began to burst to life. In 1913 he happened to be reading a poem called Crist by the eighth-century Anglo-Saxon writer Cynewulf, when he was struck by a single haunting verse (in translation as follows):

"Hail Earendel, brightest of Angels,
Over Middle-Earth sent unto men."

He felt a "curious thrill as if something had stirred in me".

Over the years, 'Earendel', now 'Earendil', became for Tokien the great ancestor of the kings of Numenor, a messenger of the Two Kindred to the Lords of the West. After he had saved Middle-earth he was unable to return but was set in the skies to voyage forever as the Morning Star."

A portion of the Morningstar is captured in Galadriel's phial given to Frodo and Sam as a "Light when all others go out".

"The Lord Of The Rings" takes an unmistakable Christian form. Each of the three main heroes I have mentioned is a kind of 'Christ figure'. Each offers his life for others, each passes through darkness and even a kind of death to a kind of resurrection. Gandalf defends the Campanions against the demonic Belrog on the bridge of Moria and fell with his enemy into the fiery pit. victorious in death, he is eventually 'sent back' no longer as Gandalf the Grey but endowed with even greater authority as Gandalf the White. Strider/Aragorn also 'harrows hell' by daring the Paths of the Dead under the haunted mountain, and summons the spirits of the dead oathbreakers to his side at the black stone of Erech. Finally, Frodo passes through Shelob's immenetrable darkness under Minas Morgal, through an uncousciousness that Sam cannot distinguish from death, into The Land of The Shadow itself, but in his case, futher indintfication with the suffering Christ continues even after victory achieved by so many sacrifices. His wounds, even through he becomes increasingly 'full of light', can never entirely be healed in Middle earth and he has to go to the Gray Havens."

Me: My augument here is, Christ did not fail as Frodo did, who did in fact, become comsumed by the Ring at Mount Doom where God had provided Gollum as the way of escape.

Later in this article Caldecott really says the same thing;

'As Tolkien saw, without help from 'outside', from beyond ourselves (In theology, this is called grace.) The self cannot unmake the self. 'I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.' as St. Paul says Romans 7;18-19)."
"On the brink of success, Frodo's free will having taken him as far as it can, the Ringbearer dramatically renounces the Quest and claims the Ring for his own. His freedom to cast it away has been eroded by the task of bearing it to Mount Doom. What finally saves him is an apparent accident, which is in fact the direct consequence of his own earlier and freer decision to spare the life of Gollum. That was the act of pure compassion. Thus in a way it is not Frodo who saves Middle earth at all. Even less is it Gollum, who bites the Ring from his hand and in so doing falls into the Fire. It is not Sam, who has learned compassion from Frodo,, and without whom Frodo would never have reached Mount Doom."
"The Savior Of Middle earth turns out to be The One who works through the love and freedom of his creatures, and who forgives us our trespasses 'as we forgive those who trespass against us' (letters,p.181), using even our mistakes and the designs of the enemy to bring about our good."
"The ending of The Lord Of The Rings is a triumph of Providence over fate, but it is also a triumph of Mercy, in which free will, supported by grace is fully vindicated."

I could go into further ramblings, but those are in fact my ramblings, not yours. It's your paper and what has spoken into your life. It may not be LOTR, I don't know. Anyway these are my ramblings and the comfort God has given us Ragamuffins over here.

Lots of Love from the Masses who need opium of Christianity (Stalin)

[Corin Stormhands]

We have a winner!

Glenn Close in Hook

[Wneighbor]

So I send you the funds for my knife? I don't want a knife for myself...just for the platoon.

Yes, I am taking care of the platoon funds and sending a total to 300winmag. He has said that he would prefer not to know who donates what because far as he's concerned this is a group effort - all of us - even those who cannot afford to send $$$.

Will it have my name and address with it, so they'll know I sent it?

Yes, I am working on getting set up to be able to print cards similar to those you printed to go with the items we sent to Kandahar. On the cards that go with the knife I am also sending some care instructions that have been provided by Winmag as well as (I hope) a relevant passage from LOTR.

Am accepting suggestions for an acceptable book passage also as I haven't gone and looked myself yet. (But then I tend to work at the last minute so left up to me it would be a last day project!)

[ecurbh]

In what Robin Williams movie did Glenn Close play a cameo roll.

In Hook she plays the pirate that gets put into the trunk with the scorpion....