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Loving the new thread and that new-thread smell, guys.  A bit of ego-boo here: I was elevated yesterday to the office of Junior Steward. I was raised at the end of October, and told folks that I was seriously gung-ho and wanted to start moving to the chairs -- and they took me at my word. I welcome any words of advice from brethren who've gone through as well. I'm really looking forward to doing my part in bringing new folks in. (For those who don't know, the stewards do some of the grunt work for degree work, and we are also the unofficial entertainment and refreshment committee.) Went up to the Grand Lodge today in Indianapolis. What a cool building -- and I *love* the museum. There are some fascinating things there. I'll write about a couple of 'em tomorrow. For now, I'm on a caffeine downtime and barely keeping awakzzzzzzzzz Effingham fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Dec 20, 2012 |
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Dec 20, 2012 06:18
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mrbill posted:Brother, I would love to purchase a couple bottles of your fine product, if you are to make it available. You should also make up some old-timey labels, like: As would I. Produce mass quantities. Please.
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Dec 23, 2012 19:26
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TemetNosceXVIcubus posted:I was asked whether I was a Christian. I said no, I am not a Christian, I am a Catholic. Which is the truth, WTH? Catholics *are* Christian.
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Dec 27, 2012 01:16
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TemetNosceXVIcubus posted:One day a man dies, who was a devout Christian. Saint Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates and tells him he has some free time, so he will give him a tour of Heaven. As the tour goes on, Saint Paul points out all the different religions. "There's the Muslims, that's the jewish section, Orthodox are over there there's the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, Budhists are over there with the Hindus", and so forth. As they come to this huge wall that stretches as high as and far as the eye can see. Saint Paul motions for the man to come closer and whispers. "Now, we need to be really quiet around here. On the other side of the wall we keep the Catholics, and they think they're the only ones in Heaven." I always heard that joke as about the Baptists. (Which, for the record, I was raised. I since "got better" and became Eastern Orthodox.  )
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Dec 28, 2012 17:32
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mrbill posted:Has he the password? He has not. I have it for him.
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Jan 1, 2013 08:14
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SafetyTrain posted:What kind of income disparity is there usually in your run-of-the-mill Lodge? In my Lodge, we have my family doctor, my family barber (a past-master), a few teachers, a guy who works for the gas company, a guy who works for a phone company, a bunch of retired guys (a couple of cops, a few ex-teachers, etc.), a couple of between-jobs guys, etc. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Basically, the gamut.
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Jan 5, 2013 01:16
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Colonial Air Force posted:According to a link later down the way on that page, the commercial has already been edited. I can't find the link that says any such thing. Where is it?
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Feb 6, 2013 18:24
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Congratulations upon being newly raised, brother!
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Feb 8, 2013 04:54
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QPZIL posted:Ours only allows it if the other lodge is opening up an EA lodge. So basically, only if the lodge is conferring the first degree. Not necessarily. The Lodge can be opened on any degree -- the business is pretty much the same. We have a guy who was recently passed to FC, and the week after our Lodge had a stated meeting and we opened it on the FC degree so he could be there and participate.
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Feb 9, 2013 04:14
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Glad to hear about you guys Masonifying Masterfully. Today we had a work-through of Scottish Rite degrees in Bloomington -- I am now a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason. It was quite a lot of fun, and a lot to take in. I have a LOT of reading to do.Major fun.
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Feb 17, 2013 03:01
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Flying Fortress posted:Obviously not quite the same thing, but one of the first things our newly installed WM did was hold a practice for a Masonic Memorial service, so that we would know how to properly pay our respects by doing it right if called upon. This is brilliant. I'm going to recommend it to our WM this week.
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Feb 17, 2013 17:07
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Another ACW story I like:quote:L.J. Williams of Harvard, New York, enlisted in the 114th New York Volunteers at the beginning of the Civil War. He received the Entered Apprentice and Fellowcraft Degrees in Downsville Lodge No. 464 prior to his leaving home. The most famous tale, of course, is of Gen. Armistead of Virginia. quote:One of the most famous events and one that I have mentioned earlier that occurred at Gettysburg was the huge Confederate infantry push known as Pickett's Charge. On July 3, Pickett (a member of Dove Lodge #51, Richmond, Va) led nearly 12,000 men on a long rush across open fields towards the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. It has been called the last and greatest infantry charge in military history. There is now a statue at Gettysburg commemorating this event -- The "Friend to Friend" monument. Effingham fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Mar 3, 2013 |
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Mar 3, 2013 02:36
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Greetings new brethren! And Qpzil, I like that thing the old man told you. I'm going to be going through the York degrees next month.
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Mar 7, 2013 19:56
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QPZIL posted:Brother Sir Knight QPZIL, checking in I am moving forward with the York degrees next month, although -- I must admit -- every time I see someone use "sir knight" as a reference rather than an address, the English speaker and former magazine/newspaper editor in me twitches. "Sir knight" is a term of *address* ("Sir knight, how are you this evening?') and not a term of reference ("Do you know that sir knight over there?"). KNIGHT is the term of reference. DAMMIT. THat always makes me twitch, and I just know I'm going to have issues with it.
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Mar 11, 2013 02:42
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Lovable Luciferian posted:Be sure to say that verbatim during the degree. I think I'll pass on that bit of advice. Although I have mentioned it to a few brothers, and their response is generally, "Huh. I never thought of that. Well, it's how *we* do it, though, so..."
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Mar 11, 2013 22:42
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QPZIL posted:Man, I can't wait to piece together a KT uniform, and then... not wear it for a long time Bummer on both levels.  I love the historical aprons, and I plan on getting a Rev-War era style one after I step down from the East in several years. (For the time being, the Lodge is supplying my embroidered officer aprons ) Heck, I think I might get one for traveling to other Lodges...
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Mar 15, 2013 18:02
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. Apparently since the North Carolina York Rite Bodies are all combined, the meetings are opened for 4 months as a Chapter, 4 months as a Council, and 4 months as a Commandery. So uh, I guess I'd get to wear it to 4 meetings, and 2 days of degree conferral. But GAH it's so cool looking. Eh, anyway.
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Straithate posted:You will wear an apron, say a prayer and drop a follower on the coffin. Question -- does one need to first incapacitate the follower in some way, or is it assumed that they will claw their way back off of the coffin?
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Mar 22, 2013 21:06
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I'd like to make a brief digression of the topic at hand, if I may. A couple of days ago, I was made a Knight Templar. We went through the whole York Rite degree work in a massive two-day class, with fifty attending candidates. I have to say... WOW. I am seriously stoked, (and seriously tired out) from all that stuff. They were right about the early degrees (the Royal Arch Degrees) in that they really tie in -- and shoehorn in -- to the Blue Lodge Degree work. It seems like the fourth degree goes between Fellow Craft and Master Mason (for reasons that I don't really feel I should go into here) and the fifth degree, the Past Master, is really a post-Master degree. But the Cryptic degrees... wow. SO much material. And then the Chivalric ones. Dang. I am totally gobsmacked by the suddenly inflated number of passwords and counter-passwords and grips and due guards and signs that I now have to cope with. AIIEE! I must admit, though (and I've said it before), that the term "Sir Knight" weirds me out. As a form of address (e.g., "Sir Knight, how are you today?") it's perfectly fine, as "sir" is a term of address. But as a term of reference (e.g., "There are five Sir Knights here today" or "I want to be a Sir Knight") it's grammatically WRONG, as, again, "sir" is a term of address, not reference. The term of reference is, simply, "KNIGHT" (so why don't we just say "he's a Templar?") but, I guess, it's something I'll just have to live with as one of the many (many many many) Masonic idiosyncrasies.
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Apr 8, 2013 15:17
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QPZIL posted:Congratulations, Brother Companion Sir Knight South-central Indiana, just south of Indy. quote:Yeah, having gone through a similar 2-day degree conferral (with 11 total, I can't imagine 50, good lord), I agree that it's a LOT to take in. I'm actually working on a book at the moment that may help you out. I'd love to see it when you're done. We did get copies of the Cryptic Monitor and Ritual, and my sponsor gave me his old copy of the Templar Ritual book, as well as the Tactics Manual. He says there are books for the Royal Arch back at the lodge when I go to my first meeting. quote:I felt the same way, but I've come to just think of "Sir Knight ___" as a Masonic thing, as a way to separate it from someone who is a real honest-to-goodness knighted "Sir". This way, I feel, keeps us on a separate level so that we're not encroaching on the hard work people have put in to their actual knighthoods. I can see that, but heck, we're already using "Templar." Why not just SAY "Templar" or "Templar Knight"?
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Apr 12, 2013 01:27
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For some reason, my e-mail client is refusing to send the e-mail. Is the address correct as ianblake (at) gmail ? (Or am I zoning, and "gmail" means something else?)
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Apr 19, 2013 00:32
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Gah. Forgot the dotcom. Sigh. More... coffee...
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Apr 19, 2013 03:25
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Oh, so... hey. I joined the Shrine yesterday. I have a sparkly new fez. Yay, Murat Shrine!
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May 26, 2013 05:21
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Excellent. I hope his butt hurts for a long time. Fraternally speaking, of course.
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Jun 5, 2013 22:11
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True, but it's always kind of nice to have a tangible bit of history. My local Lodge burned to the ground about 15 or 18 years ago. All that was salvaged were a handful of metal officers' jewels that weren't consumed by the fire. Everything else? Gone. All the photos of the past masters, all the photos of the events, all the history. Thank God the secretary had the roll books and so on at his house -- but the other records and the original (1850) charter are gone. I go to visit other lodges in the area, and I see a wall of past masters looking down at me, stretching back into the distant past. My Lodge only has a couple of pictures of a local who was Grand Master in the 20s or 30s, and a few pictures of recent DeMolay/OES/Rainbow things. We don't even have the past 16 years of WMs, apparently because it would be "too jarring" for sudden modern pictures with nothing behind them. Some of us officers want to at least get a placque made up with past WMs' names on them, but... sigh. The official story is that the fire was an unknown accident; the unofficial story is that it was arson, and people had a good idea of generally who, but... eh.
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Jun 7, 2013 15:42
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Where can one get such a period-correct ring?
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Jun 11, 2013 16:05
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Sockington posted:I was voted in tonight. Initiation to take place in September. Congratulations!!
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Jun 14, 2013 17:28
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:Also, am I the only Shriner in the thread? Nope. Noble of the Murat Shrine (Indianapolis) here.
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Jul 2, 2013 03:31
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7thBatallion posted:Well, I'm going to get close to that line regarding bad WMs and GMs. Hear, hear.
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Jul 2, 2013 20:37
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That's a good letter. Let us know what happens.
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Jul 10, 2013 21:03
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For some people, it's a family thing. For some, it's friends. I wonder how many people come to us cold, with no family or friends in the Masons at all to start with.
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Jul 13, 2013 03:40
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Welcome, brother!!
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Sep 28, 2013 01:05
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Lovable Luciferian posted:Wear underwear. If nothing else wear underwear. During one of the EA... um, walks... my cousin's "special pants" came unfastened and dropped. He was very glad to be wearing new, clean undies. The whole loge now knows whether he's a boxer or brief man.
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Oct 3, 2013 06:26
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Mr. Maltose posted:What kind of Podunk lodge uses a mechanical goat? That's straight up some poser Oddfellows business. I imagine most urban lodges don't have access to livestock, and since many lodges have had to convert their Goat Rooms to Rooms of Preparation, it's gotten harder to get a real goat in the city lodges.
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Nov 29, 2013 23:07
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