Month: June 2002

It seems that Woody Guthrie had a bit of a different view on copyright: written by Pete Seeger, June 1967, “When Woody Guthrie was singing hillbilly songs on a little Los Angeles radio station in the late 1930s, he used to mail out a small mimeographed songbook to listeners who wanted the words to his songs, On the bottom of one page appeared the following: “This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.” W.G.” Isn’t that what creating art is all about? Sharing the art with the world? Hmmm… [via BoingBoing]

When I was young I asked my Dad (born & raised Lutheran) what the difference was between the Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church. He told me “they don’t have statues in the church and they don’t pray to Mary.” While a rather concise way to sum things up, when I moved to Germany I discovered there was a lot more to the history of the split between the two faiths. Matter of fact, if I had been around back then I might have been standing there on the church steps handing Martin Luther the nails to hang that thesis up. But I am wandering far away from the original point of this post. I was pretty amused when I came across the Old Lutheran Gift Shop: Sin Boldly line of products. Yes, “Sin Boldly”. Thanks to Making Light, I learned that “That’s from everyone’s favorite Martin Luther quote: “Sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world.” (Actually, what he said was Simul justus et peccator! Pecca fortiter sed fortius fide et gaude in Christo, qui victor est peccati, mortis et mundi,” but it’s not like he’d have been speaking English anyway.) “Sin boldly” is the part everyone remembers best.”

While you’re at the store you can also pick up some of the Wash Away Your Sins bath & body products. Ironically, even after all the years since the split between the Lutheran and Catholic churches, that’s something that would sell really well across the board. [via Making Light]

Ever wonder if you’re doing the right thing when you send an e-mail message? Should you leave the original message there? Should you forward e-mails? Well, wonder no more! Email etiquette rules for effective email replies is here to help you out! [via David Gagne]