I was thinking about #1 on your "do" list myself. The key word there being almost.

1) Giving up sweets.

2) Giving up recreational shopping and spending. But I have a small list of conditions associated with this one.

As smoking has gotten more and more taboo it's become increasingly difficult for me to perform my Ash Wednesday sacrilege, which requires a dirty ash tray as one of the props.

Chocolate. Just candy. Not chocolate ice cream.

Possibly, (still pondering this one) I will pass on telling Donkey's Butts that they are, in fact, Donkey's Butts.

I understand there is a movement building for people to give up Facebook for Lent. I could do that.

I put giving up things for Lent and New Year's resolutions in the same category...good intentions, but life's too short as it is.

Only year I actually made it through Lent in good shape was the year I gave up Christianity.

LOL - I love the "almost" loophole! I wonder if that would work for my Yom Kippur fast (that I have NEVER made it through once!)

Actually, I would not at all classify myself as "religious", EL. But that might be a matter of semantics. Obligation per Catholicism's not my motivation for Lenten activities. I actually started observing Lent in solidarity with a fellow Sun staffer. DIdn't want to see him walk through the valley of the shadow of sobriety alone. Big mistake. But it stuck, and there you have it.
Joyce: I don't see why not. I find that there are certain occasions during Lent when it's OK to slip the yoke. hence "almost". I do make-up days, though.

After reading this post, wondered how long it would take for someone to take the requisite swipe at Christianity. Not long.

Of course, when observing fasting or abstinence during Lent, regard must be paid to the fact that Sundays are Feast Days, so the fast or abstinence may be broken.

OK Hal, I'm interested. What do you do with the dirty ash tray?

I'm thinking of giving up Dining@Large for Lent.

The key to understanding the ashtray remark is "sacrilege". I think that calling it a mockery also works.

What do you do with the dirty ash tray?

You get ashes from it, of course.

I'm just giving up for Lent. Join me.

I'm giving up meat. Yikes! This could be rough goings.

Why does that woman in the video have a big 8X10 color glossy of herself back there on her...dressing table...whatever it is? Isn't that a bit egotistical?

Well, here we go again. The video that was there an hour or so ago is no longer visible on my computer. Unlike that last time, space for the video on the page is preserved.

BTW, it's only the video that's gone. All the pictures are still visible.

I'm wondering what the point of the video is. Zzzzz......

The video is an ironic metaphor, I think.

It's back. Very weird.

I sometimes skip the videos on these, but having wondered about whether it was up or not, I clicked it and was amused.

Since high school, I have fasted one day a week during Lent. I find myself looking forward to it each year. Starting the night before I don't snack after supper. I will drink only tea during the day until after six o'clock and then break the fast with a meatless meal, typically homemade mac and cheese, bacon-less carbonnara or veggie fried rice.

What intrigues me is that it feels like it is easier as I get older. I can even go for a three or four mile walk in the morning and not feel drained for not replenishing the calories after.

Likewise since high school I have abstained from eating meat on Fridays (except the Friday in Easter week), and since I was seven I have eaten no chocolate during Lent.

No hard spirits, but wine on Fridays (my day off!) and Sundays -- correctly identified as a "Feast Day of the Resurrection" above, even during this season, which is why it takes 47 days to get from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday.

Of course, all of this is what my doctor says I should be doing 52 weeks a year to keep healthy!

I've done a number of fasts, the master cleanse and vegetable juice fasts for uop to 11 days. After day 3 it starts to get interesting.

The big Y.K. (Yom Kippur) fast is suppossed to be nothing at all passing your lips form sundown to sundown the following day. It's hard! As I admit, I haven't been able to do it yet. I guess I don't have the spiritual will for it or something. I could do it (I think) if V8 was allowed.

Joyce, V8 is full of sodium--read the label! (Bonking forehead.)

Ashes for Ash Wednesday, by the way, are made by burning the palms from last year's Palm Sunday and mixing them with a little chrism (the oil used for baptisms). They are remarkably hard to burn all the way, so letting them sit almost a year is absolutely necessary.

Joyce and Dahlink,
I have learned to enjoy the low sodium V8. My doctor says he can't stand the stuff, but I don't mind it at all.
The regular stuff is rather salty.

Crap, I left this thought off my last comment.

At the suggestion of a liquor store employee, I mixed some low sodium V8 with beer It was a regular, mass-produced lager, not a "good" beer like Rob Kasper would drink. Not bad, not bad at all. I don't drink that mix that often, but it pretty good.

Something to think about next time you want a beer and be healthy about it.

Don't know if that has a name, but how about a "Bloody Bubba?"

Ashes for Ash Wednesday, by the way, are made by burning the palms from last year's Palm Sunday

As a recovering Catholic, I'm quite aware of that. I can't help but wonder, though, where did the ashes come for the Ash Wednesday before the first Palm Sunday?

Hal ...The first Palm Sunday came first ... but here's what I want to know. Someone obviously picked up the Palms from the road up to Jerusalem as a souvenir, or maybe as an investment -- and a pretty risky one at that, given the political climate. So what did she/he think when one of the apostles asked for a couple -- not to sell, but to burn!!! And then to do what??

And if you all will forgive the religious interruption, I absolutely relish the fact that the Ash Wednesday Gospel lesson from Matthew 6 (the Sermon on the Mount, extended) specifically forbids disfiguring your face on a fast day. It's the toughest hole a preacher has to jump out of, IMHO.

I'm fortunate. I will give up sharing a bottle of wine with my wife for Lent. She has given up drinking wine for Lent!

Dahlink and Fl Rob - how 'bout low sodium V8 mixed with Old Bay? Would that undo all the low sodium-ness?

PCB Rob- "Bloody Bubba", that's great! Joyce would probably recover from her Yom Kippur fast pretty quickly with that concoction.

where did the ashes come for the Ash Wednesday before the first Palm Sunday?

Ash Helper,

Joyce,
Adding Old Bay to low-sodium V8 probably would undo it. You could try reduced-sodium Old Bay!

Organized religion.

Oh wait.....I gave that up 15 years ago.....

low sodium V8 mixed with Old Bay? Would that undo all the low sodium-ness?

8 oz serving
V8 620 mg Na
V8 LS 140 mg

Old Bay 1/4 tsp
160 mg

So V8 LS + Old Bay = 1/2 the sodium of V8 (300 mg)
V8LS+OBLS= 140+105 = 245 mg

I use V8 LS pluls sriracha hot sauce. Tangy! And I do a mild lactic acid ferment on it too.

Old Bay Lo Sodium ha 30% less sodium.

My favorite addition to LS V8 -- Sherry vinegar. Tastes like gazpacho!

That sounds good MDC. I wonder if I could get away with using LS V8 to make a cold gazpacho-like soup? Add some chopped cucumber and sweet onions and garlic and fancy vinegar? Might work.

Is it just me or do you pronounce "might" in the above sense like there's an "n" in it, whereas when using it as a synonym for power it rhymes with night? Woo hoo it's Saturday night.

I'm fascinated by the site Kalyx.Com that terriermom mentioned. You can get a pound of green tea for $10.

I like the sound of V8 LS w/ sriracha sauce, Owl. And MDC, sherry vinegar sounds good too. I make my gazpacho w/ regular V8, Owl. I can't see any reason for not substituting V8 LS.

If you add some lactobacillus starter you don't need to add vinegar. You naturally convert some of the sugar to lactic acid which makes it tangy and slightly carbonated. It's a much better taste than the acetic acid in vinegar. The effect is slightly like champagne but without the alcohol.