John Ratcliff's Weblog

This evening I was honored to be elected Junior Warden of Naphtali Lodge #25 in Saint Louis that meets at the New Masonic Temple at 3681 Lindell Boulevard. Brother Chris Baldas was elected Worshipful Master for the upcoming term. I am very excited about our growing lodge in the next year. I am hopeful that new students arriving for the fall term at Saint Louis University will consider the world's oldest and most honorable Fraternity as their own. Why join a Fraternity that lasts only a few years when you can join one which spans the globe and lasts for a lifetime? This evening I received an email from Brother William Pesson in France. He is an architect writing a book that includes Masonic architecture. I took the following pictures this evening and I am excited if one of them ends up in his book. If you click on one of the images it will bring up a higher resolution version. If you are interested in a print quality image just email me and I will send you the link.

I have a site counter that tracks the exact search requests people have done to come here. From time to time I like to post some of the queries people make. Sometimes they are amusing but this time I got a pattern of legitimate sounding queries. In the past 24 hours I have had at least five people enter a variation on the phrase 'How to become a Freemason?' and end up here. Since, apparently, this is a burning question, let me answer it. Search request #1: "How do I become a Freemason?" You become a Freemason, typically, by asking a Freemason. However, even before you do that, make sure you qualify. You must first and foremost be a man of good character. Second, you must have friends who will testify to your character and, third, you must profess a belief in God. Not any specific God, simply a belief in a God that is responsible for the creation of the Universe. It doesn't matter what religion you belong to, including no religion at all, you just have to profess a

I am posting some more photographs from the Greater Saint Louis Renaissance Faire in Wentzville . These pictures are not necessarily all that unique from the ones I posted last weekend, but I am uploading them nontheless. I am really trying to get the hang of my wife's new camera (though recently it seems equally mine). This time I tried using the telephoto lens and I learned how to put it into 'action' mode where I can snap many photographs in rapid sequence. I was a little dissapointed that none of my new shots of the " Limey Birds " turned out that good, probably since a lot of them were back-lit the entire time. This weekend I took my nephew Charlie and my son John and they sure seemed to have a good time. The 'Limey Girls' picked my son out of the audience to flirt with which made it a little bit of special fun. I gave a few people my card so they could find these pictures online. I will be happy to send them any of the photographs at full resolutio

The Limey Birds at the Greater Saint Louis Renaissance Faire in Wentzville. As I said in my last post, well, the weekend ain't over yet. I suppose it is now as I am typing this message.. but you know what I mean. Today I wanted to go to the Renaissance Faire. It is a personal annual tradition that I quite enjoy. My goal each year is to eat a roasted Turkey Leg and, in that, I succeeded. The sad part is that I couldn't get a single person from my family to go with me. It seems they feel they have long since grown out of the event. I was told by my children and even my wife that they thought it was boring. They just wanted to stay home and go swimming, and this is exactly what they did. For myself, I ate a Turkey Leg, I drank two pints of Bass Pale Ale, I watched a joust, saw many lovely, lovely, costumed women, listened to celtic music, participated with an acrobatic troupe, and laughed as I heard the Limey Birds perform. I am not the kind of person who actually dresses up fo