Does language frame our thinking? Stefanie blogs about it on So Many Books.
All posts by Phil
The Next President: William Jennings Bryan?
I don’t have a favorite in the presidential primaries yet, and I’m growing more tolerant of all of them (except Ron Paul, whom I like as little as John McCain). So I’m not campaigning here. I’m just blogging. Dennis Ingolfsland points out some interesting commentary on Mike Huckabee, which calls him a reflection of William Jennings Bryan.
Yesterday In Coffee History
On 22 August 2001, The Trojan Room coffee pot was turned off. Now THAT was reality TV. I should put a coffee cam on BwB.
Drag one through Georgia
What did I order, if the waitress repeats it by saying, “Drag one through Georgia?” Amy points out an interesting site on diner slang.
Don’t Read That Fantasy
Here are twenty reasons you may want to put down that fantasy novel before you are disappointed by a lame story (according to the writer). One reason: “characters repeatedly ‘respond,’ ‘demand,’ ‘deny’ or ‘wonder’ their dialogue. You get ONE of these per chapter, and even that’s pushing it, buddy. They can ‘say’ things. They can occasionally ‘ask.’ And, since I’m an Anne of Green Gables fan, they can ‘ejaculate’ if they must. But THAT’S IT.” [by way of The View]
D. A. Carson on False Alternatives
So which shall we choose? Experience or truth? The left wing of an airplane, or the right? Love or integrity? Study or service? Evangelism or discipleship? The front wheels of a car, or the rear? Subjective knowledge or objective knowledge? Faith or obedience?
Damn all false antitheses to hell, for they generate false gods, they perpetuate idols, they twist and distort our souls, they launch the church into violent pendulum swings whose oscillations succeed only in dividing brothers and sisters in Christ. The truth is that Jesus Christ is Lord of all—of the truth and of our experience. The Bible insists that we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. (D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, p. 234) (found here)
A Tribute to Poe from Whom?
Have you heard that for years someone has been putting roses and cognac on the alleged grave of Edgar Allan Poe in Baltimore? A man stepped forward to claim responsibility for the tributes, but he lacks the credibility to put the mystery to rest. Apparently, the man “has a long history of making things up for the sake of publicity, which in this case is rather ironic as it is itself a publicity stunt about claiming to have started something else as a publicity stunt.”
Too Real: US Senator in Next Batman Movie
Sen. Patrick Leahy has a speaking role in next Batman movie. I wonder if the ratings description will note “actual politician” among “violence,” “frightening sequences,” and whatever elements make up the movie’s rating.
3 School Girls
THREE school-girls pass this way each day:
Two of them go in the fluttery way
Of girls, with all that girlhood buys;
But one goes with a dream in her eyes . . . (from a poem by Hazel Hall)
Lately, I worry about nurturing the dreams in my little girls. I seem so naturally harsh and distant. I don’t want to be, but it’s like swimming against the current to change.
Don’t Look Under My Bed!
Here’s a book that won’t make it to the best-seller list, but it could be just the right stocking stuffer for a friend or enemy: Monster Spotter’s Guide to North America. The author, Scott Francis, blogs at MySpace.