Back from Hostfest, alive and well and only slightly scathed. I won’t do a big post tonight, because I’m exhausted (my usual state at this point). I’ll just share a picture (there will be more tomorrow).

This is me in our Viking camp, presiding in lordly splendor, backed up by a gorgeous quilted banner that somebody in Minot produced for our exhibit. I’m wearing my brand new Viking tunic, which I got to wear for the first time that day. Unfortunately I had to give it back to the lady in our group who makes these things, because she wants to do some final finishing on it.

Tomorrow: Amusing anecdotes and passive aggression.



Note: In Photobucket this picture is right side up. I can’t figure out how to make it transfer correctly.



Update to note: Apparently it’s all right. I just needed to re-load the page. Never mind.

What a week to leave town, spend my days in a Viking camp, and (presumably) get my news mostly second-hand!

Next year, when I go to Høstfest in Minot, I expect I’ll share the roads with thousands of refugee Minnesotans, all their earthly possessions jammed into and strapped onto the tops of their Priuses. They’ll abandon this state once the high taxes and the economic downturn drive what’s left of the jobs out, and head west to North Dakota, where a favorable industrial environment will spark a sudden boom. Thugs will be stationed at the border to keep the “Minnies” out.

I’ll have a legitimate entry authorization from the Høstfest Committee, of course. Maybe I’ll never come back, though.

I commented, on Phil’s post below about historical naming practices in Europe, on a passage I recalled from an old book I own. I’ve found the passage now. It’s from Our Roving Bible by Lawrence E. Nelson, published by Abingdon-Cokesbury in 1945, long out of print. It’s a book on the influence of the Bible on English-speaking culture. My mother gave me her copy sometime in the mid-60s. I have no idea how she came to acquire it in the first place. Looking at it now, I’m amazed that I read it in high school, since I’m pretty sure I didn’t understand ¾ of it. Continue reading Why not Minot? →

I’ve been listening to people on talk radio for a couple days now, discussing the market bailout bill being discussed in Washington.

I’ve come to the solid conviction that I don’t understand it at all, and have no idea who’s right.

I think I vaguely comprehend the problem, and how the situation came to be. But what may be the right way to deal with it I cannot fathom, any more than I grasp quantum physics or pop music.



Apropos of Phil’s post below on the movie Fireproof, here’s a link that was sent to me, to Ted Baehr’s Movie Guide webcast, where they interview Kirk Cameron about the film. I share it primarily because the interviewer, Gail Nordskog, is the wife of my new publisher. (I suspect, due to the nature of the URL, that this link will change to a newer webcast before too long. So if you’re reading this a few days from now, you may get a different program.)



Do any of you know anything about the new Billy Graham movie? This isn’t a movie by Billy Graham (i.e., World Wide Pictures), but a movie about Billy Graham. I watched the trailer (someplace), and I find it intriguing. But it seems too good to be true. Continue reading Markets and movies →

I’ve seen a lot of comments on the blogosphere about Saturday Night Live making a joke about incest in the Palin family.

Tasteless? Yes. A cause for conservative outrage? Not so much.

Hugh Hewitt played the audio of the entire skit last night, and in fact, taken in context, it was a piece that could have been written by clever Republicans (there are a few, I’ve heard). The skit involved an editor sending a group of reporters to Alaska expressly to find dirt on Gov. Palin, and the reporters’ questions (including the incest one) were actually meant as examples of how out of touch the reporters were, how prejudiced against anyone living outside the liberal coasts.

The big laugh was when the editor informed the group that there was no Thai take-out in Alaska, and half of the reporters backed out.

It would be better to get outraged about issues that have some substance. There are plenty of those out there.

Outside, it was like summer in Minneapolis today. Just beautiful. Air conditioning weather.

But it is winter in my head.

My first cold of the year has arrived, with its entourage in tow.

I’m getting tired of this. Last winter, if I recall correctly, consisted entirely for me of a very long bout of flu, bookended on either side by unusually long colds.

I’m losing my faith in zinc tablets.

I’m beginning to suspect that zinc tablets are like the secret police of a particularly inept military dictatorship. They manage to beat down the resistance, but they cannot wipe it out. It waits, and organizes, and grows in strength in the shadows, until it bursts forth with volcanic violence in terrorism and revenge and blood in the streets.

It is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It’s the beginning of the beginning of Cold Season.

According to this highly questionable report, the Large Hadron Collider has been shut down due to damage and will be out of order for two months.

What really happened, I think we all understand, is that a black hole immediately formed in the core of the thing, and that Switzerland is already being sucked into the vortex (Think about it. When was the last time you had a phone call from anybody in Switzerland?).

They just don’t want us to panic. Because if we’re all going to die a horrible death anyway, it’s important we do so in a calm state of mind.

I had dinner last night with a group of fantasy writers from the American Christian Fiction Writers convention, being held in our fair metropolis. I managed to get out of my shell after the always-difficult initial “meeting people” stage, and by the end of the night they were all bored sick with me.

Thanks to all of you (you know who you are) for your patience.