“Superficial reading nearly always leads to superficial thinking. And we have increasingly become a society that does not read so much as browse. Though the Internet moves vast amounts of facts to our fingertips, it doesn’t teach us to analyze them and create a comprehensive thought—so we often confuse facts with wisdom and understanding.” (Hat tip: Lars)
This story is oddly frightening
(But then, pretty much everything is oddly frightening.)
I’m remarkably empty of rational (or any other kind of) thought tonight, but this story caught my eye.
You don’t often find me blogging about cars.
I’m not entirely sure I’d enjoy meeting the lady, as they describe her in the article, but she definitely has her own style.
Nearly 600,000 miles later, the 90-year-old Florida woman still drives her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente every day.
I might note that you don’t generally find cars that old in Minnesota, because of the road salt. So don’t blame me for Mrs. Hermanson’s rust. It’s society’s fault.
Oh yes. I have a book out. You can order it here.
Communion on the Moon
In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.’ I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this.
When Buzz Aldrin and his teammates landed on the moon, Buzz took the communion of the Lord Jesus. Eric Metaxas writes about it on his blog today.
Frank McCourt, 78, Has Died
“F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. I think I’ve proven him wrong,” Frank McCourt said, reported in The Washington Times. “And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools.”
Books about Men and the Moon
AbeBooks.com has the list, including Roverandom, a family story from J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Vinland map returns
“The Vinland Map,” subject of much controversy over most of my lifetime, is genuine after all, according to a Danish scientist.
COPENHAGEN, July 17, 2009 (Reuters) — The 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map to show part of America before explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the continent, is almost certainly genuine, a Danish expert said Friday.
Tip: Ori Pomerantz.
Unfinished C. S. Lewis manuscript discovered
It was known that C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien had planned to write a book about language together, but no one ever knew how far the project got, or what happened to any work done. Now a Texas scholar has announced the discovery of a draft of the first pages of the book.
Steven Beebe, Regents’ Professor and Chair of the Texas State Department of Communication Studies, discovered the opening pages of the unpublished manuscript in the Oxford University Bodleian Library and has recently documented that the manuscript was the beginning of the previously believed to be unwritten Lewis and Tolkien book.
Although C. S. Lewis started the book, there is no evidence that Tolkien began work on the project.
Thanks to Dale Nelson for the tip. Dale is always on the ball.
Starbucks Begins A Locale Blending Plan
Starbucks, which some people call “Fourbucks” because of the prices, will remove it’s name from one of its Seattle stores in an effort to appeal to the budget-minded coffee drinker. The well-established store will be labeled 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea and will soon offer beer and wine along with coffee and tea. I assume the prices will be the same, but maybe, just maybe, they will drop a bit.
In other vital news, July is National Ice Cream Month and this Sunday is National Ice Cream Day. So tell me, do you like floats, shakes, or malts? What are your preferences? I love shakes more than the others, though an icy Coke float with vanilla can be a nice, different treat. I don’t like malt enough to enjoy malts or malt balls, but I can make them. I have special training.
40 years ago Monday
Do I remember what I was doing when man first walked on the moon?
Indeed I do.
I was traveling that summer with a team from Lutheran Youth Encounter, a “parachurch” ministry that sent teams of college-aged Lutherans to work with the youth in various congregations. We usually spent a week in each church, but we’d had a cancellation for this week, and our team’s leader (a Type-A overachiever of whom I was in awe at the time) had put us to work cold-calling churches all over the Ohio District (because that was where we were). Finally we’d found an urban Cleveland church that was a little desperate because it was between pastors, and somebody apparently thought bringing us in would provide “something for the kids.”
As I recall it, it was a pretty bad fit, and I’m not at all sure they felt they got their money’s worth. Continue reading 40 years ago Monday
Radio: Trends in Christian Fiction
From Crossway Books blog: “Justin Taylor, Crossway’s Editorial Director, will be on the Albert Mohler Radio Program this afternoon [5:00 p.m. eastern]. Russell Moore will be guest hosting a discussion on Christian-fiction publishing trends and what they reveal about Christian culture.”