Kevin is doing something different with his blog, and he has an excerpt from a book on Guinness. Did you know that “Guinness Stout is the seventeenth largest selling beer brand in the world, and by far the best-selling beer brand that is not a pale yellow lager”? Fascinating.
Elmer, coast to coast
I heard a friend on Michael Medved’s show today. Michael had Ann Coulter on as a guest, and one of his callers was a fellow I’ve written about before on this blog (some time back; probably on the old site), calling him “Elmer” (not his real name). Michael recognized his voice, and said, “I know you. You gave me some religious literature when I was in Minneapolis.”
Elmer was a little odd when we were growing up together, and he hasn’t gotten less odd with the years. He’s a Christian now, and heavily involved in end-times prophecy studies. He figures the world will come to an end in a few months, and has maintained that view consistently, in a rolling fashion, for the past decade or so.
Still, for all that, he has the moxy to call a national radio show to try and chat up Ann Coulter.
I mean, if you’re going to be crazy, you might as well have some fun with it. Not that I want to be Elmer, but he seems to have a better time being crazy than I do.
Until the world ends, of course.
I finished reading Randy Wayne White’s Twelve Mile Limit today. Enjoyed it, but his Doc Ford books (I reviewed Shark River a while back) leave me conflicted. There’s elements I like very much and elements I don’t like at all. But compelling, withal.
That’s not a review. But it’ll do to round out this post on a pseudo-literary note.
Robert Irvine Making Cooking a Smidge Easier
Chef Robert Irvine, recently of “Dinner: Impossible” on The Food Network, has a book out on his style, experiences, and ideas on thinking ahead. WSJ.com has a video spot on him here. I’ve seen his show a few times, and it’s impressive what he can accomplish. I must be nice to pull up good ideas in a few minutes and carry them through with excellence. No doubt, no hand-wringing. I’d like to try that sometime.
Drivel
How bad can it be before it can no longer be called poetry? I know y’all are fierce poetry advocates, so here’s an article on a poem, once highly praised, now considered the worst ever written. If that’s not enough bathroom reading for you, here’s a promising book: Very Bad Poetry.
The Raging Debate
Apparently, Richard Dawkins and other atheists agree to be in a documentary without full knowledge of the intent of the film–or with incorrect knowledge because the film makers did not level with them. They say they were told it was a film on the debate between Darwinism and creationism, but it appears it was actually a film on the shut-out of professors who endorse Intelligent Design. (via Books, Inq.)
Hopefully, Dawkins is fully aware of what he’s debating tonight at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He is scheduled to debate John Lennox on the question of God. Both men work at Oxford, so it will be an peer argument in a sense. The debate is hosted by Fixed Point Foundation.
Harry Potter and the Christian Critics
In First Things, Mark Shea writes:
The magic of Harry is, as John Granger points out, “incantational,” not “invocational,” exactly like the magic of Gandalf. Born with the talent for magic, Gandalf says the magic words and fire leaps forth from his staff, just as from Harry’s wand. No principalities or powers are invoked in HP. Indeed, if any words are “invocational” they are the prayer to Elbereth and Gilthoniel uttered in Middle Earth. Yet nobody accuses Tolkien of promoting the worship of false gods. That’s because we understand Tolkien’s fictional subcreation and its rootedness in Christian thought. I suggest Christian critics try to extend Rowling the same charity.
Spoiler warning. [via Mars Hills Audio]
Book Pictures
I’ve wanted to make this kind of art for a long time, but I’d tend toward playing with words as well as books, such as “Not Easily Moved” in Gallery 2 (the eighth selection).
Coming to a Theater Near You
Blue Like Jazz. At least, it will be a movie loosely based on the book.
Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing
First off, a link. The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has a new website. I imagine we have both “egalitarians” and “complementarians” among our readership, but I’m a complementarian, so I like this organization and its site. Make of it what you will.
Today was a day rich in drama for your humble correspondent. It encompassed in a short span all those stages you’ve come to recognize in my response to crisis: First shock, then base despair, then self-flagellation, then the working out of things, then Never Mind.
First of all, the guy who’d said he’d cut down my tree came to my office and told me he didn’t think he could do it. Too tall; too close to the house. I thanked him, and contemplated the prospect of hiring a professional, and all that would cost me.
But he knew a guy, he said, and he’d ask him to take a look. “Please do,” I answered, large beads of sweat extruding from my furrowed brow.
I began to plan what I’d do when the Guy He Knew said he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do the job. I’d have to find a professional. The professional would either a) say he had to do it this weekend, which would interfere with my plans to go out to Dallas, Wisconsin with the Viking Age Society. Or b) he’d say he couldn’t get to it till next week, which would mean I’d have to be here and wouldn’t be able to go to Minot. Which would mean I’d miss the Sissel concert and my life would be utterly, totally pointless.
Furthermore, the extra money it would cost probably indicated that I ought to give up on Minot anyway. Ragnar is expecting me there to do live combat shows with him, but these things happen.
If things worked out just right, I figured, I’d be able to disappoint pretty much everybody.
Then my guy came back and said his friend had looked at it, and could do it. Only he couldn’t cut the tree down for two weeks. However, my guy said he could clean up the branches on the ground this week.
In other words, it looks like it’ll work out perfectly.
Except that it’ll cost me a little more, but still it’s about half of what the professionals ask.
So how did I handle this test of my faith? About C-, I think. Maybe D+.
I’ve been thinking lately that maybe I worry too much about my emotional responses. The important thing, it occurs to me, is not how I feel, but how I force myself to say, “Praise God. Thy will be done.”
On the other hand, my feelings affect how I deal with other people, and my expressions of faith and peace could be much, much better.
Ah, well. At least I can put it online. “Praise God. Thy will be done.”
Grandfather’s Son: Why Now?
Ever since I read the rumor that Justice Clarence Thomas was going to write a book, which was shortly after starting this blog, I have looked forward to reading it. I knew it would be interesting. Same goes for anything Condoleezza Rice will write. Now, Judge Thomas’ memoir has been released. From what I’ve heard, My Grandfather’s Son describes Thomas’ entire life with more candor than most readers would expect.
Did you see the “60 Minutes” special on Thomas? I didn’t (segments available here), but I hear the same question asked in two different discussions of the book, and you know what they say about non-verbal communication carrying most of the weight in a conversation? Saturday on NPR, a couple women were talking about how angry and bitter the book felt despite its beautiful language. The anchor or host asked the reviewer why Thomas would write this book now? Why can’t we just put all this behind us? Why irritate old wounds? The tone was clearly negative.
Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh asked the same question of Thomas himself. Why did you write this book now? The tone was clearly positive, asking for a stated purpose of the book as opposed to a justification for something distasteful. If I remember correctly, the answer to both questions was about the same, though Thomas added a little which NPR may not have known. He wanted to describe his life and work at the Supreme Court–a high honor, in his view, not his destiny. Many had described his life already and with many lies or errors, so he wanted to give his perspective as an eye-witness.