Busy day. All you get is links.
Though essentially a lazy guy, I kind of like busy days. They go by fast, bringing me that much closer to the lonely, sordid death that awaits me, and the sweet rest that will surely follow (unless the Catholics are right).
One drawback of busy days is that I generally come out of them without anything to blog about. Unless the busy day was interesting in itself. Which this one wasn’t.
So I shall link to things.
First, the nasty one. How can anyone read this story and not believe in the existence of evil?
Of course, Christians used to have witch trials five centuries ago, and that proves that this woman and Sarah Palin are indistinguishable.
In cheerier news, the Swedes are contemplating building new nuclear reactors, after years of mandatory The China Syndrome revivals. This has got to be big news, because (as everybody knows) Swedes are remarkably slow-witted. If they’re getting the message, everybody else must be pretty well won over.
Finally, courtesy of this list at SEO By the Sea (courtesy, in turn, of Conservative Grapevine), I learned that people in Guangzhou, China can read this blog. I’m rather surprised. Disappointed, in a way. What do we have to do to be considered running dogs of imperialism?
One Man, Black and White
A famous explorer, author, and geologist Clarence King (1842-1901), a white man, presented himself as a black railroad worker named James Todd in order to marry Ada Copeland. No one knew that the well-known and respected white explorer was also an unknown and married black man, not even his wife, until he died. The story is told in Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha Sandweiss.
Reviewer Elinore Longobardi writes:
Sure, Clarence King was a public figure with a generous paper trail, but what of James Todd? The great care King took to obscure that part of his life reverberates down the years, so that even an assiduous researcher (take a look at the rigorous footnotes) finds only small shards of information.
And so Passing Strange is dotted with lacunae, many of them marked with such phrases as, “No anecdotal stories from Ada’s own childhood survive,” or “It is not entirely clear just how Clarence King’s double life began.” …
The larger point, though, is that society, and thus history, values certain lives over others. Some are chronicled in newspapers, biographies, and archives; others pass into obscurity. The challenge to the present-day historian is to resurrect as much as possible of those rich, yet undervalued lives—and in Passing Strange, Sandweiss more than rises to the challenge.
Your Taxes Won’t Be Spent on Worship Facilities
I don’t blame you for avoiding the news lately, but I wanted to point out this article on the House pork-barrel, Tax-the-Future bill passed a few days ago. The Senate has not passed it yet, and maybe Republicans will vote against it like their House counterparts did. But in the House version of this bill, money for school renovation will not be allowed on facilities open to “sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity.” $6 billion is allotted for this.
Doesn’t that “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion? Why should the Fed have any prohibitions on such money?
Mathew Staver of the Liberty Counsel said, “President Obama’s version of faith-based initiatives is to remove the faith from initiative. [Obama] a completely different view on faith” from what he said during his presidential campaign.”
Eight O’Clock, as in, Beans
Consumer Reports tests the flavors of 100% Colombian coffee from different brands. Eight O’Clock Colombian coffee won out. I respect 100% Colombian coffee, regardless the brand. Somehow, it always tastes better than the same brand’s regular blend.
Do we have free trade with Colombia yet? They have good guys in office now, right?
Wake-up call on mute
Good thing I went to the movies Sunday. Not only did I see a movie I liked, but I also saw an announcement that I considered worth dissection.
You’ve noticed, if you go to movies at all, the overkill theaters are marshalling to get people to TURN YOUR CELL PHONES OFF! There used to be announcements like that about not smoking in the theater, but smoking’s not even on the radar anymore. Today the scourge is cell phones, and I see the point. There are some who just don’t get the message; and they disturb everybody. However, I think the people who miss four announcements are probably unlikely to respond to a fifth.
But one of the announcements was pretty clever. You may have seen it. Continue reading Wake-up call on mute
King Says ‘Twilight’ Author Less Than Terrific
Author Stephen King understands the appeal of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, but he thinks she “can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.” (via Big Hollywood)
Review: “Taken”
I went to see the movie “Taken” on Sunday, and I was very, very pleased.
You know that scene in “Sleepless in Seattle,” where the women are talking about the movies that make them cry, and one of the guys says, “I always cry at the end of ‘The Dirty Dozen”?
I think a lot of guys are sitting in theaters, grateful for the darkness, watching this one, because there’s a little tear in their eyes at the end of “Taken.” They’re not blubbering like girls, mind you. Just a little liquid atop the lid, a little flutter in the stomach.
Because “Taken” is about a guy who does what a guy has to do, and gets his due. A father who—for the first time in a long time, in any movie that I know of—actually knows what he’s talking about, and should have been listened to in the first place. Continue reading Review: “Taken”
Finally! The recognition we deserve!
Thanks to Sally over at Fine Old Famly, who has (if I follow how it works, something I’m not entirely certain of) awarded us a Premio Dardo Award. It’s a sort of chain award, requiring you to pass it on to 15 other bloggers, with the ultimate Ponzi-like result that eventually everyone will have one and it will mean nothing.
Still and all, she says nice things about us, and that doesn’t happen often (at least to me). So thank you Sally.
I’ll have to think about whom to share it with. I should probably let Phil select some of the recipients. Or all of them, if he’s in the mood.
Update: There’s actually only a few literary blogs I read with any regularity. So they get the prize for my part.
1. Kevin Holstberry’s Collected Miscellany. Kevin has wide-ranging interests, and the books he reviews are pretty eclectic (or so they seem to me. I suppose everyone considers anyone else’s reading idiosyncratic).
2. The View From the Foothills. A very good Christianity/Books blog I’ve been following for years.
3. Roy Jacobsen’s Writing, Clear and Simple. Great advice from a good writer, when he bothers to blog. Which he’s been doing more often lately. Maybe this’ll encourage him.
4.I Saw Lighting Fall, the blog of our commenter and friend Loren Eaten. Like all excellent literary blogs (such as this one), he casts a wide lariat and talks about a range of subjects.
5. The Maple Mountain Story Club, domain of another of our commenters, S. D. Smith. He deals with books and writing, and also shares bits of his own work.
6. I think Patrick O’Hannigan’s The Paragraph Farmer can also be called a literary blog, though that’s only one of many subjects covered. Patrick is, as I used to be, a regular contributor to The American Spectator.
Phil’s additions:
7. Frank Wilson’s blog, Books, Inq., is invaluable to me, so I should honor him first. He does blog with a team, but he’s the leading man.
8. Jimmy Davis does good work on and off the screen. He blogs at The Cruciform Life.
9. The Thinklings don’t need an award. They are just about awesome without one. Still, I offer this to them.
10. I doubt the guys at The Rabbit Room need an award either. They actually have albums, books, etc. to fool with, but they have a strong blog. Bravo.
I’ll stop there. I’m listening to Phil Vischer speaking at Moody’s Founder’s Week right now. It’s stirring. He said if we’re focused on being in the middle of God’s will today, then where we’ll be in five years (our ministry or personal vision) is none of our business.
More on Updike
The New Yorker’s blog has posted over the last few days many words from notable authors on John Updike. Mary Hawthorne said, “In keeping with his intense curiosity was a corresponding generosity toward anyone who dared to grapple with, for lack of a better word, the human condition. He had ideas about what book reviewing should be.” Ideas like this:
“1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.
2. Give enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book’s prose so the review’s reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.”