This week I drove past our local Wendy’s. The marquee read, “VA NILLA FROST Y — CO MING SO ON!” A Vanilla Frosty? What would Dave Thomas say? I know Wendy’s is losing market share but this is going too far…
Posted in culture
The Church of England is considering a proposal to dethrone St. George as its official patron on the grounds that he is too warlike and offensive to Muslims. (HT: CrunchyCon blog)
St. Alban is proffered as a replacement.
Posted in culture, in the news
“And the coal trucks come a-runnin’
With their bellies full of coal
And their big wheels a-hummin’
Down this road that lies open like the soul of a woman
Who hid the spies who were lookin’
For the land of the milk and the honey
And this road she is a woman
She was made from a rib
Cut from the sides of these mountains
Oh these great sleeping Adams
Who are lonely even here in paradise
Lonely for somebody to kiss them
and I’ll sing my song, and I’ll sing my song
In the land of my sojournAnd the lady in the harbor
She still holds her torch out
To those huddled masses who are
Yearning for a freedom that still eludes them
The immigrant’s children see their brightest dreams shattered
Here on the New Jersey shoreline in the
Greed and the glitter of those high-tech casinos
But some mendicants wander off into a cathedral
And they stoop in the silence
And there their prayers are still whispered
And I’ll sing their song, and I’ll sing their song
In the land of my sojournNobody tells you when you get born here
How much you’ll come to love it
And how you’ll never belong here
So I call you my country
And I’ll be lonely for my home
And I wish that I could take you there with meAnd down the brown brick spine of some dirty blind alley
All those drain pipes are drippin’ out the last Sons Of Thunder
While off in the distance the smoke stacks
Were belching back this city’s best answerAnd the countryside was pocked
With all of those mail pouch posters
Thrown up on the rotting sideboards of
These rundown stables like the one that Christ was born in
When the old world started dying
And the new world started coming on
And I’ll sing His song, and I’ll sing His song
In the land of my sojournIn the land of my sojourn
And I will sing His song
In the land of my sojourn”Rich Mullins, “Land of My Sojourn”
Carol had this idea of sharing fine art on Fridays for a month. Here’s one of my favorite paintings: “First Steps” by Van Gogh. I’d love to hang a print of this is our living room.
Posted in culture
My alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has finally done it. This year’s graduating seniors are the last class required to pass a swim test to graduate. It may seem outdated and silly, but I like the swim test. It’s a unifying experience of all Carolina graduates (Mike: “Isn’t spending four years in Chapel Hill enough?”). In upstate New York, where I attended elementary school, almost every public school had an indoor pool. As part of our physical education we had several weeks of swimming each year that continued as long as P.E. was required. We learned all the strokes and how to tread water. It was virtually impossible to make it through elementary school without learning to swim. In North Carolina, almost no schools have pools. I know many adults who never learned how to swim. Every summer, several adults drown in the state of North Carolina. UNC has pools. They still require physical education. If you don’t know how to swim, they’ll teach you. And the swim test wasn’t like the service academies. It only required swimming 50 yards and then treading water for the remainder of five minutes. But now it is no more.
HT to Laura Leigh for letting me know about this sad departure and also for taking such a cool picture at Notre Dame and letting me make a header with it!
Posted in culture, in the news
My former professor, Bart Ehrman, was on today’s Fresh Air. I thought his discussion with Terry Gross was better than some he’s done in the past, or maybe I am just getting more tolerant of Dr. Ehrman. I listen to FA almost every day, so it made me laugh that Dr. Ehrman is someone Terry Gross just gushes over, like Neil Young or something! Continue reading
AN OPEN LETTER ABOUT OPEN EMBRACE posted by Sam and Bethany Torode on openembrace.com. I have deep respect for any author willing to be honest and upfront and say publically “we’ve changed our minds.” Now, their mischaracterization of Augustine and Calvin… ;o)
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