The Bible and Culture

Meet the mongoose.  There is actually a sound track for these creatures, courtesy of the last hit by Donovan--- 'Riki Tiki Tavi' (mongoose is gone).   You may ask why is this critter smiling.  Well because he is the natural predator of things like snakes, and actually Mayor Bloomberg could have done better picking mongeese (yes that's the plural of mongoose, over possums to get rid of his rodent problem.    If you are wondering what the connection of a mongoose to a goose is, it is, … [Read more...]

Meet the wolf in sheep's clothing.  Not your normal sheep, but what with genetic engineering these days, perfectly possible.  I had never considered that genetic engineering might be a way to speed up the process of fulfilling of Biblical prophecies, but hey--- whatever works. Sheep are not notably bright creatures.   My theory is because someone stole their ram memory.    One weekend I was driving in the Lake District in England on a very narrow paved track, and came over a hill and … [Read more...]

It was white, looking like a bleached out ground hog, it was wobbling and waddling its way across my back yard,  destination unknown.   Meet the O-possum or as we call him in the ole South, the possum.   It is hard to believe this critter has been turned into food, he is so stringy and scrawny, but in fact it's true.  American will eat anything that's chewable, you know. But the possum has a secret.  He is the only marsupial of his sort to be found native to North America.  You have … [Read more...]

Meet the vermin, aka varmint, aka varmin. He is a fearsome critter, but his pelt is much in demand. And in fact, the fur industry has given this animal an extreme makeover, by taking away the first letter of his name. They call him the ermin. Don’t be fooled by this P.R. move, they knew that the name vermin had negative connotations and would never sell. Their ‘rebranding’ is about as reliable as those labels inside of furs that say 100% pure mink or the like. The vermin has had an … [Read more...]

Ours is an age of hybrids. Hybrid cars, hybrid economies, hybrid vitamins and foods in general. It is thus not unexpected that there might be hybrid holiday food, in this case for Thanksgiving. Enter the turducken, one part turkey, one part duck, and apparently some chicken as well. Scientists have had theories about the origins of these rare birds, even though no one seems to have seen them in the wild. Here below is one scientific hypothesis on the matter. Even cartoonists … [Read more...]

Meet the Nauga, a species not of gerbil, hamster or guinea pig but of its own, and indigenous to America! The Nauga is known for its bug-eyes. The Nauga, unfortunately today  has to be reported as an endangered species, oddly enough endangered by the Barca Lounger. You see it takes an enormous amount of pelts to produces a nauga-hyde couch or reclining chair. In fact Sam van Pelt and Joe Hyde from PETA reckon that it takes over 1,000 Nauga’s hides to produce such a product. The … [Read more...]

While it is hard to believe,  at two hours and 17 minutes this is the shortest of the Depp Pirate movies, it may be even harder to believe that this has gotten worse reviews than the previous movies in the series!   Ah, but if a pirate's life is for you--- ahoy matey, shiver me timbers and blow me down, this is a summer movie just for you. Actually, in my humble opinion this is not the weakest in the series--- that would be Pirates--- At Wit's End......err.. at the World's End.    This … [Read more...]

Whilst I am off doing archaeological stuff in Turkey (blog posts to follow),  I have had my crack team uncover some major conspiracies when it comes to our American food supply.   Herein you will be told the real story behind some of the products you find in your grocery store.  Be warned, this information makes those Chick Fil-A ads look tame. Meet the spamster. He is native to small islands in the south Pacific, including Hawaii. The spamster is a cute little fellow who starts … [Read more...]

The picture here is the view from atop Mt. Nimrud in Turkey.  It is an uncommon view, and something uncommon has happened in the world of modern Evangelical Seminaries--- one of them has picked an official translation to use in all its classes---- the Common English Translation.   This translation is deliberately simply much like the old TEV or NIV and concentrates on readability for almost any audience. My only real beef with it is that it messes up the phrase 'Son of Man'  as applied to … [Read more...]

The twittersphere has been all abuzz about Mr. Camping's prediction that the rapture is happening on May 21rst.  One response was --- Weather Forecast for Saturday---- 'Doomy with a Chance of Rapture'.    Unfortunately,  Mr. Camping is about to be proved a false prophet twice over (yes, he already went down this road once in 1994 or so, but we have such short attention spans that we've forgotten that). Here are my top ten reasons why you should pay exactly no attention to Mr. Camping and … [Read more...]