PRAYING WITH ER Okay, ER just had a fabulous moment on their Christmas episode. A woman whose boyfriend has just pretty much died gets the bad news from Dr. Luca Kovatch – who is having the night from hell. He pretty much killed her boyfriend by a clinical error. So, the girlfriend says to him, “Will you pray with me?” He – being a committed agnostic (what my friend calls being deeply commited to being in confusion) – suggests that... Read more

PRETTY MUCH EVERY THOUGHT I HAVE IN MY HEAD The cool website Godspy just posted an interview I did with them a few weeks ago. Pour yourself a large cup of coffee. Then, click here. Read more

THE MALTESE LURKER Okay! I HAVE to know. Every day since November when I got this new Onestat super-duper blog tracking thingy on this page, there has been one visitor daily from Malta. Malta! How cool is cyberspace? I have a fondness for things Malta as my all time favorite highschool nun was from Malta — fabulous accent. So, if you please, who are you Malta person? Email me…. If you’re not, you know, weird or something…. Read more

EMILY D. STILL ALIVE AND WELL IN HOLLYWOOD I did end up watching the PBS show the other night about Emily Dickinson. It was a weird documentary that included interviews with scholars and – the weird part – a host of actresses auditioning for the role of Emily Dickinson in some unnamed future project. There were also snippets of Emily’s poems covering images of Amherst, and Emily’s house and family. In the end, the project seemed to me to help... Read more

“IT IS AS IT WAS.” The above is Pope John Paul II’s commentary upon screening the upcoming release The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. For a man who has written stacks of encyclicals, and has made thousands of speeches on hundreds of trips, John Paul II is generally not a quotable guy. He hasn’t generated a lot of pithy lines that have become part of the cutural lexicon. Mother Teresa has lots of greeting cards and holy cards... Read more

LET’S TALK ABOUT ART, BABY! So, my friend, and a successful show biz writer, IM’s me today on AOL about my standing alone in the corner contending that (John, cover your ears-) The Lord of the Rings movies are just not that great as films. I am cutting and pasting our exchange here because it highlights an important issue with which we, in the Church particularly, need to wrestle. It is also emblematic of the kind of dialogue that defines... Read more

OUTING MY INNER MUPPET? Is there a funner [read: more narcissistic] way to kill a few minutes than these funny web quizzes? Recall that as a comic book character, I came out as Professor Charles Xavier. So, now, I took the Muppet test and lo and behold… “You are Dr. Bunson Honeydew. [It’s the glasses, right? Tell me it’s the glasses…] You love to analyse things and further the cause of science, even if you do tend to blow things... Read more

“PRAISE FROM CAESAR IS PRAISE INDEED.” I just met Frank Beckwith this past weekend. A scholar and a gentleman, Frank wrote a review of a book to which I contributed a chapter. The book is Back to the Drawing Board: The Future of the Pro-Life Movement. Frank’s review is here. He actually singles out moi’s humble chapter. Most gratifying. Read more

JOHN, THIS ONE’S FOR YOU Time for more spicy bits. In deference to poor John S. who is drawn to this blog daily and yet has a stomach full of references to The Passion of the Christ, LOTR and Act One, I will mention none of these in this next entertaining bit of snippets. – Joan Conquers the Globe? Daily Variety just put out its annual issue speculating about the Golden Globe nominations due out Dec. 18. New Catholic, Barbara... Read more

“NOT AN OUNCE” I realized that I never wrote follow-up comments after the ROTR junket last week. Principally, that was because I saw Peter Pan the same evening, and the happy entertaining experience of that latter film made me reticent about revisiting Return of the Tedium. I know I promised to write a real review, and if I didn’t have seven Azusa Pacific term papers, a book proposal, fifty Christmas cards to write and 95 NEA applications to pore through... Read more