You might have seen headlines around the web today about how Oreos are as addictive as cocaine. Slashdot has this to say: Here’s how the experiment, which has not been peer reviewed and has not been presented yet, went down. Mice were placed in a maze, with one end holding an Oreo and the other end holding a rice cake. The mice, without fail, decided to eat the Oreo over the rice cake, proving once and for all that mice... Read more
Choral group The College of Cardinals is one of the longest lived ensembles in history, and would probably be the top-selling a cappella singers in the world today were it not for their eccentric release schedule. The Cardinals are a kind of all-star group, drawing the best singers from choirs all over the world, yet it is not unusual for a newly tapped member to die before ever having recorded a note with the full group. Rare as they are,... Read more
E.E. “Doc” Smith is the father of the Space Opera, and Galactic Patrol is the first book in his classic Lensman series. (You can tell it’s a classic series, because the cover tells you so.) Smith is often overlooked these days; his prose is purple, his plots are pulpy, and his characters aren’t particularly complex. On the other hand, he’s good fun; and as John C. Wright points out, Galactic Patrol …has no trace of cynicism, modernism, irony or any... Read more
Harry Dresden’s a man of the dirty streets of Chicago, a tarnished knight who can’t resist helping the next damsel in distress to come along. One of his enemies bought a burial plot and tombstone for him; it says, “Harry Dresden — He died doing what he thought was right,” and in all likelihood that’s a true prophecy. Oh, and he’s a wizard-for-hire. Call it wizard-noir. There are currently fifteen volumes in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. I started reading... Read more
As a Lay Dominican, I’m supposed to pray five decades of the Rosary every day of the year. I’m, um, working on that. I like the Rosary, and I like the way it leads me through the mysteries of Jesus’ life, but I find that my meditations on the mysteries tend to be more or less the same from week to week. Enter Tom from Disputations, who has just re-run a post on how he prays the Rosary. It’s really... Read more
Brandon has a nice piece on Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, which he read recently. For those who don’t know, Kim concerns the coming-of-age of an English orphan, raised in the slums of Lahore, in the Punjab, and his induction into the Great Game of espionage between Britain and Russia over the future of India. It’s a time and place that Kipling knew full well, it’s fascinating, and I need to re-read it Real Soon Now. Read more
So, you may ask: this blog is a Catholic blog, on the Catholic Channel at Patheos. There’s some Catholic content, but there’s also a bunch about fiction, writing, popular music, and general foolishness. What’s up with that? How come this blog isn’t all Catholic all of the time? And I answer that, on the contrary, it is. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that love is naturally expressive of itself, and so with God: the universe around us, and everything in it,... Read more
Reprinted from my old blog. The first thing to do in pursuing the interior life might also be the easiest, and that is simply to respond. If you find yourself thinking about God, for any reason, that’s a sign that God’s calling you to attend to Him. So do that. I’m not suggesting that every time you think about God, you drop everything and rush off to some private place to pray. St. Paul tells us to pray constantly (1... Read more
This bit is a re-run from November, 2002. “From what I just read, she was enough.” “Enough to be getting started with, I guess. You can’t run a sideshow with only one attraction.” “But what an attraction!” “That’s true. She was the foundation of his fortune, right enough. ‘Course, she ruined him too.” Hank leaned over and spat in the can by the wood burning stove, then tipped back in his chair, front legs off of the floor. “You never... Read more
I’m linking to Calah’s post because I need to hear it myself, not because I’m good at it: Your love shouldn’t come with a litmus test. If you can’t imagine ever being friends with a gay person because you feel you would first have to explain in detail what you think about their lifestyle, you’re doing love wrong. If you are friends with a married couple who only have one kid and you think it’s your job to talk with... Read more
Cry 'Woof'
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In