All very well for blogs to have their watch…

GetReligion: This post makes me yearn to write a novel about American public life, in the style of The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini.

The Rat: I wasn’t as hard on the technical/length aspects of The Good Shepherd as Ratty was, but that’s largely because she’d already warned me about them. I thought it was surprisingly good. I agree with her that the wife and son lacked characterization; that this damaged the movie, but it’s hard to know how it could have been fixed; and that the final ambiguity is really well-done. …Rattus also links to a page about 19th-c French tours d’abandon, where women could anonymously leave their newborns.

Friends of St. John the Caregiver: Catholic org providing support to people caring for the elderly, especially aging parents. Via Mark Shea.