“REJOICE, O UNWEDDED BRIDE” in Greek, Ukrainian, and English. (Unfortunately the last link is probably the hardest to hear. If you hear the English in person it’s amazing.) Read more

“THE MOON ON THE BREAST OF THE NEW-FALLEN SNOW/HEGEMONICALLY OTHERED THE OBJECTS BELOW.” That’s not even the best couplet. Via MTM. Read more

“THE YEAR KENNY LOGGINS RUINED CHRISTMAS.” Via Ratty. Read more

“BEYOND BARS.” Read more

THE MOST RUSSIAN HEADLINE EVER. Via AC. Read more

AN EDGE IS A PROMISE GOD WON’T MAKE: So you might as well work it like it’s going out of business. I try not to inflict figure skating on you people but this is really… look, just try it. It’s weird. You’ll like it. Read more

YOU BETTER WATCH OUT: Kindertrauma has a list of their favorite Christmas horror movies (and some lumps of coal to avoid)! Definitely check out the comments, too. I’ve already voiced my problem with Black Christmas–it doesn’t actually say anything despite an exceptionally meaning-freighted symbolic alphabet–but I love that KT, like Sean Collins, groks that Eyes Wide Shut is best watched as a horror movie. I got that perspective from Collins and it really elevated my experience of the film. In... Read more

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace, and, as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become... Read more

HAVE YOURSELF A SCARY LITTLE CHRISTMAS: …In the same way, the greatest Christmas film of all time — It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by the Catholic Frank Capra — takes our hero George Bailey through an odyssey of terror, too. It’s interesting that fear seems to attend the story not because George is deeply wicked like Scrooge, but because it is a Christmas story; and Christmas stories, like the Easter story, properly take us from the joyful mysteries, through the... Read more

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE BEAUTY: Dappled Things, the Catholic literary magazine which accepted many of my earliest published short stories, really needs your financial help to continue. If you like what I write, just think how many other Catholic writers and artists are out there for you to discover! Daniel Mitsui, whose intricate black-and-white illustrations are like Graeme Chapman* + MC Escher = icons, is also offering an artwork exclusively for DT donors. (Uh, or at least... Read more