WHEN I WAS CRUEL: My article on Alan Moore’s A Small Killing is up at Inside Catholic. Read more

KIND OF AWESOME “DARK KNIGHT” POSTERS from around the world. My favorites are this one, this one (prison), this one (credits-of-Seven-ish) and this one (sob!). The last one is spoilerous if you know nothing about the larger DC Comics cast of characters. The others aren’t. Read more

SINCE PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR IT THESE DAYS… my old, long piece on Watchmen–talking about how its reworking of murder-mystery tropes is at least as radical as its reworking of superheroics; how the symmetries work; things it has in common with Shakespeare (really!–and not entirely for the best!); and forgiveness. And probably other stuff I’m forgetting. If you scroll up, there are lots of good responses as well. More Watchmania. And I should have another Alan Moore-related piece up sometime... Read more

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF STS. ANNE AND JOACHIM, parents of Our Lady. St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read. I love these. more! and more! and more! Read more

YOUR FACE IS MARKED UPON THE CLOCKFACE: An anonyreader brings up a very pertinent criticism of my liturgy/nfp post. I’m not on board with the sharp separation at the end between pragmatic discipline and spiritual discipline (it seems clear that people can make the latter also the former, and in fact, lots of people who write about nfp take exactly that approach so as to avoid the “contraceptive mentality” my correspondent notes), but otherwise, this is a good riposte to... Read more

10 MOST AMAZING GHOST TOWNS. Oh, that first one is amazing. Reminds me of this…. Read more

ARISTOPHANES SAYS, “OH PLATO. WHY SO SERIOUS?”: My sister did an interview about fanfiction. I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m guessing I mostly agree with her. It’s so odd to me that fanfiction seems strange to others; to me, the weird thing is coming to the close of every single story you ever read and never once thinking, “But what happened next? Oh, wouldn’t it be awesome if?” My longer post about fanfiction is here. Read more

RHYTHM METHOD: So I was reading about Humanae Vitae–the way you do–and I stumbled across a thing. Both NFP and (unless I’m an internet-educated moron!) the Jewish laws of sexual behavior create a sort of rhythm of times of sexual fast and times of sexual feast. E.g. it’s a mitzvah to have sex with your wife at certain times. Time is sacralized in the marital act. And so I wondered–can anything this side of the grave be sacred without some... Read more

WHY DOES STANLEY FISH HATE LEADERSHIP? Read more

“STORY WITHOUT A NAME“: I have a poem-type thing in the current issue of Dappled Things. Read more