COMFORT, COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE. …Were I not a Christian, for instance, I’m pretty sure I would envy Christians their beliefs about the afterlife, since the survival of consciousness and the resurrection of the body more or less matches up with my deepest longings concerning what awaits after death. (This correlation is one of the many reasons, of course, why I am a Christian to begin with.) Yeah, I, uh… don’t agree with this. Not that I think Ross is... Read more

ST MARY OF EGYPT, PRAY FOR US. Read more

See you on the TV, call you every day,Fly across the blogwatch just to let you get your way… (I offer this song free to anyone [sister?] who wants an example of RPS in pop culture. My apologies if she is already on it.) The Agitator: “Police are increasingly going to homes with agents from regulatory agents under the guise of ‘code inspections.’ Once inside, they then search for criminal misconduct. The process negates the need for a search warrant... Read more

In the crowded court of your loveI was now a blogwatcher… (Oh, now that loses something in the translation.) Daniel Mitsui: …A perspectival painting is, in many ways, not realistic at all. Some of these ways are obvious. The subjects do not move. Neither can the person looking at the painting move, or the failure of objects within the painting to move in relation to each other will reveal its artifice. The frame, usually rectangular, is unlike the actual periphery... Read more

REPUBLIC OF LETTERS: Stuff from the ethereal mailbag. Thanks to all who have written, including those to whom I still owe replies…. From James A., and from weeks and weeks ago, sorry!: …Re: year-old comments on Theology of the Body seminar that you linked t’other day: ‘All the platypus has to do to fulfill its telos is, like, be its weird-ass mammal egg-laying self, whereas humans can’t get away with just being “human, all-too-human.” We actually have a task which... Read more

THE EARTH LOOKS BETTER FROM A STARLET: A couple reader responses to my posts on “Ana Ng” and woman-as-icon. From Dean Abbott: …In your latest post these sentences drew my attention: “…don’t marry a girl just because the sunlight caught in her hair one afternoon and you thought suddenly of God. You’ll still have to live with her and do the washing-up, you know.” I can see where you’re coming from, but as a married man I can tell you... Read more

PRAYER REQUEST. Read more

Although he smiled, the tears in his eyes kept blogwatching… Alias Clio: John Betjeman on evil and childhood. Holy Whapping: More HWTV!!! House, O.P. and much much more. This is really awesomely awesome. “Meanwhile, Christina Rossetti concocts an elaborate scheme to falsify her street-address so she can order Supreme Flounder from the local Chinese take-away.” Plus making fun of Veronica Mars; Baron Corvo refs; “The Knights of Poverty”; and lots more. Via Amy Welborn. A restaurant without a cash register:... Read more

If you don’t watch what you blog about your mirror is gonna find out… Lots of really excellent stuff here, of all different kinds. Salvador Dali’s Sacra Biblia. Phenomenally ace. Go look at these!!! You can surf around here and here. Via Disputations. Ebert: We spend too much time hiding illness: …I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers. So what? I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it... Read more

…THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR: Casting actors to do the voices for the New Testament. They’re having some trouble casting Satan, apparently. (Via Ratty.) I totally can’t help myself, so I’m going to have some fun here and do my own casting (in utter innocence of the laws of time and space). Keep in mind that I really liked Edward G. Robinson in “The Ten Commandments,” and I don’t care what you say! Satan: actual possibility: John Malkovich. He has... Read more