PUSHERMAN: Love and Rockets–the first one’s free! Special network-TV edition. If you like Veronica Mars… …and you want more of Veronica and Lilly: Wigwam Bam. …and you want more Weevil: All of it!!!! but maybe start with The Death of Speedy. …and you really like the California setting: Try X (volume 10). I wasn’t into it–it’s actually the only volume of L&R; about which I don’t feel wildly positive–but I do think people would love it if they’re into what... Read more

EGALITARIANISM (AND EMPOWERMENT): There’s a real difference between wanting us all to be Dives and wanting us all to be Lazarus. That is all. Read more

TWO CENTS ON THE ELECTIONS from Disputations: one; two. Read more

MUSIC FOR MECHANICS: So every now and then I try to make people read Love and Rockets comics. This is that time again. I’ve only got two entries here, but if others want to put their two cents in, I’ll print ’em. I want to hook the world. If you like Flannery O’Connor, you should try “Flies on the Ceiling: The True Story of Isabel in Mexico,” in Love and Rockets vol. 9: Flies on the Ceiling. Every time her... Read more

ONE OF MY LEAST FAVORITE PHRASES: “He [she/they] brings it on himself, you know….” Use each man after his desert, and who shall ‘scape whipping? Read more

KITCHEN ADVENTURES: WITH HONEY AND WITH VINEGAR. I’m not really sure why this fit came on me; but I had extra honey lying around, with many other leftoverish things and staples, and I figured I might try combining some of them. We have one success and one failure to report. Spicy honey vinaigrette: I don’t really know what a vinaigrette is, but my impression is that this would count. These quantities were for a side dish for one person. All... Read more

His blogwatch she had tamed… Family Scholars: How many advocates of gay marriage actually buy the Jonathan Rauch “conservative case”? Yeah, about how many you thought. Also, a terrible story from New Orleans: …Teenagers in the city are living alone or with older siblings or relatives, separated by hundreds of miles from their displaced parents. Dozens of McDonogh students fend largely for themselves, school officials say. … The principal, Donald Jackson, estimated that up to a fifth of the 775... Read more

‘Tis women make us love,‘Tis love that makes us sad.‘Tis sadness makes us drink–And drinking makes us mad!–trad. Oh, I really do love this “Art of the Bawdy Song” CD from the Baltimore Consort. It’s also interesting (though it makes perfect sense) that the songs whose innuendo is subtler or storyline gentler are given to women to sing. I mean, it’s obvious why a woman sings “My Thing Is My Own” (and I adore the joyful, independent version on this... Read more

EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE: Everything that follows in this post is from Flannery O’Connor’s letters (except where obviously indicated). In chronological order, and lightly edited to clarify something w/r/t Other People’s Churches. Furthermore, almost any spiritual writer ought to wear thin for you. It’s like reading criticism of poetry all the time and not reading the poetry. —— The Communion of Saints has something to do with the fact that the burdens we bear because of someone else, we... Read more

DIVINE APHASIA: I’ve just watched Waiting for Godot and also Beckett’s Not I. I don’t have thoughts so much as reactions. So, a few reactions [edited b/c I wasn’t sure I agreed with myself in all particulars]: 1. Godot is really, really funny. I laughed my way through–not contented laughter, but the kind that’s startled out of you. 2. I almost think you could write a catechism based on Godot‘s absences. Rebuild Christian faith off of what Estragon and Vladimir... Read more