FOOT-WASHING in the Washington Post. Read more

Best notify my blog of watch,This wheel shall explode! The Rat: David Hockney and California dreaming. And the authority of the British Rabbit Council!!!! Unqualified Offerings: Blog! I should have told you all already, but Dappled Things–a new, online Catholic literary/cultural journal–has its Lent/Easter issue out now. I was published in their last one. More importantly, the journal is focused on cultural renewal, and seems to pay a lot of attention to the Catholic blogosphere, so if you find yourself... Read more

PASSION: Amy Welborn’s intermittent “What did you hear at Mass?” thread. Some excerpts: 1. You know, the constant use of palms as swords [by children] surely indicates that the sensus fidelium finds a deep connection between the palm branches of the children of Israel and the weapons they wished to bear against Rome. Perhaps we are being told that, just as Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, so Jesus’ swords are not made of metal but of living branches... Read more

THE BEST HAND-CLAP RHYME EVER: In the land of OzWhere the ladies smoke cigarsEvery puff they takeIs enough to kill a snakeWhen the snake is deadThey put flowers on their headWhen the flowers dieThey put diamonds in their eyeWhen the diamonds breakIt is NINETEEN EIGHTY EIGHT! why did my playground not feature this magnificence???? Read more

STOP SWEARING, DOGGONEIT!: Quoth the Maven takes on one of my recurring growl-targets: We get all hinkity about obscenities, but think profanities are no big deal. That seems ass-backwards to me. …At this point, after some serious effort, I rarely say “d–n” or “g-d—n,” although I’m not proud to admit that I still cuss like a sailor at times. (Dappled Things might be amused to note that I seem to have replaced the exclamation of “crap” with “Cromwell!” I promise... Read more

NOTES FROM A WEEK AT PRINCETON AND ELSEWHERE: 1. The “Russia’s Age of Elegance” show here is really excellent. The portrait room was the most poignant for me–all these people with their birthdates in Russia and their deathdates in exile. 2. Puck needs to be played with some menace, especially because you’ll eventually get to that final speech, where you’ll really want to have built up some degree of unseelie credit with the audience. (2a. Gay bondage fairies, while a... Read more

In dreams I’ll blog with youIn dreams I’ll watch with youIn dreams you’re mine all the time…. Claw of the Conciliator: Continuing series on science fiction, fantasy, and religious faith. Includes really useful suggestions on where to start reading authors who are new to you–I’ve already added a couple things to the Reading List That Ate Cincinnati. Family Scholars: A lot of links on the legal issues surrounding gay parents; and an egg donor reflects, 10 years later. Relapsed Catholic:... Read more

MAPPING RELIGION IN AMERICA–via Camassia. Read more

I’M GOING TO VISIT THE RAT for a week, so blogging will be light. A couple links before I pack: a blog all about the Church fathers (via Amy Welborn); and Emily from After Abortion on her relief work in hurricane-devastated areas: …The church itself is gone except for the white steeple, which lies on its side in front of the site. Behind the steeple is a jury-rigged assortment of tents, trailers, quonset huts, pathways over the red mud built... Read more

WHEN YOU’VE BEGUN TO THINK LIKE A GUN: Review of Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. Yeah, I promised this a million years ago. You get it now. This book is an unexpected combination: more than half literary study of the Iliad, more than half attentive, personal description of traumatized Vietnam veterans, from the perspective of a psychiatrist who worked with many of them. It is 100% compelling on both grounds. I will talk... Read more