Jeremy Lott's Diary
You know what’s great about going to a Catholic church on a hot day? (more…) Read more
You know what’s great about going to a Catholic church on a hot day? (more…) Read more
This energetic retelling of Jonah is a year old, so I assume somebody on Patheos has posted it by now. It would be pretty hard to host the conversation on faith and not take note of little Mary Margaret Douglas’s interpretation of the biggest fish story of all time. But it’s new to me, and I suspect to many of my readers as well. The setting is the pulpit of Corinth Baptist Church of Albertville, Alabama, and one assumes she’ll... Read more
Let me slip the Friday tune in just under the wire. I give you “Post-War Blues” by Dan Mangan. Question: Do you consider this an anti-war song? I thought so at first. And I still think the opening punches in that direction. But overall it’s hard to make the case that this is much of a “message” song. Agree or disagree, dear reader? Read more
1. Sometimes you learn new things. Christopher Buckley, in his obit of Gore Vidal, offers one likely reason why father William F. Buckley didn’t throw a punch at Vidal in their immortal exchange. He sets the scene: If you look closely at the footage of the 1968 TV contretemps between WFB and Vidal, you’ll see WFB trying to rise out of his chair at the moment of maximum heat. If you look very closely, you’ll see him physically straining, but... Read more
Yahoo! Sports seriously poses the following question: “[W]hy is the U.S. so dominant in the sport over the last several years?” (more…) Read more
News of Gore Vidal’s death has started the cycle of remembrances and recriminations. Real Clear Books has linked to both and likely will link to more as the week grinds on. Roger Kimball writes that he found Vidal’s novels “unreadable…where they were not comically repellent” and complains specifically of “the jejune pornography of Myra Breckinridge.” I didn’t dip deeply enough into the man’s work to render a broader judgment but did make the attempt to get through Live From Golgotha:... Read more
Those were the two titles that occurred to me regarding news that (count ’em) eight badminton players have been disqualified from the Olympics for trying to throw early matches in order to draw weaker opponents in later rounds. I am frankly appalled and outraged to learn that badminton… (more…) Read more
All the recent argument over Chick-fil-A has made me, frankly, quite hungry. One of those restaurants opened near my old place in Fairfax, Virginia. I went there maybe once a week. I had put it out of mind, but this controversy has had a rather Pavlovian effect. It has reminded me and my taste buds of how much we miss the place. I miss the great chicken, the Chick-fil-A sauce, the waffle-cut fries, the milkshakes, the finely chipped rather than... Read more
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