Presidential Trivia!

Last updated on: February 22, 2008 at 7:34 am By John Shore

This, ladies and germs, is the one and only Dr. Richard Lederer, dressed as formally as he knows how. Lately (with How To Observe Presidents Day: Don’t Work, and How To Get Over The Post-Presidents Day Blues) we’ve have been talking trivially about presidents. Now let’s talk about presidential trivia! And who better to bring into that conversaton than esteemed best-selling author Richard Lederer, who, as it happens, just published a book that … well, looks like this: How cool is that... Read more

How To Get Over The Post-Presidents Day Blues

Last updated on: February 20, 2008 at 8:17 am By John Shore

Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutze (1816 – 1868). Most of these guys were probably already tired of Presidents Day, but you know you’ll never be. The banners have come down; the red, white, and blue bunting put away; the top hats returned to storage. No more reinacting the famous cherry tree incident. No more sonorous recitations of the Gettysburg address. No more good reasons to say “blue bunting.” No more pretending your couch is a boat while you and your... Read more

How To Observe Presidents Day: Don’t Work. Beyond That, I’m Not Sure.

Last updated on: February 18, 2008 at 7:46 am By John Shore

Is it just me, or is Presidents Day easily the least emotionally inspiring of our holidays? Oh, sure, I always choke up a little whenever I or my wife get paid for not going to work. That’s a beautiful, even inspiring thing. But beyond that, I’m not even sure what Presidents Day is. I know that when I was a kid, the point of Presidents Day was to sit in class, stare at a colorful cut-out head of George Washington’s profile, and try not to... Read more

How to Make Money Writing For Single Atheists With iPhones Who Hate Dieting Christian Homosexuals Who Love Britney Spears

Last updated on: February 16, 2008 at 12:11 pm By John Shore

Cool. That should bump up my page views. (Oh, no. At first doing that seemed so funny — but now I sense its Impending Obnoxiousness. Because you know people really will open this post — and then go, “Oh, wow. Now I so hate this guy.” And I hate it when people hate me. Not because I have any psychotic desire to be loved by everyone, but because I so care about people that it causes me pain when they’re wrong. And not loving me is about as wrong as... Read more

I’m Now The Kind of Person I Usually Have Issues With

Last updated on: February 13, 2008 at 10:22 am By John Shore

I’m about to become a teacher. Talk about karma. (By which I refer to my last post, “Life. Death. Pretending You’re a Crosswalk Guard.“) Anyway, here are Le’ Facts de’ Grunt on this class I’ll be teaching: What: Lenten study series When: Every Wednesday night, from Feb. 13 through March 12, from 7-8 p.m. (Service at 6; dinner at 6:30; class at 7.) Where: St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Del Mar, CA. (From some pretty funny “How rich are they... Read more

Life. Death. Pretending You’re A Crosswalk Guard.

Last updated on: February 11, 2008 at 5:37 am By John Shore

I have always been extremely aware of life as being mostly death that hasn’t happened yet. I have no idea why I’m like that. I suspect, though, that it has to do with the fact that you can’t be more than about six years old before understanding that the only thing ever standing between between life and death is time. And time never, ever stops coming. So there you have it. It doesn’t matter who wins at Monopoly. It doesn’t matter who’s “It” in a... Read more

God is Love; Christ is Pain

Last updated on: February 8, 2008 at 5:37 pm By John Shore

We who are Christian believe that God is love. We believe it with our souls because we feel the enduring truth of it — and we believe it with our minds because in the Bible (at 1 John 4:8), it says, right there in black and white, “God is love.” Which pretty neatly settles it. But wait! There’s more! And we all know what that “more” is, of course. That “more” is the whole rest of our religion. That “more”... Read more

My Lenten Story Remains Untold. Thanks, Starbucks.

Last updated on: February 7, 2008 at 8:08 am By John Shore

Two weeks ago an Episcopal priest phoned to ask if I’d be interested in leading a five-week Lenten study at St. Peter’s, a lovely redwood church in the nearby coastal community of Del Mar. (Del is Spanish, I believe, for “insane amount of,” while Mar means “money.”) Touched that Father Frank, as he is known, would think of me to play such an important role in the prayer life of the church to which he’d been recently called as interim rector, I responded with a humble, deeply felt, “Maybe. What’s... Read more

Writing In Jesus’ Name. Literally.

Last updated on: February 5, 2008 at 10:42 am By John Shore

Writing about the whole “How To Make a Living Writing” thing has lately had me remembering times in the past (being about 10 years ago) when I was first trying to do that very thing. I became a Christian right about the same time I was first trying to get published a lot. That created some interesting dynamics for me, because here in San Diego the kinds of publications in which I could get published weren’t exactly appearing on any pastors’ reading... Read more

How To Be Happily Unemployed

Last updated on: February 4, 2008 at 5:43 am By John Shore

Have you recently lost your job? Fear not: It happens to everyone. You might recall that Albert Einstein, for instance, was once fired from his job as a patent clerk because he kept changing the time on all the clocks in the office. And look how he turned out! Today, Einstein’s brain is pickled in a jar, so that future scientists might one day figure out what they’re supposed to do with a pickled brain in a jar. (more…) Read more