It was on this day in 1763 that the Touro Synagogue was dedicated in Newport, Rhode Island. It appears the first Jewish families arrived in Newport in 1658 and began worshiping in family homes for the next century. While never a large community Touro’s little Orthodox congregation has continued to this day in that same building, now the oldest synagogue building in the country, and the only dating to the colonial period. It is a National Historic Site. When we... Read more

Today is Rex Stout’s birthday and therefore, Nero Wolfe’s… I’ve read, I’m moderately confident, every one of his Nero Wolfe mysteries. Certainly all thirty-three novels, and probably all forty novellas featuring the rotund detective and his faithful assistant. Mostly I read them in the years I attended seminary. As much as I enjoyed the arcana of theology and related, they offered much needed respite. Stout’s novels are well written, although the Nero Wolfe stories pretty much have a single plot.... Read more

Yesterday afternoon Jan and I went to see ‘Spotlight.’ What can I say? Ann Hornaday, writing for the Washington Post asserts how “It’s not a stretch to suggest that ‘Spotlight’ is the finest newspaper movie of its era, joining ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘All the President’s Men’ in the pantheon of classics of the genre.” I think she says it true. The film follows the action as the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, what Wikipedia informs me is “the oldest continuously operating... Read more

A Reflection on Buddhism, Christianity and Unitarian Universalism by James Ishmael Ford Yesterday I posted a blog post in honor of the Feast of Sts Barlaam and Josaphat, where I mused on my fantasy of a Buddhist Christian, or maybe it would be a Christian Buddhist church. After which a friend linked me to an archive of newsletters for the UU Buddhist Sangha, which included this article by me written in 1998. In yesterday’s meditation I wrote of the lost... Read more

The other day I was pleased to see my favorite gnostic church is establishing a congregation in the greater Los Angeles area. Among the things I like about them is that they at times, at least from certain angles look like they’re trying to establish a Buddhist Christian church. A project I’m all for. I wish them well. From time to time I speak of my “physiology of faith.” I claim to have a Buddhist brain, a Christian heart, and... Read more

Our family thanksgiving gathering is actually going to be tomorrow at Jan’s mom’s home across the metroplex. Jan​ and I are the primary cooks. So, today has been largely about the kitchen. I’m doing one of those foolish things, cooking something for sharing without having done it before. The clan ranges from must have dead animal on the table three times a day to vegans. There have been tensions in the past. Jan’s and my contribution is bridging all this... Read more

Written by Benjamin Franklin in response to a call for scientific papers by the Royal Academy of Brussels. It does not, sadly, appear to have actually been submitted. Reproduced for academic purposes only… GENTLEMEN, I have perused your late mathematical Prize Question, proposed in lieu of one in Natural Philosophy, for the ensuing year, viz. “Une figure quelconque donnee, on demande d’y inscrire le plus grand nombre de fois possible une autre figure plus-petite quelconque, qui est aussi donnee”. I... Read more

Due to the fact our American Thanksgiving is fixed to the fourth Thursday in November, the actual date floats around the last of the month. This year it coincides with the premiere of the 1942 film Casablanca, starring, as pretty much everyone on the globe knows, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Henries, and while he gets secondary billing, the show stealing Claude Rains. And, yes, a host of others deserving our recalling. As the Wikipedia article tells us “Although Casablanca... Read more

First, that prayer. “For the woman who came to my office with duct-taped slippers, clutching a bag that she said was once filled with gold, who then wrote out a check for Glide for one million dollars, saying that it’s the least she can do for the place that feeds her. Lord, in your mercy.” Karen Oliveto, Senior Pastor at Glide Memorial in San Francisco Pretty much all any of us can do in the face of goodness. Never earned.... Read more

Some good news this year from the Pew Research Center for those who care about science and equally, about the long standing campaign against science, particularly biological science (okay climate science is right up there, as well) by organized fundamentalists of several religions, but mostly Christians. This with an assist in this country from a certain political party that has annoyed me sufficiently that I shall refrain from naming it here. Okay. That good news. About two thirds of Americans... Read more