Pro-Tip: At the Start of a New School Year, Don’t Play God

Last updated on: August 31, 2021 at 6:29 am By Anne Kennedy

Me contemplating the new Scholastic Year This is a pretty great piece of writing, full of cutting description and well-timed sarcasm. Very bracing for any day of the week. Here are some money quotes: “There is no such thing as learning loss,” she [Myart-Cruz] responds when asked how her insistence on keeping L.A.’s schools mostly locked down over the last year and a half may have impacted the city’s 600,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade students. “Our kids didn’t lose anything. It’s... Read more

Cynical Religions Podcast and Links

Last updated on: August 30, 2021 at 11:17 am By Anne Kennedy

How Bunter the dog spent Porchfest. It is a gray and breezy day here in the Bing, to celebrate we’ve done a short brisk podcast about Cynical Theories, which I finally finished, and our thoughts about wokism coming into the church. We are only interrupted one or two times, and we comment on the Tower of Babel, Children Going On The Bus, and probably a few other things that I have already forgotten. I’m sure it will be whatever it... Read more

Stand, Therefore

Last updated on: August 29, 2021 at 5:47 am By Anne Kennedy

I’m over at Stand Firm this morning. I was so grieved to hear of the tragic and unexpected death of Fr. McKenzie this last week, and of his child. The two were on the road and were killed in a car accident. Fr. McKenzie was in the first few days of a sabbatical, which somehow seems some extra divine unkindness, at least from this angle. If ever there was a moment to stop and number one’s days, so that one may gain... Read more

7 Takes Back to the Grind

Last updated on: August 27, 2021 at 9:58 am By Anne Kennedy

This is the dog that came and sat on me. One Well, isn’t it late this morning. I’ve actually been awake for hours, but Bunter the dog was so appalled when Matt and the boys left for Bible Study, that he came and sat on my chest, pressing the full weight of his bulk onto me as heavily as possible. I was forced to give up on all my aspirations to be a productive and useful member of society. Instead,... Read more

Every Lady Her Own Book Reviewer

Last updated on: August 26, 2021 at 7:37 am By Anne Kennedy

Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on blathering about The Lord of the Rings and The Great Mortality. I have three other important books for you today. The First Book In the height of covid, I managed to acquire a clever little book called Every Lady her own Shoemaker or A Complete Self-Instructor in The Art of Making Gaiters and Shoes by A Lady. It’s all about how to make a nice pair of shoes. All you need is... Read more

Isn’t It Ironic

Last updated on: August 25, 2021 at 6:55 am By Anne Kennedy

I did just have one more thing to say about The Great Mortality—the book about the Black Death that I mentioned on Sunday. It was a great book and I commend it to anyone interested in the subject. But the end really ticked me off and I’m sure I should take a few paragraphs to explain why. Towards the end, the author, John Kelly, movingly recounts the horrible persecution and murder of the Jews all over Europe as city after... Read more

I Should Have Known

Last updated on: August 24, 2021 at 7:30 am By Anne Kennedy

I’d live here if required. Well, here we are again, back online. I mean “we” in the Gollum sense, for it is true that I am laboring away through The Lord of the Rings for the first time. That’s right, I’ve just turned 45 and I’m finally reading everyone else’s favorite epic. I suppose it is excessively wicked to have a heap of books one doggedly commits never to open. My list has included most of the books in the... Read more

Back to Work Podcast and Links

Last updated on: August 23, 2021 at 9:36 am By Anne Kennedy

It is a gray sultry day here in the Northeast. To note that fact, we’ve decided to stop being on vacation all the time and go back to work as usual, which includes a decently lengthed podcast. This week we talk about the new not Christian ideology that is coming even into Christian circles, why Matt is a better person than me, where we camped, and how some Baptists are ok especially when they are really Anglican. It’s really all... Read more

Choose Wisely

Last updated on: August 22, 2021 at 8:50 am By Anne Kennedy

I’m over at Stand Firm today. Well, here I am after a nice quiet month. I kept thinking I would blog while it was going on, but then I figured—as the news kept getting worse and worse—that I just wouldn’t. If ever there was a time not to weigh in about anything, this seemed as good as any. Instead, as a special treat, in spiritual preparation for enduring the dreaded yearly remembrance of my birth, I listened to a book called The Great... Read more

Chairs For Everyone!

Last updated on: July 15, 2021 at 8:58 am By Anne Kennedy

I’m sorry to say, but my thoughts have irrevocably turned to next week when I will be on “vacation” which is going to mean both lots of camping, lots of reading and writing (but not blogging probably), lots of finally painting my office and bathroom, and lots of praying that Matt will dig a pond in the back garden. It’s hard to stay “present” in the “moment” when there’s so much to do about the future, but I thought maybe... Read more