Jack to Jangling Jack

Last updated on: May 18, 2012 at 9:12 am By Fred Clark

The way that I feel is no longer news … “Jack of All Parades,” Elvis Costello “Jack’s Valentine,” Over the Rhine “Jackeyed,” Micah P. Hinson “Jacksie,” Over the Rhine “Jackson,” Lucinda Williams “Jacksons, Monk & Rowe,” Elvis Costello “Jaded,” Green Day “Jail Guitar Doors,” The Clash “Jailer,” Asa “Jailhouse Rock,” Elvis Presley “Jam,” Michael Jackson “James,” Huffamoose “The James Bond Theme,” Leroy Holmes “Jamey’s Got the Blues,” Randy Stonehill “Jamie All Over,” Mayday Parade “Jane Says,” Jane’s Addiction “Jangling Jack,”... Read more

Donna Summer (1948-2012)

Last updated on: May 18, 2012 at 8:21 am By Fred Clark

Sad. Disco queen Donna Summer dies at 63: Donna Summer, the “Queen of Disco” whose hits included “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,” “Love to Love You Baby” and “She Works Hard for the Money,” has died, a representative said Thursday. She was 63. Her publicist, Brian Edwards, said Summer was suffering from cancer. Here is the statement from her family: Early this morning, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith. While we grieve... Read more

On Christianity and marriage equality (part 2)

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:43 pm By Fred Clark

More smart and wise recent posts from those of us kicking against the pricks. Sarah Bessey: “I’m an evangelical Christian. And I think same-sex marriage should be legal” As someone raised in a post-Christian culture, now living in a post-same-sex-marriage culture, AND as someone that is a heterosexual evangelical Christian herself, I think that same-sex marriage should be legal –and I think that Christians, even those that believe homosexuality to be a sin, need to back off the issue. From... Read more

But nobody wants to die

Last updated on: May 17, 2012 at 10:15 am By Fred Clark

E.J. Dionne explains why he’s not quitting his Catholic church, prompting this response from DougJ at BalloonJuice: It’s true that the church-going Catholics I talk to don’t listen to anything the crazy-ass bishops say. But, for me, I would not join any club that would have someone like Joe Ratzinger or Karol Wojtyla as a head member. I can understand thinking “Joey Ratz is an asshole, he doesn’t get to win, we get to win”, but I think conservatives are... Read more

A butterfly with hiccups

Last updated on: December 23, 2014 at 5:36 pm By Fred Clark

Jeff Dunn at Internet Monk quotes from R.A. Dickey’s new memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, and sees spiritual truth in Dickey’s discussion of his signature pitch. Dickey writes: The knuckleball is the only pitch in baseball that works by doing nothing. Curveballs curve. Cutters cut. Sinkers sink. The knuckleball? You want it to float to the plate, rotation-free, and let the laws of entropy or aerodynamics or whatever else is in play take over from there, the air rushing around... Read more

On Christianity and marriage equality (part 1)

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:44 pm By Fred Clark

While I was off watching lots of exciting rugby, many smart people were writing about the fight for marriage equality and full civil rights for LGBT people and, specifically, the role of American Christianity in that struggle. Here are several smart recent posts on the topic. Bert Montgomery: “The Church and the New Civil Rights Movement” We are in the midst of another renewal; we are in the midst of another set of leaders pleading with the guardians of the... Read more

Crouch. Touch. Pause. Engage.

Last updated on: May 16, 2012 at 2:55 pm By Fred Clark

I’m digging out from under the backlog of email and catch-up reading from a few days away from the computer, but here’s an update on where I was the past several days. From the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Lou Rabito, “Queens of the ruck: Downingtown girls go to nationals“: They flew to Ireland to test their game. They will play for their first national title this weekend. And then they will compete in the first state championships. The Lady Dingoes, the under-19... Read more

Be one traveler

Last updated on: May 16, 2012 at 10:24 am By Fred Clark

Airports make me think of Andy Catlett. This is partly because Andy, the hero of Wendell Berry’s short novel Remembering, shares my own gut response to air travel. He knows it’s safe, so routine as to be dull, and that fear of flying isn’t wholly rational. But some part of his mind stubbornly still recites its worries: It is preposterous. And it is most extraordinary that humans should fly. They have done so only recently, and they do so only... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: May 9, 2012 at 11:02 pm By Fred Clark

Joan Chittister: “Silence about the global treatment of women is disquieting“ You have to wonder, don’t you? What have they been told about women by the religious men who catechized them? What snide jokes and demeaning theology are still being taught about women by patriarchal religions? By the actions of exclusion and control and invisibility and domination and subordination of women by church men and holy elders everywhere? Even here. Even now. From where I stand, it seems to me... Read more

The best in Sunday reading

Last updated on: May 7, 2012 at 2:01 pm By Fred Clark

A nice, juicy Sunday link-around post can be like blogtopia’s version of kicking back with a delightfully hefty Sunday paper. Here are some of my favorite weekly link dumpings — not all from Sundays: Rachel Held Evans’ “Sunday Superlatives” Aaron Bady’s “Sunday Reading” at zunguzungu Charles Kuffner’s “Weekend Link Dump” at Off the Kuff Punning Pundit’s “Sunday Morning Reading Material” at Indignant Desert Birds Dave Lartigue’s “This Delicious Week” at Dave Ex Machina And (usually on Fridays), “I’ve got your... Read more