1. Property destruction due to drunkenness Drunk Swedish elk found in apple tree near Gothenburg A homeowner in southern Sweden got a shock when he found a drunken elk stuck in his neighbour’s apple tree. The animal was apparently on the hunt for fermenting apples when she lost her balance and became trapped in the tree. Per Johansson, from Saro near Gothenburg, found the elk making a roaring noise in the garden next door. He called the emergency services, who... Read more
To be pitiless, surely, is bad. We don’t speak of someone as “pitiless” if we’re trying to express admiration for them. “Pitilessness” is never something we extol as a virtue. The only time being “pitiless” is ever described as a positive trait is in the context of sports, where we sometimes use words for otherwise undesirable traits to characterize a particularly fierce or dominant performance. “The pitiless pass rush tormented the opposing quarterback.” But even that analogous use in sports... Read more
1. A hot day in Texas in July 2. Scorpions that sting 3. A black fly in your Chardonnay 4. Rain on your wedding day 5. A traffic jam when you’re already late 6. The good advice that you just didn’t take 7. People trapped in the addictive delusion of thinking they’re better than everyone else who respond to criticism of that delusion by saying, “You’re not better than me!“ Read more
I have a theory that the central motivation for much of American politics is a manufactured indignation. This indignation is stoked by the habitual taking of offense, whether or not such offense is actually there to be taken. The cultivation of such offendedness serves two emotional needs: 1) It’s exciting for those whose lives are otherwise kind of dull and pointless-seeming, and 2) It allows the people taking offense to pretend that they are better than those others whose behavior,... Read more
Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics and Devotion in the Book of Revelation, by J. Nelson Kraybill, Brazos Press. The book of Revelation can be cryptic, but it’s not really as impenetrable or strange as we sometimes make it out to be. Much of what we portray as baffling in John of Patmos’ psychedelic visions would not have been even slightly ambiguous to those for whom the book was written. And since this is one of the first and clearest things... Read more
. Here’s the good thing (or at least the thing I keep telling myself is a good thing): It’s September. It doesn’t matter that most employers aren’t bound by the academic year and that there’s nothing about their annual or seasonal schedule that makes September special. Like the rest of us, they can’t escape the pattern that was established from kindergarten through college. August ends and we turn the calendar’s page and tell ourselves to buckle down and get organized.... Read more
Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Read more
The U.S. Mint has been trying to promote the use of $1 coins, offering free shipping to those who “purchase” large quantities of the more durable, more efficient currency. Some credit card banks promote the use of their cards by offering frequent flyer bonus miles as a reward. The more you purchase with those cards, the more bonus miles you collect. If you already see where this is going, then you’re a step ahead of the banks, the airlines and... Read more
You’d think that we’d get awfully tired of going where we’ve been … September is still summer and still pre-frost, so in between hurricanes here in the Brandywine Valley I’ve been working on the lingering remnants of this year’s garden — still providing a trickle of tomatoes and cucumbers. Hence another thematic list: “Bad Fruit,” Randy Stonehill “Dead Flowers,” The Rolling Stones “Digging in the Dirt,” Peter Gabriel “Fake Plastic Trees,” Lori McKenna “Fake Plastic Trees,” Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees,”... Read more
ἔσχατον: The Movie That’s the video from The Decemberists for their latest single “Calamity Song.” It’s based on the thermonuclear armageddon game devised by students at the Enfield Tennis Academy, which the students called “Eschaton” — from the New Testament term for the last day, the day of judgment. That’s the source of the word “eschatology,” the branch of theology involving ultimate things and the end of the world. Both ultimate and end there in more than one sense of... Read more
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