Mr. Sharky

January 30, 2008 By Fred Clark

I’ve successfully launched my personal, private-sector economic stimulus package: A 2008 Toyota Yaris. Like me, it is tall, skinny and frugal. A subcompact with head and legroom, who knew? Between my unanticipated car-shopping and the two-days-and-counting teacher’s strike in my girlfriends’ kids’ district, time for sleep and/or blogging are a bit hard to come by this week. (Just curious — is there a rule somewhere that says students can’t join the picket line? It seems like a good educational opportunity.... Read more

The Iron Horse

January 28, 2008 By Fred Clark

I did not expect, when I got into my car to drive home this morning, that my ride home would be quite so suspenseful, or that it would come to an end not at home but, instead, at a local auto repair shop. The news that it would need a new radiator was, by that point, not surprising, but I hadn’t expected it would also need a new catalytic converter and several other pricey parts that I didn’t really hear... Read more

L.B.: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

January 25, 2008 By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 395-397 After hearing Rayford Steele’s impassioned sales pitch for faith in “the Antichrist and all,” Buck Williams is rethinking his own beliefs. At the same time, Jerry Jenkins is busy rewriting the preceding 21 chapters of his book, letting us know, retroactively, about things he had neglected or even denied earlier. Part of that rewriting process here involves a fuller picture of the substance of Rayford’s speech. Based on the rather sketchy accounts of that speech we’ve... Read more

Red

January 25, 2008 By Fred Clark

Santa Claus is drunk in the ski room … “Red Hill Mining Town,” U2 “Red House,” Jimi Hendrix “Red Rail 9,” Twitchen Vibes “Red Rain,” Peter Gabriel “Red Right Hand,” Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “Red Shoes,” Elvis Costello “Red Shoes by the Drugstore,” Tom Waits “Red, Red Rose,” Emmylou Harris “Red River,” BoDeans “Red Red Sun,” INXS The cassette function of my new turntable has liberated many treasures from the long-neglected Big Box O’ Cassettes — including that... Read more

Chain of command

January 24, 2008 By Fred Clark

Fresh thread for your Thursday flame war. … This is just a guess. I don’t know what you do for a living or how well you do it, so all I can do is guess. I’m guessing that your immediate supervisor, your boss, knows what you do and how well you do it. If you have any work-related callouses, then I’d also guess that she knows how to do your job and could do it well herself. If you don’t,... Read more

Biblical names

January 22, 2008 By Fred Clark

The annual list of popular baby names from the Social Security Administration is chock full of biblical names on the boy’s side — 13 out of the top 20. Less so on the girl’s side — only six of the top 20. Inspired by that imbalance, I present the following. 7 biblical women’s names that deserve wider usage: 1. Tirzah. This name has never cracked the SSA’s Top 1,000 list — not even after it was used in the movie... Read more

Translating Huckabee

January 21, 2008 By Fred Clark

Doing my best impression of Barbara Billingsley in Airplane: “Oh stewardess! I speak evangelical …” Former White House speechwriter Michael Gerson was very skilled at peppering President George W. Bush’s public statements with so-called “dog whistle” language targeting evangelical Christian voters. These passing phrases and allusions wouldn’t alter or confuse Bush’s message to other listeners, but they would have an additional resonance for the evangelicals listening. The actual meaning of those phrases didn’t much matter, what was important was that... Read more

Super-Duper Tuesday

January 20, 2008 By Fred Clark

Here’s what I’m trying to figure out about “Super-Duper Tuesday” — the ridiculously early multi-state primary-palooza on Feb. 5: How are the candidates going to manage their concession/victory speeches? Here’s the Feb. 5 list (copied from TPM/Election Central): Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho (D), Illinois, Massachusetts, Minesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico (D), New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia (R). [Oops, and Arizona.] So we could, in theory, be treated to the... Read more

L.B.: The Holy Hand

January 18, 2008 By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 393-395 Here, just after he finished typing Chapter 21 and just before he began churning out the first and only draft of Chapter 22, here is where I think Jerry Jenkins paused briefly to skim over the previous 392 pages. In doing so it seems he noticed a few — but only a few — mistakes. He seems to have reconsidered the impact of the whole Babel Fish incident — the explicitly divine harmless destruction of thousands... Read more

Pilgrimage to Play God

January 18, 2008 By Fred Clark

Everything is, everyone is, broken… “Pilgrimage,” R.E.M. “A Pillar of Salt,” The Thermals “Pillar to Post,” Aztec Camera “Pineapple Head,” Crowded House “Pink Cashmere,” Prince “Pink Houses,” John Mellencamp “Pink Moon,” Nick Drake “Plan of the Man,” The M’s “Planet Telex,” Radiohead “Play God,” Chagall Guevara Mellencamp’s reach exceeds his grasp a bit on “Pink Houses,” but I love what he’s grasping for. The heart of the song is a genuine affection, a genuine love even, for “people and more... Read more