So far this year, I've made one phone call. It got cut off. I'm going to try not to interpret that as some kind of metaphor or omen or something. Now I get to play dodge-the-drunks on my way to work. Happy New Year. Startin' Monday I'm cleanin' the slate, gonna quit smokin' start losin' some weight tell someone I'm sorry, oh its gonna be great Startin' Monday Startin' Monday I'll be cheatin' fate Here, I've written it down, I've... Read more
I want to see the Narnia movie. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was the first "real" book — the first book with more words than pictures — I ever read. I remember finishing it and wanting to cry because it was over and I didn't want it to end. So I read it again, and again, and again. Over the years, I've read that book dozens of times, and I still love it. I still get to the... Read more
"Well. All of a sudden, the man in front of me soils himself. I guess his sphincter just relaxes. Shit runs down onto his shoes, but he keeps walking. He doesn't seem to notice. … The above is from "My Advent Adventure," by Anne Lamott, which is probably still my favorite thing ever written about the Real Meaning of Christmas. As my friend Dwight used to say, It's all about incarnation. It's Christmas Eve, and between now and sunrise, three... Read more
for a buck-fifty and a slice of cheese … Concrete Blonde, "Bloodletting" Nick Cave, "The Mercy Seat" Badly Drawn Boy, "Something To Talk About" Beth Orton, "Concrete Sky" Lucinda Williams, "Changed the Locks" Don McCloskey, "King of Discount Hos" Squeeze, "Pulling Mussels from a Shell" Smithereens, "Behind the Wall of Sleep" Sex Pistols, "My Way" Housemartins, "We're Not Deep" Read more
Here is a snapshot from an earlier time. It's an op-ed piece about a school in Afghanistan that AFDECT helped to build in late 2001. AFDECT is Afghanistan-Delaware Communities Together. The nonprofit was founded by a former Delaware judge, William C. Gordon, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It's a great effort, a partnership between civic leaders in two countries who have displayed over the past four years a steadfast determination to help rebuild post-Taliban Afghan society. Among other... Read more
Left Behind, Chapter 11 Rayford Steele and his daughter Chloe are headed to the New Hope Village Church to speak with the apostate pastor, Bruce Barnes, and to pick up the "I Told You So" videotape recorded by the church's Real True Christian pastor before he and most of his flock were shuffled out of their mortal coils in the twinkling of an eye. There's a bit of father-daughter bonding en route in which Rayford uses a "babyish voice" and... Read more
Today is Steve Carlton's birthday. Carlton won 27 games for the 1972 Philadelphia Phillies — a team that won a total of only 59 games all year. He had a winning percentage of .730 on a team that finished with a winning percentage of .378. I was in a bar, in Baltimore, before a game at Camden Yards. When I mentioned I was from Philadelphia, a guy there told me about seeing Carlton pitch in 1972. He cited the above... Read more
"Some are guilty. All are responsible." — Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel So I'm pretty busy this week grading papers for my sometimes boss Ron Sider. He's the professor who teaches the "Biblical Faith and Public Policy" class I've been T.A.ing this semester. He's probably best known, however, for a book he wrote in 1977: Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. That's a dynamite title for a book. All you need is that title and you know what the book... Read more
(File under: PRESS CRITICISM; GLOBAL POVERTY; SCATOLOGICAL HUMOR) "Study links drugs to form of diarrhea" we read in today's paper. The drugs in question are pretty popular ones — proton pump inhibitors like Nexium. So this is a big story. The question is, what's the bigger story — that these drugs are widely sold, or that these drugs are widely taken? This is yet another story from the Business section. And it should be covered in the Business section —... Read more
So today the paper runs a national story from The Washington Post — "Bush Addresses Uproar Over Spying" — along with a local reax story, "Some in Del. oppose spying on citizens." The latter headline is accurate, some oppose the president asserting the unchecked power to spy on U.S. citizens — but some don't. The White House's claim, essentially, is this: The president may do whatever he sees fit in order to keep the country safe. For some, those last... Read more
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