In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, perhaps you’d better get back under there because certain uptight conservative Christians are angry about “cancel culture” again. They’re incensed that the estate of Theodore Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, is going to let six of Seuss’s early books go out of print because they contain some racist caricatures and language. None of Seuss’s really excellent books are going out of print, just six of the... Read more
Hey folks, This isn’t a real post, this is just my monthly reminder that my blog and my family run on gratuities. I have a real post for later tonight open in a tab. I get a tiny paycheck from Patheos, sometimes as much as a hundred bucks lately, for clicks in the United States, and besides that my whole living is tips from readers who like my work. Think of it as tipping your Uber driver, or a... Read more
Parody accounts are not often funny, but I found one that is. The other day, an account briefly appeared on Twitter imitating the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ghastly official account. It looked so close to the original that people got mixed up, which isn’t okay, so Twitter deleted it. But then they were back within 24 hours with a new page, clearly announcing itself as a parody, and this one is hilarious. Throughout the day yesterday and today,... Read more
I walked past the car dealership, the one at the end of LaBelle– the one a block away from where they park the ambulances and a block and a half from where they sell the headstones. I walk past that dealership from time to time, like a poor kid walking past the toy store window. I try not to look too hard at anything, for fear someone will come out and try to sell it to me when I... Read more
I want to say a few words about The Equality Act, and about the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ reaction to it. The Equality Act is a bill that’s up for a vote in Congress. You can read the whole thing yourself; it’s not long. It is, essentially, an attempt to insert “or sexual orientation or gender” into the anti-discrimination laws our country has already, right after “on the basis of sex or race.” It’s an attempt... Read more
I woke up early. This isn’t like me. I usually stay up late writing and then sleep in. But the morning after the scrambled egg episode, I woke up bright and early and ravenously hungry. This wasn’t like me either. As we covered earlier this week, I hate breakfast. I don’t usually have an appetite until noon. But this morning I was starving. It was my fifth day on metformin. Day Five is when it’s supposed to really start... Read more
Everybody’s talking about the Golden Calf today. This all started because, for some reason, the people at the Conservative Political Action Conference had an interesting decoration this week. A video of them wheeling it into place quickly went viral online. It’s a shiny golden statue of a shorter Donald Trump, wearing American Flag shorts and, for some reason, flip-flops. I can’t imagine who thought this would be a good idea for the stodgy Evangelical Protestants who make up so... Read more
It hasn’t been the best of weeks. It started with the failed pixie cut. The next night I was so sick of looking at what was left of my dreadful hair that I buzzed it off, thinking I was giving myself a severe buzz cut. Not being used to men’s hair clippers, the result was that I am bald for the moment. And honestly, it looks better than big hairless patches with scrubby sticking-up hair. But it’s taking a... Read more
I found out today that the peace sign is semaphore. I’d grown up thinking its origins were quite different and more sinister. But then again, I grew up with strange notions about a lot of innocent things. My family spent several of my formative years in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, a religious sect which took all of its political and cultural talking points from Evangelical Protestantism about ten years after Evangelical Protestantism was done with them. This is true... Read more
I’ve just discovered a whole catalog of things that will be great for helping the homeless. I came across it when I was trying not to laugh at the preppers who didn’t have a can opener. In case you missed it, earlier this week a Twitter thread went viral about some libertarian preppers– that is, people who are convinced the collapse of civilization is immanent, that it will be brought about by the tyranny of the milquetoast Democratic party, and... Read more
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