This past weekend our family got a kind some reinforced instruction on how the smallest acts of generosity can sometimes have surprising, even life-changing impacts on others, and both lessons came thanks to the Boy Scouts of America: Danny, with 52 merit badges on his sash and a scouting resume that truly was exceptional, even for an Eagle, began his prepared remarks by saying, “I didn’t know he would be here today, but that just makes this speech all the... Read more
Mad men, sad men and … happy men? Is it too difficult for Sesame Street to teach the concept of gladness? While watching this video, everything in me was screaming, “glad! GLAD! You’re GLAD MEN!” They missed an opportunity to make education dynamic: “This makes me happy! This makes me GLAD!” “Happy, happy, happy, we’re GLAD men!” “We’ve been mad, sad, and glad! Add “glad” and you’ve given the children the concept of a synonym, plus a fun rhyme, and... Read more
Like Flannery O’ Connor and loathe Jack Chick? Or vice-versa? You’ll be surprised (or perhaps you won’t) to find that Max Lindenman sees them as cousins under the ink!: Jack Chick, founder of Chick Publications, is a shadowy figure, practically the Keyser Söze of evangelists. It is not known whether he raises peacocks or suffers from lupus. Personally, I hope he doesn’t, but not because I’m afraid that chronic illness or an absorbing hobby will stop him turning out more... Read more
Via Buster: Ummm….and here’s a attempt to float a real house! Read more
Last week I mentioned that Eliot Spitzer and CNN had renamed their re-tooled panel show, turning Parker Spitzer, into In the Arena, and I groused that there is already a panel show by that name being aired by the Diocese of Brooklyn, which you can see each spring here. This week we’ll be talking about the latest on the deplorable and depressing scandal within the church – you can watch that tonight at 7PM, Eastern or again at 11:30PM, if... Read more
Yes, that’s a book. Nothing has been added to it, but a brilliant artist has subtracted from it, and in doing so he has rendered the book into a work of art that helps to define it. Via Digitalnun Daily (which I tell everyone to subscribe to because it finds fascinating things!), comes a link to the astounding work of Brian Dettmer: Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date... Read more
Drape a lovely girl over the hood of a sports car and the poor chimps start drooling over it immediately. Show them a condominium overlooking a beach at sunset. Show them a scrumptious meal, beautiful clothes, or jewelry; show them an impossibly tanned and handsome man with a dreamily beautiful woman in most any setting and they will buy not just a product but a dream, and it is this dream which we are most interested in. My dear flukes,... Read more
I don’t want to be unfair. NPR is a big organization, and a big organization, especially if it is headed by someone with valuable know-how and an even more valuable Rolodex should pay its top person accordingly. But then there is this: PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to “let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting.”... Read more
If you haven’t checked in lately at the main landing page for the Catholic Portal here at Patheos, you may have missed a few new faces and developments! First up, please welcome new columnist Julie Davis, better known to all as the Happy Catholic who also manages to run a foodie blog, read classic books to us and then read some more. Did I mention that she has a book coming out soon (I’ve read it; it’s great!). Julie’s column... Read more
March is Women’s History Month, and a good time to introduce you to the sorts of formidable women who made (or are making) enormous differences to the lives of many, but who frequently go unmentioned in the mainstream. Today I am going to introduce you to three of them. Interestingly enough, the first two hail from the affluent Philadelphia Society of the 19th century — one was heiress to a fortune — and the other is a modern woman of... Read more
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