CALABASH-HO! LIVE FROM THE WOODSTOCK OF THE CARIBBEAN This is a calabash: This, also, is a calabash: This is the Calabash Nebula: And this, apparently, is a calabash tomato (they’re purple on the inside — yum!): None of the above is the Calabash about (and from) which your tireless international correspondent, aka God Girl, will be live blogging for the next five days. That’s this one: The Calabash International Literary Festival They call it the “Woodstock of the Caribbean.” Weeeeeeee!... Read more

UPDATE!!!: MAXIM’S, BELIEFNET AND CALABASH: TGF QUEST FOR WORLD DOMINATION CONTINUES . . . Look for an excerpt Cathleen’s God Factor chapter profiling the marvelously iconoclastic Sandra Bernhard on Beliefnet.com. It’s posted — at last! You can find it HERE • If you’re in the Chicago area and don’t have plans for the cocktail hour today (Wednesday, May 24), please join God Girl and the fabulous Rick Kogan for “Conversations with Extraordinary People,” an ongoing program of the City of... Read more

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Photo by REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde This photograph of school children in Abuja, Nigeria taken on Monday, May 22 when Bono and other activists from DATA [Ed. note: Hi Sheila! Traveling mercies home. Chicago misses you!] visited their school, brings to my mind something Jesus said. Look into their eyes. See what he sees. Try to see them with... Read more

FROM OUR MAN IN THE FIELD … Wednesday, May 17: A clinic in Butha Buthe, Lesotho B’s wrapping up a 10-day trip to Africa. Here’s a bit about his visit in Lesotho from The Independent Online: Lesotho has one of the highest HIV/Aids infection rates in the world. Unlike its neighbour, South Africa, the Lesotho government has encouraged its citizens to take an HIV test. The Prime Minister, Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili, has even subjected himself to a test. Bono said... Read more

TODAY IN GOD . . . On May 20, 325 A.D., the Emperor Constantine convened the first Ecumenical Council in Nicea to discuss the heresy of Arianism, which argued that Jesus is not divine. The council concluded that he was and we got the Nicene Creed, which, for those of you a little rusty in the liturgical department, goes like this (according to The Book of Common Prayer): I believe in one God, the Father AlmightyMaker of heaven and earth,... Read more

GODSTUFF: ‘DA VINCI CODE’ FLAP ABOUT SEX AND GOD—BUT MOSTLY SEX It would not be an overstatement to say that in the last three months I’ve received hundreds of faxes and e-mails pitching one “expert” after another’s commentary on “The Da Vinci Code.” Roman Catholic priests, Opus Dei members, presidents of seminaries, presidents of publishing companies, columnists, authors, former nuns, former priests, activists, pastors, producers, directors, pagans, Jews, Protestants, Muslims, theologians, historians, psychologists, archeologists and at least one psychic. By... Read more

DONE AND DONE. OK, so thanks to the nice folks at Zazzle.com, I bring you: Annie is my pastor. The t-shirt. The shirts say “Annie is my pastor” on the front and “JUST JESUSY” on the back. There’s a baseball jersey-type shirt and a tank top. Both in a lovely shade of violet (but I think Zazzle lets you choose your own when you order.) Both right now for ladies only. But I’ll get one for the fellas up there... Read more

OPRAH’S NOT MY GURU, BUT ANNIE IS MY PASTOR The other day I bought a t-shirt online that says, “Bono is my pastor.” Because it made me laugh. And because some days it’s kind of true. The t-shirt — a pink, spaghetti-strap little number with black lettering — arrived yesterday. It’s cute, but, sadly, the lettering sits directly under my boobs. So you can’t so much read what it says unless I’m lying down or you’re three feet tall and... Read more

TODAY IN GOD . . . ___________________________________________________________On May 18, 1920, a baby boy, Karol Wojtyla, is born to Karol Wojtyła Sr. and Emilia Kaczorowska Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, a small city about 50 kilometers from Krakow. Fifty-eight-and-a-half years later, the youngest Wojtyla child is elected as the Bishop of Rome and becomes known as Pope John Paul II. Read more

APROPOS OF NOTHING: LOOK, A PONY! Because everybody should havea pony. Read more