March 24, 2016

I really enjoyed seeing a broadcast of Kenneth Brannagh’s The Winter’s Tale (and, if the taped version becomes more widely available, I highly recommend it). I’d only seen it once before, and one thing that changed for me when I saw this new one was that I couldn’t simply see Paulina as a pure heroine anymore. In The Winter’s Tale, the king falsely believes his wife to be unfaithful, and he hounds her (he thinks) to death and orders her infant... Read more

March 18, 2016

— 1 — I didn’t even know that there existed pay-to-play pool tables, but I was really happy to watch this short video on how the machinery inside manages to return the cue ball to you when you sink it, but divert all the other balls to a locked chamber, waiting for the next game. — 2 — Ngozi of Check, Please! (a hockey-and-friendship comic) has an explainer on how she learned to draw fingers that’s a lot less complex... Read more

March 11, 2016

— 1 — I already loved A Capella Science’s “Outbound Probe” and now I’ve been dancing around to “LIGO Feel That Space,” a relyricization of “I Can’t Feel My Face” that’s about the discovery of gravitational waves. — 2 — I love nerdy fandoms, but I’m still snickering a little bit at the fact that the shirt that Colin Firth wore in Pride and Prejudice is coming to the Folger Shakespeare Library for an exhibit.  But it’s worth it if only... Read more

March 10, 2016

Last week, I was a guest on In The Arena to talk about the aftermath of Super Tuesday and to look ahead to Second Super Tuesday.  (Is that what we’ve agreed to call it? Has anyone reached out to Merry and Pippin for comment?).  You can check out my segment (and my stats) below. And although I can’t fault you for being a little tired of takes on the election (and the electorate) I want to strongly recommend Ivan Plis’s examination... Read more

March 4, 2016

I’m tuckered out from liveblogging last night’s debate for work, so no quick takes this week. Instead, I’d like to send you over to Catherine Addington’s tumblr for an excellent reflection on the Transfiguration.  Here’s the part that really struck me. (The quoted bit is from St. Francis de Sales, the next bit is from Catherine). Let me remark first of all that in eternal felicity we will know each other, since in this little spark of it which the... Read more

February 22, 2016

I love reading Mallory Ortberg at The Toast, and, while I was reading through her chat with Longreads on her favorite advice columns, I wound up reading this response by Ijeoma Oluo to an advice seeker wondering if she was obliged to not be “the other woman” out of solidarity for the wife of the man who wanted to sleep with her. Here’s part of Oluo’s reply: You are your own person all the time, and you are solely responsible for... Read more

February 19, 2016

— 1 — I don’t remember whether I’ve mentioned here that I like using Boomerang to manage my email.  I can write emails ahead of time and have boomerang send them later or schedule an email to turn up in my inbox right when I need it (say, a half hour before the meeting it pertains to).  It makes it a lot better to (try to) do Inbox Zero. And Boomerang just sent me a little year in review email, which... Read more

February 18, 2016

I’m at Aleteia today to talk about picking small sacrifices for Lent, and staying open to unplanned, unanticipated disciplines (all of which is hard for me as a big scheduler and organizer!).  Here’s an excerpt: I wanted to find something to give up, or some rule to follow, because as a (still fairly new!) convert, I can have a tendency to feel somewhat unsettled in the faith. Sometimes it’s a long stretch from Sunday to Sunday, and even though I’m... Read more

February 17, 2016

It’s been a week since Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, and, if you notice you’re having a little trouble remembering that it’s Lent (aside from the different colors at church), you might want to take a look through Eve Tushnet’s Lent A-Z to see if any of her thoughts are fruitful for you.  Here are two of her comments that I particularly liked: R is for Ridiculous. Sometimes Lent makes you look ridiculous. That’s wholesome. Or you feel... Read more

February 16, 2016

I’ve got two great essays to share now that Valentine’s Day is over, and you have to go on muddling through how to offer and receive love without quite so much guidance from Hallmark.  First up, in First Things, Alexi Sargeant has a great piece on dating and courtship, and the kind of deliberate work couples need to do to keep dating focused on its proper end: discernment. An overwhelming amount of the media we consume (from romantic films to television... Read more


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