Sabbatical

Hi. It’s been a really tough week here. To tell the truth, it’s been a really tough year. It is a time of endings and perhaps beginnings.

Right now my heart and mind are not drawn to blogging. I’m writing in other forms, and I just can’t seem myself keeping this blog going.

I may change my mind, but don’t expect to see posts here any time soon.

I’m sorry to disappoint my few regular readers, but I’ve got to go. Thanks for stopping by.

Arthur C. Clarke Died Tomorrow

He was a writer, a visionary, and a good man. The last of the great golden-age science fiction writers, his writing showed us the future. When he told us how have instant global communication by putting satellites in geosynchronous orbits, he shaped the future; he may even have saved us from ourselves.

Marian Solarium

It seems like people see images of the Virgin Mary just about anywhere. She shows up on trees, in glass, and on potato chips. It must be something about me, but I usually just see a squiggle. Sometimes, you really have to squint to see anything at all. And sometimes, it's probably better not to look at all.

But Scientists Said It, So It Must Be So . . .

Paper or . . .

Goodbye Gary Gygax

Where's a high level cleric when you need one? Gary Gygax, an icon of my youth, has passed away. I feel (rolls dice) pretty sad.

An Accident Waiting to Happen

I don't believe it. I don't want to believe it. Milka Duno will be driving an Indy car again this year. She is the slowest and sloppiest driver I've ever seen. Every race she starts is a potential obstacle course for the other drivers. Shouldn't the ability to drive an Indy car safely be a prerequisite for driving an Indy car?

Shenanigans

A woman, who apparently weighed the same as a duck, and her husband were hanged from a tree because they were accused of being witches. She then proceeded to prove that the mob was right by giving birth and then getting down from the tree. The sorcerous family is reported to be doing well.

It's in a newspaper, so it must be true, right?

I Really Ought to Have a Better Title For This

The nominees for the Oddest Book Title of the Year have been announced and they are all, well, pretty odd. They missed a good one though by not including Toilet Bowl Christianity: Purge Your Past For a Redemptive Future. Spiritual bulimia?

About Frigging Time!

Unification. After all the rumors and all the nonsense, it finally happened. The IRL will absorb what's left of Champ Car and there will be one open-wheel racing league in the US.

What does it mean for us? The quality of racing can only get better. No matter how you slice it, this is good news.

It's a good day to be a race fan.

Lookin' Good For Christ

Guess who has His own line of personal care products?

Sizzle, Not Steak?

My nutritionist told me that I should eat less meat and more veggies, so I suppose I could tell folks that I was visiting Casa Diablo for health reasons. It's the world's first vegan strip club, and if you see me there I want to assure you that it is purely for medicinal reasons.

Meow Sounds

A day late for Caturday, but I love a nice kitty story.

When Martin Luther Said That the Gospel Was Clear . . .

I don't think that this is what he meant. Nice rant about Bible paper at Classical Bookworm.

Life. Don't Talk to me About Life.

Hey, where have I been lately? You probably figure I'm still in mourning for my beloved Patriots. Nah. It would have been nice to see them run the table, but you can't always get what you want. Besides, it's only a game. My problem is time. Right now my candle is being burned on both ends. Way too much work on one end and a family crisis on the other. I've had neither the time nor the desire to write much lately. I'd like to say that things will be getting better soon, but that's not very likely. The best I can hope for is that things will just slow down a little.

Follow the Money

I was listening to a conversation about Arlen Specter's grandstanding the other day. One of the guys said that Specter has been in Comcast's pocket for years. Huh? I didn't know what the guy was talking about, so I did a little digging. It seems that Comcast is Specter's second largest contributor. It also seems that Comcast and the NFL have been fighting for a while now. A lot of money is involved, so Comcast sent their pet Senator out to piddle on Roger Goodell's parade.

Sadly, this is not shocking. It is not even unusual. This is American democracy in the 21st century -- the best government that money can buy.

Let’s Go Bowling

I finally saw The Big Lebowski. Now I can get all the jokes about the Dude.

It’s one of those movies that I’ve been meaning to see for a long time, then I see it and kick myself for waiting so long. The plot is really complicated. There’s this guy named Lebowski, but he doesn’t go by that name. He calls himself “The Dude.” Then these enforcers for a porno producer mistake him for the eponymous Lebowski, after which he goes bowling and . . . wait a minute. I lost my train of thought.

Look, who cares about the plot? It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that a whole bunch of weird stuff happens to the Dude, who is the laziest, most laid-back stoner and league bowler in the world. The characters are interesting, or at least funny, the dialogue is sharp, and the visuals are great, especially the Dude’s occasional dream sequences. The Busby Berkeley inspired vision of bowling is an instant classic of cinema weirdness.

This thing is seriously funny and occasionally mind-boggling. Your mileage may vary. Not everyone digs the Coen brother’s style of humor. That’s okay. The Dude . . . well, you know.

Top 5 reasons to watch The Big Lebowski

The nihilists

The Dude dreams

Maude’s vaginal art

Tumbling tumbleweeds and the Stranger

The coffee can

Fool on the Hill

We are at war in two countries and under threat at home. Our economy is teetering on the brink of recession. Climate change is a reality. The issues are serious and we elect people who we think will deal with them on our behalf. So what does Senator Arlan Specter want to do? He wants to hold hearings about spygate. That'll help. Your tax dollars at work.

Dirty Screen?

Tired of looking at that dirty monitor? Clean it up automatically with this revolutionary web utility.
via -- Davezilla

Lady Lazarus

Fatuma Shubisa died. It was the best twelve hours of her life.

Don't believe it? Here's video proof. If it's on TV, it must be true.

I Can Has A Can Opener?

Cheeseburger, good. Cheeseburger in a can? Uhhhh.

My mind is officially boggled.
via -- Newsvine

Here's Looking At You

You Know How to Whistle Don't You?

You just put your feathers together and dive. Here's why I love the study of birds. It's endlessly surprising. Consider the male Anna's hummingbird. Like other hummers it likes to show off for the ladies. It swoops and dives, dancing in the sunlight, flashing its iridescent feathers in a show of sheer avian sexiness. Yeah baby, take a ride with me. I've got the hottest sports car in town. Then, to really show off, he gives a loud squeak. Gets 'em every time.

Thing is, no one was quite sure how he produced that squeak. Researchers have now figured it out. He does it with his tail feathers. He gets up to about fifty m.p.h, forms his feathers into something like a reed, and gives his girl a whistle.

Nature equipped the bird with its own kazoo. Don't you just love surprises?

"A Chance to be a Part of Ever"

That's what Junior Seau said the Patriots will be playing for in the Superbowl. The chance to be the only team in NFL history to go 19-0 in a season. The best season in the history of NFL football. These are some smart guys on this team, who love the game and appreciate its history. They know what this means.

As for yesterday's game, what can I say? The Chargers are good, but they didn't have much chance. Their defense did pretty well, picking off Brady and containing Moss. Hat's off to their offence, especially the heroic job done by Phillip Rivers, but the Pats D really stepped it up. Bruschi, Seau, Vrabel, all of them. Keeping a good team like San Diego out of the end zone is pretty good. If the Chargers had been healthy and LT hadn't been forced to do his Darth Vader impression on the sidelines (love that helmet) they might have been a bigger challenge. Injuries are, they say, a part of the game.

Even if Brady and Moss didn't have their best days the offence was still exciting. The O-line is the best in the business, giving Brady time and making holes for Maroney. While Randy was getting double-teamed, Faulk was making some big plays. For a Pats fan, this was nothing but fun.

For now, it is off to they hype, off to the show, off to Glendale, and off to . . . Ever.

17

Good game last night. The Jags came out well prepared, with a good game plan, and they executed it well. It just didn't matter. These Patriots are the best team I've ever seen. Just two more games to go, and these are going to be the toughest tests yet.

Man, this is fun.

Finding God in Monty Python

Yeah, I’m still re-watching Monty Python. This time it’s . . .

Sorry, something about that word.

This time it’s Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, which just happens to be one of my all time favorite movies. My official movie review is thus: it is very funny, very smart, and hugely entertaining.

All right, that out of the way, I’d like to reminisce a bit. I was but a lad when Brian hit the screens and I remember the controversy it stirred then. People were pretty upset because they thought (wrongly) that the movie mocked Jesus and that it was blasphemous. There were protests, petitions, and letters to the editor. It was banned in three countries, leading to calls of “welease Bwian!” All this did, of course, was to increase the box office. Pickets sell tickets, after all.

But were they right? Is the film blasphemous?

No. It is, I think, heretical, but not blasphemous. Being a heretic myself I can’t that say I mind that.

There’s a message in amongst all the silliness. They come pretty close to stating it explicitly when Brian speaks to his new followers. He’s trying to get them to understand that he is not the Messiah. He says “Look, you’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals!”

If that’s not a heretical concept I don’t know what is. The Pythons lampoon religious hypocrisy and fanaticism with a fake beard and a shoe on a stick. They knock down orthodoxy, gullibility and groupthink. The only things they don’t make fun of are faith and love. Not a lot of laughs there, after all.

Faith and love are, or should be, the pillars of any church. Some churches place hierarchy or their traditional interpretation of scripture above these things. Some are more concerned with arguing about comparatively minor differences of ritual or belief than they are about their true purpose. And some, horribly, are so consumed by hate that they have forgotten about faith and love altogether. It’s enough to make you want to cry.

Or laugh, if you listen to the Pythons. After all –

“Some things in life are bad.
They can really make you mad.
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle,
Don’t grumble, give a whistle.
And this’ll help things turn out for the best.
And . . .
Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the light side of life."

Right then, here are my top ten reasons to watch The Life of Brian:

Admiral Piett on the Mount

The stoning

Biggus Dickus

The Judean People’s Front

The Latin lesson

Naked Judith (or naked Graham, if you are so inclined)

“He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy!”

Cleese’s centurion

“You going to keep it in a box?”

Eric’s song.

Reading on the C Line

Just in case you were wondering, here are the bestsellers of 2007 at Brookline Booksmith. If number one is a surprise, you have been living under a rock.

Live Loud and Prosper

You are a Trekkie! Say it proud! Say it loud! Say it with 118 decibels of air horn power! Yeah!

The Holy Bibles

Read the Bible. Good advice. It is the most influential book in all of western civilization. It doesn't matter if you are reading it as a believer or not (well, I guess it matters a little), the Bible should be on your reading list. But which Bible? Unless you can read classical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek, you're going to need a translation. Do you go with the good old KJV, or the NKJV? How about the ASV, the NJB, the NAB, the NEB, the NIV, or the TNIV? I grew up with the RSV but today I generally use the NRSV. The language is clear. The translators tried to project the original meaning of the words while remaining in the tradition of the King James Version. I've talked to one scholar who does know classical Hebrew and Aramaic, and he says that he is impressed by how the original meaning comes through. Up until recently I've been pretty happy with it. But now come two new translations that may be even better.

Coming this year -- The Manga Bible. I'm going to bet that it will be way better than the Classic Comics version.

and

The ongoing project -- The Bible as translated by cats.

Deal With It

Nice piece about My Beloved Patriots by Charlie Pierce at Slate.