Archives for September 2006

A propos of Not-Ted’s and CM’s comments here, and courtesy of Amy, a piece on Graham Greene and his Catholicism. Interesting tidbit:

“Although Greene claimed to dislike the label ‘Catholic novelist’, he retained his faith, if not his belief, in Catholicism all his life. To his dying day he kept a photograph in his wallet of the Italian stigmatic Padre Pio, whose hands and feet were said to display the wounds of Christ. Whether these lesions were of neurotic origin – psychological rather than supernatural – Greene did not care to know: he wanted there to be a mystery at the heart of life. It may seem incredible that an intelligent man could be awed by the irrationality of stigmatism. But as Greene told the Tablet in 1989: ‘There is a mystery. There is something inexplicable in human life.'”

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Pardon the language – gentle readers may wish to skip this…

It is dangerous to for any group to idolize the artist in their ranks, because the first rule of the group is that you don’t screw your own. But the artist is tempramentally disposed to call bullshit when he sees it, and eventually, the artist is going to see it somewhere within the group – it’s what’s most familiar to him/her. And what do you do when the one you idolize turns on you?

Sometimes I wonder what good Catholic folks thought of J.F. Powers back in the day, when the priestly culture he was skewering wasn’t a piece of history – when it was the way things were. I wonder if that was part of the reason he never sold many books during his life, despite his acknowledged mastery.

Have at it, people – disagree, mock, object, fulminate…or ignore.

So I’m bloviating on the Toyota with the “2B NT 2B” license plate – “Sure, it sounds Shakespearean, but it’s about suicide…” – when a boxy little Scion pulls in front of me and silences my nonsense with the astonishing “I (Heart) BOOZE.”

Condom companies doing their part to keep the college-educated from breeding:

“So with condom manufacturers eager to mine a ready market, and with administrators happy to receive free or discounted products that will keep students healthy, condom distribution at many colleges around the country has become as fundamental to freshman orientation as buying textbooks and finding the dining hall.

At Oregon State, ‘safer sex’ kits are filled with condoms, lubricant and Hershey’s Kisses; at Stanford, each student receives 12 free condoms from the student-run Sexual Health Peer Resource Center, which is also beginning its annual educational ‘field trips’ on which freshmen are escorted from their dorms to the center for an introductory talk.”

No, no, no. “Escorted from their dorm rooms to the center for an introductory talk?” Talk is cheap. If they really cared, freshmen would be escorted from their dorm rooms to a three-day toga party, with free drinks for the ladies.

Oh, and by the by:

“Durex also boasts on one of its Web sites that it is ‘the world’s No. 1 source for penis outfits’ and displays an array of printable paper-doll-inspired cutouts, including a red cape and golden crown, and a tuxedo for sorority and fraternity formals.”

I can’t top that.

….Here:

The Last Whole Earth Catalog offered “deerskin jackets and potter’s wheels, geodesic domes and star charts, instructions on raising bees and on repairing Volkswagens, advice on building furniture and cultivating marijuana: all this can be found here, along with celebrations of communal life and swipes at big government, big business and a technocratic society.

Can this encyclopedia of countercultural romance have anything to do with today’s technological world, a world of broadband connections, TCP/IP protocol and the Internet?…

Soon after publishing ‘The Last Whole Earth Catalog,’ Mr. Brand started to write about the computer scene, helped create the ‘Whole Earth Software Catalog’ and, in 1985, became a founder of the WELL — the Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link — a pioneering online community. ‘As it turned out,’ Mr. Brand once explained, ‘psychedelic drugs, communes, and Buckminster Fuller domes were a dead end, but computers were an avenue to realms beyond our dreams.’ By the 90’s, those realms were celebrated by the magazine Wired.”

Godsbody, helping to untangle the apparent paradox of an anti-technological mindset embracing the technology of the PC and the Internet since 2006…

…or something. Jeremy Irons returns to his new favorite cinematic subject: dragons. But this time, he’s got some rather exalted company.

My alma mater has been evacuated. Of course, when I was there, we had fires, floods, AND earthquakes.

Forgive me if this is an ancient idea – I don’t frequent the Star Wars fansites. But as I watch my children’s fervor for the myth rise, I find myself wondering, “Why didn’t Lucas give us a prequel about Han Solo?”

The question mark is because I don’t know if the party in question is a liberal or not. But if he is, he sounds like an honest one. This, from my latest reviewer at Amazon:

“While I do not agree with all of his opinions, I give him much credit for articulating his experience and perspective. I found Lickona to have many witty and poignant insights that are food for thought. That said, I also recognize that a good number of his lived experiences are not mine nor will they be reminiscent of the lives of other readers. Perhaps that is ever more the reason to pick this book up.”

“He’s not like me, and that’s a reason to be curious, especially if he presents himself clearly.” An honest liberal notion.