Blogging Around: Grab Bag Edition

How Japan Saw Us

A fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal about the Philadelphia Museum of Art's "Picturing the West." It never occurred to me to think of how Japanese art would have shown Westerners back when they were exotic.

The Great Banana Challenge
Also from the WSJ, this piece about the challenge of delivering fresh, healthy snacks in vending machines. My comment on this is that we go back to not having vending machines. Once upon a time, people didn't eat snacks all the time or stopped into the corner store for a piece of fruit (or, to be truthful, into the diner for a piece of pie).

The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Planned Parenthood, and Abortion Funding
I thought this was well known, but perhaps not. SGK can't guarantee your donations will not go toward Planned Parenthood or abortion. So I don't give to them.

Winter Pilgrimage From Denver to Mexico City (and back again)
The Winter Pilgrim is on the move again, this time in America instead of Europe. It makes for very interesting reading, especially when compared with last year's trek through Russia, Greece, and places inbetween.

The Brutality of Grace
Flannery O'Connor used violence and the grotesque to show grace. Joseph Susanka at Patheos considers this and discusses Cormac McCarthy when viewed in that light. Fascinating reading. It makes me just that much more interested in listening to The Road audiobook, which I picked up yesterday from the library.

CNA and EWTN Announce David Scott is New Editor in Chief
They couldn't choose a better guy. He's a great writer, a great Catholic, and great fun to talk to whenever I have the occasional layout project for him. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does there. Congratulations, David!

My Google Reader "Shared" Stories
Find them in the sidebar, where I believe you can also pick up an RSS feed (or by clicking through), if you are interested. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg.