I Dream of an Amazing Race ... to Heaven

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.

Hebrews 12:1-2

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Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win.

Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.

No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Lately I have read several different bloggers musing about St. Paul's famous analogy to living the faith with running a race. The most recent was Roman Catholic Cop who likened it to a swim meet (which is where I found both the scriptural references that are quoted above).

I read all the reflections with interest but, truth to tell, I always have been just fine with the standard that St. Paul set out there. The runner is in the stadium, the witnesses (saints) cheering him on. I can almost see the runner's special buddies near the track, "Hey, grab this bottle of water ... you'll make it!"

However, through the strange medium of dreams, an analogy that I understand better came to mind a couple of days ago: The Amazing Race. Oddly enough the dreams themselves weren't of The Amazing Race, the only reality show that I am truly dedicated to, but somehow once I awoke it all came together in one instant. I just couldn't shake how well that image worked for me.

Pairs with relationships run the race together ... we have partners to work with in our friends, family, and all the people we know. The race goes on and on, with pit stops for food and rest ... life's challenges are interwoven with the plateaus where everything seems to be going well. Sometimes a challenge is easy and sometimes it makes people have to overcome their fears or work with those they dislike to reach a goal (yeah, that one's a no-brainer). Penalties, sometimes given by other teams, can slow you down and sometimes you are your own worst enemy when you ignore the instructions or hints right in front of you.

And at the end, teams jump on that mat at the pit stop to see what Phil tells them about their ranking ... just as we hope to see Jesus face to face and get good news.

Obviously, this isn't a perfect analogy. For me, though, it is the closest I've come yet to having a good overview of a life lived to try to reach Heaven. I've heard it called boot camp. I've heard it called a race or marathon or ... a swim meet. I can relate those examples but on just one level. Certainly, they don't excite my imagination. However, that Amazing Race comparison has really taken hold of my mind. I have been surprised at how often I've found myself thinking of it. And how it has revved me up overall.

Or maybe I'm just ready for TV season to begin.

I cannot tell a lie. I am, indeed, ready for the new shows.

But I will be watching The Amazing Race with a new focus.

Follow the Bouncing Ball

Have y'all been to the main Google page and seen the balls there?

I like swirling my cursor around and watching them go everywhere.

I know. Because I have nothing else to do, right?

StarShipSofa Becomes First Podcast to Win Hugo Award

And the winner is ...

Best Fanzine: StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

Congratulations Tony and gang! Long may the Sofa fly!

Two Super-Long Movies Eliciting Very Different Reactions

How do you take a desperate mission to reignite a dying sun which morphs into a horror slasher in space, and make the audience so detached that they almost don't care? Get Danny Boyle to direct Sunshine. If anyone needed any proof that Boyle is more interested in character than in story, this movie does it. It is just too bad that he didn't do more with the characters themselves since that's all we're left with. And, all of us would appreciate having had a few plotlines explained. For example, just how did a certain person wind up on the ship? Just a word or two was all we wanted. We would have taken it from there. It was absolutely beautifully shot and the soundtrack was gorgeous as well.

Wait, I just checked the time. This was not a super-long movie after all. It just felt like it.


Then we have Once Upon a Time in the West, that 3-hour epic Western about of a mysterious, harmonica-playing stranger who is on the track of a ruthless assassin. This winds up with Harmonica occasionally working with a wanted outlaw to help a beautiful widow save her land. Classic, right? Classic Sergio Leone, that is, right down to the Ennio Morricone soundtrack and the classic cast including Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards. It is quite a long film and has many lingering shots of stares (hence the illustrative photo above), which Tom thought could have been cut back on. It was long but I actually enjoyed the entire thing.

Project 2,996

Next Saturday will be September 11.

Project 2,996 is a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

On September 11, 2006, more than 3,000 bloggers joined together to remember the victims of 9/11 Each year we have honored them by remembering their lives, and not by remembering their murderers. This year the goal is to make sure that each victim has a tribute.

Through the first four years of Project 2996, every victim has been assigned, and each name has received at least one online tribute. However, with the malleable nature of the internet, many of those tributes have disappeared.

The list below is fluid. As I make my way through checking all the links from all the past years, more names will be added. And while people write new tributes and post them online names will be removed from this list.

The primary way to participate, and the best way to help, is to pick one of the names below. Then do some online research, and post a tribute to your own blog or website. In this way you will learn a little bit about one of the victims of 9/11, and you will help keep their memories alive.

If you want to participate, go here, pick out a name and help keep their memory alive.

I will be reposting Captain Daniel O'Callaghan's tribute on Saturday, but, of course, please feel free to check it out any time.

Labor Day Break

I'm takin' it off and will be back tomorrow! :-)

I would like to toss a prayer request out there for Tom who is suffering most dreadfully from a hacking cough which has gone on for about a month.

He's been to the doctor who finds nothing wrong, but no cough medicine seems to help and it gets much worse when he lies down (of course), so he is very short on sleep. He'll go back to the doctor tomorrow because this is practically unlivable.

Prayers for his relief from this, or for discovering what's up, would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Already Copied Into My Quote Journal

"I'll make no bones about it. Cap'n Silver worked us like black dogs on a hot day. We counted and spelled 'til we nearly dropped, brain-addled and weary."

From The Pirate's Guide to the First Grade review in The WSJ. Yes, I will be getting this from the library. It sounds too good to miss, no matter what age group is is written for.

Russell Kirk's Fiction

I believe I mentioned recently that I like Ten Thousand Places. I was responding to some bloggy love that Margaret Perry had given me there. However, since then I have been checking in regularly and I really like it. It is one of those places that always has a little something interesting and sometimes a big something to think about. It is the sort of blog that reminds me of ... well, not to put too fine a point on it ... Happy Catholic.

Anyway, that is all to encourage you to check it out. And it is a very long intro to pointing you to her clippings from around the blogosphere. I followed her lead to this First Things' article about Russell Kirk's all time bestsellers. I was interested because people love him but I have never read his nonfiction. Thought I'd get a tip.

Wrong.

Because his all-time bestsellers were fiction. Ghoooossssttt stories.

And that rang a bell. Because though I haven't read any of those books and will be looking for them at the library, I have read a piece of his fiction which I enjoyed thoroughly. It was chock-full of ghostly goodness, cult-ish craziness, and ... ummm ... lots of other creepiness.

I reviewed it about a year ago, as a matter of fact, and will save you the trouble of clicking through. Here it is. Read this. Then go pick up a great ghost story by Russell Kirk and enjoy.

Lord of the Hollow Dark by Russell Kirk

Mr. Apollinax gathers a group of 13 people together in a castle that was the scene of a horrific murder earlier in history. Known to each other only by pseudonyms taken from T.S. Eliot poems, the goal of this group is to experience a mystical "timeless moment." We see the story alternately through the eyes of innocent Marina who has brought her baby with her and hopes for a glimpse of God and through those of the lustful rapist Sweeny who has no thoughts but those of personal gain. The story is an interesting mix of horror, occult, and philosophy. This book irresistibly called to mind Edgar Allen Poe or perhaps H.P. Lovecraft, in that although the story was peopled with evil, twisted characters it is written in such a way that the reader does not actually become frightened. (Except at one point close to the end where I was surprised at how horrified and repelled I was by something a character said.) This leaves the reader free to appreciate the more philosophical aspects as well. It was written in a style that definitely reminded me of other 1970's vintage horror/occult books I had written which was a strange style of reminiscing. I'm not sure if I'll reread it but I do know that I couldn't put it down.

Why You Need to Know Your Faith

This in particular is about Hannah going yesterday for a checkup and being given a lecture by a young lady doctor about What Catholics Believe And Why It Is Wrong about contraception and other related teachings.

Hannah was able to say, "No" ..."Wrong." ... "The priest that said that was wrong." ... "Those deacons were wrong too." And so forth, without being yanked into this doctor's stream of misinformation.

In particular, if you are a doctor I am sure that ladies of any religious persuasion would appreciate you understanding what you are talking about if you decide to undertake a lecture upon what their faith teaches. If not, then please just keep it to the basics.

To do otherwise conveys not only your own lack of education but also gives the unflattering impression that you believe your patient lives with a sack over her head and has just removed it to step into your office. If you do this in a condescending tone, then you also are making yourself obnoxious to your patient who is at your mercy at that point. Is this really what you took the Hippocratic oath to do?

The "if you have any questions or change your mind about that then let me know ... " speech has never gone amiss.

If you are the patient, then "buyer beware."

If you know your faith then you can sort through what you are told "everyone knows" as well as avoiding being led into error by well intentioned doctors. Or indeed by anyone. (Yes, we are going to say "well-intentioned" because we are practicing charity in not attempting to read any obnoxious doctors' minds.)

For those interested, the basic answers about the issues upon which Hannah was being "instructed" are in the Catechism.

Quotable

Meaning that these are going into my quote journal ... oh, and if you want to click through and read the stories these came from, that won't hurt you a bit either.

We consider it peculiar that Muslims stop five times a day to offer prayers to Allah, yet we stop what we do five times an hour to pay homage to our e-mail.

Joe Carter at First Things, Unplugging the Info-Tech God

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Me? I like my Science Fiction hard and I like my SCIENCE easy.

Jesse Willis, SFFaudio

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Back in the summer — it already seems like a hundred years ago — my teenager went to one of those college programs which promise the motivated high-school student an entire liberal-arts education distilled to a two-week elixir. She had a great time and came back talking about Flannery O’Connor, which I’d been trying to get her to do for, oh, ever or so.

One night over dinner with her twenty-six new best friends, the talk turned to the subject of what everyone wanted to be when he or she grew up. The girls, one by one, announced that they wanted to be lawyers. One girl said she wanted to go into politics, maybe. A few other girls thought they’d like to do some corporate kind of job.

At last my daughter’s turn came. “Well,” she said, “I want to be a mom.”

There was a silence. Finally someone asked, “Then why are you here?”

“Because I think the basic unit of society ought to be educated,” my daughter said.

Sally Thomas, blogging for The Anchoress

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At Mass today, for example, the gospel reading is from Luke and begins like this,

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.(Luke 4:16-17)

What the passage doesn't say, of course, is that He could possibly, on a different day of the week, or on a different day of the liturgical calendar, have been handed a scroll from Tobit, Judith, Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch, or 1 & 2 Maccabees. These books were in the scrolls too, when God walked upon the earth. I don't know for sure, but like I said, I'm not a biblical scholar. Which is why I rely, again, on the authority of the Church.

So the mechanic in me was left with only one question to consider. As a Christian, did I want to go along with a stripped version of the motor, the one missing a few parts, with all of the pitfalls associated with that, or go along with the original version of the motor; the one that has all of the original parts, all in the proper place.

Frank at Why I Am Catholic, Because I Love the Bible

And I've Gotten Another Review Book ...

Which looks super-inspirational ... here's some of the blurb.

.... It takes the reader into the lives of a celebrity couple, pro football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly and his wife, Jill, to reveal the Kelly family’s private struggle and how eight years with their severely disabled, terminally ill son, Hunter, unfolded in a redemptive and transforming manner. The light of Hunter’s love through his brief and silent life shone into the shadowed corners of Jill and Jim’s lives, resulting in Jill’s believing that Jesus Christ was authentic, her learning to forgive Jim for past indiscretions, and finally resulting in Jim’s seeking and finding God. Lessons gleaned from Hunter’s life and death, and Jim and Jill’s struggle to save their marriage during tumultuous times, make this a compelling and inspiring read.

I'll be talking more about this book, I'm sure!

And I've Been Talkin' ...

... (as always) at Forgotten Classics ... about The Riddle of the Sands: In which Carruthers becomes a man of action. And about Shakespeare.

I've Been Cookin' ...

Eggplant-Parmesan Crisps.

I Ain't Afraid O' No Ghosts: Reviewing "Holy Ghosts"

What many of the faithful thought was lost after these reforms [the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65] was a sense of the supernatural--of an unseen, invisible world, the world of spirit. This is not to say that spiritual matters were abandoned. Far from it, but as the Church shifted its focus in the latter years of the twentieth century, did belief in angelic and demonic forces have a place in the modern world any more? Did miracles really happen or could science explain them away? Or, for that matter, was heaven a real place or a state of mind? As these issues were debated over the next few decades, the idea of a spirit world for many people began to lose power. And, many critics believed, so did God.

In a sense, this is the true heart of Holy Ghosts by Gary Jansen. While on the surface it is the story of a decades-long haunting, underneath Jansen begins wondering whatever happened to what everyone used to "know" about the supernatural world existing alongside our own tangible one.

Jansen begins as a hard-headed skeptic who was trained in ignoring the odd noises and quirks of his childhood home. Doorbells that rang with no one there, the sound of smashing glass in the middle of the living room where there was no glass to be smashed, and creaking stairs that sounded as if someone were walking on them when no one was there ... these were all standard occurences as he grew up; as the family gave reasonable explanations, he accepted them and learned to do likewise. However, when he is living in that same house as a married man with a child, the oddities grow worse and eventually neither Jansen nor his wife can ignore them any more.

The lamp was off in the toy room, which was just beyond our dining room, but there was a soft blue glow from the computer screen illuminating the wall I stood up and slowly walked across the floor, and the church bells had been replaced by the sound of drums. And it was getting louder. I stepped inside the toy room, where there was music coming out of the speakers. iTunes was on, and metallic guitars were pumping to the beat. It took me a brief moment, but the song registered in my head. It was "Hells Bells" by AC/DC. I remembered leaving the computer on before I stared reading but I was positive there wasn't any music playing. The vocals kicked in and, as I stood there listening to the sound, I felt the electric surge that I had mostly only felt in Eddie's room roll over me as lead singer Brian Johnson intoned, "I'll give you black sensations up and down your spine. If you're into evil then you're a friend of mine."

"You've got to be s******g me," I said to myself. "There is no way this is happening." I switched off iTunes, shut down the computer, waked upstairs, and got into bed with Grace. Eddie was sleeping soundly next to her. I put my arm over the both of them and, for the first time since all of this began, I felt afraid.

There are more things revealed in that house than are dreamt of in their philosophy, until Jansen begins wondering what the Catholic Church teaches about angels, demons, ghosts, and spirits. He is surprised to learn that the Church takes these things seriously and does not treat them as products of imagination. As we watch Jansen strive to understand and rid his home of the often terrifying ghosts, we also travel with him on the journey of discovering what it means to acknowledge the unseen world of the supernatural.

I truly enjoyed this book, although I used very bad judgment in reading it before bedtime. I don't think it would have bothered me as much as it did, except for the fact that I have had two experiences with ghosts or spirits myself. This confirms one of Jansen's comments on the accompanying publicity materials, which is that it is very common for him to share his story only to have the listener pipe up with an experience of their own. Like synesthesia, this is something that people rarely speak of, but may experience a lot more than we are led to understand. Reading this made me think of my own experiences again and that was an uncomfortable thing indeed.

Jansen offers his story with no apologies for taking a rather unorthodox route in dealing with the problem. He lets us see his indecision, his questions, and the reason he ultimately chooses the path they took. A more orthodox Catholic, what Jansen might call a "good Catholic" probably would have gone to a priest at some point and asked for a rite of exorcism or some other sort of aid. It is difficult to say what one would do in such a situation until one is faced with it. Theories are very fine until one imagines facing a priest and talking about ghosts. So much depends on the personalities of the people and their preconceptions (yes, even priests have preconceptions.) I think that Jansen made the best decisions he could with the information he had at the time and, ultimately, that is what we all do when dealing with crisis situations, for better or worse. (For those who have come to me with "pastoral concerns": I don't advise taking Gary's route and would have gone to my local priest or some other Church official who would have done an exorcism or whatever was called for.)

My only quibble with the book is that occasionally Jansen uses language which, frankly, surprised me not so much because it was just this side of swearing, but because it felt at odds with the rest of the flow of the book. It was as if he were trying to push for "edgy" language, but honestly that was not needed. The story itself, told in all honesty, is edgy enough without those lapses which always took me out of the book and stopped me for a second before I would plunge back in.

Jansen's honest tale is one that I highly recommend. What I appreciate most is the way that he used his supernatural encounters as a springboard to look for what the Catholic faith teaches and for a way to incorporate it into his everyday life. This is how Catholics should live, no matter what we encounter, and Jansen gives us a fine example of it. As he points out, the Church is reacquainting us with some of the things that were inadvertently ignored or misplaced in the reforms after the Second Vatican Council. If we believe in God, then the Bible has much more to say about other supernatural beings. It is something worth pondering and Holy Ghosts is a well told tale that is a good reminder of those truths.

Knocking "Schultze Gets the Blues" Off Our Family's List as Worst Movie Ever Rented ...

... here comes Man Push Cart.

Ahmad is a Pakistani immigrant who dispenses coffee and bagels and suchlike from his food cart in New York City. He has to haul it manually to his corner and back.

That's the essence of the plot.

We could not but agree with BBC reviewer Digby Lewis who, in part, commented in his review:

A modern day retelling of the Sisyphus myth - in which a man spends his days heaving a large rock uphill, only to watch it roll back down the slope every time - Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) is our ill-fated cart-pusher, who succeeds only in having a thoroughly miserable time of it in the Big Apple. ...

... Unfortunately, the characters are so tediously one dimensional, poorly scripted and amateurishly acted, that the most sympathetic character is a neglected kitten.

Or the San Francisco Chronicle review which observed:

... The makers of "Man Push Cart" seem so dedicated to making a film that defies Hollywood conventions that the finished product lacks enough entertainment value to justify price of admission. ...

Would that I had seen this before having believed all those other critics who I know know think that a dreary movie going nowhere is the height of artistic achievement.

I don't have a problem with watching a movie about the downtrodden immigrant experience, which was all we could conclude the director was aiming for.

However, I have a huge problem being subjected to a movie about a stupid, downtrodden immigrant experience (spoilers follow, but you won't care because you're never going to watch this, right? Please promise us you won't watch it ...):

• When you make the payment on that food cart, then get it insured, just as you were advised to do. You have some money in that box you leave lying around your room (which I was continually expecting him to return to find stolen ... they missed that one ...).
• That uninsured cart? Don't go jaunting off after a toy vendor around the corner to buy your son a toy ... and then be stunned when you find that New York City's criminals whisked it away when you were gone.
• That fellow Pakistani you met? He's a phony and you had tons of clues. If you were the Bono of Pakistan, as he explained to someone, then you should have had lots of time to learn how to identify a phony. You didn't figure that out? Like I said ... stupid.
• That phony's pal who is going to reestablish your singing career if only you will do menial work in the meantime? Not only phony, but just a jerk who is using you. Again. Tons of clues. TONS.
• That Spanish girl you like? She likes you. TONS of clues. And you like her. We know you do. So when she is dating that phony you both know, don't just stand there giving her longing looks and shoving her away when she tries to kiss you. That would be ... oh, right ... stupid.
• The kitten? Ok, we're giving you a break on that one. Although if you did know someone who was wise to the ways of two-week-old kittens, why didn't you ask him for some info earlier? But as I said, we're giving you a break. We like guys who rescue 2-week-old kittens.

There was more, but not much more because little happened in the movie ... we watched the guy in his daily grind which was not pleasant, but we didn't see him learn a darned thing. Except not to leave his cart alone when he's going to buy a trinket. He didn't progress. He didn't improve his lot or anyone else's. He didn't get beaten down by the man. He was just ... a victim of his own stupidity.

There's an hour and a half of my life I won't get back. Ever.

What grows really well at 105°?

Eggplant.

Lots and lots of eggplant.

What to do with it?

Turn away from the heat, into the ... freezer. At Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

These Just In: Two Books I Can't Wait to Read

I was surprised but pleased when I opened the package containing Holy Ghosts yesterday. Gary Jansen wrote a stellar book about the rosary which I remembered well, but I couldn't imagine why he was writing a book about ghosts. Turns out, Jansen's time living in a haunted house (yes, really) helped him dig deeper into his own faith and lack of belief in "things unseen." I began reading my standard "book sampling" of the first chapter to see if I wanted to read more. When I came to myself some time later, I had finished half the book. Obviously, this is a gripping story on several levels and I will review it here later.

Ok, and I just want to say ... anyone who has a good idea their house is haunted and then goes up in the middle of the night to the attic to pull out a reference book? They're not firing on all cylinders ... even if they are looking for the Catholic Dictionary. I'm just sayin' that I was kinda freakin' out the whole time I was reading about it (and not without reason, y'all).



Everyone here knows I'm a big fan of Mike Aquilina's writing. As a matter of fact, I put his book The Resilient Church in my "To Reread" stack just the other day. That book looks at how the Church has overcome past trials, some of which were brought upon Her by our own sinful selves. It is a great resource (and reminder) for those times when someone throws up a painful past with facts that might not really be accurate. Or when they aren't aware of what was done to correct a particular problem.

Roots of the Faith looks as if it will make a good "bookend" read since it takes a "time travel" look at some very familiar Catholic concepts like the Mass, confession, and teachings against abortion and then goes back to see what the early Christians actually practiced and believed. How does he know? The Church Fathers, of course, wrote a lot of it down and if there's something we can count on Mike for, it is knowing what the Church Fathers said about things. This looks like something we can use when coming up against those folks who like have been taught that the Catholic Church has changed everything around from the way it was in the early days of the Church.

A Little Book Talk

Catching up on the last few week's reading (or listening):

• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: I  tried it before but either wasn’t in the right mood or was expecting something different. Hannah read it, loved it, shoved it on my nightstand, and nagged me about it (with that hopeful, wistful, little puppy look that a mom can’t say no to…) so I gave in. I found the writing was charmingly understated and amusing. It is about magic, English practitioners of magic, books about magic, and set in England during the Napoleonic war. Principally, the conceit of the story is that there was an English form of magic but it has been lost. The only true practitioner who has been found is Mr. Norrell who learned everything from his precious books. Eventually we also meet Jonathan Strange who is surprised to find that he has a natural aptitude for magic. Eventually the two men meet and have an interesting relationship that is partly friendship and partly competitive.
  
  After about 200 pages in, I was struggling as the author did much meandering from the plot at a length that doesn't move the story along, although it did add atmosphere. The author based her writing upon the style at the time the story is set ... Dickens, Jane Austen, etc. ... which helps account for the meandering and footnotes, many of which are hilarious or tell interesting stories. I finally switched to the audio book and enjoyed it immensely more than in simple reading. I think I do better with meandering books when on audio for some reason. It certainly helped with Charles Dickens when I was reading A Tale of Two Cities. At any rate, the narration was simply excellent and I believe that helped me a great deal as I practically became addicted to it.
  
  At the end the book suddenly picked up the pace with one thing happening after another. It ended in an unexpected way with some story lines being firmly concluded while others were left to drift off. Usually this would bother me but, in a sense, it was very true to real life, which makes me reflect upon the fact that the way the story was told was very like having someone tell it to you in person. They take little byways of explanation that may not have too much to do with the story and then come back to the point. In listening to the book this made for a delightful and somehow restful story. This was wonderfully narrated and that doubtless helped quite a bit. Recommended but only for those who do not object to long, meandering stories with a lot of footnotes. (Four out of five stars.)
• Quo Vadis:  Read for our Catholic women's bookclub, this is a historical fiction based around a young, headstrong Roman soldier who suddenly falls for a fetching young Christian girl. He then pursues her while she is alternately attracted by him and then repelled by his less attractive characteristics ... and there are many to be repelled by, believe me. It is set against the backdrop of Nero who is constantly hoping to be further inspired by a poetic muse (even to the point of considering burning down a city ... yes, we're going all the way on this one). This is a book that deserves to be rediscovered in the strong comparison of characters (Petronius versus Vinicius versus Nero, etc.) and beautifully written prose. Or would that be "beautifully translated prose?" Probably both. Anyway, there is clear foreshadowing of Rome being burned from the moment we meet Nero so it is not a spoiler to comment that I had never given any thought to the complete chaos that would ensue from attempting to flee a burning city ... this vivid portrayal has held me enthralled. I  greatly enjoyed the depiction of ancient Roman life under Nero and the unfolding story of passionate love which gradually takes on a spiritual dimension also. This book is very inspirational in its look at Christianity and also at free will, especially in the martyrdoms toward the very end. I found Petronius' character wonderful to the end, though will say little more here as I don't want to give away any spoilers. I, myself, was guessing up until the end at who would live and who would die.
• Inner Compass:  A review book from Loyola Press that I received some time ago. I've been interested in Ignatian Spirituality for a while and this has a more general take so far than some books I've read. Silf has a way with imagery and of helping one mentally "enter" the situations she presents. All this helps to get a clear view of where we stand, where God is (yes, everywhere), and how we can better connect. Although the imagery can be helpful, eventually I hit a spot in the book which made me wonder about the author's ability to truly pass it on well. At one point she retells God and Satan's conversation from the beginning of the book of Job, which is what begins Job's suffering. However, her portray of God is so very ... human ... God hasn't thought of something that Satan mentions to him, He wonders and doubts, etc. Really? God doubts? This makes Silf the world's absolute worst reteller of that story. Read it for yourself and see that there are no such motives for God as she ascribes. Since she is essentially retelling us Ignatian spirituality from St. Ignatius's work, it makes me wonder if she is doing a similarly careless job filtering it for us. Therefore, it makes her entire work suspect in my eyes, until I am able to compare it to St. Ignatius's writings. Which, obviously, is where I would  turn if I was interested in further pursuing this course. Not sure if I am, actually, as I read this because it was a review book ... 
• Miss Marple-The Complete Short Stories: I read all these in different editions, many when they first came out long ago. They prove just as entertaining now as they did then, and in many cases I don't remember the stories well, which is a bonus. There is no one for sniffing out wickedness in basic human behavior like a spinster lady who has lived in a little village, as gentle Miss Marple continually must remind those around her.
• The Moving Finger: I haven't read an Agatha Christie in years, having read them all repeatedly through my youth and young adulthood. I suddenly was taken with the urge to revisit the Miss Marple mysteries and this is the first full-length novel that came to me from the library. This is told from the point of view of a brother and sister who have moved to a small country town and find that there is a anonymous letter writer plaguing everyone with salacious innuendos. This eventually results in sudden death and murder. I was surprised to see that I didn't remember the murderer, or at least I thought I didn't. Turns out I actually did, but Christie moved me away from that choice with such finesse and sleight-of-hand that I was really unsure until the end and changed my mind several times during the course of the book. It was interesting to reread after such a long absence from her style and see how well she painted character and place with very few strokes, saving most of her effort for the mystery. Most enjoyable and highly recommended.
• The Body in the Library: my second foray into revisiting Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mystery novels. When Col. and Dolly Bantry find the body of a young woman in their library one morning, Mrs. Bantry fetches Miss Marple to solve the murder. I had absolutely no recollection of this mystery. Once again, even when looking for the simplest, most logical solution (as Miss Marple would do), Agatha Christie hornswoggled me and I was fooled. Simply brilliant storytelling using a minimum of description but yet leaving the reader with clear mental images of the people and locations (or at least inferring so much tone that the reader is free to do it for themselves).

In which Carruthers discovers what "seven" means.

Episode 131 is up at Forgotten Classics, as well as something to remind us that Guys Can Read. Enjoy!

Recently on the Home Screen

When both girls were home, our movie viewing went way up. That seems possibly counter-intuitive but they have extensive collections and we all like to force movies on each other which simply must be seen. I present to you here the good, the bad, and the ugly (or shallow).

• Dr. No: the first of the James Bond movies, this is a pleasure to watch for the introduction of many now-institutional elements. The "gun barrel" credits, theme music, Sean Connery, the first "Bond" girl (Ursula Andress), and hip visual style all have been carried on and modernized over time. Surprisingly this movie was produced on a low budget, which is quite a contrast to the ramped-up, legendary high budgets that are now lavished on Bond movies. The time it was made also makes it somewhat of a time capsule presenting what we might call "socially unaware" attitudes about race and gender. Well worth watching in it's own right as an entertaining spy story.
• Gattaca: In the near future, everything is determined by your DNA analysis, beginning with your parents' choosing to give you life. Several of us had been meaning to watch this for some time and we all liked it with much conversation resulting over the next few days. This will be part of the "movies you might have missed" series.
• Crazy Heart: save yourself some trouble and watch Tender Mercies instead. Jeff Bridges does a creditable job of portraying washed-up country singer Bad Blake, who calls Waylon Jennings to mind for those of us who know about his hard life. However, this movie skates along the surface and rarely dips below that to show us anything new about motivation or character. Bad's life changes seem to come fairly easily, especially his romance with the much-younger journalist played by Maggie Gyllenhall (which produced many cringe-inducing moments for us all) and the super-supportive attitude of former band member, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell). The music is good and it isn't a bad movie. It just isn't what it could have been.
  
• Mary and Max: an eight year old Australian girl and a 40 year old New Yorker strike up a pen pal friendship that carries them over 20 years. See my review here.
• Angel - Season Five: not a movie, but it was on our home screen. Rose and I dedicated a fair amount of time to finishing the last season of Angel and it became a homecoming ritual that I enjoyed a great deal as we polished off an episode almost every weekday. I mention it because the last episode of the series stunned me with how perfectly it worked. I'm not sure that Joss Whedon would appreciate my saying it, but Angel offered an unbelievably Christ-like sacrifice for his fellow man in order to give the forces of evil a jolt. It occupied my mind for several days because of that.