Personally, I Blame Jeremy C. Shipp For This

He very kindly send me a pdf of Fungus of the Heart. I said to myself, "It's short stories. I'll print them out one at a time."

If there is something I do not like, it is reading long pieces on the computer. Especially for entertainment. But I'm not going to turn down a book from an author just because of that.

Then, he extra kindly slipped me Cursed at the same time ... as a pdf.

The book whose review drew him to my attention in the first place.

Aaargh!

No problem. I could read it on the computer. Not that big a deal. Really. I'd manage. Bravely. (It goes without saying, though I thought I would point it out to you just in case you missed it.)

I told Tom about my good fortune in scoring those two books.

Who looked at me and said, "The new Kindle is only $139. And they have it at Target."

Really?

It turns out I can get to the nearest Target in five minutes.

They didn't have it. But Amazon is getting one to me by Friday. The dears.

So, actually it is Tom's fault. (That's enabling, right? I couldn't help myself.)

Although I thought I was disinterested in e-readers and every conversation I had about them made me feel disinterested ... obviously my sub-brain knew differently from the speed with which I responded. (Sub-brain ... you know. I think it's a Lovecraftian thing. Or maybe Edgar Rice Burroughs? Robert E. Howard? Anyway. I digress.)

At one point, I surfaced to sanity and said bravely, "You know, I could just buy the darned book for about seven bucks, now that I think of it. Just because I was given a free pdf is no reason to spend $139."

(Brave again. I know. I'm just like that.)

"I never thought of that," Tom said, but in a detached way. "Huh. Well, we're bound to have one eventually. The technology is headed in that direction."

"If you say so," and I sank back into the warm waters of E-reader/Gadget Instant Gratification, spending much of the evening perusing the artistic protective skins available.

I told you he was an enabler.

[I figured I'd wind up with some sort of e-reader sooner or later. After all, someone podcasting public domain books has to have access to Project Gutenberg's pdfs somehow. I've been printing out what I needed whenever it came up. Eventually I was going to run into something that was too big print out.

So, actually ... I blame the podcast. From the bottom of my sub-brain. ]

'Tis the Season ... for Books

Lately received in the mail ... I haven't read them but they look good so here they are with some of the blurbs.

Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman by Mike Aquilina and Fr. Juan Velez

Newman's journey to Catholicism is one of the greatest stories of the nineteenth century church. He relied on divine revelation together with logical reasoning and historical facts to reach religious truths and vigorously defend religious doctrines.

This book's brief, focused meditations will bring a similar clarity to your daily activities through John Henry Newman's deep Christian spirituality. Each topical entry begins with an excerpt from John Henry Newman's writings, followed by these helpful prompts:

---THINK ABOUT IT Points that serve as a springboard for prayerful consideration of each meditation topic.

---JUST IMAGINE A Scripture scene that brings the issue at hand to life.

---REMEMBER A simple memorization passage to help you work through the meditation topic.

Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others - Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa’s relationship with God and her commitment to those she served—the poorest of the poor—is here powerfully explored in her own words. Taken largely from her private lessons to her sisters, published here for the first time, Where There is Love, There is God unveils her extraordinary faith in and surrender to God’s will. This book is in some way a sequel to Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, in which her own very private spiritual struggles were explained. Sent to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, she assumed their struggles and pain in the depths of her heart. This led to particularly intense anguish which she lived through with heroic courage and fidelity over several decades. As important as this aspect of her life is, that remarkable testimony of her life and her words intensifies the need and desire to know more of her thought. There is much she can teach us as we face our daily struggles or sufferings, which can at times be unusually severe. Where There is Love, There is God, though not an exhaustive anthology of Mother Teresa’s teaching, nonetheless shows what she believed and taught about important issues that confront all people. Due to her constant interaction with people of diverse backgrounds, no life situation was foreign to her and in this book her role is primarily one of teacher and guide.

Paul: Tarsus to Redemption

Volume 2: Paul returns from years of solitude in the desert ready to begin his epic mission to Rome.

(This is part of that manga-style telling of Paul's story that I reviewed earlier.)

How to Get to "I Do": A Dating Guide for Catholic Women by Amy Bonaccorso

"Finding a man is just like finding a parking spot in New York City. It can be hard and take a while, but you can do it."—From Chapter One

Ten years of eye-opening experiences on the Christian dating scene equipped Amy Bonaccorso to offer hard-hitting advice that will help you get real, get practical, and get married. As a happily married woman, she knows what works (internet dating), what doesn't (living a nun-like existence), and gives you the confidence to date strategically with an eye toward marriage. Forget about Prince Charming—he doesn't exist—but plenty of good men are waiting for a woman like you to throw away the checklist of idealized mate material and settle down with a real man.

This practical and realistic guide for single Catholic women offers you an opportunity for self-assessment (if you want to make a good catch, be a good catch), and takes seriously the importance of marriage as a vocation to be pursued with as much energy as a call to the religious life.

Exercising Your Soul: Fifteen Minutes a Day to a Spiritual Life by Gary Jansen

EXERCISING YOUR SOUL, by Gary Jansen, is a spiritual fitness program, a guide to firming up faith that offers practical techniques to recharge and enhance relationships with yourself, with others, and, most important, with God. Drawing on spiritual practices from Christian traditions, the prayers and exercises in this book are powerful ways of experiencing God in day-to-day life. Jansen brings to life each of the practices he suggests as he shares his own growth through the disciplines.

With beautifully told, modern-day parables and stories, EXERCISING YOUR SOUL makes complicated concepts simple and exquisite. The antithesis of a self-help book, it is rather a "God-help book," one that places God at the center of all things and can transform lives forever.

Also, coming my way, so I am told:

• The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II -- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy by George Weigel
• Fungus of the Heart by Jeremy C. Shipp
• Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew by Eric Sammons

At Least I Had the Pleasure of Watching the Philadelphia Eagles Lose

Since later I watched the Dallas Cowboys go down.

At the hands of the Washington Redskins?

No, if only.

The Cowboys decided to repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot. Repeatedly.

I mean to say. 4 seconds left in the first half, you're at the other end of the field, and you pull that little bobble? Oy veh! Y'all deserved that pick from the Redskins.

Guys. In that situation either go for the Hail Mary or take a knee.

I'm beggin' ya!

In Which Davies and Carruthers Achieve Their Double Aim

The last chapter (but not the end!) of The Riddle of the Sands, plus some Spilled Milk, at Forgotten Classics.

Okra, Three Ways: Pickled, Stir-Fried, and Gumbo-ed

I think I forgot to let everyone over here know that there are some mighty fine looking okra recipes over at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Up There

An homage to the craftsmen who paint billboards in New York. Up There is only 12 minutes long but is a wonderful look at a dying art.

I found this via Good News Film Reviews.

Be Still My Heart! "Wall Street Journal launching book review"

NEW YORK — The Wall Street Journal is set to launch a book review in the next few weeks, even as newspapers across the country cut back on book coverage.

The new weekly section will be the Journal's first one dedicated solely to reviews. It will complement an expanded Saturday edition set to appear this month.

Story source

I already look forward every week to the Saturday WSJ with the focus on books. This is just making my weekend better and better.

Via Brandywine Books where there is also rejoicing at the glad news.

It's All Downhill from Here

A little midweek humor ... from Kuriositas.

The Theoretical Physicist Gets a Reply

Burning the Koran. I'm Agin It. And So Is the Pope.

There are so many reasons that is a bad idea. Let's just begin with simple respect for other people. Oh, and freedom of religion. Etc.

Anyway, Whispers in the Loggia has the Vatican's reaction, which more eruditely (is that a word?) goes along those same lines.

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

==============

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

==========

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!