Now Here's a Movie I'm Interested In Seeing

Daniel Craig in Western gear. Mmmmm, mmmm, mighty fine. Just in case you haven't seen the trailer or heard of it, I will just let it unfold without mentioning the name.



I have no idea what this will be like but I loved Eifelheim and this may work just as well albeit in a different medium.

The Pope, Condom Comments, Etc.

I will be getting my copy of the new book which has had excerpts picked to make it sound as if Pope Benedict is approving of condom use. I would have to read this for myself in context before I could comment.

My favorite comment and the one that resonates with me is this from Jen at Riparians at the Gate:

What I see in the holy father’s newly-famous comment is this:  There’s the prodigal son, and he’s starting to look around at the pods the pigs are eating, and wonder if there isn’t a better way.

Is he back in his father’s arms yet?  No.  But his father is standing on that hill looking out already, cheering on every tiny little thing that is one baby step on the path to reconciliation.

The holy father is not speaking about some hypothetical archetype of man.  He’s got the internet in an uproar because he’s peering in at the details of a real life, of a real person living today in our world.  Salvation works itself out in ordinary life.  For a man mired in male prostitution, this might be what that first awakening looks like.

However, there are lots of pages from people who I trust with many links which you may care to peruse.

• Aliens in This World
• The Anchoress: Part I and Part II
• Get Religion
  

When Blog Meets Go Wrong: "You'll probably need this. Aim carefully. That's all the ammo you have."

Theocoid recounts our get together last week and shows that he has a talent for more than code and theological blogging. I can't resist putting it all here ... he really should be writing novels.

We missed our initial meeting as my flight out of Boise left almost two hours late. However, we rescheduled for the evening just before I left. Julie sent me directions to an out-of-the-way eatery deep in the heart of Dallas, with the instruction that I to make sure no one followed. "Oh yes," she added, "have a newspaper under your left arm, and wear an Aggies ballcap so we can recognize you."

After a long week of work, I was feeling a little punchy anyway, so cruising the back streets of Dallas did little to improve my spirits. I found the diner, an odd little Tex-Mex joint with a broken neon sign that blinked "Jo s ats." I entered and was seated at a booth in a corner. I ordered a beer and waited a good 20 minutes before I noticed that written on the coaster in ink were the words, "Flip over." On the backside, was a note: "Go out the back, and we'll pick you up in the alley."

I finished my beer and made my way to the rear exit. As I did, a set of headlights flicked on, a Buick sedan glided up, and a door opened. "Get in."

I looked up and down the alley, then ducked in just, my foot just barely leaving the pavement before the vehicle pulled off.

"Did anyone see you leave?"

"No," I said, "Hey, what's this all about?"

"Too much to explain right now. Are you packing any heat?"

"No, unless you're talking about the Icy Hot I use for my strained back."

"You're a smart guy. Smart guys don't live long in this neck of the woods."

Tom drove. I noticed that the panel under the steering column had been ripped out, and some wires were spliced together haphazardly. Julie handed back something heavy and cold.

"You'll probably need this. Aim carefully. That's all the ammo you have."

"So what's up? I thought we were just getting together for a nice meal and some chat."

"Yeah, well, that was until we got this new job, you see? It was supposed to be simple... a little marketing piece with some product listings, four colors, a slam dunk in InDesign. And then, the scope creep. A tweak to the margins here, an extra column to a table there, and now we're looking at a 2500-page monstrosity with nested tables, custom layouts on every page, and a ransom-letter type style. I snapped. There's no going back."

I laughed, I cried, I wished my life was really this exciting.

Have You Read This? Well, HAVE YOU?

From Theocoid ...  here we go.

P.S. About half of these are NOT really classics but just popular modern books. Give me a list of 100 that have already stood the test of time and I'll be much more interested. Mitch Albom? Really?

UPDATE: Melanie Bettanelli commented on the Facebook version of this that she had actually seen it loosely linked originally with a list from the Guardian when she did a vain attempt to track it back to the BBC. Either way, it is still rather a fun list to look at.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here...

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, underline the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

  9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (but I"m working on it)

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy          

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan     

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel       

52 Dune - Frank Herbert             

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy     

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (This is NOT a classic and is mean spirited enough to make it never become one in my book ... stick to his history-ish books, not the travel guides)

75 Ulysses - James Joyce         

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare  

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

UPDATE
Dr. Boli (from whom I am honored to have received a comment) shows us a different way.

The fundamental flaw of the list is that there seems to be no way to construe the word "classic" so that it includes Dan Brown. However, we may find another use for the list. Copy it again, and this time bold all the titles that nothing short of a substantial payment, cash on the barrel, would ever induce you to read. Give reasons.

Opt-Out Day ... Play Russian Roulette on Your Own Time Please UPDATED

Sorry, I have had this rant building for some time ... and here it comes ...

I have been reading more and more incredulously the protests about full body scans at airports, the tantrums thrown by people who then tape them to show everyone, and now comes "Opt-Out Day" ... which just seems like another way for a great many immature people to force their childish protests on the rest of the flying public.

For those who don't already know what this is about, this column from Eric Felten at the Wall Street Journal makes it clear.

In fact, it is his column that was the last straw for me.
 
Everyone is blaming the government.

What about blaming the terrorists?

They are the ones who are trying to kill you. By blowing up your plane.

They would be thrilled to kill my daughter when she flies home for the holidays.

They'd love to kill my sister, and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are frequent fliers.

We are at war. What I see is a lot of people who would have argued with the government about their ration cards during WWII instead of pitching in to win the war.

Think of the lengths terrorists are willing to go to in order to achieve their goal. Those explosive breast implants are real, not a joke. Only the scans can stop those.

Flying is not a "right."

Flying is not necessary. If you don't like the new rules then walk, ride a bus, drive, take a train, take a boat, or stay at home.

Got privacy or body issues with the scan? It still seems better than forcing the TSA to search you. Yes. Forcing. They don't want to grope you. They want to keep your plane from being blown up. How are you with that?

Don't like the scan because of radiation? The last I heard from a doctor on the news, you will get more radiation from being in the plane than going through the scan.

If you want to go one-on-one with the terrorists, that is your right. But do it where you won't take a lot of other people with you.

And otherwise ... just shut up about it.

UPDATES
Naturally, SNL has chimed in on this issue ... a coupla times.

Here's a clip you can watch about the pat downs that was sent by Frank ... I stopped 2/3 of the way through because, as happens so often, they just kept going and going.

Here's a transcript (couldn't find a clip) of a skit that Hannah remembered about racial profiling.

Saturday Night Live Transcripts

Season 28: Episode 2

02b: Sarah Michelle Gellar / Faith Hill

Trans American Airlines

Captain.....Chris Parnell
Stewardess #1.....Amy Poehler
Employee #1.....Will Forte
Stewardess #2.....Maya Rudolph
Employee #2.....Tracy Morgan

[ SUPER: "A Message From The Men And Women Of Trans American Airlines" ]

Captain: September 11th, 2001 changed a lot of things about the way we live.

Stewardess #1: But, if you've traveled by air recently, you know that new security procedures at most airlines can make flying a frustrating and unpleasant experience.

Employee #1: But at Trans American, we don't believe that endless lines, early check-in requirements, or confiscating tweezers are the best way to prevent terrorism.

Captain: At Trans American, we have a better idea. We screen our passengers with a system we call "Racial Profiling".

Stewardess #1: You see, unlike other airlines, we at Trans American have noticed that airline hijackers always seem to be Islamic males, age 15 to 45, of Middle Eastern descent.

Employee #2: That's why, at Trans American, any passenger who fits that description is put through the industry's most exhaustive secuity check - including sodium-pentathol interrogation, strip search, and full body cavity exam.

Stewardess: Any passenger who doesn't, we leave the hell alone. That's a promise.

Stewardess #2: Some of our competitors take issue with our policies, and even say that, if you allow racial profiling, the terrorists have won. But we don't agree. I mean, why would terrorists want racial profiling? That's how you catch them.

Captain: Rest assured, at Trans American, we have no intention of changing the system that's given us the best security record in the industry. Fly with us, and you'll see why. And, by the way, you can bring your tweezers.

Voiceover: Trans American Airlines. Security. Reliability. Racial profiling.

SECOND UPDATE
I believe that both sides have expressed themselves fully. Comments are now closed.

What's Goin' On: The Dishwasher

Looking back, I see that it has been almost two years that we have been doing without the dishwasher.

As nearly as we can recall it began because the dishwasher was making an odd screeching sound and I did not want to pay the $75 service call to have a repairman come out just to tell me (as I darkly suspected) that buying a new one would be as cost effective as repairing it.

That had been happening a lot to us around that time.

However, we have another problem around the house right now (all this dust, where is it coming from?) and Tom's dark suspicions are that we will have to shell out some big bucks for something to do with ductwork.

If that's the case, I pronounced $75 a small price to pay to get the real story on possibly stopping washing dishes by hand. The charms had passed and I was tired. Perhaps it was because with Hannah home I was handwashing for three instead of two and that was my tipping point.

Whatever the reason, we really couldn't recall the problem. So I ran a trial load to see what the problem was.

Problem? What problem?

Other than the heating element not working, which was a previously known factor, there is nary a screech and everything is getting washed just fine.

I have a real feeling of luxury every time I wash the dishes and there are so few things to clean ... just the pots and pans? That's all?

So, Rose, your homecoming will be more joyous than you thought. There are not nearly as many dirty dishes to wash!

Getting to Know You ... Theocoid Up Close

We had a delightful dinner with Bill B. (a.k.a. Theocoid) last night. I think that he is among my oldest blogging acquaintances. So, naturally, I was thrilled that he was going to be in town for a meeting, giving us the chance to have an actual face-to-face discussion over some Tex-Mex.

It is always wonderful to meet someone with whom you "click" and Bill was one such person. He and Tom talked web code, formatting code, and the like. When the talk turned to Catholic podcasters we have in common (yes, Into the Deep, I'm lookin' at you ... I listened before they faded, Bill actually knows two of the guys) and other such faith-ish things then it was my turn to jabber. But we could all join in equally about kids, dogs, and life in general.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and we are hoping that Bill will have some other trips in the future so we can continue the conversation!

Send Supplies to Iraqi Christians

Frank at Why I Am Catholic is putting action alongside our prayers for our embattled brothers and sisters. He's found a way to send donations that will be used for food, shelter, and clothing. Go and read and then take the action that seems best to you.

Advent Reading ... #2

Obviously events overcame me yesterday so I didn't get a chance to post another good Advent reading choice. C'est la vie!

Today, however, I bring you a book that I haven't yet finished because I am finding myself almost forced to read it slowly and meditatively in order to consider the wealth of information.

Who is Jesus Christ? by Eric Sammons takes an interesting tack in answering the question that Jesus him self put to the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" We all have our favorite and comfortable concepts about Jesus. They are not necessarily wrong but they also are not all that Jesus Christ is. It is in contemplating those areas outside our comfort zones that we most often meet God. Or so it seems in my experience.

Sammons takes each of the labels put on Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and devotes a chapter to considering whether it is the result and/or fulfillment of incomplete perception, role, Old Testament prophecies and figures, or son.

These chapters are fairly brief but cover quite a bit of ground as we are shown the reason for each perception, whether it is really true (and if so, how true), and ultimately how this aids our understanding of Jesus Christ. For example, the chapter titled Carpenter's Son discusses our natural desires to know all about the person we love, the result of that desire in generating some of the legends about Jesus performing miracles as a boy, the fact that if those legends were true the townspeople wouldn't have been amazed at his wisdom when Jesus returned to Nazareth to preach, the truths about Messiah's wisdom revealed in Psalms and elsewhere, Christ's complete embrace of the ordinary life, and his restoration of the world through his sacrifice.

That is not even all that is covered in those eight pages. One might think that this crowds too much information into each discussion but it really doesn't. Sammons' writing flows so naturally that each conclusion leads organically to the next and we are carried on the logical track to the final consideration and couple of thought-provoking questions that are provided.

As I mentioned, I am reading this slowly, a chapter a morning and I then find myself considering various aspects of the chapter through the day. That is a perfect way to await Our Lord, by thinking about the way he reveals himself to us and getting to know him better.

Advent Reading ...

The Anchoress has a wonderful looking list of Advent reading suggestions. (Good Heavens, she not only has a list but she's already updated it!)

I must say that, like Thanksgiving, the idea that Advent will begin soon has crept up on me ... where, oh where, has the time gone?

How soon? November 28.

I know!

I do have some reading ideas which all seem to revolve around the idea of patience, waiting, meditation upon God, and absorbing things a little at a time. That all seems to work for Advent which is to help us prepare spiritually for the coming of the savior.

My first suggestion is a book I wrote about recently, Praying with Saint Matthew's Gospel. Read all about it in my short review, but this bit gives the essence of why I thought of this book for Advent reading.

Magnificat gives us a line by line meditation on Saint Matthew's Gospel that I have found to be thought provoking and fruitful. In a sense it is like a directed form of lectio divina. Twenty-four different authors each take different sections of the gospel and provide commentary that often takes me in a direction I never considered before.

Tomorrow, a book that I haven't finished but that I can already tell is a good 'un.

Rose Has Edited a "Crash the Superbowl" Contest Entry.

Rose sez:

I edited a Doritos commercial that a producer friend of mine at Columbia shot. I think it's pretty good and right now it is submitted to the Crash the Superbowl online contest. The winner is played during the Superbowl! ...and wins a lot of money...

So, having views betters our chances of making it to the final round.

Once you skip the intro, the video will pop up.

I watched this over Tom's shoulder this morning, only knowing that it was directed by a friend of Rose's who is attending Columbia. I liked it.

Did Tom tell me Rose edited it? No.

(sigh)

Upon opening my email I saw the message above. Swing by and take a look.

Which Bars Make the Grade When You Request Something Off-Menu?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, not the ones that advertise their bars the most.

So far these listings are only for Dallas and Springfield (MO) which is where I've had the opportunity to "test" bars. I'll add to it as new opportunities arise!

NY Giants-20, Dallas Cowboys-33 ... YEAH, READ IT - 33!

I. am. stunned.

And happy.

VERY. VERY. HAPPY.

Go Cowboys!

(And thank you, Jason Garrett.)

Now, Jerry, let's talk. When are we getting a new kicker? Seriously, c'mon.

Bill Bryson Does Not Always Equal Snark ...

... but it's a rare occurrance as all too often his attempts at humor fall into that mean-spirited vein.


As Darwin points out in a well put post. My comments? In his comments box. Along with the title of the one nonsnarky book of Bryson's I've read. Which was excellent. Go and read.

Unstoppable

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine versus runaway train. That’s enough, isn’t it? How much more do you need?

Exactly. What Decent Films said.

I've been drawn to the ads just by the two stars and secretly expecting to be disappointed. SO. VERY. HAPPY. to hear otherwise.

Not enough for you? Go read the review.

What's Goin' On: Conan's Premiere Opening

Not having cable and also lacking a predilection for staying up late, I am not going to be watching Conan's new show. However, I really found his desk washing ad funny.



So when a friend told me about his opening bit, I watched ... and laughed. You will too.

What's Goin' On: Louis L'Amour's Short Stories

I have been on a short story jag since getting the Kindle. As I've mentioned, I find that format a big improvement over hulking "best of" collections for science fiction, mysteries, and fantasy. Browsing the Kindle store, I came across Louis L'Amour who I have never cottoned to much in novel-long format.

Truth to tell, I have never given him much of a chance. I had a period of reading Zane Grey when I was in junior high. I still love Gwen Bristow, several of whose books are set in the Old West. But Louis L'Amour ... maybe it was his name? I don't know ...

One of the Kindle's best features is the ability to download samples. The Louis L'Amour short story collection I sampled (the first of seven or eight I saw available) contained two stories in their entirety. It worked. I can't explain it but these simply told but human stories grabbed me, interested me in the fate of the protagonists, and had me trying to work out how the inevitable ending would come about. That was the interesting thing ... you knew how the stories would end up. It was how L'Amour got there that was riveting.

What a wonderful surprise it was to discover a new author. Even better, one who has a large library of books for me to explore. I'm still not sure about the novels, but I am sure the short stories will suck me into reading the longer format eventually.

I know that L'Amour has a huge fan base and nothing makes that more evident than the price of those Kindle collections. Not the usual $9.99 for a current book. No, these are all $14.99. Nothing testifies to popularity like a long-dead author's works holding an above-market value.

I put that collection in my wish list so I can find it later. I have several short story collections to finish up. Then, the next one I buy ... is gonna take me to the wild West.

"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." — Tertullian

"Since Tuesday evening, there have been 13 bombs and two mortar attacks on homes and shops of Christians in which a total of six people were killed and 33 injured," a defense ministry official said. "A church was also damaged."

An interior ministry official earlier gave a casualty toll of three dead in 12 of the attacks across the Iraqi capital early on Wednesday.

The attacks come less than two weeks after 44 Christian worshipers, two priests and seven security personnel died in the seizure of a Baghdad cathedral by Islamist gunmen and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops.

On November 3, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the cathedral hostage-taking and warned it would step up attacks on Christians.

Google News

God bless and protect our brothers and sisters who are in such fear and danger now.

(Via David Scott of Catholic News Agency and EWTN News where they are keeping a close eye on proceedings and related stories, such as the general assembly of Interpol being addressed by a Vatican archbishop.)

Everywhere I Look, I See ... Exorcists

• Our Catholic women's book club just met last night to discuss The Rite. (BTW, if you live in Dallas don't be shy. Come to the next meeting!)
• I was just told that The Rite is being made into a movie. Not sure how that will work out, but still ... it was unexpected.
• The USCCB is asking for a few good exorcists (actually priests willing to be trained as exorcists) to step up.

What's Goin' On: Outsourced

We find this comedy about an American manager who has been sent to India to manage his company's novelty business telephone room pretty amusing. Although the novelty items for sale are highly sexualized and crude ... which is not very amusing ... there is a sweetness and innocence about many of the cultural misconceptions and miscommunications. As Tom said, it is that innocence that makes the best comedy.