Those Zombies Are Nothing That a Little Lysol (and a great big chainsaw) Can't Clean Up

Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, is a fun romp through the zombie genre that is more akin to Shaun of the Dead than to the more "serious" zombie books I've read (World War Z, The Reapers Are The Angels).

The zombie apocalypse is actually somewhat in balance at the point in which this book takes place. Neeta Lyffe is following in her mother's footsteps as a zombie exterminator. Due to some legal problems she is in need of extra income which is why she agreed to participate in a television reality show in which she trains wanna-be zombie exterminators. The winner will win a million dollars and the others, should they survive, will have been trained in a useful occupation. Naturally, each person has their own reasons for wanting this training and we see a bit below the surface into each person's motivations. Neeta herself loathes the necessity that made her agree to the series but is determined that each person will be properly trained. This puts her into direct opposition with the show's producer who is all about the visual thrills and exploiting every emotion to titillate viewers.

Author Karina Fabian is very imaginative in her creation. For example, the zombies are repelled by common household cleaners. They have some dregs of habit left when they rise from the grave which makes them inclined to "visit" their loved ones or drawn to cultural icons they used to frequent. This is an amusing twist which Fabian exploits for full comic or adventure value as needed.

Fabian is Catholic but repeatedly mentioned that the book is not Catholic. True enough but there is a solid worldview beneath this fantasy which Catholics will appreciate. I know that I did.

I truly enjoyed this light, amusing book. I became invested enough in Neeta to worry that she might be dating the wrong person, to worry about who might die in the ending climax, to become annoyed with the troll that haunts a fan forum for the show. It is a quick read, but one that I anticipate rereading whenever I need a lift in spirits. My review copy was a Kindle file and I'm putting the actual paperback on my wish list so I can have a real hands-on book on my shelf.

Note: As I said, I received a review copy of this book. Guess what? I'd have liked it anyway.

A Simply Terrific Book About The Eucharist

I really loved Jesus and The Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre. Read my review at the Patheos book club to find out why it made me say, "For I was blind but now I see ..."

You can read Chapter One here.

An author interview is here.

What Do These Have in Common: Murder. Pope Leo XIII. Zombies. Outer Space. Sherlock Holmes.

All are connected with Karina Fabian.

Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator
Karina wrote Neeta Lyffe, which I just finished reading (at breakneck speed) last night and enjoyed very much. Review coming soon, soon, soon! Suffice it to say for the moment that I am buying an actual book to have on my shelves. Read more here.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II
Which we'll just call ISIG-II to make things easier, shall we? Karina edited this and, if it is like the last one, I'd bet we'll see a story from her in it. That is the next book in my reading queue on the Kindle. Karina's blog tour for the book will be hosted here on Tuesday, April 19, so you have plenty of time to get your own copy and be ready to join in.

You may recall that I enjoyed the first Infinite Space, Infinite God and I am really looking forward to this book. Karina's website describes it thusly:

Twelve science fiction stories featuring Catholic heroes. Meet a time traveler who sacrifices his life to give a man a sip of water, and the nun who faces venomous snakes to save a friend. Share the adventures of priests who battle aliens and machines in order serve the greater good. Infinite Space, Infinite God II spans the gamut of science fiction, from near-future dystopias to time travel to space opera, puzzles of logic to laugh-out-loud humor and against-the-clock suspense. A great read for any science fiction fan--a must-read for the Catholic sci-fi lover.

 Murder in the Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes
Karina must like to stay very, very busy, she is helping a friend organize a blog tour for Murder in the Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.

Yes, the Vatican and Sherlock Holmes. It can hardly get better. We'll host the blog tour for that book on Thursday, April 7, so get reading! Karina says:

Do you or your readers like mystery? Sherlock Holmes? Then I invite you to join the virtual book tour for Murder in the Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, written by Ann Margaret Lewis.

About the Book: A sudden death in the Vatican. An international incident over stolen artifacts. A priest’s wrongful imprisonment for murder. In this collection of three as yet untold tales, hinted at in the original Holmes stories, the voices of Dr. John H. Watson and the legendary Pope Leo XIII reveal how the great Sherlock Holmes brought these grim ecclesial cases to startling and poignant conclusions. Learn more here.

This book has been receiving critical acclaim from both mystery and Sherlock Holmes organizations, including the Chesterton Society.

Happy Valentine's Day

Tom and I will be going out for cocktails to a new place that has a good reputation and then strolling down the street for pizza. Yes. Pizza. Lady's choice, so that makes it ok, right? And it is some of the most delicious pizza you've ever had. Which is what matters most.

The Anchoress had more than just herself on her mind and, therefore, has some loverly links for the day. Check it out.

Global Warming, Climate Change, Whatever You Call It: It Isn't Making the Weather Weirder

In the climate models, the extremes get more extreme as we move into a doubled CO2 world in 100 years," atmospheric scientist Gilbert Compo, one of the researchers on the project [The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project], tells me from his office at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "So we were surprised that none of the three major indices of climate variability that we used show a trend of increased circulation going back to 1871."

In other words, researchers have yet to find evidence of more-extreme weather patterns over the period, contrary to what the models predict. "There's no data-driven answer yet to the question of how human activity has affected extreme weather," adds Roger Pielke Jr., another University of Colorado climate researcher.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal.

Though, as Mike Flynn points out, that doesn't stop people from making up theories of weather change affecting just about anything.

NYT columnist Paul Krugman has determined that the Egyptian uprising was due to Global Warming™ [I mean, Climate Change; I mean, Climate Disruption]. The rationale is that Global Warming results in droughts (when it isn't causing increased rainfall or snow) which leads to reduced crops, which leads to higher prices, which leads to mobs crying out for governments to sprinkle magic pixie dust to make food cheaper. It's a wonderful theory. Except for one thing.

Another interesting instance of "what everybody knows" versus the facts.

Why 911 Wildlife Is So Amazing, Relocating Racoons, and Other Interesting Info

The raccoons Bonnie deals with are almost exclusively orphaned, usually by efforts to remove the mother from someone's house or backyard. This is, in fact, one example of a reason live-trapping can be inhumane. Most people can't tell if a raccoon (or squirrel, opossum or skunk) is a lactating mother, and taking her to another location could mean leaving her babies to fend for themselves.

Crowded Creatures has the scoop. Take a look around the other posts at this new blog to find out why coyotes probably didn't eat someone's dog and tips about what to do in event of a dog fight.

Yes, this is written by our very own Hannah whose two dogs have swelled our dog population to "pack" status. Check it out.

Reviewing "The Art of Eating In"

Cathy Erway needed an interesting subject for the food blog she was considering beginning. She decided to give up eating out, though that would be difficult for a young twenty-something in New York City, and begin cooking her meals at home. What began as an interesting experiment became something of an obsession. As Cathy's blog, Not Eating Out In New York, grew in popularity, she threw herself into the project with an increasing passion that lasted two years.

My review is at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Mubarak Out, Anchoress Cites Marian Connection

Just this morning I was looking at the front page photo on the Wall Street Journal of that stubborn, stubborn man and saying, "What does it take for him to get a clue?"

Evidently he got it and got out.

The Anchoress realized that today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and has a list of other historic events that have occurred on Marian feast days. An interesting list to look over ... check it out.

Steven Riddle's Review of The Reapers Are The Angels

Think James Lee Burke filtered through Cormac McCarthy's The Road with zombies.  Boy, that really wasn't very helpful was it.  Let me try another pair of words: unexpectedly lovely.

Such is my respect for Steven that I'm not sure what made me happier, reading that he liked the book or his opening paragraph about our compatibility as reading partners. I feel super smart now.

As you know, I can also strongly recommend the audio version. It is amazing.

Google Salutes Edison's 164th Birthday

Google celebrates Edison's birthday with a wonderful animated gif in which gears turn and the light illuminates. Go check it out.

I know a bit too much about Edison's shameless self promotion, shameless to the point where others were done down to achieve it, to celebrate him as wholeheartedly as I could. His behavior during the AC/DC war, his treatment of Nikola Tesla, his behavior toward Georges Méliès, and his film licensing monopoly which is why the motion picture industry moved to California are just a few examples. However, there is no denying the fact that he is an American icon.

The Google tribute is truly striking, no matter who inspired it.

Blogging Around: A Few Interesting Things

• A blog I like is Riparians at the Gate where Jennifer Fitz blogs about catechesis, books, prayer, economics (an interesting continuing series) and occasionally points out an interesting blog that I want to read too ... which is what made me mention her to you.
  
  
• Thomas L. McDonald at State of Play tells the origin of tarot cards and shows some delightful images of French tarot.

  Tarot cards were not created for "divination," but to play games. Some people dispute this, claiming that the trump cards of a tarot deck (called the "Major Arcana") can be traced back to Jewish Cabbalism or ancient Egyptian mysticism.
  
  This is the worst kind of pseudo-history, and yet another example of new agers inventing ancient "sources" for modern practices in order to give them a patina of credibility. There is no evidence at all that the Trumps were adapted for fortune-telling purposes before the 18th century, while the cards themselves date back at least several hundred years earlier. Any person or source that claims otherwise is just making things up.

  
  
• Is Whispering Harmful to Your Voice? Doesn't everyone know that it is? The NY Times' "Really" column looks closer. Because it isn't that simple. Naturally.
  
  
• 5 Complaints About Modern Life That Are Statistically B.S. from Cracked.com. Things that everybody knows like "everything is so expensive" and "people are getting stupider" ain't necessarily so. Keeping in mind that this is from Cracked.com, don't be surprised at a certain amount of bad language flung about for emphasis. That said, their articles make me laugh and teach me at the same time. Rose gets the credit for pointing me to their articles.
  
  
• Another blog I like, Strange Herring, is a new one to me. (Can't remember where I saw it linked originally.) Lots of links and some interesting short stories about subjects such as why SlingBlade is the most explicitly Christian movie ever made or "Italians We Like: Steve Buscemi." And gems such as this:

  Medieval Italian Manuscript Feeds Entire Colony. Safeway Stocks Up on Dante, Ariosto.
  
  So this book, written in 1293, started to decay, as really old things tend to do. But it was decaying in a manner that caught the eye of microbiologists. Turns out it was home to “an entire ecosystem.”
  
  Now you know how the mainstream press will play this: “Vatican Library Withholds Food for Millions. Pope Blasted.”

Stephen Sommers to Direct "Odd Thomas." NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

We remember Stephen Sommers don't we?

He began his career with The Mummy which was quite enjoyable and has slid steadily downhill ever since, winding up with a bump at G.I. Joe.

The guy whose personal quote is "Don't let them tell you less is more. More is more."

The director who Industrial Light & Magic created their own personal CGI demands scale for.

He'll be directing a movie about one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. And not only that ...

Looks like Stephen Sommers wrote the script himself, and is producing it as well.

/Film

This news just gets better and better, right?

(Thanks to Rose for the tip on this one.)

Google Salutes Jules Verne's 183rd Birthday

Seriously, you have to go check this out.

It is the best of ingenious art used as homage. When you move the lever the image seen through the sub windows moves. If you don't move the lever, you are floating on the waves, so naturally the image bobs because the sub would be bobbing.

When Beowulf Knits Socks ...

It might look like this.

I especially like this since I am fighting off the urge to buy a book (darn that book fast) called What Would Madame Defarge Knit? (Edited by Heather Ordover at CraftLit with many original patterns based on classic books).

Thanks to Theocoid for this, who got the link from Mark Shea.

When Superheroes Play Poker

This is funny.

I laughed out loud. At work.

You have to like superheroes. And not mind a bad word.

Thanks to Rose for this one.

iPhone App Aids in Confession and Carries Imprimatur (corrected)

A new app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch has been “developed for those who frequent the sacrament and those who wish to return” in what is the first known imprimatur to be given for an iPhone or iPad app.

I'm sure that I am late in noticing this, but a pal sent me the link, asking what I thought about it. I thought I'd post this as it is how I let Tom know about interesting Catholic news.

It actually just looks like another way to organize your thoughts more than anything.

I, myself, resist cell phones, apps, and all that. That's just a personal thing. I have so many gadgets. So I use note cards. They are easy to stack and don't need batteries.

This app looks no worse than having a printed out examination of conscience, and prompts to get through confession (which I have handwritten on a note card).

Though I do NOT write down a list of sins ... they are burned onto my mind until I talk to the priest! (So much safer that way.)

CORRECTION
The original headline said this carries a Vatican imprimatur and I had clicked around and found numerous stories from reputable sources which said that very thing. However, it turns out that they didn't really check their sources any further than I did. There is an imprimatur but it was bestowed by an American, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

The place to get the real story as well as see all the ways the story was misrepresented in the news it at the always-valuable Get Religion.

In other news ... Kif and Wash got into a serious, no-holds barred fight for supremacy

This was last Friday when Hannah and I went in the back yard to frolic in the 5" snowfall with the dogs.

Playing, which always has an edge of hierarchy for dogs, turned in the blink of an eye into fighting between Wash (the Boxer) and Kif (part Staffordshire Terrier). Wash won, but that was only because Hannah hit Kif over the head with a plastic lawn chair to make him stop. She wielded it like a Valkyrie, doing this mother's heart proud, especially as I was racking my brain to think of how we could shock Kif enough to get him to stop.

Otherwise, I shudder to think what might have happened. I had Wash's collar but he kept on fighting and with Kif underneath no one could get a hand inbetween them to grab Kif's collar.

Hannah grabbed Kif and moved him across the yard.

Zoe and Zapp had been bouncing excitedly around the edges (mentally chanting, "fight, fight, fight!"). They had no doubt who "won" and immediately ran after Kif and attacked him. Luckily, they weren't as passionate and I was able to call them off with voice alone, because I couldn't let go of Wash.

Wash had multiple puncture wounds to both legs with a few bad enough to need stapling.

Kif had to have his ear sewn up in a couple of spots so the honors were about even.

The next day, we were filled with trepidation about how to have these two dogs in the same household. However, we followed the Barkbuster's lady's advice. We reintroduced them to each other in the yard where the fight broke out, with a hose ready and waiting in case of renewed trouble. But both dogs knew that Kif had disengaged first. Neither cared it was because of a lawn chair and both felt Wash had won.

So, unbelievably to me, we are now back to where we began.

Except that it seemed to clear the air in some way that we humans couldn't really see.

Wash has a new bounce in his step and a take-charge manner in the pack proper. Questions about chew bones get settled by him, he gives a sharper reprimand when the others try to push him around and he is first up for guard duties.

Kif, surprisingly, has gotten braver around me and now will look me in the eye. Crazy. But it is as if he now knows just where he belongs and feels more secure. Hannah thinks it is because in Wash he sees a strong leader.

Who knows?

Whatever the reason, we have peace and it seems to have done both dogs some mental good. It is just too bad about the wear and tear on our mental good. Not to mention the vet bills!

Gulliver's Travels, the Catholic Church, and the Meaning of Life

You never know just where the conversation is going to go when you participate in an SFFaudio podcast.

Jesse Willis (SFFaudio host), Gregg Margarite, and I all read Gulliver's Travels and then discussed it yesterday. This is a longish podcast at almost two hours, however, readers of this blog may find the discussion extra interesting since it eventually ranged all over the place with the last hour popping in and out of faith discussions.

It was a fascinating discussion to participate in and a truly wonderful example of Socratic learning (for me anyway) with a couple of folks who are willing to pursue learning wherever they find it.

Click through and have a listen.

Keeping on Track with St. Teresa: reviewing "a little daily wisdom"

St. Teresa of Avila is not a lofty, inaccessible saint; she’s a companion, and has been taking Christians on a journey through their own interior “castles” for hundreds of years. Honest, humorous, and insightful, her devotional and spiritual reflections show readers how to open up themselves to God in new ways.

This little book from Paraclete Press is true treasure. The daily quotes from St. Teresa may be tender or pithy, patient or sharp, but they have so far had something I needed to hear practically every day. Partially this is because of Bernard Bangley's accessible translations which capture Teresa's sparkling, vivid personality in naturally flowing language. Partially, though, it is because St. Teresa herself has a gift for communicating the important things we need to remember in striving to grow in our love for God.

What Teresa knew, and what Bangley has excerpted so well, is that we are easily distracted and must always be brought back to focus on the important things. Those things usually seem extremely simple when we are reading about them but are difficult to remember in the flow of everyday life. That is why it is good to have these brief excerpts to read every day so that we may ponder them and keep ourselves on the right path.

I was so impressed with this book after looking through it that I began using it every morning before prayer. It has proven very helpful and oftentimes I find Teresa's advice comes into my mind throughout the day. I have come across several entries that speak to me particularly and I will share them throughout this week in the daily quotes. Highly recommended.

First Friday Fast for an End to Abortion: February

Here's the background info and I see that I've been doing this since February 2007 which makes this my 4 year anniversary of this practice.

I had been slackening up in the last couple of months but the March for Life, as always, reminded me of just how urgent all our actions are on behalf of the unborn. There is nothing like that community, the solidarity, the common action of the body of Christ who works to save those among us who have no voices to cry out.

If you're not already fully involved in working toward this goal, I invite you to join me in a monthly day of sacrificial fasting and prayer for the unborn, the mothers and fathers who are tempted to make the mistake of abortion, those who work to end abortion and for the souls of those who have been so lied to that they work for abortion.

Reconciling the Reality of Hell and a God Who is Love

The Curt Jester calls our attention to an article called Debunking the Myth of Hell which has this basic premise.

I’m writing about hell because it is an unthinkable, horrible, destructive concept that can’t possibly be true.

My own personal comment about that is there are many people just don't have much imagination. This author seems to be one. God is so far outside our range of what could "possibly be true" that believing in anything else that goes along with Him should be a piece of cake. People who say that sort of thing just aren't trying hard enough. Or even looking into it much. More correctly, the statement should say, "I don't want to believe in it."
The first time I encountered the concept was from a high school English teacher and it affected me not at all since I cared nothing for God or Hell at the time other than to be surprised that someone would rather disappear ... that teacher's favored imagining of the punishment for not doing what one should ... than to just, well, go ahead and do what one should. She was kind of a ditzy hippy and we all knew it and that also took away all emphasis from what she was trying to "teach" that day, for me at any rate.

Anyway, The Curt Jester has his own comments which I liked very much and pithily sums up with the kicker which really sums up the concept which we should remember when faced with this statement from others.

She ends the article with the statement “God is Love.” So to reverse her question “Can a loving God force someone to Heaven who doesn’t want to be with him?

Streets as Icy as Skating Rinks Continue in Dallas

Just thought I'd catch everyone up on the weather. So it is day 3 of the big ice-in, with below freezing temperatures and a city system that is just not prepared for this sort of thing.

The mail still gets delivered (love you, U.S. Postal System!), the power is on though I have heard of some neighborhoods where they are having "rolling black outs" to help conserve power, and although we didn't have newspaper delivery yesterday, today we found two WSJs on our doorstep (yesterday's and today's).

Tom has gone to work all three days because ... I'll just say it ... he's a warrior. (Also, when you have a small business you wind up being like a farmer. No one else is going to feed those cows, right? And our clients may be unable to leave their homes but they still are asking for work to be done ... as well as the fact that we have many clients who aren't in Dallas and are asking for jobs.) I went to work on day one and then after having a series of small heart attacks over the driving conditions he drove me home at the end of the day. Because he's just that great ... yes he is!

Hannah went to work on days 1 and 2 and was one of the few people able to show up at work at the vet (where half her working days are spent as an assistant vet tech). Good thing she did because they have 18 dogs boarding and most of the people who work there live a good distance away and couldn't make it in. She showed up at 7 a.m. on the second day because she figured the 7 a.m. shift for dog walking and feeding wouldn't be there. She was right. What a good girl ... I am so proud of her for driving over icy roads to make sure the dogs were taken care of and walked.

Our own dogs are in heaven because people have been around so much of the time and they haven't had to be in their crates during the day.

Although ... we are beginning to run out of dinner-type food. We can eat sandwiches for some time but I will be venturing out to go to the store sometime soon so we can restock other sorts of supplies.

There must be more but that's all I can think of for now!

January Book Report - Part 2

Continuing the discussion of books I read in January, I see that I could also have called this the Diana Wynne Jones report. I did read quite a few of her books all at once and was entranced by this "new" author.

• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
  I loved the movie and a friend who had been telling me how superior the book is was kind enough to lend it to me. I began glancing through it and found myself pulled in by the humorous beginning. It was written with a bit of self awareness but not so much that it ever took over the story. The story is complex and yet the author managed to keep it all clear as the story ramped up, extra characters appeared, and everyone came together at the end. (Although I was a bit confused about the two piecemeal characters until that was completely sorted out ... but perhaps that is as it should be.) Definitely better than the movie!
  
  I can't really describe the plot well except to say that Sophie's troubles all begin after an encounter with the Witch of the Waste which leaves her artificially aged to about 90. When Sophie goes out to find help she winds up at Howl's moving castle (which whirs through the countryside at an alarming pace). Those are the simplest elements but it is an entrancing book. Although Diana Wynne Jones writes for the juvenile/young adult audience her books are absorbing whatever one's age and this is one which I highly recommend.
  
  My friend then brought me several other of her family's favorite books by Jones and I enjoyed them all as you can see below.
  
  
• Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
  The dogstar Sirius has been convicted of a crime and condemned to a mortal life, as a dog. He is being given a chance to find who actually committed the crime he is accused of. First, however, he must learn to navigate the world and life as a dog, beginning as a newborn puppy. This gives the author the opportunity to write about understanding the world from a canine point of view and later, as he meets some cats, from his interpretation of a feline POV as well. Sirius belongs to a gentle, nature loving girl who is much put upon by her aunt, upon whom she depends for everything.
  
  While the insights into canine understanding are well written, I was not very interested in that aspect. I was much more interested in Sirius' true nature and quest. That is understandable, however, as the book was written for juveniles and I am far past that point. That makes it all the more remarkable that this author still held  my interest in the story and characters.
  
  The last half of the book proved to pick up the pace and focus more on Sirus's attempts to achieve his goal rather than his life as a dog ... they were probably divided about evenly. I found it a most satisfying book to the point where I stayed up late to finish it.
  
  
• The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones
  Following my reading of Dogsbody, I went on to this book in sampling Diana Wynne Jones' oeuvre. She came up with yet another completely different concept, unique world system, and set of problems to solve. As well, Jamie, the protagonist seems different from those I read about in Howl's Moving Castle and Dogsbody.
  
  Jamie has a happy enough life with his family in a poor but active neighborhood of a large city. One day, when delivering groceries for his father's store, he happens upon a building that seems unlike those he has encountered before. When looking through the windows, he sees Them (which is the only way that these persons are ever described). They seem to be playing a gigantic board game and the glimmers of overheard conversation are tantalizing. He escapes detection and seeming danger but can't resist coming back later to see more. This time They see him and turn Jamie into a discarded player in their game, where he is doomed to walk the boundaries between worlds, bouncing from one to the next in the hopes of being able to find his way back home. He is not the only discarded player and meets those somewhat familiar to us (the Wandering Jew, the Flying Dutchman) and those who definitely are not. Jamie's discoveries and struggles make for absorbing reading and a book that I couldn't put down.
  
  This is a juvenile fiction work but, aside from some plot points that are probably much more obvious to the adult reader than to the intended audience, there is enough here that one never really feels as if the book is written for a lower age group. Highly recommended.
  
  
• The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
  For as long as he can remember Christopher could walk in his dreams through the Place Between to different valleys for visits to the different towns and people there. Sometimes, if he worked hard at it, he could even bring back some of the gifts they gave him. This led to his uncle noticing his abilities and setting a series of experiments for Christopher to do while in these worlds. As time goes by, we watch Christopher grow, go to school, and eventually discover what his true talent is and what it means to the world.
  
  I don't want to include spoilers so the above description sounds dreadfully boring and this book is anything but that. I stayed up late last night in order to finish the last thirty pages at break-neck speed. I finished and thought of the Harry Potter books, a comparison which hadn't occurred to me until that moment. I enjoyed the Harry Potter books very much, but felt that this was so much fresher and more original that I was surprised.
  
  Diana Wynne Jones has a talent for developing personalities as well as worlds and we feel that main characters have become our friends. When the Goddess expresses a heartfelt desire to go to school, we understand and want that for her too. When Christopher suddenly sees how the face he's been showing to the world is not what he thought, we feel his shock too. As with the other books I have read, the author is highly imaginative at developing new worlds and scenarios that do not seem at all derivative of any of the others that preceded it. I am curious to read more of this series to see how it is handled.
  
  
• Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
  This is a modernization and re-imagining of the ballad of Tam Lin, a young man stolen by fairies who must be rescued by his true love. My experience with Pamela Dean's attempt to do this to a story made me leery but I should have trusted Jones from the beginning. She uses her vivid imagination to create the story of a young girl, Polly, who encounters a grown man with whom she fashions home-grown heroic adventures. (The imagining of the giant in the supermarket is particularly humorous and effective as an illustrative event.)
  
  As Polly grows up, her life is punctuated with these imaginings as well as the man's regular gifts of books shipped from anywhere he happens to be on tour in his profession as symphonic cellist. Thus, not only do we get a wonderful story, but we see Jones's idea of what books are suitable for encouraging imagination in children. As I read many of these same books when I was growing up, this was a particularly enjoyable bit of detail. It is bit of detail that becomes very important later in the book, I might add. The entire story is set in the framework of Polly as a college student, realizing with shock that she had forgotten this entire segment of her life. Thus the story is at once ongoing and a series of flashbacks. Highly recommended.

The Rite Presents God As Santa Claus

Like many films that center on the presence of the devil, the ultimate point of this production is to use the existence of the devil as proof of the presence of God. Demons are presented in fantastic, freighting ways and seem to be all powerful. Non-belief is reduced in importance because of the great evil present, and the resulting fear-based faith allows God to vanquish His enemy. This may seem correct since it sets man over God, but in actuality man’s faith is not the controlling factor in his relationship with the Almighty. God does not need man nor does He require his faith in order to act on his behalf.

This type movie, therefore, I believe, distorts the purposes of the Lord into some spiritual warfare Santa Claus.

Scott Nehring from Good News Film Reviews not only points out the problematic moral underpinning to The Rite, but also correctly skewers those who indulge in wishful thinking while reviewing the film because they are so hopeful to have a "Christian" movie taken seriously by the mainstream.

Scott also points out the many flaws inherent in the storyline in case all you were looking for was a good flick. Wow, it seems as if they really got The Rite ... wrong. Go read it all.

Good Story #3: Black Cherry Blues

This time around, Julie and Scott discuss James Lee Burke's Black Cherry Blues. This gritty story won an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1990, and is third of Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels. The book is remarkable for its well-written prose and the emotional baggage carried by nearly every character. The setting is contemporary Louisiana and Montana.

Emotional baggage ... no kidding!

Plus there's a whole lotta confession goin' on. Not our confessions. But we talk about the sacrament,  mercy, forgiveness, and sleeping around. What can I say? It's a noir-ish story written by a Catholic author who ain't afraid to let it all hang out.

Join us at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast for the whole thing.

Nightcrawler, one of God's cleverest tricks to interest comic lovers in the Church

Now this is a conversion story I understand and a convert whose taste I admire.

Unfortunately for my career as a Witch, I liked two things: horror novels and comic books. Both piqued my interest in the Roman Catholic Church. (Bear with me here!) Ever notice, when real evil threatens in classic horror, it's the Catholic Church that's called on to save the day? And my favorite character in the comics was Nightcrawler of the X-Men, a devout Roman Catholic. (So if you ever want proof that God can reach us through literally anything, there it is, right there. I owe the first steps of my conversion to The Exorcist, Dracula, and a fuzzy blue mutant with a German accent and a penchant for buckling swash.)

I fell in love with Nightcrawler in the X-Men movies. What Catholic wouldn't?

I'm so glad I saw Libby's name go by ... I forget where ... and then saw her new blog pop up in the stats. She doesn't have an actual first post up yet, but go by and read her conversion story!

The Smoke of Satan

So, the feeding of the five thousand wasn't a miracle. Instead the "real miracle" was that everyone shared their lunch. Everything had to be questioned and "re-interpreted" in such a way that it could be accepted and understood by modern people. So when we call Jesus Christ "God Incarnate" what we really mean was that he was so fully human that as he reached his potential as a man, he showed us what divinity looks like. When we speak of the Blessed Virgin we mean she was "a very good and holy Jewish young woman." When we speak of the "Real Presence" we mean that we see the "Christ that is within each one of us."

I hate this crap.

Me too.

Here's my two cents worth on one of the miracle debunking lines that annoys me most.

Jesus fed the 5,000. No one pulled out their lunches.

For something that I just learned to pay attention to from listening to the St. Irenaeus Ministries podcast which is working its way through the Gospel According to  John right now, go read chapter 6 and pay close attention to these lines.

12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."

13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets 8 with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

My emphasis added, obviously. Where did those fragments come from? Not from people's lunches. From the five barley loaves. John wasn't leaving that point to chance.

Now that I've expressed myself on that point, let us return to the well written article that prompted it.
Read the whole thing by Father Dwight Longenecker at Patheos.

January Book Report - Part 1

A few of the books I read and enjoyed last month, just in case you haven't come across these yet.

• Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic and Can You Make a Roux? by Marcelle Bienvenu
  If the title doesn't tell you that this book is an authentic look at life and cooking in Cajun country, then you haven't ever visited Louisiana. Luckily, my husband has a branch of the family firmly entrenched in New Orleans and I have had the pleasure of several visits to the city and a few day trips to the countryside. Marcelle Bienvenu's book intersperses little vignettes of family life as she grew up near St. Martinville. It is a charming book and I've seen several recipes that I'm interested in trying out. Funny how Tom keeps giving me Creole and Cajun cookbooks. I'd better get busy and make something from them!
  
  
• The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
  I almost felt like putting "foreign lands" as a tag on this book as James Lee Burke writes so lyrically about New Orleans and Louisiana that it is like a travelogue. A travelogue through a very gritty, dark place though. This first book in a series is a noir style tale of police detective Dave Robicheaux's struggle with personal demons, both internal and from organized crime in the city makes a compelling tale. Even more surprising than the lyrical descriptions though, is the underlying Catholicism that defines Robicheaux's character ... down to the point that he prays the rosary when he can't sleep due to fighting off urges to drink.
  
  
• Heaven's Prisoners by James Lee Burke
  This book continues Dave Robicheaux's story after he has turned his back on the New Orleans police force and struck out on his own with a bait/rental shop and barbecue shack in his home town in Cajun country. He finally has the chance for a happy life until one day he sees a plane crash in the lake where he is fishing. This sets into motion a chain of events that severely test his ability to stay away from the detective business.
  
  I'd say more, but to do so would involve many spoilers. I found this book interesting for the portray of the addict's struggle (Dave is in AA, although I would contend that is not all he is addicted to). He falls short in many ways and I wound up disliking his character very much more in this book than in the previous one, Neon Rain. I wonder if that is because I am a woman, while Dave is very much tuned into his manly needs and tends to define his interpersonal relationships that way when dealing with women ... in a way I found unrealistic and distasteful. Or perhaps it is because the author does not give us enough extra info to help understand the reasons behind that behavior. Dave himself seems to understand what it means to be an alcoholic but he does not recognize his many other problems (or so it seems to me).
  
  So I found this book to be a disappointment because I couldn't feel that Dave had done the right thing for most of the book and, in fact, directly brought the biggest tragedies of the story on himself. More importantly, I'm not sure that he really learned anything.
  
  
• Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke
  This is the third in the Dave Robicheaux series and the subject of this week's discussion at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. It is the reason I read Neon Rain and Heaven's Prisoners. We see Dave's story arc continue as he continues to deal with the personal repercussions of the events in Heaven's Prisoners. He is still running his bait shop and when trouble rears its head this time he has learned to keep his head down (more or less). However, when he is involved in an old friend's trouble and his family is threatened, Dave must once again act to protect those he loves. This leaves him accused of murder and traveling to Montana to clear his name. The themes of forgiveness, confession, and mercy are strong in this novel.
  
  
• The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint
  I was intrigued both by the title and by the fact that Charles de Lint was writing about somewhere besides Canada so right after Christmas I took a chance on this when splurging at the bookstore before beginning this year's book fast. Set in the American Southwest this story is a story that is anchored in two worlds. Grace (Altagracia Quintero)loves customizing hot rods, rockabilly, and tattoos. She has one of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia (Our Lady of Grace) on her shoulder. John is a computer geek and artist who is haunted by the loss of his younger brother. Their worlds collide in an unexpected way that leaves them (and us) pondering guilt, love, life after death, when to let go, and the mystery of grace.
  
  This was a completely unexpected book that was at once fascinating, engrossing, and thought provoking. I used to read de Lint long ago at the beginning of his career but hadn't been interested in his work for several years. This was a welcome return to the sort of writing that I used to enjoy.

So when they said, "100% probability of ice pellets and snow," they weren't kidding.

The streets are like sheets of ice, under a snowy layer that is very gradually growing to cover it.

I remember when I first moved to Dallas in the early 1980s and there were continual snow storms and ice storms. Then we had a twenty-something year warm cycle, or so it seems, when we would be wearing shorts practically all winter.

This is the second year for vividly cold weather, at least after the holidays. Looks as if that warm blip is over!

Curses! And I Just Recycled An Altoids Tin Yesterday!

Why do I care? Or curse?

Here are 22 Manly Ways to Reuse an Altoids Tin from, of course, The Art of Manliness.

That games kit is going to haunt me. I'd best go pick up some Altoids so I can work on that ...

Why I'm Catholic: Catholic Conversion Stories

Why I'm Catholic is a website developed to bring Catholic conversion stories to the web 2.0. Check back often for new conversion testimonies from all different faith backgrounds. We hope you will join us in spreading these testaments to the Catholic faith and God's existence...

This is a great looking site that is releasing a lot of different conversion stories from people in all sorts of backgrounds and all walks of life.

It's an interesting place to look around and I can't wait until a Hindu or Buddhist steps up and contributes their story. There are some fascinating stories there, like that of revert John Pridmore who was a London East End Gangster and convert Allen Hunt who was a Methodist mega-church pastor.

Heck, they even included one from an agnostic convert of your acquaintance ... me.

They have just gotten started but I think this has the potential to really communicate to people in a personal way. If you have a conversion story to tell, consider contacting them with it.

Regardless, I think you'll be inspired by the stories so be sure to check out Why I'm Catholic.

2010 Discoveries: Movies & TV

Yes, I'm still looking back at the best of what I discovered in 2010. Here is the last list, movies! 

I couldn't really do these justice and still ever get the post done so I realize the comments below may a bit short or incomplete. I'm planning on picking up the Movies You Might Have Missed series and some of these will be discussed a bit more in that venue.

• District 9: A huge alien ship suddenly shows up over Johannesburg, South Africa but nothing happens. When the people finally muster the nerve to investigate they find that the aliens aboard are sick and dying because they are simply workers who have been left to die when their leaders ran away. The aliens, called "prawn" are housed in a government camp (District Nine) which soon deteriorates to a ghetto. Shot to look like a documentary, the movie takes place many years later, following a middle manager who has been promoted to lead the effort to move the aliens to a new camp, District Ten, further away from the city. Everyone being interviewed keeps mentioning "before the event" and "before things went wrong" so we are prepared for things to go downhill in some way for the poor fellow. However, I never would have predicted how this manager is caught up in the storyline and the discoveries of the movie.
  
  
• Moon: No aliens, big special effects or spaceships are featured in this movie about a lone worker at a moon station that monitors solar energy collection. Sam Bell is at the end of his three-year contract, the solitude is driving him crazy (almost), and then he has a serious accident when driving a lunar vehicle. Mysteriously he winds up back at the space station, healed, and without any idea how he got there. The mystery is one that he can't let go and that leads to the complications that drive the movie. It is essentially a one person play, if you don't count GERTY 3000, the robot voiced by Kevin Spacey. Yet, there is something about it that grabbed me. Sam Rockwell (who plays Sam Bell) is brilliant in this. I have long admired him and this is a showcase of his talent.
  
  
• Inception: Something is locked away in an impregnable fortress, something the owner knows by heart. Can this band of thieves replace it with something so similar that he'll never notice the difference? See my review here.
  
  
• Zombieland: A true delight AND a movie that celebrates family (still chock-full of flesh-eating zombies). Four people seem to be all that are left normal after the zombie apocalypse. Their goal: to go to an amusement park in California that they have heard has no zombies. The part that Woody Harrelson was born to play ... it's in this movie. (Rule #4: watch this movie.)
  
  
• Once Upon a Time in the West: a 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.
  
  
• Let the Right One In: Oskar is a lonely and bullied 12-year-old. Eli is the 12-year-old girl who moves into the apartment next door. They form a friendship over puzzles and Morse code. Except that, as Eli tells Oskar, she is not a girl. He must discover for himself that those puzzling words mean she is a vampire. Naturally, one cannot have a vampire in the neighborhood without missing people and murders, which leads to an interesting and telling sideplot about someone who is attacked but lives through it. A study in evil. Read my review here.
  
  
• Mary and Max: an animated movie about an eight year old Australian girl and a 40 year old New Yorker who strike up a pen pal friendship that carries them over 20 years. See my review here.
  
  
• Sita Sings the Blues: This is a creative delight. The Indian story of The Ramayana is told three ways, all from Rama's wife's point of view ... the titular Sita.  An illustrated conversation between Indian shadow puppets is interspersed with musical interludes voiced with tracks by 1920's jazz singer Annette Hanshaw and scenes from creator Nina Paley's life. You can stream this movie free as the creator, unusually, makes it available under a Creative Commons License.
  
  
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Scott Pilgrim hasn't gotten over his bad breakup with a previous girlfriend, dates a high school aged girl, and the falls for the exotic looking and exotically named Ramona Flowers who he sees walking by. Yes, he's a mess and as an insecure young man trying to find his place in the world it was probably inevitable that he is played by Michael Cera. However, this part offers Cera one of the only parts I've seen where he actually gets to occasionally be assertive. Scott Pilgrim begins dating Ramona only to find that he must defeat her seven deadly exes before they can be free to pursue the relationship properly. The movie winds up playing out like a video game (every time Scott battles a deadly ex) interspersed with a tale of young love.  I'm a fan of Edgar Wright, the director, so was among his prime audience but was still surprised to find myself smiling at bits of this movie days after seeing it.
  
  
• The Guild: this is a web-based sitcom centered around the lives of an online role-playing-game guild, The Knights of Good, who play countless hours to the point where it takes over their lives. The main character is Codex, the guild's Priestess, who begins attempting to live a more normal life after one of her guild-mates, Warlock Zaboo shows up on her doorstep wanting to date her. Because it is based around webisodes, each season is about an hour long and I have found it most enjoyable when viewed on dvd where you can "Play all". It is very funny, especially to anyone who has ever lost hours of their life playing an RPG game (not that Baldur's Gate ever stole hours of MY life or had the girls and me trying to work out puzzle solutions ... no, indeedy!)
  
  
• Flight of the Conchords: This cable series revolves around a couple of New Zealand musicians who have come to New York City to try to develop an American fan base for their band, Flight of the Conchords. They are sweet but clueless which, naturally leads to many amusing situations. What puts this over the top is that each episode has at least one song whose performance is woven into the story line. The songs are take-offs of other musical styles or artists (a favorite of mine is the one based on David Bowie's music).
  
  
• Better Off Ted: canceled after two seasons, this ABC sitcom revolved around Ted Crisp who headed up a research and development department for a faceless giant corporation, Veridian Dynamics. His supervisor (Portia de Rossi) embodies the goals of the conglomerate whose soullessness Ted must try to moderate while dealing with the erratic scientists under his management. A gentle comedy that grows on you after watching a few episodes ... and then turns into a necessity.

In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. ...

Yes, indeed, dearly beloved, we have How The Whale Got His Throat featured on Forgotten Classics, read "Just So" by Will Duquette from The View From the Foothills.

You'll laugh, you'll cry ... wait ... no, you'll just laugh.

Get it while its hot.

Satan the Tapeworm, Christian Movies, and The Rite - Updated Twice

The Rite is coming, that movie starring Anthony Hopkins about priests in Italy and exorcism. John Zmirak talks about being invited to "Christian" movie previews and having been disappointed in the past.

... it bothers me that so many of the movies promoted this way are not really "spiritual," much less Christian; they're simply bland and inoffensive.

The Catholic faith is neither. In fact, like really authentic Mexican food (think habeneros and fried crickets), it is at once both pungent and offensive. It offends me all the time, with the outrageous demands it makes of my fallen nature and the sheer weirdness of its claims. It asserts that, behind the veil of day-to-day schlepping, of work and laundry and television and microwaved burritos, we live on the front lines of a savage spiritual war waged by invisible entities (deathless malevolent demons and benevolent dead saints) whose winners will enjoy eternal happiness with a resurrected rabbi, and whose losers will writhe forever in unquenchable fire. Sometimes I step back and find myself saying in Jerry Seinfeld's voice: What's with all the craziness? Why can't I just enjoy my soup?

His piece is a tour de force and you need to go read it.

What he says about movie preview presenters rings all the truer to me, having gone to the rough cut screening of There Be Dragons last week (about Josemaria Escriva's early years). That movie actually came out somewhere in between the Bosch-esqueness which Zmirak points out and the sweet unworldliness he rightly deplores that are all too often the result of "Christian" movies.

"Dragons" looks as if it will actually be a fairly good 'un though it is impossible to tell without all the scenes in it, but it was the post-movie presentation that was a turn off. I later found out it was called a "Leadership" screening, meaning that ministry leaders would be there. The presentation was aimed at them and it was all that Zmirak describes.

Actually I've begun to have faint hopes that The Rite movie might be all right (ha!) after reading this interview with Father Gary Thomas, who was the subject of The Rite book. I been interested in what Hollywood would do in the movie portrayal, since I loved the book so much (my review for Patheos is here).

One discrepancy Fr. Thomas pointed out was that he went to Rome as a 50-year-old seasoned priest with a desire to learn more about the rite of exorcism  – hardly a cynical seminarian in the midst of a faith crisis.

Despite the differences, however, he called the film “very good.”

“The human side of the priesthood is very well developed,” he said, adding that the portrayal of “the institutional Church comes out very positively.”

This doesn't tell us, of course, as to whether the movie is a good movie, a watchable movie, a movie that we want to see, but I do have my fingers crossed.

Incidentally, what Zmirak says about inoffensive, bland movies?  As my friend Scott Nehring continually reminds us, the answer to that is that we don't need is people making "Christian" movies. What we need are great movies made by artists who are "Christian."

UPDATE
Steven D. Greydanus, Catholic movie reviewer par excellence, gives context for Hollywood's depiction of exorcists in an article at Christianity Today.

The Anchoress has a comprehensive looking round up of The Rite links.

2nd UPDATE
Fried crickets? Really?

I don't know what Mexican food Mr. Zmirak eats but he needs to find new restaurants or recipes. Maybe Aztecs enjoyed fried crickets but they also had their chocolate "sin azúcar" (that's without sugar to you and me ... which is, actually, I think ... offensive because it is a sin so we don't really want to go there).

Next time you're in Dallas, Mr. Zmirak, please do say howdy and we'll grab some brisket tacos. Which are Tex Mex, but have fully enough flavor and zest to make your point. We'll even get some habaneros on the side for you.

(And yes, before foodies ask, yes, I know about the cricket-ish delights of Oaxaca. I get the point. But there's no fun in that ...)

Most Popular Catholic Blogs

Eric Sammons, whose book Who Is Jesus Christ I highly recommend, has updated his popular listing of the most popular Catholic blogs.

It is based on how many Google reader subscriptions there are for each blog and, as such, is just one way to measure popularity. Still, it is as valid a way as any others that occur to me ... and the list is interesting and seems more accurate (for one thing The Curt Jester is now included).

You can see the top 25 blogs here and there's a link at the bottom that has the top 200. It is fair to say that you'll find some good and diverse reading among the blogs in the lists.

(I was interested and actually fairly surprised to see that Happy Catholic managed to scrape into the top 25 ... which tells you the wide range of subscription numbers which goes from almost 7,000 down to 750. It doesn't really mean anything in particular but is just interesting to see the breaks in numbers.)

Brisket Tacos - You Know You Want Them

I didn't realize, though, that you may not even know you want them unless you live in Dallas.

Evidently they're a local specialty. I didn't know you even had local specialties pop up these days. Read more at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen (and, yes, you can get the recipe).

A Few Thoughts After the March for Life

Things I meant to write after marching on Saturday, but didn't get a chance to ... and now I see that others have done the work for me. (These are just bits ... click through to read it all.)

If this is how we lose, imagine how we'll win! The march is - for all practical purposes - a remembrance of a defeat. We lost Roe v. Wade, and yet we come with laughter, with smiles, with fun, and with hope. Such hope! Hope in our own humanity, our own dignity, hope in our country, hope in our world. A hope that will smash down walls surrounding human hearts, and release a torrent of compassion and love on the world. Hope that will wake and shake the oldest of human desires; to live and protect life. Hope that will conquer evil in it's very dwelling place. Gosh, this all sounds like something. Never has anyone been so victorious in defeat. And here's the beautiful thing; only when you can maintain joy in defeat can you ever be worthy of winning. The abortionists won, but there is nothing but decrepit, boring hatred in their victory.

Marc at Bad Catholic

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

It seems like a pretty good follow-up to the March for Life, doesn’t it?  You know, that day when hundreds of thousands of ninjas march to show their support of women and babies.  I say “ninjas” because they somehow slip by the attention of the media — amazing!  It’s like they were never there.  And yet they get the job done.

Simcha Fisher at I have to sit down

Simply the best book on the spiritual life that uses the urinal for parallelism.

So says The Curt Jester about Choosing the Right Urinal. Possibly because I didn't find any interest in reading a book featuring urinals, however spiritual, I passed on a review copy. However, I'm glad to see it has good value. Here's what Jeff (a.k.a. The Curt Jester) sez:

Kyle Heimann who is half of the music group Popple has released a new micro book called Choosing the Right Urinal – A Man’s guide to life.

This is simply the best best book on the spiritual life that uses the urinal for parallelism. Okay, maybe the only book that compares the urinal and aspects related to urinal to make points on the spiritual life. Actually, it is a enjoyable and worthwhile read that is very funny while making some serious points.

Kyle has it available for free on his site in PDF format along with a study guide for a group. You can also order copies of this book.

Jeff also talks a little about what Popple is like and has a music video you can watch, so go check it out.

For a more thorough book review from The Curt Jester, check out this one on The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin. (Which I am pretty sure I was never offered to review ... ahem ... but we will not get into that now ... )

Walter Murch and Why 3D Doesn't Work in Movies

Roger Ebert has Walter Murch's letter about why 3D gives people headaches ... and more importantly, why we don't need it.

And lastly, the question of immersion. 3D films remind the audience that they are in a certain "perspective" relationship to the image. It is almost a Brechtian trick. Whereas if the film story has really gripped an audience they are "in" the picture in a kind of dreamlike "spaceless" space. So a good story will give you more dimensionality than you can ever cope with.

Who's Walter Murch, you may well ask. Roger Ebert says he's, "the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema" and then goes on to quote credentials.

Murch is also very good at explanations. It is simply put, well illustrated, and fairly short. I didn't need the letter to not care much about 3D, but for those who want proof, the evidence is ample. Go read it all.

Rep. James Lankford: "The Right to Life is Self-Evident"

I found this moving and true. May we hear many more who will speak as clearly and honestly about what they really believe. It is only when we are really honest with each other in debate that we will get anywhere in changing hearts and lives ... and that is what, in the end, changes laws. When we believe in and act for life, the law will not matter any more because there will be no one who will want to use it.

(Thanks to JP for bringing it to my attention.)

Fifteen Vocalists in Fifteen Minutes

From a Facebook thing I got tagged with, but I'm sharing it here also. I found it interesting to see what vocalists swam to the surface of my mind when I was just staring at the sky and thinking about music.

The rules:  Don't take too long to think about it.  Fifteen vocalists that will always stick with you.  List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.  And in no particular order.  Tag fifteen friends.

1. Ella Fitzgerald
2. Annette Hanshaw
3. Billie Holliday
4. Louis Armstrong
5. Paul McCartney
6. John Lennon
7. Dean Martin
8. Frank Sinatra
9. Bob Dylan (and not in a good way ...)
10. Steve Goodman
11. John Prine (also, not really in a good way, though I find him more tolerable than Dylan)
12. Bonnie Raitt
13. John Hiatt
14. Tom Petty
15. Mark Knopfler

If the Pope were to ask where he could get the best stack of pancakes in Dallas ...

... I would reply, "Your Holiness, have you tried the Cinn-a-Stack from IHOP?"*

Last Thursday was a sad day. Rose returned to Chicago, the skies were gray, the weather freezing. She and I had planned to have brunch in the hour before we had to hit the road for the airport. Yet, my mind went completely blank. I couldn't think of a local place that Rose and her friends hadn't already over-visited in their get togethers over the last month. (I know, I completely forgot Cindi's and am still kicking myself.)

It is an ill wind that blows no good though because we wound up at IHOP. Loving cinnamon rolls the way that I do, I couldn't resist the Cinn-a-stack. The pancakes were layered with cinnamon roll style filling and had a bit of cream cheese icing on top. To my surprise, they were not too sweet, with just the right amount of cinnamon and, of course, the buttermilk pancakes were delicious.

They were truly heavenly and worthy of the Holy Father, should he ever come to town for breakfast.

It was still a sad day when we finished. Yet, when you are full of pancakes and cinnamon, it leaves less room for the sad feelings. Perhaps that is why we wound up animatedly talking about Rose's idea for a Western movie all the way to the airport. And our sad feelings were forgotten until we got to the gate.

*With apologies to Roger Ebert, whose writing was the genesis of the phrase above. (If the Pope were to ask where he could get a good plate of spaghetti in America, I would reply, "Your Holiness, have you tried the Chili Mac or the Chili 3-Ways?")

January 22 - National Day of Penance and Prayer for Life

Per the U.S. Bishops today is a day of penance and prayer for life

In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass "For Peace and Justice" (no. 22 of the "Masses for Various Needs") should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

Tom and I are marching in the Dallas March for Life today. If you happen to see this and be there ... we will be near the blue balloons (for our St. Thomas Aquinas parish). I will be wearing a purple parka. Please come and say hello and walk with us!

And then there's another movie coming up in May about a priest

Though it is not exactly the sort of movie that There Be Dragons is.

It was mentioned by in passing reference last night at the screening as "That's a problem we all have, right? Fighting vampires."

I didn't laugh. I was too busy perking up my ears. Priests? Fighting vampires? Now that has some potential ...

Talking to Rose about it on the phone, I said, "I just hope they don't make the priest so unpriestly that I can't watch it ... sleeping with women, etc."

Rose said, "Hey, I think that as long as it isn't Paul Bettany*, we're probably ok."

I found the trailer.

Ummm. It is Paul Bettany.

It also looks like a post-apocalyptic, futuristic vampire movie that has not only Paul Bettany (who I love) but also Karl Urban. I'm not sure which I love more in this trailer. Karl Urban. Or his hat.

As Tom pointed out, the only reason for this movie to be about priests versus vampires is so that the public has an easy way to tell who the good guys are. Though it looks as if there may be only one good guy ... and a seriously cool bad guy. With a great hat.

I'm not sure what the movie will be like. I am not left with high hopes after seeing the trailer. But I've still got some hope, however slight.

*Hey, just let me say again that I love Paul Bettany. Love. Him. I don't love his role in Da Vinci Code though. Which is what Rose was joking about.

We Saw a Rough Cut of "There Be Dragons" Last Night

It was a very rough cut with scenes missing, on video instead of the final media, that sort of thing. I can't write a review but I can tell you a few things ...

It is the story of Josemaria Escriva, told through flashbacks by a father to his journalist son who has been assigned to write a book as Escriva is about to be canonized in the movie's current-day timeline. In a sense, it is an anti-DaVinci Code because it shows the beginnings of Opus Dei as God's work intended for all people. Certainly it is an interesting look up close at the Spanish Civil War from the point of view of Escriva and his childhood friend (a fictional character whose life is intertwined with Escriva's in a way that shows us the contrast between being open to love and forgiveness and rejecting them).

Tom and I both found it absorbing.

You need have no fears about a Hollywoodization of either St. Escriva or the Church. Escriva is shown as a priest in a real, human occupation (or as they'd say in the Church, vocation). He is somewhat idealized but with faults and frailties that any human experiences in their attempts to live life the right way. I was totally impressed by how often I saw monstrances in the movie, often empty but still there as reminders of the centrality of the Eucharist. As well, the Eucharist is treated in a completely respectful way, especially if a threat comes along.

It will be in theaters on May 5 and I would plan to see it. You can read more about it here.

Something I Like: Paperback Swap

Ironically, this is something that I think I mentioned years ago but never tried out for myself. It took Scott Danielson's repeated, enthusiastic endorsement to get me to try it out, which I did just a few days ago.

Paperback Swap's concept is simple. It is a free network where you can find and exchange books across the country ... free.

What our Book Club is all about...

We help avid readers Swap, Trade & Exchange Books for Free.

• It's easy: List books you'd like to swap with other club members.
• Once a book is requested, mail it to the club member. 
• In return, you may choose from 4,943,576 available books!

- Books you request are mailed to you for free.
- No late fees. No hidden charges.

The only thing you pay for is the postage when you send out the books someone has requested from you. I was impressed to see that they even have a wrapper you can print out which has a complete address label that includes a postage estimate based on the weight of the book.

At this point I have evidently listed books which people have just been waiting for. In the last two days I have sent out about 11 books.

I plan on using the credits for times when Scott and I are reading a book I can't get at the library and to pick up some books I know people would like for gifts but that aren't in print any more. This is going to make honoring my book fast more difficult, but since this is the second year, I think I can handle it. We shall see!

2010 Discoveries: Audiobooks

Except where I mention it specifically below, I imagine that these would be just as good for regular reading as when listening. I simply encountered them via audio first.

• The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton
  At the beginning of the 20th century, in detective fiction there was Sherlock Holmes and that was all. There were other fictional detectives, to be sure, but they were only bad imitations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous consulting detective. The sleuths offered by other writers would try to outdo Holmes in eccentricity and in solving crimes that were evermore contrived and convoluted.
  
  But in 1905 a book of mysteries came along that finally managed to turn the Sherlock Holmes idea on its head. The book was The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton. His detective, Rupert Grant, is a Sherlock Holmes-like private eye who investigates crimes and chases crooks with great self-assuredness in his powers of deduction. But he is always wrong. The hero of these stories is not Rupert, but his older brother, Basil Grant, a retired judge. In each case, Basil proves to Rupert hat there has been no crime and no crooks. (Read the entire lecture on this book, of which the above which has been an excerpt, here.
  
  This book was a delight from beginning to end, and I'm not really a G.K. Chesterton fan. I listened to the Librivox recording which was wonderfully read by David Barnes. This is an old book that is probably available free on the Kindle.
  
  
• Cleek: the Man of the 40 Faces by Thomas Hanshew
  I listened to the Librivox recording done by the marvelous Ruth Golding. Cleek is a bad man who goes right for the love of a good woman. As well he is perhaps the cleverest detective I have ever read of, putting M. Poirot's little grey cells to shame while indulging his idiosyncratic love of flowers and nature. This allows for many short, quirky mysteries with the overarching theme of how Cleek hopes to redeem himself enough to approach his true love with honor. A wonderfully entertaining story from the turn of the century of mystery, chivalry, and intrigue. Again, this is old and probably available free on the Kindle.
  
  
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
  Mr. Norrell is a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside. He is also the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Jonathan Strange discovers, to his dismay, that he is a natural magician. Because he "feels" his magic rather than depending on books as Mr. Norrell does, they wind up representing two distinctly different ways of doing British magic. Clarke deliberately used a style that calls to mind Jane Austen or Charles Dickens and thus transports the reader to a time gone by when spelling varied, footnotes could be long and involved, manners were paramount, and when it is possible to believe in such a thing as British magic.
  
  I tried this book several times 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…). Once I began reading I couldn't understand why I didn’t warm to it before … the writing is charmingly understated and amusing. It is about magic, English practitioners of magic, books about magic, and set in England during the Napoleonic war.
  
  However, once I was well into the book I got bogged down with the many wayside visits and long footnotes that added atmosphere but didn't seem to advance the story. That is when I picked up the audio book from the library to try (so do our children influence us!). Once I was listening, I began enjoying 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. Eventually I almost became addicted and couldn't stop listening.
  
  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 by Simon Preeble whose dulcet tones and perfect pacing helped make the There is no doubt that his narration is the key element that not only got me to the end of the book, but actually left me sad when it ended. Recommended but only for those who do not object to long, meandering stories with a lot of footnotes.
  
  
• Hamlet (Arkangel Complete Shakespeare)
  Distressed by his father’s death and his mother’s hasty remarriage, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is haunted by a ghostly courier bearing a grim message of murder and revenge. The young prince is driven to the edge of madness as he struggles to understand the situation he finds himself in and to do his duty. Many others, including Hamlet’s beloved, the innocent Ophelia, are swept up in his tragedy. Shakespeare’s most famous play remains one of the greatest stories in Western literature. Performed by Simon Russell Beale, Imogen Stubbs, Jane Lapotaire, and the Arkangel cast.
  
  Inspired by Chop Bard podcast, I have checked this out of the library and am now listening to this excellent audio version of the play. Wow, truly amazing and recommended to all!
  
  
• The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell
  I read this for SFFaudio, where you may find my review. I did enjoy reading it just as much as listening, as witnessed by the conversation I had about it with Scott at A Good Story is Hard to Find where this was the subject of our first episode.
  
  
• The Bellefaire: Victorian Horror in Modern Day San Francisco by M. J. Hahn
  I discovered this on iTunes and was hooked after hearing the first episode. In rapid order I have listened to all but the epilogue (simply because I ran out of listening time in the day).
  
  Yuki and her mother, who she mentally thinks of as The Doctor, are returning to San Francisco, the city of Yuki's birth although she left there when only an infant. When they move into the house where The Doctor grew up, they discover it is now partly a hotel and is called The Bellefaire. Very soon, Yuki discovers that the house's nickname is Curse Castle and there are ghost stories aplenty, mysteriously missing people in the neighborhood, and very odd happenings in the house itself.
  
  The story actually begins in the 1980s where we meet a very different sort of teenager from the obedient Yuki, Tina. Her story introduces us to some of the odd goings on in the Bellefaire. The story continues to alternate current day and past events, going further and further back in time as we discover exactly what's been going on.
  
  The author reads the story and voices the male characters. Different actresses voice the female characters and sound production is excellent overall with professional sounding sound effects.