Crunchy Con

Recently in Varia Category

Monday November 2, 2009

Categories: Varia

A year in the life of a beard

Via Sulivan, this wonderful, surprisingly touching short video made by Christoph Rehage, a fellow who photographed himself every day over the course of a year, in which he walked across China:

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Say, now that cooler weather is here, isn't it time for you menfolk to start your own seasonal beards? Here's a new photo bleg: Crunchy Con Readers and their Beards. Send me your photo at rdreher (at) dallasnews.com, and a way to contact you to verify that it's really you, and I'll see what I can do.

UPDATE: Behold, Jim Janknegt of Austin becomes the first bearded CC reader to respond. Thanks, Jim.

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Saturday October 31, 2009

Categories: Varia

Get down, goblin! A Jan Terri Halloween

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Julie took Matthew and Lucas to join all the other arty-nerd families of Dallas this afternoon at a They Might Be Giants all-ages show, to which kids were invited to come in costume. Lucas costumed as Karate Guy With a Lightsaber (because Matthew's old karate gi is black, and not quite suited for Jedis), and Matthew chose to go as Expendable Red-Shirt U.S.S. Enterprise Crewman. (Neither his mother nor his father knew what he was talking about at first when he asked for this costume; our nerd licenses should be revoked).

I stayed home with Nora and cooked a beef bourguignon, Regina Charbonneau's pork roast in cane syrup gravy, and this insane recipe for candied bacon (dredge sliced bacon in brown sugar, place on cookie sheet in 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, eat when cool, die of pleasure). So, three of us may have had a They Might Be Giants Halloween, but in my heart, I will be having a Jan Terri Halloween. You can too. Click on this video, and enjoy three minutes of bliss.


Thursday October 29, 2009

Categories: A Sense of Place, Varia

My terroir

rodwine.JPGHere I am, late at night, with my bare feet up on the hearth, warmed by the dying embers of the fire, lit from within by a bottle of 2007 Grenache from a California producer called Dobra Zemlya. A friend from Alaska, an Orthodox priest friend who lives near the vintner and who introduced me to Dobra Zemlya's wines on a back porch in Eagle River this summer, was kind enough to ship me a couple of bottles today. I am not exaggerating when I tell you this is why life is so good. This is my terroir: in my cottage, feet on the hearth, drinking good wine and reading a good book ("Liquid Memory: Why Wine Matters" by Jonathan Nossiter, more on which in a moment).

This wine makes me so happy and nostalgic. It takes me back to this summer, sitting on Eric's back deck, when I was first introduced to the stuff. And later, in the living room of the St. James House, late at night, drinking and talking. It's pleasing to me that i can't separate the experience of this wine from that place and those people. Anyway, the Dobra Zemlja Grenache is so lithe, but also masculine and aggressive; it makes me think of a shortstop bobbing on his calves, waiting for the crack of the bat. Drinking a wine as forward as this makes you realize how most of the wines you drink, even the good ones, are so settled. Julie doesn't care for it; she thought it was too forward. But I adore it. Yes, the wine is young, and somewhat raw and alcoholic. But the fruit is so ruby-like and bright, with a long, herbal finish, and the acid is just about perfect. I can't imagine drinking this wine with anything; it's so dramatic and lively you only want to think about it. This is a tense, muscular, lean wine, brusque but captivating. Its tannins are restrained, allowing the fruit to express itself delightfully. Two years from now, this wine is going to be stellar. Tonight, it's made me glow like the embers in my line of sight, and I'm thinking that I need to contact the winery and order a case of their best. As I recall, everything Father Stephen poured from Dobra Zemlja was deeply pleasing. Please, order some of this wine. It's special. This is a wine that demands your attention, and rewards it.

Can I just tell you that Jonathan Nossiter is a bullsh*t artist, and that I love his book? Check this out, in his discussion of the wines of Burgundy:

In their intangibility and their deceptive resilience, they're closer to the experience of poetry, particularly as practiced by the ancient Greeks and, say, the classical Chinese or, not coincidentally, by the modernist poets since the turn of the twentieth century who've sought inspiration in the staccato lyricism of the Greeks and in the mellifluous indeciperability of the Chinese.

Don't you want to slug him? But In the very next paragraph, he confesses to being guilty of the "greatest pretensions." Which he plainly is. But how invigorating it is to read someone who is outrageously opinionated and sure of himself! I love this guy. I love his definition of taste:

For that matter, what is taste? It could be described as the expression of a preference between, say, A and B. But what distinguishes taste from mere opinion is that such a preference emerges from a sensory, emotional reaction with the subsequent ability to intellectually decipher that reaction for the self (and, if really necessary, for others). But ultimately, the defining characteristic of taste is the coherent relation of that preference to one's own conduct, to an ethical relation to oneself and to the world.

Read that a couple of times, and contemplate what it means to relate one's aesthetic preference to one's own conduct. i'll tell you what it means. It has something to do with what happened when Julie and I, through the generosity of friends, had dinner at Aurora, one of Dallas's best restaurants. Julie said at one point in the extravagantly delicious dinner, "This food makes me want to be good." I wrote a column about it.

Early in the book, Nossiter writes about the concept of terroir, which is hard to translate (this is not a bad place to start), but which broadly connotes a distinct sense of place. Strictly speaking, when one talks of terroir related to wine, one speaks of how a particular wine expresses the sense and spirit of the place where it's cultivated -- the physical qualities of the soil, and so forth. But Nossiter has an expansive view of terroir, which he calls "an evolving expression of culture," of particularity. He writes that maintaining a true sense of terroir is vital, because it preserves memory against homogeneity. To lose a sense of terroir is risky, he writes...:

Because it risks wiping out historical memory, which is our only safeguard agains the devastating lies of marketing and the cynical exploitation of global markets, culture and politics.

Matthew, my oldest son, photographed me tonight as I was reading and drinking wine by the fire. I'm wondering now, as I hear him rustling around in his bedroom with his Legos, trying to avoid going to sleep, what I would have him understand is his father's personal terroir. My terroir is the hearth and the black iron pot. It's Randy Newman's melancholic piano, Bach's solo cello suites, Diana Krall's love ballads, old Van Morrison, Billie Holiday's blues, REM's "Nightswimming." It's pot roast and brussels sprouts with bacon, sausage and apples and Irish oatmeal. It's where hobbits live. It's autumn, and crisp air with a hint of wood smoke, and tulips in the springtime, and mustard greens and bourbon and the South, especially the way south Louisiana smells on a wet fall morning. We do not speak ill of the French on my terroir, but hope to learn from them. It's laughter and conversation, and the metallic taste of raw oysters washed down with crisp white wine. My terroir smells like church incense, and it has about it an air of seriousness of purpose, but also generosity of spirit. We love the saints in my terroir, and I stand ready to hear your crazy-ass woo-woo story, as long as it's a good one. On my terroir, I lay a generous table, where the only guests banned are those without generosity of spirit, and a sense of humor. There are books everywhere in my terroir, and the aromatic smell of decaying binding is cherished, especially when enriched with the stout aroma of strong coffee. We love Champagne there -- we really do, especially Veuve Clicquot -- and we wish we lived in a perpetual New Orleans of the mind. Children and old Southern ladies who say "I declare" live in my terroir, and so does Flannery O'Connor, and the dusting of nutmeg on my mint juleps, which I learned from reading Walker Percy. If you walk on my terroir, you have to have stepped lightly through Spanish Town in Baton Rouge, having brushed your cheek with an elephant ear in a stranger's garden, and raised a beer with the beloved Barbecue Lesbians, who smelled, it must be said, of lighter fluid, and are all the more dear for it.

We love going places in my terroir, because there are new friends and new tastes there -- but our favorite journey is always Home.

And I've only begun to tell you about my terroir. I cannot imagine a wine that captures all these tastes, but I think I had a bourbony, bittery Manhattan at the late, lamented Colonel's Club under the Perkins Road Overpass in Baton Rouge that came pretty close.

Tell me about your terroir. I really do want to know.

UPDATE: Mike Steinberger, Slate's wine writer, thinks Nossiter is a pompous gasbag. I think Steinberger is almost certainly correct. Maybe that's why I am enjoying this book. Weird.

Oh, and yes, that's me in my pajamas. I don't go out in public looking like that. At least not always.

UPDATE: If you deduced from this post that I am something of a pompous gasbag, I would congratulate you on your discernment.

Monday October 26, 2009

Categories: Varia

Three things

1. If you leave Daddy at home to babysit, don't be surprised to hear one of your male children said in your absence, "Wow, that was great! Do they have any more National Lampoon Vacation movies?"

2. My pledge to you, readers, is that should the sad day ever arrive, I will never talk about this stuff on the blog. As hard as it is to believe, even Your Working Boy is capable of unblogged thoughts.

3. Dog, if you don't get the hell out of this kitchen, I'll feed you, alright. I'll feed you chocolate.

Wednesday October 21, 2009

Categories: Varia

Dirty bombs and domestic terrorism

This excerpt from an NPR call-in show last week is pretty chilling:

TOM ASHBROOK: Certainly inequality's a big issue. Let me get a call right here from New London, Connecticut. And

Don. Hi, Don. You're on the air.

CALLER: Hi.

TOM ASHBROOK: Hi.

CALLER: I think you should be listening to this guy, Judson. I'm an unemployed nuclear engineer. I've worked on 13 nuclear power plants. Making a dirty bomb is not a big deal. I'm not going to go out and tell everybody now to do it, but I'm just saying things like that can happen. And it sounds like you're just being dismissive of all his ideas and what he's saying. Because there's a lot of anger out here, and there are a lot of people who feel that the American Dream is slipping away from them, they don't have a chance. And the only entrepreneurial opportunity for them is to sell drugs and to be an outlaw. It's happening.

TOM ASHBROOK: [OVERLAPPING] I hear you, [PH] Don. We've got Bruce on for an hour. So, I can't say we're not listening to him. But let me ask you, you've got a lot of expertise in your field, nuclear engineering. But does that mean you're unhappy if you're unemployed? Do you really feel like the country's ready to revolt?

CALLER: I'm not an expert in revolution, and I don't really know how they happen. All I know is I'm 60 years old. There's not a lot of people who want to hire a nuclear engineer who's 60 years old. And there are a lot of people out there like me who are out there who, you know, once you have so much gray hair, you're out of here. And there's just a lot of people that are just not happy with the way that the country's going right now.
And I don't know...where it's going to take it, or what's going to be its spark, or what's going to be the event. But people feel like there's just no way to climb out of the hole. Like there's just nothing that's going to get them out. This attitude, that I've seen, over 60 years, I've never seen anything like it. It scares me.

TOM ASHBROOK: Up against it. And with an education, a particular education. Don, thank you for your call.

Monday October 19, 2009

Categories: Varia

How the Heene saga will end

Latest from the Denver Post has the sheriff calling it a "hoax" set up to make it easier to get a reality show. Here's what's going to happen, I predict. Authorities are going to throw the book at both Heenes,...

Sunday October 18, 2009

Categories: Varia

Cowboys Stadium = Highway robbery for concertgoers

My Dallas Morning News broadside against the complete concertgoing rip-off that is the new Cowboys Stadium. The acoustics in the building are catastrophically bad. Excerpt: Here's what that dismal father-son night at Cowboys Stadium cost me: $138 for two (heavily...

Friday October 16, 2009

Categories: Varia

Balloon Boy family scammers?

Well, now, it seems that Falcon Heene might have -- might have -- spilled the beans inadvertently on national TV last night: The suspicions began after the family was interviewed on the CNN program "Larry King Live," which was being...

Thursday October 15, 2009

Categories: Varia

Pray hard for Colorado Balloon Boy (video added)

It's 2:20pm here in Dallas, and I'm watching a horrifying story live on CNN. A 6-year-old Colorado boy climbed into an experimental balloon in his family's backyard ... and it floated away. The poor kid is flying very fast over...

Monday October 12, 2009

Categories: Decline and fall, Varia

Where do you find hope?

Our friend Brian Kaller draws my attention to The Hope Project, in which a blogger polls doom-and-gloom types -- scientists, activists, academics and so forth -- to ask them where they find the hope to go on, even when it...

Monday October 12, 2009

Categories: Varia

Who should have won the Nobel?

Ross Douthat is scathing this morning: Would the world have been offended? Well, to start with, the prize isn't given out by an imaginary "world community." It's voted on and handed out by a committee of five obscure Norwegians. So...

Saturday October 10, 2009

Categories: Varia

Insomnia dialogue with myself

Why are you still awake? I wish I knew. It's been almost 24 hours. Tell me about it. Why not read some more? My eyes are too tired. They burn. There's always TV. I can't take any more of it....

Friday October 9, 2009

Categories: Varia

Future Nobel chemistry laureates

If Obama can win the peace prize, there is no reason to deny these geniuses the chemistry Nobel:...

Wednesday October 7, 2009

Categories: Varia

The aggressively dumb empress of ACORN

You have got to read Dana Milbank's account in the Washington Post of ACORN chief Bertha Lewis's press conference in Washington yesterday. Any organization that would put a person like this in charge doesn't deserve a pfennig from the public...

Friday October 2, 2009

Categories: Varia

How to talk to an introvert if you must

Jon Rauch, being funny and insightful: The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment they put us through. Sometimes, as we gasp for air amid the fog of their 98-percent-content-free talk, we wonder if extroverts...

Thursday October 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

Yo boogereaters, it's a Windows 7 party!

Erin Manning passes along this link describing the worst party idea in the world: I know Windows is awful. Everyone knows Windows is awful. Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing...

Thursday October 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

Anti-smoking psychotics

Without question, one of the best things to happen in my lifetime is the pushback against smoking in public places and offices, and the emergence of the sense that smoking is anti-social. It kind of floors me to think about...

Thursday October 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

A billion here, a billion there

Here's a pretty shocking infographic giving you a clear idea of the amount of money spent on various projects (bailouts, defense budgets, war costs), relative to each other. It's one thing to read that the total cost to the US...

Thursday October 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

Please, no Chicago Olympics

Has any city ever come out ahead from hosting the Olympics? Annie Lowrey's piece about the massive headaches London is experiencing getting ready for the 2012 games makes me hope that Chicago misses out on its bid. I am also...

Friday September 25, 2009

Categories: Varia

Apocalypse ... oh, any day now

At Salon, Gabriel Wynant surveys predicted apocalypses that apoco-pooped-out. Meanwhile, Noah Millman lists three Bad Things he expected to happen by now, but which haven't. Here's one: The implosion of North Korea. Maybe this isn't exactly a "bad thing" since...

Thursday September 24, 2009

Categories: Varia

Don't jump to "Fed" conclusions

The left is already trying to pin the murder of Census worker Bill Sparkman on right-wingers. Regular readers know I have spoken out against the insane Limbavian-Beckian demonization of Obama, so I have no patience with right wing crazy talk....

Thursday September 24, 2009

Categories: Varia

The view from Mom's window

My mother is basically Dr. Doolittle. Animals love her. For some time now, deer have been feeding in her yard, just off the porch. I took this image out the living room window when we were just down there. What...

Saturday September 19, 2009

Categories: Varia

Myers-Briggs and changing your personality

In the current issue of Spirit, the in-flight magazine of Southwest Airlines, Brad Cope has a story about how, as an experiment, he tried to change by the power of his will his Myers-Briggs personality type. (Myers-Briggs is a personality...

Friday September 18, 2009

Categories: Varia

Jung, dreams, synchronicity

You may have seen that the great Irving Kristol has died. I'm just learning this, and don't have time to give a post devoted to his legacy the thought and attention it deserves, and I don't want to leave on...

Friday September 18, 2009

Categories: Varia, War

Will ACORN scandal ever end?

In the latest videos released by Big Government, an ACORN immigration specialist in San Diego offers to help smuggle underage prostitutes across the Mexican border. Will there be anything at all left of ACORN's credibility after all this is over?...

Thursday September 17, 2009

Categories: Varia

Two cheers for ACORN scandal

Seems that everybody, even most Senate Democrats, are eager to put maximum distance between themselves and ACORN. I'm hugely enjoying how two kids with audacity and a good idea have finally put the smackdown on the community organizers, costing them...

Wednesday September 16, 2009

Categories: Varia

"The Audacity of Hos"

The Daily Show takes on the ACORN scandal. This is a scream: The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cThe Audacity of Hoswww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealthcare Protests...

Saturday September 12, 2009

Categories: Varia

From the Keep It Classy files

1. Self-help guru Anthony Robbins uses 9/11 to sell his services. You've got to see this video to believe it. 2. John Medaille brought to my attention a quote from Simone Weil, who, when asked what the poor want, replied,...

Friday September 11, 2009

Categories: Varia

Thatcher, the stone-cold realist

Well, well, well, this is going to cause some revisionist history on the right. I hardly know what to make of it. Look at what the Times of London is reporting: Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall,...

Friday September 11, 2009

Categories: Varia

ACORN Baltimore prostitution scam

You have got to see this video to believe it! It's an undercover gonzo journalism exercise in which two reporters pretending to be a pimp and a prostitute go into the Baltimore office of ACORN asking for its help in...

Thursday September 10, 2009

Categories: Varia

Misheard lyrics

And now for something completely stupid. My two-year-old attempts to sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" from time to time. It comes out, "Swing low, sweet cherry-honk...". Which I think is pretty great, so I don't correct her. The other night,...

Monday September 7, 2009

Categories: Varia

Joe Queenan's summer ... and yours?

Joe Queenan says good riddance to the awful summer of 2009. Excerpt: At midnight on Monday, when Labor Day ends, the summer of 2009 will officially pass into the annals of history. Good riddance. If there is a less scintillating...

Sunday September 6, 2009

Categories: Varia

Labor Day great white shark

They've closed the beaches on Cape Cod this weekend because of great white sharks. Don't they know that you're not supposed to close New England beaches on holiday weekends because of sharks? Duh! What will the tourists think?...

Friday September 4, 2009

Categories: Varia

Crisis of faith, crisis of authority

Have you read Paul Krugman's opus dissecting how economists missed the crash coming? Well worth reading, and arguing with. Excerpt: As I see it, the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics,...

Tuesday September 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

Did American Airlines lie to me?

When I was in Cambridge back in June, I came down with symptoms of shingles. My physician in Dallas suggested that I return to the US as soon as I could, and if I were still symptomatic, we would start...

Friday August 28, 2009

Categories: Varia

Pervert: "A powerful heartwarming story"

Philip Garrido, the pervert who kidnapped Jaycee Dugard, kept her as a sex slave in his backyard for almost two decades -- along with the two children she had with him -- says it's all going to be redeemed: In...

Sunday August 23, 2009

Categories: Britain, Varia

Britain's shame over Lockerbie

I think under any circumstances aside from grave doubts about his guilt, Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, ought to have been left to die in prison (what does a life sentence for mass murder mean if not life?). But I can...

Saturday August 22, 2009

Categories: Varia

Will your dog be left behind in the Rapture?

If so, animal-loving atheists will agree to take care of her -- for a fee. Excerpt: Our service is plain and simple; our fee structure is reasonable. For $110.00 we will guarantee that should the Rapture occur within ten (10)...

Friday August 21, 2009

Categories: Varia

Does Bernie Madoff have cancer?

Here's an irresponsible rumor I'm launching into the blogosphere, courtesy of a friend in North Carolina: A couple of my long-term customer friends are prison guards at Butner (just north of Durham ) where they sent Bernie Madoff. One of...

Friday August 21, 2009

Categories: Varia

Libya's hero, courtesy of Scotland

Thanks, mates. Love watching this video, and thinking about the government of Scotland. When Groundskeeper Willie ends up in Gitmo, don't come crying to us:...

Friday August 21, 2009

Categories: Varia

Star Wars epic FAILs

John Scalzi, fresh off pointing out that no actual coyote could survive an anvil falling on his head, much less get up and chase a roadrunner, fisks "Star Wars." Excerpt: R2-D2 Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design...

Thursday August 20, 2009

Categories: Varia

I shall dispose of your single malt Scotch

Alex Massie, who is a Scotsman, for what that's worth, thinks the Scottish government's decision to send back Megrahi to Libya is defensible, and explains why here. I can't see my way clear to his conclusion -- the man was...

Thursday August 20, 2009

Categories: Varia

Scotland's Lockerbie shame

It is astonishing, and appalling, that the government of Scotland has allowed the Libyan intelligence agent who orchestrated the murder of 270 people in the air over Lockerbie to go home to die in his own bed. He should have...

Sunday August 16, 2009

Categories: Varia

Three cheers for Y.E. Yang!

I never watch golf, but I got caught in the final five holes of the PGA Championship today, and just saw the South Korean golfer Y.E. Yang win the thing, beating Tiger Woods. Yang is the first Asian-born golfer ever...

Monday July 27, 2009

Categories: Varia

Luke Dillier found (Erin)

Rod's letting me pop in here to tell all those praying for the safe return of Luke Dillier that he has been found, alive and safe--thank you all so much for your prayers! As I write this the most recent...

Saturday July 25, 2009

Categories: Varia

A prayer request (Erin)

First of all, I'd like to apologize for not posting for so long today. I planned to be out a while this afternoon and ended up being away longer than I'd intended--but then when we returned home, my husband discovered...

Sunday July 19, 2009

Categories: Varia

Die, Crocs, die!

The company that has afflicted America with the ugly Crocs footwear is on the verge of going under. Good. I hate those hideous shoes. My kids all wear them, and I think they look barely tolerable on children, but on...

Friday July 17, 2009

Categories: Varia

Templeton deadline draweth nigh

Next week at this time I'll be back in England, poking around in the neighborhood of Bath, choogling proper beer, avoiding (one hopes) swine flu, and getting ready to go back to Cambridge to present my Templeton paper about Traditional...

Wednesday July 15, 2009

Categories: Varia

Michael Jackson on fire

Here is never-before-seen footage -- past the commercial for the Flip camera -- of the 1984 Pepsi commercial accident that set Michael Jackson's hair on fire. It's shocking to watch his head go up like that. He suffered second and...

Sunday July 12, 2009

Categories: A Sense of Place, Varia

Reading the signs of the times

I was listening the other day to a Terry Gross interview with the writer Joseph O'Neill, whose acclaimed novel "Netherland" is set in NYC in the days and weeks after 9/11. O'Neill and his wife lived in New York at...

Monday July 6, 2009

Categories: Varia

Happy Tuesday with Mary Poppins

I heard the whole film "Mary Poppins" twice on the way to and from Colorado. Kids in the back seats watching it on DVD. I thought I'd heard about enough of La Poppins, but Andrew Sullivan posted this great dance...

Friday July 3, 2009

Categories: Varia

US soldiers importing Afghan drugs?

Last night, I was speaking with a Coloradan who told me the law enforcement community in Colorado Springs is struggling with highly potent Afghan drugs coming into the area from US soldiers flying back from service there, and bringing the...

Sunday June 28, 2009

Categories: Varia

Could you live without air conditioning? (Erin)

Morning, all; I'm not officially sitting in for Rod while he's away this weekend, but I have been keeping an eye on the conversations. Rod generously gave me permission to put up a post or two, as well, so I...

Monday June 22, 2009

Categories: Varia

What is the meaning of enough?

Pete Peterson, on why he gave away a billion dollars to start a foundation dedicated to fighting for fiscal responsibility. Excerpt: Underlying these challenges is our broken political system. Our representatives, unlike our Founding Fathers, see politics as a career....

Wednesday June 17, 2009

Categories: Varia

The return of the simple wedding? (Erin)

It's wedding season again; quite a few people who read here, statistically speaking, are likely to attend a wedding sometime in the next three or four months. Weddings are often very non-crunchy affairs, but at first glance, this New York...

Monday June 15, 2009

Categories: Varia

The Templeton Fellow begins his work

Today was Day One of my research on my Templeton project on Orthodox theology, Chinese medicine and healing, and having reached the end of it, I can say without fear of contradiction that if anybody were to show up at...

Saturday June 13, 2009

Categories: Varia

To boldly go...but how, exactly? (Erin)

Okay, I'm posting this for no other reason than that I think it's cool: June 11, 2009 -- "Star Trek" makes faster-than-light travel look easy, but according to new calculations by Italian physicists, a warp drive could easily create a...

Friday June 12, 2009

Categories: Varia

A change of pace (Erin)

I haven't been following the news as closely today as I usually do, for the excellent reason that today is my youngest daughter's birthday, and we've all been celebrating with her. She enjoyed a visit from her closest-in-age cousins this...

Friday June 12, 2009

Categories: Varia

Of cads and strange bedfellows (Erin)

I've managed to ignore, for the most part, the David Letterman vs. Sarah Palin smackfest in which Letterman (unwittingly, he says) made Palin's fourteen-year-old daughter the subject of a sex-related joke, and Palin fought back by inviting him to go...

Monday June 8, 2009

Categories: Varia

Nice work, if you can get it (Erin)

The New York Times has been running a series called "Happy Days," in which various writers write about what is really important, what really matters, in troubled times. I liked this latest offering by Pico Iyer: So -- as post-1960s...

Monday June 8, 2009

Categories: Varia

Too danged yanged

So, I changed my plane ticket to return home this coming Saturday, instead of making my monastery pilgrimage, anticipating that I might be dealing with an onset of shingles by the weekend. I'm trying to figure out if I should...

Saturday June 6, 2009

Categories: Varia

Horrible London hipster hair trend

Well, I've been down to London for a bit, and I am here to warn you about a catastrophic facial hair trend that is no doubt coming our way. Maybe it's a steampunk thing, but the kids these days are...

Wednesday June 3, 2009

Categories: Varia

Old Jew tells fart joke, makes crunchy goy happy

I ask you, has there ever been a better use for the Internet than the site Old Jews Telling Jokes? I love this one:...

Wednesday June 3, 2009

Categories: Varia

Computer faiths (Erin)

Amy Welborn is visiting New York City, and she has stumbled across a strange temple to an interesting local religion, which you can see by clicking here. Who can contemplate what holy wars have been fought in corporate offices, in...

Tuesday June 2, 2009

Categories: Varia

Prayers (Erin)

That last was, of course, facetious. I know there's one major story today on which we can all agree: the loss of the Air France flight early yesterday was a tragedy. As news continues to break of the possibility that...

Saturday May 30, 2009

Categories: Varia

The chickens of Cambridge

Greetings from Cambridge, England. On the drive in from the airport, my driver said he and his girlfriend had just put in a backyard garden, because that's becoming more popular among young people in England. "Well, the next thing you...

Sunday May 24, 2009

Categories: Varia

The Shaman of Prescott and North Foster

Does this Baton Rouge street swami possess the Secret of the Universe? Jeff Duhe thinks so. I think he might be right. James Poulos, meet your guru-to-be:...

Monday May 18, 2009

Categories: Varia

The lifeline is a death line

A friend passes on this C.S. Lewis passage: "This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but...

Friday May 15, 2009

Categories: Varia

The neuroscience of magic

Very cool article from Wired, in which the magician Teller helps explain the neuroscience behind magical illusions. For Teller (that's his full legal name), magic is more than entertainment. He wants his tricks to reveal the everyday fraud of perception...

Thursday May 14, 2009

Categories: Varia

Bilderbergers, ahoy!

The shadowy cabal of international elitists known as the Bilderberger Group are meeting today in Greece. Leo Kalivakis chews over what nefarious plans they have for controlling world economic events. Excerpt: According to Estulin's sources, which have been proven highly...

Monday May 4, 2009

Categories: Varia

Fear of dentists

OK, bear with me. I've got my tranquilizers in hand, my iPod charged up with loud rock music, and I'm going to have a filling and a crown. They're going to have to gas me too. I would rather be...

Wednesday April 29, 2009

Categories: Varia

Kirstie Alley fat crisis!

Did you know that actress Kirstie Alley has become monstrously fat -- again! Yes. She feels horrible about it, like she's let down a bunch of people. She'll be on Oprah tomorrow to talk about her adipose deposits. Personally, I...

Monday April 27, 2009

Categories: Varia

New York 747 fly-by scare

You see the news that a low-flying 747 buzzed Manhattan today, with a fighter jet trailing it? Completely freaked people out -- building evacuations undertaken, everything. Even Mayor Bloomberg was in the dark about what was happening. Here's the official...

Monday April 27, 2009

Categories: Education, Varia

Commencement address truths and lies

I'm going to give a commencement address to some high school students next month. Last night, thinking about what I might say, the following questions occurred to me: 1. What challenging truth did I need to hear when I was...

Friday April 24, 2009

Categories: Varia

Swine flu: To freak or not to freak?

Man, Drudge is going nuts on this swine flu story. I wasn't taking it very seriously until I saw the CDC guy interviewed on the national news this evening, and while he wasn't at a Drudge level of excitability, he...

Friday April 24, 2009

Categories: Varia

What to watch tonight? What to eat?

It's Friday afternoon, so you might want to check in with our Crunchy Con Cinema thread from a few weeks back for ideas on what to pick up at the video store on the way home this evening. I forget...

Sunday April 19, 2009

Categories: Varia

One life to live

My Dallas Morning News column today is basically a recapitulation of last week's discussion on this blog about the lives the porn star Marilyn Chambers lived, versus the life that Susan Boyle has lived till now -- and what both...

Wednesday April 8, 2009

Categories: Varia

eBaumsworld and the Unicorn's Prophecy!

Abase yourselves, mortals, before the Awesomeness of the Unicorn's Prophet!: (H/T: eBaumsworld)...

Monday April 6, 2009

Categories: Varia

Disco Stalin vs. the Martians

This is the strangest thing you'll see all day. Probably. Look:...

Saturday March 28, 2009

Categories: Varia

Little Red Riding Hood: A Technofable

This video, from the blog of Erin Manning's techno husband, is very, very cool. Says Matthew, "Oh, Dad, you have to put that on your blog!" So, there. Genius stuff....

Sunday February 22, 2009

Categories: Varia

Euthanizing an animal

On Friday, Julie had to put down the little chick suffering from pasty butt. She wasn't getting any better, and was suffering a lot. So Julie researched how to do it as painlessly as possible, then did what she had...

Sunday February 15, 2009

Categories: Varia

In the bleak late winter

I do believe I am firmly on record as despising summer and all its pomps and works. That said, I am beyond ready for winter to get on down the road. These kids stay sick with the usual winter crud...

Thursday January 22, 2009

Categories: Varia

Empress Alexandra's great silent battle

I'm thoroughly engrossed by Robert K. Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra," his acclaimed 1960s biography of the last Tsar of Russia and his wife. It's utterly, utterly captivating in the human story it tells. As I think I wrote the other...

Sunday January 18, 2009

Categories: Varia

Footage of US Airways 1549 ditching

Amazing. Fast forward to the two-minute mark to see it all. This must be from a security cam in a New Jersey high rise: Here's another, from the lower Manhattan side: Embedded video from CNN Video...

Tuesday January 13, 2009

Categories: Varia

Father Neuhaus's near-death experience

In his moving tribute to the late Richard John Neuhaus, David Brooks recounts the priest's near-death experience: Much later, Neuhaus endured his own near-death experience. An undiagnosed tumor led to a ruptured intestine and a series of operations. He recovered...

Sunday January 11, 2009

Categories: Varia

The autism of writers

Well, finally we're back from a whirlwind trip to the Great State for the wedding. Reflecting on that hilarious story I heard this weekend, which included the sentence, "She brought her boyfriend home, her brother slept with him, and he...

Wednesday January 7, 2009

Categories: Varia

The coming ban on thrift store clothes

Julie buys most of our kids' clothes at thrift stores. If you've never been to one, you'd be surprised at the excellent quality stuff you can get there for very little. Well-off people donate lightly used clothes all the time...

Tuesday January 6, 2009

Categories: Varia

Getting old

Me and my big mouth. I have always said to people that I don't mind aging one bit. When I turned 40, well, whee! I find that life gets more and more interesting as I get older, because I understand...

Thursday January 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

Prayers for Father Neuhaus

Please pray for Father Richard John Neuhaus, who is quite ill. This note went out yesterday to his friends and associates: Fr. Neuhaus is in the hospital here in New York. Over Thanksgiving, he was diagnosed with a serious cancer....

Thursday January 1, 2009

Categories: Varia

From the gut

What happened New Year's Eve? So glad you asked. Yesterday afternoon I was in the doctor's office getting diagnosed with food poisoning. As it happens, it was a mistake to have ordered the pescado al dia the night before. That...

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Categories: Varia

Matt Fish at 30

Now this is good stuff -- painful to read, far more painful to write, but fearless self-analysis and examination of conscience. Excerpt: 2009 is the year I turn thirty years old. Such milestones contain a foreboding magnetism: they tend to...

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Categories: Varia

What did you learn in 2008?

As we're taking stock of this tumultuous and consequential year, I'd like us to take a moment to reflect on our own personal lives, and what lessons, if any, 2008 taught us about ourselves and the way we live. For...

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Categories: Varia

New Year's Eve

Well, here we are, another New Year's Eve. What are you going to do tonight to welcome 2009? When I was younger, I used to make a game effort to get into New Year's Eve, but at some point I...

Tuesday December 30, 2008

Categories: Varia

Rawlins is a happy man

Here's some end-of-year holiday cheer from Rawlins Gilliland, who really has seen it all, and is happy in spite of this annus horribilis. Excerpt: So what say I, the aging poet? That I've lived too long to believe that any...

Monday December 29, 2008

Categories: Varia

Lessons of 2008

From Robert Samuelson's column today: It's the end of an era. We know that 2008, much like 1932 or 1980, marks a dividing line for the American economy and society. But what lies on the other side is hazy at...

Sunday December 14, 2008

Categories: Varia

The effects of candy, coffee, and Christmas trees (Erin)

As is our family tradition, we put up our Christmas tree this evening; we never do it before the weekend of Gaudete Sunday, and try to do it on that day or as soon as possible afterward. I once heard...

Sunday December 14, 2008

Categories: Varia

Home again, home again (Rod)

I am relieved to tell you that we all made it home from Louisiana last evening without anyone upchucking or anything-else-ing. When I woke up yesterday morning down there from basically a 24-hour coma, I found that Julie, when she...

Wednesday December 10, 2008

Categories: Varia

So what is she so mad about, exactly? (Erin)

While we're on the subject of books and fifteen minutes (or a little longer) of fame--remember Linda Hirshman? She's the author of the book that told stay at home moms that being a stay-at-home mom isn't a valid lifestyle choice,...

Sunday December 7, 2008

Categories: Varia

Small town, big city (Erin)

As an effort to promote tourism, Las Vegas tourism officials are sending almost half the population of the tiny town of Cranfills Gap to Vegas for five days. The lucky residents will be followed around by video crews filming commercial...

Wednesday December 3, 2008

Categories: Varia

Remembering Pat Buckley

Bob Colacello's wonderful remembrance of Pat Buckley and her life with husband William F. Excerpt: As Gstaad became more and more social, in the 70s, so did the scene at the Buckleys'. Nan Kempner would show up every February and...

Thursday November 27, 2008

Categories: Varia

Thanksgiving open thread

Light posting today; the cooking is about to commence around here. I thought it might be nice for us to put our differences aside for at least one thread and talk about what we're especially thankful for on this day....

Friday November 21, 2008

Categories: Varia

At 46, he started smoking

At 46, Tom Chiarella took up smoking, just to see what it was like. Excerpt: As a nonsmoker, I always figured cigarettes were an indulgence run amok. But there is something tangible about need, even when it's self-created. It feels...

Thursday November 20, 2008

Categories: Varia

A dog and his boner

So I'm sitting at a neighborhood restaurant having lunch with Tony Jones and a friend, talking about this same-sex marriage blogalogue we're about to do, when I call Julie to see if we can come by the house for coffee....

Wednesday November 12, 2008

Categories: Varia

Wood stove or fireplace?

As I've reported here, Julie and I are going to have to shell out some scratch to replace the firebox in our 94-year-old fireplace. We're trying to decide whether or not to rebuild the traditional fireplace, or get a wood...

Monday November 10, 2008

Categories: Varia

The joy of home ownership

So, I get home from work early today, and see a chimney sweep on my neighbor's front porch, talking to her. I call out to him and ask him to come by and check our chimney out before we light...

Friday November 7, 2008

Categories: Varia

The Obama White House dog

I'm hearing that there's a discussion now about what kind of puppy the Obamas should get for Sasha and Malia when they move to the White House. Now that our Roscoe is home from doggie ICU, and he survived the...

Tuesday November 4, 2008

Categories: Varia

Homer Simpson: One of the "Mad Men"

Love this "Simpsons" parody of the "Mad Men" intro:...

Monday November 3, 2008

Categories: Varia

Prayer requests

I know we're all reaching the climax of the campaign season, and that's where our minds are, but I'd like to ask for your prayers for two urgent concerns: 1. My friend Eric Nelson was one of three people hit...

Tuesday October 28, 2008

Categories: Varia

Your floating despair, abbreviated

A challenge suggested, sort of, by Alex Massie: Admit it. Certain things make you desperately unhappy, and you don't know why--the Sbarro at the mall, the taste of Jolly Ranchers in winter, the woman in the Buick station wagon you...

Thursday October 23, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality, Race, Varia

Gay Nazi love

It turns out that recently deceased far-right Austrian leader Jorg Haider had been having a torrid affair with his male second-in-command, Stefan Petzner, who has confessed all. The party has tossed him overboard. Excerpt: In emotional interviews with the national...

Thursday October 23, 2008

Categories: Conservatism, Varia

The joys of autumn for conservatives

My Culture11 column, in which I discuss the aesthetic and philosophical pleasures of this glorious season (which just arrived yesterday in north Texas, by the way). Excerpt: See, this is why I came up with a ritual to celebrate the...

Friday October 17, 2008

Categories: Varia

YWB demonstrates backyard dowsing

My mom and dad were here last weekend visiting, and we talked about the whole dowsing thing. I straightened out and clipped a couple of coathangers so we could try it here. As usual, when my dad stepped over a...

Tuesday October 14, 2008

Categories: Varia

Random acts of blogging

Again, so as not to overload the delicate Movable Type system, a few posts in one: 1. Victor Davis Hanson, the classicist, is beginning to think that the US is decadent Rome. 2. David Frum stands accused by other conservatives...

Thursday October 9, 2008

Categories: Varia

Does dowsing work?

The NYT today reports on how the California drought has meant lots of work for dowsers, also known as "water witches." What do you think about dowsing? I have a little bit of experience with it. When I was a...

Thursday September 11, 2008

Categories: Varia

Where were you then? Where are you now?

Where were you on this day seven years ago? Where are you today? Literally and figuratively? What happened in between? (Let's not fight about this. Let's just talk about it.)...

Tuesday September 9, 2008

Categories: Democrats, Varia

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, homewrecker

A Dallas woman's marriage is on the skids after having an affair with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, she and her cuckolded ex-husband claim. She was executive assistant to the pastor at Friendship West Baptist Church, a prominent black church in...

Tuesday September 2, 2008

Categories: Varia

The good that Wal-Mart does

People like me love to beat up on Wal-Mart, but let me say a word on the company's behalf today. I'm watching Gov. Bobby Jindal on TV right now, giving a lengthy and detailed briefing about the storm. I'm deeply...

Monday September 1, 2008

Categories: Varia

Gustav loses punch

Gustav is coming ashore now, having lost much of its punch: Army Corps of Engineers chiefs say they anticipate no storm surge flooding due to Hurricane Gustav, which is turning out to be far less than what was previously forecast...

Saturday August 30, 2008

Categories: Varia

Screw FEMA, call the Boy Scouts

We had to go run some errands this afternoon. When we got back, Julie checked her e-mail and found that the den mother for Matthew's Cub Scout troop sent out an urgent request for Scouts to come to the Dallas...

Friday August 22, 2008

Categories: Varia

Jackass of the Year -- or Unfairly Maligned Good Guy?

Here's the traffic-stop video in which a police officer stopped a guy doing 90 mph on the freeway. The driver freaks out, telling the cop that his dog is in the car dying -- which was true (the dog choked...

Wednesday August 13, 2008

Categories: Varia

Bigfoot and chupacabra double feature

Woo, it's a great week for cryptozoologists. Not only has a south Texas sheriff's deputy filmed the dreaded chupacabra with his dashboard cam, but a couple of likely suspects in Georgia (Boss Hogg's Georgia, not Saakashvili's) claim to have found...

Sunday August 10, 2008

Categories: Varia

How we spent our weekend

Man, this chicken thing is taking off. Julie and I spent our weekend working on a coop from scrap material -- the polite term is "repurposed." She was out at Home Depot on Saturday to pick up nails 'n stuff,...

Sunday August 10, 2008

Categories: Varia

Solzhenitsyn, JP2 + other columns of note

Random suggested reading: 1. My Dallas Morning News column this week finds Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Pope John Paul II as the peerless moral witnesses of the blood-soaked, ideologically insane 20th century. But their heroism is tragic. 2. A Q&A one...

Friday August 8, 2008

Categories: Varia

Lopez Lomong, humanity's hero

I'll be watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies tonight to cheer for Lopez Lomong, who participated in what may well be the greatest anti-totalitarian, triumph of the human spirit Olympic moment since the US hockey team beat the Soviets in 1980....

Thursday August 7, 2008

Categories: Varia

Spending $10 billion for humanity

Scientist Bjorn Lomborg asks: If you had a spare $10 billion over the next four years, how would you spend it to achieve the most for humanity? His essay is thought-provoking; I hadn't realized how little we stand to achieve...

Thursday July 31, 2008

Categories: Varia

Long live Mrs. Miller!

There shall be light posting here today. I've got a big project I'm working on, must be done today. To entertain yourselves, I invite you to yield to the song stylings of the one and only Mrs. Elva Miller....

Monday July 28, 2008

Categories: Varia

Trollope contra cheap Champagne

Let's say you walked into work today and found out that your company is going through yet another round of buyouts/forced downsizing -- the third or fourth in five years, you can't remember. This, on top of a daily beatdown...

Sunday July 27, 2008

Categories: Varia

Astronaut says aliens are among us

What do you make of the former US astronaut who says that the government knows aliens have been visiting earth for over 60 years, but won't own up to it in part because they don't want to panic people? I've...

Monday July 21, 2008

Categories: Varia

Worst. Trip. Ever.

Like I said, we had a great, though too short, trip to Louisiana this weekend, but I can't make that drive back without recalling our Worst Trip Ever as a family. It was the fall of 2005, and we were...

Friday July 18, 2008

Categories: Varia

Take the Autism Quotient quiz

A friend whose grandson is autistic tells me that this 50-question assessment devised by Cambridge University is considered by those in the autism community to be a pretty accurate assessment of where one falls on the autism spectrum. It'll take...

Monday July 14, 2008

Categories: Varia

Le quatorze juillet -- vive la France!

Happy Bastille Day to my fellow Francophiles -- but remember the Vendee, and Edmund Burke. Still, right-spirited conservatives celebrate today not the French Revolution, but France herself. I find it impossible to improve upon this:...

Wednesday July 9, 2008

Categories: Varia

Her nose died

The sad, perplexing account of a woman whose sense of smell vanished after a sinus infection. Excerpt: Yet without hesitation I can say that losing my sense of smell has been more traumatic than adapting to the disabling effects of...

Wednesday July 9, 2008

Waterboarding Christopher Hitchens

Which is scarier, a photograph of Christopher Hitchens getting a Brazilian bikini wax, or a video of Christopher Hitchens being waterboarded? I'm being facetious, obviously. The waterboarding video is very unsettling. Hitchens withstood only seconds of it before giving the...

Wednesday July 9, 2008

Categories: Varia

The Isle of China

No, I'm not talking about Taiwan. I'm talking about this fascinating map of China, via Strangemaps, a cool site recommended by James Poulos. How should you interpret this map? Well, visit the Strangemaps link for the full explanation, but...

Wednesday July 9, 2008

Categories: Varia

Drugs and the occult

There's a strange book review in the new issue of Touchstone, or rather, a review (not available online, alas) of a strange book. The book is "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl" by Daniel Pinchbeck, who is one seriously messed-up dude....

Tuesday July 1, 2008

Categories: Varia

The happiness of the long-distance dancer

Doug LeBlanc sends this video of a goofy white guy dancing around the world. It's as silly as can be, but the joy is infectious. Watch: Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo....

Monday June 30, 2008

Categories: Varia

The itch you can't scratch

For a hemi-demi-semi-Monk-like compulsive like me, Atul Gawande's much-discussed New Yorker piece on the science of itching is ultrafreaky. Consider this passage, about a woman who had shingles on her forehead, which left her skin numb ... except for an...

Sunday June 29, 2008

Categories: Varia

Do bloggers dream of Selectric type? (Erin)

Now that Rod's back, I wanted to write one last post before rejoining "all of y'all" in the comment boxes. Last week, after I'd just started guest blogging here, I had a funny dream. In it, a series of frustrating...

Sunday June 29, 2008

Categories: Varia

Hey! I'm back! (Rod)

I started my long "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" post last night, but didn't finish until this morning ... which is why it posted down the list a bit. Read it if you want to know about what...

Saturday June 28, 2008

Categories: Varia

What I did on my summer vacation

Well, we're back, and before I tell you all about it, let me advise you that if you are traveling with three small children, it is not a good idea to start the day with a five-hour drive down the...

Saturday June 28, 2008

Categories: Varia

Clutter or culture? (Erin)

From the New York Times comes an amusing look at a problem some of us may have had, or may yet have, involving the cherished possessions of previous generations: Here is the problem with family furnishings: they are never simply...

Thursday June 26, 2008

Categories: Varia

[Erin] The Benedict Option and the job factor

This interesting piece from the New York Times' Business section discusses a problem many people who left city and suburban living for far distant exurban life are facing, given today's fuel prices: But life on the edges of suburbia is...

Wednesday June 25, 2008

Categories: Varia

[Erin] Second amendment conundrum

By now you've heard about the tragic shooting deaths at the plastics factory in Kentucky. These stories seem to follow such a sad, but predictable template: angry person (usually male) takes gun into work and goes on a murderous rampage,...

Wednesday June 25, 2008

Categories: Varia

[Erin] Just plane awful

On Monday, an American Airlines flight turned around and headed back to the terminal in order to kick an unruly passenger off of the flight. An unruly, two and a half year old, autistic child. And his mother: As the...

Tuesday June 24, 2008

Categories: Varia

[Erin] Slowing down

Reihan Salam at the Spectator takes a look at what he sees as the emergence of a new hippie movement. The article's tone is mixed; I couldn't help but come away with the idea that while Salam is saying a...

Wednesday June 18, 2008

Categories: Varia

Sharpton's shakedowns

The New York Post reports on how Al Sharpton is shaking down corporate America to keep his rent-a-mob off its collective back. Good for the Post, but this won't accomplish much. I wrote a series of articles for the Post...

Tuesday June 17, 2008

Categories: Media, Varia

The place of human tragedy

"But he couldn't have died. It seems impossible. Tim Russert can't be gone because he was having too good a time." -- Tom Shales, the Washington Post I think I know what Shales is getting at. His comment put me...

Monday June 16, 2008

Categories: Varia

He needed killing

You've heard about the California man who stomped and kicked a toddler to death on the side of the road, and was himself shot and killed by police trying to stop his rampage? Excerpt: Horrified passers-by tried to intervene by...

Wednesday June 11, 2008

Categories: Varia

Midwestern tornadoes

Tonight the Omaha area has been pummeled by tornadoes. I've been corresponding with The Mighty Favog, who reports horrible news about a Boy Scout camp having been destroyed. Full of Scouts. Favog: There were 100 Boy Scouts at the camp...

Friday May 2, 2008

Categories: Varia

The Legend of Old Greg

Blogging will be light on the weekend. I leave you with this extremely weird, compulsively watchable BBC comedy short about a scaly man-fish. It's a bit risque', just so you know, my fuzzy man-peaches....

Monday April 21, 2008

Categories: Varia

Found roadtrip wisdom

Just flew in from Baton Rouge -- spent today driving down there, leaving a car at my parents' house, and catching a plane back to Dallas. Three things I saw on the road today: 1. A printed sign outside the...

Wednesday April 16, 2008

Categories: Varia

Good thing nobody's scared of Spain

Zapatero, the socialist prime minister of Spain, is a real piece of p.c. work. He says he's "very proud that there are more female than male ministers" in his government. Well, good for you, El Sensitivo, but I gotta say,...

Thursday April 3, 2008

Categories: Varia

Your bucket list

My Beliefnet colleague Dan Gilgoff asked today what I would put on my "bucket list" -- that is, things I want to do before I kick the bucket. It's fun to think about. I'll put mine here, and ask you...

Sunday March 30, 2008

Categories: Varia

Gizoogle: The World's Greatest Invention

Gizoogle is completely addictive. Here is Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors (1864), run through the Gizoogle translator. Excerpt: Human reason, witout any reference whatsoeva ta Gizzle is tha sole arbita of trizzay n falsehood, n of good n evil; it...

Tuesday March 25, 2008

Categories: Varia

Opening Pandora's box

Let me give you the best tip you'll hear all week, unless you're hooked up with an ace stockbroker. A friend and reader of this blog tipped me off to Pandora.com. It's an online jukebox that creates an Internet "radio...

Wednesday March 12, 2008

Categories: Varia

When I'm Maximum Leader of America...

...I will pass a law taking away the Internet rights of people who send over 20 percent of their e-mails with FW:FW:FW:FW: in the subject line. I realize, of course, that this will take away all access to the Internet...

Tuesday March 11, 2008

Categories: Varia

Dreaming the trivial future

Here's a weird thing that happened to me this morning. When I woke up, the phrase, "Ecrasez l'infame!" was in my mind. I speak a little French, but I don't know the verb ecraser, so I didn't know what the...

Sunday March 9, 2008

Categories: Varia

Springing forward with haste

Is there anybody else who forgot to set his or her clocks back [CORRECTION: I meant forward.] last night? A certain family headed by an absent-minded father I know of is going to be late for church this morning. Ahem....

Sunday March 2, 2008

Categories: Varia

Rebeccat needs help

Regular readers will be dismayed to learn that one of our most faithful and valued combox posters, Rebeccat, is having a very rough go of it at the moment, her husband having lost his job. From her blog: Although our...

Monday February 25, 2008

Categories: Varia

Six words. Your life. Get busy!

The New Yorker has a short piece about "Not Quite What I Was Planning," which is a new collection of six-word memoirs. The idea is that you sum up your life in six words. Excerpt: The book’s originator: SMITH online...

Sunday February 24, 2008

Categories: Varia

Annuale

I almost never watch Saturday Night Live, which is rarely funny, but I did watch last night's episode. Glad I did. This satirical commercial for Annuale, a pill that suppresses a woman's monthly cycle to once yearly, was a scream....

Friday February 22, 2008

Categories: Varia

Don Chenoweth

Don Chenoweth (donchenoweth@yahoo.com), you should stop spamming the women at the Dallas Morning News, asking them if they're "one of Rod Dreher's sluts." Nobody here appreciates it, you troll. I've taken the entry from yesterday down because no one should...

Wednesday February 20, 2008

Categories: Varia

Tintin and the lunar eclipse

We're less than a half-hour away from the lunar eclipse here in Texas. Did you know that this was the same regular eclipse that saved Columbus from angry natives? It's a very cool story. Matthew points out that "Tintin" creator...

Monday February 18, 2008

Categories: Varia

Close calls

Julie was driving home from a birthday party with Lucas on Saturday, when she phoned me from the car. She said she'd just been motoring south on the expressway when she heard the screech of brakes behind her. When she...

Friday February 15, 2008

Categories: Varia

Friday Open Thread

Well, dang, I went to bed sick last night, my Alamo-like attempt to fight off the cold that had been besieging me all week having finally failed. No going to work today, and instead back to bed. So I predict...

Wednesday February 13, 2008

Categories: Varia

"Simply one night he heard screams."

Speaking of the evil of communism: The daughter of a former German diplomat in Moscow was trying to explain to me why her father, who, as an enlightened modern man, had been extremely pro-Communist, had become an implacable anti-Communist. It...

Monday January 28, 2008

Categories: Varia

Hitler was a Cowboys fan

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in ages:...

Wednesday January 23, 2008

Categories: Varia

The Edmonds file and espionage

Remember that explosive Sunday Times of London story I linked to a couple of weeks ago, in which a former FBI translator made extraordinary claims regarding the alleged involvement of American officials in the selling of nuclear secrets to agents...

Friday January 11, 2008

Categories: Varia

Bodacious Tata

I've really got nothing to say about the Tata, the new Hindu Volkswagen. I just wanted to use that headline....

Thursday January 10, 2008

Categories: Varia

Now that's a conspiracy!

This, from the Sunday Times of London, is a story that has to be bats**t crazy, because if it's true, it's terrifying. It's about treason high up in the US government. Excerpt: A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary...

Wednesday December 5, 2007

Categories: Varia

Hillary + Ron Paul: Porn-spamming Britney's iPhone?

Just got November page view figures for this here blog, and we had our biggest month ever. Thanks everybody, and thanks especially to Erin Manning, whose weeklong shepherding of Crunchy Con helped push us over the top. You'll love this,...

Monday December 3, 2007

Categories: Varia

Ye dragons and all deeps

Because I am a fool, but not an idiot, I think I shall post this description of a particularly horrible form of conjugal relations among extremely deep sea life without comment: To understand the full extent of the constraints that...

Thursday November 29, 2007

Categories: Varia

Worst People in the World

I've been meaning to blog about the suicide of Megan Meier, an overweight teenage girl, sparked by a cruel internet joke. I absolutely cannot get over the diabolical element here. Leonard Pitts tells the story best in his column. Excerpt:...

Monday November 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

Back

Finally, a return to routine -- mostly. Got back last night to find that my iMac had developed some kind of problem. It shuts off totally, without warning. I think we had this problem before -- but those were the...

Sunday November 25, 2007

Categories: Varia

[Erin] Every goodbye is the birth of a memory

Of course, in one sense I'm not really saying goodbye. You won't be rid of me that easily; tomorrow, I suppose, or later tonight if my willpower is even less than I expect it to be, I'll turn up in...

Thursday November 22, 2007

Categories: Consumerism, Varia

[Rod] Thanksgiving, again

Here we are again at Thanksgiving. Today is the day Erin was supposed to bow out on this blog, but I've been so impressed by her blogging that I've asked her to stick around through the weekend, and she kindly...

Monday November 19, 2007

Categories: Varia

[Erin] Pack up all your cares and woes

I couldn't resist commenting on this USA Today story (via Drudge) about the latest nanny-state suggestions to travelers this busy Thanksgiving week. The new suggestions, dubbed "SimpliFly," remind passengers to pack their carry-ons neatly, and make detailed recommendations as to...

Monday November 19, 2007

Categories: Varia

[Erin] Not what I'm used to

This past weekend my husband was finally able to do something he's been wanting to do for a while: buy one of these. (I think what caused the balance scale to tip toward making this decision was the information that...

Saturday November 17, 2007

Categories: Varia

[Rod] Postcard from the road

Greetings from a Homewood Suites near an Austin interchange. Harry Shearer said in a recent Le Show broadcast that the less expensive the hotel, the greater the chance that your WiFi will be free. True! This is the cheapest hotel...

Saturday November 17, 2007

Categories: Varia

[Erin] He makes it look so easy...

...Rod does, that is. This blog, I mean. I'm just sayin'....

Friday November 16, 2007

Categories: Varia

[Erin] The View From Up Here

To start with, I have to thank Rod for this amazing and wonderful opportunity to fill in for him while he and his family are enjoying a much-needed break. This blog has, for some time now, been the first and...

Wednesday November 14, 2007

Categories: Varia

Ron Paul vs. Britney the Slutty Islamofascist

Actually the subject line has absolutely nothing to do with anything. It's merely my attempt to set off search engines. Found out yesterday that the most read October post on this here blog was titled "Slutty Halloween costumes." Up next:...

Tuesday November 13, 2007

Categories: Varia

Taking the geographic cure

And by the way, I think the geographic cure -- the phrase used to describe as fallacious the idea that one can escape one's problems by moving to a new place, instead of changing one's thoughts and behavior -- is...

Saturday November 10, 2007

Categories: Varia

The shipwrecked

"The shipwrecked. They are without that which carried them through. They are without that which carried them through a void which is death to them. They are surrounded by the void. They do not know why they live still. They...

Saturday November 10, 2007

Categories: Varia

A fireproof heart

"How shall we strengthen humanity? By means of an exoskeleton or an endoskeleton? A fireproof room or a fireproof heart? Which is easier to bring on the road?" -- Joshua Foa Dienstag, "Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit"...

Thursday November 8, 2007

Categories: Varia

Who's your Inner European?

Take the quiz below and find out. I'm a bit put out that mine's not French. But it is what it is. Bring on the lingonberries, ah reckon. Your Inner European is Swedish! Relaxed and peaceful. You like to kick...

Thursday November 1, 2007

Categories: Varia

Autism and the poisoned environment

Sorry blogging has been so light today. I've been tied up on various medical issues with the kids. I mentioned the other day that Matthew has some issues with sensory processing, and we're trying to get to the bottom of...

Tuesday October 30, 2007

Categories: Varia

The value of the Internet

I was reading this morning Daniel Larison's intriguing analysis of Barack Obama's weaknesses, e.g.: It seems to me that this intense focus on consensus does not make for an effective executive. It may be better-suited to legislative work, especially in...

Friday October 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

World's smallest violin

Ken is a 24-year-old college grad who is over $30,000 in debt, thanks to his quest for an undergraduate degree in history, and who is back home living with Mom and Dad. Ken is a walking Fountains of Wayne song,...

Friday October 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

Urgent Apple MacBook help

I need urgent assistance from any readers who are familiar with QuickTime Pro, and the MacBook. I'm supposed to be taping a BloggingheadsTV episode, but I can't get the camera and the software to work properly. The image I keep...

Friday October 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

The best bottle of wine ever

...was the bottle of Norton from the Smith-Berry Winery -- co-owned by Wendell Berry's daughter -- that I had confiscated from me by TSA at the Louisville airport, because I forgot that you can't bring liquids into the cabin of...

Wednesday October 17, 2007

Categories: Varia

The growing MRSA nightmare

WaPo reports that MRSA -- drug-resistant staph -- infections are much more common than previously believed, and kill more Americans each year than AIDS. Let me urge parents to take this story with utmost seriousness. Our Lucas came down with...

Tuesday October 16, 2007

Categories: Varia

Today

No blogging for much of today -- I'm in Washington attending a Hudson Institute conference on the Muslim Brotherhood, and giving a paper later. So I'll be away from the keys, but tonight I should have a lot to blog...

Monday October 15, 2007

Categories: Varia

The dancer

So I tried the visual test to see if I was right-brained or left-brained. I saw the dancer spinning clockwise, which means I'm right-brained, and: RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling "big picture" oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and...

Monday October 15, 2007

Categories: Varia

Air travel, feh!

I arrived at DFW Airport at 7 am, for an 8:15 flight to Washington Reagan. Then came the storms. The plane finally departed at noon. Which explains the non-existent blogging today. Can I just say that when the revolution comes,...

Friday October 12, 2007

Categories: Varia

Doin' the Bird

"Fellas, have you heard/There's a brand-new dance called the Bird." -- Morris Day and the Time...

Friday October 12, 2007

Categories: Varia

Injustice in our time

I think Corky St. Clair speaks for all of us who didn't win a Nobel this year:...

Wednesday October 10, 2007

Categories: Varia

Autism and modern life

I recognize that by blogging on this, I'm goig to open up a can of worms the size of the Grand Canyon. Let me just beg y'all to please be civil on the discussion thread. I've assumed that the fact...

Sunday September 30, 2007

Categories: Varia

Yay Ross

Congratulations to Ross Douthat and Abigail Tucker on their marriage yesterday. As the Zohar says, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Ross with a yadda-yadda." Good times, good times......

Wednesday September 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

Virtual fence virtually useless

Remember the high-tech "virtual fence" that President Bush assured us would keep illegals from crossing the border with Mexico? Well -- surprise! -- it doesn't work....

Saturday September 22, 2007

Categories: Varia

Yo quiero Taco Frederica

Behold, Frederica Mathewes-Green, podcasting from the Taco Bell, and feeling a little bit crunchy, and therefore a little bit guilty. Tsk, tsk. Everybody needs them some Chipotle, says I. If you get the pork or the chicken, it's hormone and...

Friday September 21, 2007

Categories: Varia

The devil inside

The other day I got around to listening to a recent podcast of "This American Life" devoted to the idea of people trying to conquer their inner demons. They were using the term "demons" metaphorically, for any sort of, I...

Friday September 21, 2007

Categories: Varia

Virginia Postrel has cancer

What is this, cancer day around here? Just found out, via her blog, that my friend Virginia Postrel has breast cancer. Frankly, if I were cancer, I'd be scared of Virginia Postrel. She's cooler and smarter than just about anybody,...

Wednesday September 19, 2007

Categories: Varia

Words to the wise

From a Washington Post story about the sex lives of older married people: Carolyn Shaffer, a Bethesda psychologist, has seen this pattern among her clients as well, particularly men. "A man can have all these problems with his wife, but...

Thursday September 6, 2007

Categories: Varia

Blessed Leibowitz, your country is calling

How many of you here have read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" ? Well, if you haven't, do. This item from a Shreveport TV station, sent in by a reader, put me in mind of the famed fictional postapocalyptic monk. If...

Tuesday September 4, 2007

Categories: Varia

Mark Shea is back

For true. I had wondered when he was going to return from vacation. I thought maybe a pit bull had done et him....

Thursday August 30, 2007

Categories: Varia

Ouch. Arf. Whatever.

Did you read that Leona Helmsley left her dog a $12 million trust fund? Donald Trump, her longtime nemesis, offered a scathing comment about that: "The dog is the only thing that loved her and deserves every single penny."...

Wednesday August 29, 2007

Categories: Varia

Radio friends

Two radio notes involving regular commentators on this here blog. Dallas lawyer Bill Holston delivers a "This I Believe" essay on how working to help refugees gain asylum has taught him the value of serving his fellow man. And Dallas...

Tuesday August 28, 2007

Categories: Varia

Found wisdom

I don't know that I've ever seen a homemade bumper sticker, but I did on Monday driving Matthew to school. It was on the back of a dirty white Cressida. It read: Breathe deeply and FORGIVE Me being superstitious me,...

Sunday August 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

AOL blues

I've been a member of America Online since 1994. I've thought about changing e-mail addresses many times over the years, but the hassle of having to tell so many people, many of whom I've lost track of, that I have...

Thursday August 16, 2007

Categories: Varia

Elvis Aron Presley, 1935-1977

Elvis "died" at Graceland on this day 30 years ago. So they say. Check the spelling on the stone....

Tuesday August 14, 2007

Categories: Varia

Superannuated Super Friends

Did you hear about The Elders, a group of famous oldsters funded in part by Richard Branson, that will travel the highways and byways of the global village solving problems? I'm sorry, but if I saw this bunch coming my...

Saturday August 11, 2007

Categories: Varia

It's freaking hot -- open thread

August is the cruelest month. It's miserably hot out there. I'd live in six months of winter to avoid one month of August in Texas. And I know Texas isn't the only place in the US wilting today. This is...

Friday August 10, 2007

Categories: Varia

My name is Rod D., and I'm

...a dyscalculic....

Thursday July 26, 2007

Categories: Varia

Jambalaya for breakfast

...is one of the perks of vacationing in Louisiana, and visiting my folks. Mama made biscuits, but I had leftover jambalaya instead. Things move awfully slow around here, which is how I like it. Julie and I reflected on the...

Wednesday July 25, 2007

Categories: Varia

Notes from a roadtrip

1. If you're going on a big roadtrip, leave your city moments before a massive explosion near your office freaks the cheese of your co-workers, and would have messed up your own 9/11-distressed self. Watch this incredible video of the...

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About Crunchy Con

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.

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