Wednesday

GKC and Crisis

One of the best Catholic pieces of the new year: G.K. Chesterton and the Art of Living Well in a Time of Crisis. It's by a recent Catholic convert, and we all know that converts are brilliant folk. The writer boils down the GKC attitude to four things: humor, self-deprecation, transcendental joy that transcends immanent crisis, and emphasizing the Gospel instead of the world's skepticism. Those are good ideas. Long-time readers of TDE know that I'm something of a skeptic myself. I even have a notebook dedicated to reflections of a Christian skeptic, but some things shine through ignorance, and GKC had a sure grasp of those things.

Received in an Email

An email newsletter, actually: "Northwest Trustee Services – the Pacific Northwest's largest foreclosure trustee – has bought up or started six weekly newspapers in the region. It might buy as many as 50 more. 'Owning newspapers,' reports the Portland Oregonian, 'will reduce costs for Northwest Trustee's lender clients and could make foreclosures more profitable for [the] firm.' That's because Oregon – indeed, most states – require a series of legal notices in the local paper before they auction a foreclosed property. 'These legal ads, which generally cost $500-2,000, are one of the largest expenses of the foreclosure process... For many small-town papers, foreclosure notices have become one of their largest revenue sources.'"

Drinking Corner

Whoa, whoa, whoa! My region has a Beer Week, and I didn't even know about it. Kalamazoo Beer Week started last Saturday. I scrolled through the list of events. Pretty impressive, even if their PR campaign hasn't been. I'm guessing this is the first annual (a friend who actually lives in Kalamazoo sent me the link, stating that he'd never heard of it before). Let's hope it's the first of many.