Miscellaneous Rambling
The new podcast is up. Mass Touching, Austen, Marshall McLuhan, Gnosticism.
Show Notes:
Touching During Mass. Enough already. Enough with shaking hands, too, at least during the cold and flu season. That custom has ran its course.
Today's Pride and Prejudice Parlor Scenes. Family members lounging around the living room, each with individual screens in their hands. The end of the family? Or a return of the family to 1800 leisurely norms?
Marshall McLuhan. This Catholic convert would probably take major issue with my conclusions in the previous segment. I introduce the thought of this man who used to be a household name and the meaning of his signature line, “The medium is the message.”
Lighting Segments. Augustine didn't say “He who sings prays twice,” plus it seems kind of self-laudatory. School of Rock, the musical . . . excellent. Andrew Lloyd Weber . . . rich and conservative. More.
Gnosticism. Introducing the thought of Eric Voegelin, one of the twentieth centuries greatest, yet unheralded, thinkers.
Maximum Greens' Grow to Order program is going well. Orders are coming in. I'm not at the point where I need to order another grow station, but I have room another, if need be.
St. Francis de Sales' feast day is coming up this week. I started reading Introduction to the Devout Life years ago, but I couldn't get past his phrase "Weave a little nosegay." Years later, especially after reading books like Rapt, I realize it's very good advice, but even now, the phrase is just too, um, well, faggy for me. If you want a good de Sales book that does not have that phrase in it, let me know. A Catholic publishing house put out a spiritual quote book of sorts a few years ago, and it was excellent. Unfortunately, I can't find it as of this typing (grrrrrrrr), but if you want the name, email me. I'm sure it'll surface eventually.
