The Christmas season still plows forward, but the real world returns in earnest. I kinda feel like I'm waking from a dream, and the nightmare Rose Bowl loss to USC yesterday doesn't help.
It's the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen. Two of my earliest published pieces were saintly sketches of these men. Basil, Gregory. I also did one on Gregory Nyssa, Basil's little brother and the third "Cappadocian Father." The three men fascinated me for a few years back in the late 1990s, and they continue to interest me. Highly recommended: The Holy Fire, by Robert Payne. Hopefully, there are less expensive editions than what you'll find at that link.
If you hadn't noticed, UFO sightings have become more rare than UM bowl victories. I commented on it last year, but there was one recently in Chicago. It'll get the extra-terrestrial nuts buzzing, especially during these long winter nights when they have nothing else to do.
Anyone else notice that churches started using marquee-type signs with clever sayings about ten years ago? Donald Seitz did, and he drove through 40 states, capturing pictures of these signs for a new book. See today's Washington Times.
That's it for now. The dog days of winter call.
