Tuesday Miscellany

So I was in charge of dinner Saturday evening. I picked Taco Bell, with a Hot-n_Now (regional fastfood burger franchise) for the non-Mexican eaters. Final damage: 8 hamburgers, 5 small fries, 10 regular tacos, 1 Mexican pizza, 1/2 gallon of milk, 1 liter of Mountain Dew,

Something for Sunday Morning

Affability should be "the framework of human relationships . . .". It is "scarcely noticed, but when it is lacking it is greatly missed. . . . [W]e must take heed of the thousands of opportunities [to practice affability] that each day brings with it." Francis Fernandez

-17

I've never seen it this cold. Unbelievable.

Brews You Can Use

I subscribed to New York magazine last year on a lark. I've grown to greatly enjoy the provincial liberal rag. Its liberalism is more understood than preached . . . more of a worldview than a religion . . . so it's tolerable if occasionally nauseating. Anyway, I gleaned this drinking anecdote

American Idol

Long-time readers are (painfully) aware that I fall into American idiocy at this time of year. My family and I gather around Fox TV and shrink our collective IQs by 25 or so as we watch American Idol [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-americanidol_

From the Notebooks

One theory about the origin of homosexuality holds that it stems from a dysfunctional relationship with one's father. If a boy lacks the natural love of a father, the desideratum surfaces in a warped way later. I ran across the following piece of anecdotal evidence in a recent

Something for Sunday Morning

. . . "'he went about doing good' . . . This is an appropriate summary of Christ's life on this earth. This should be the description of the life of every baptized person since our lives are subject to the influence of the Holy Spirit. This ought to be so

Neuhaus

I turned on my computer and saw that Fr. Richard John Neuhaus died yesterday [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/us/09neuhaus.html]. Fr. Neuhaus' Naked Public Square was one of the first "adult" books I read as I started to take an interest in politics,

Brews You Can Use

Beer pong is getting even bigger: Vegas now has $50,000 World Series of Beer Pong (in its fourth year), and it's leaving college campuses and going mainstream: > More bars are setting up tables and weekly tournaments. A new documentary, "Last Cup: Road to the World

Thursday Bites

I don't know how I missed this entertainment news item last summer: The New York City Opera commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Brokeback Mountain . . . The opera is scheduled to premiere in spring 2013, City Opera. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/news/2008-06-