Quick Hits

Handy Latin phrases -- Clip 'n save! (Example: "Re vera, potas bene", meaning "Say, you sure are drinking a lot".) Update: Terrence Berres suggests Re vera, potas bene as a caption for my right sidebar photo. Good idea. Don't forget: the more you drink, the better this blog reads. Please note that I just updated as a result of his update as a result of my link. That'll seem deep if you're drinkin'. Update 2: Mr. Berres just updated his update, so I want to get the last update of an update of an update of a link in. Shhh! Don't tell him.

It's odd to see non-Christians with an obsession with a particular saint. One wonders why they didn't convert. I'm thinking of Mark Twain's long study of Joan of Arc and Franz Werfel's of St. Bernadette of Lourdes. Faith is indeed a gift.

I recall I was maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, visiting at a friend's house when his mother asked me: "Do you believe Jesus had no human father?" It seemed something she was struggling with. Similarly, I've heard rationalizations that the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was about sharing, not a miraculous intervention. And I think the reason these two miracles in particular are difficult for many to believe is they involve the creation of matter from nothing. The part of Christ's DNA that would come from a father had to come from somewhere and was therefore created ex nihilo. Similarly the loaves and fishes. This is an affront to the imagination; we can imagine healings of various sorts, matter suddenly changing form (ice to water) or time being compressed (the microwave helps us there) but to create matter is something beyond our ken. With the possible exception of Christ's willingness to forgive, nothing so marked him as divine as his creation of matter from nothing. And perhaps for that reason, many disbelieve.

I suppose its part of the perversity of man, but when I hear tornado warning sirens I run outside to try to spot the tornado. I think you're supposed to go to the cellar.

By saying "I don't want to be pigeon-holed" you are pigeon-holing yourself.

I don't watch the network evening news but there seems a sort of rough justice that Brian Williams leads the pack. Is there a harder working anchor in show biz? Is he not the James Brown of the prompter readers? The guy has the work ethic of ten, and was in New Orleans post-Katrina more than their mayor. He also seems the least nakedly liberally biased (read of Gibson here, Couric here).