Fri 17 Mar 2006
March Madness: Does momentum exist? Can it be quantified? These guys say yes (at least within the confines of a single game) and they have the research to prove it.
It seems I will never be among those who live precise, well-ordered lives. Tangles, lost keys, and refrigerators containing mainly condiments just don’t bother me enough. They do bother me.
The sky has put on its palest face today, vague and distracted. It would turn away from us if it could.
KAPOW! SHAZAM! AAAARRRRRGGHHH! KAPLOOEY! Whoa, Nelly.
What do you call a crate full of ducks? A box of quackers.
Vowel exercise: Loose. Lease. Less. Loss. Louse.
Consonant exercise: Loose. cool. stoop. crouton.
Keep it loose, the lease is cool; we’ll sign for less and the stoop’s ours to sit on, no loss unless that louse renegs. That crusty old crouton.
Easy Reader, that’s my name. Uhn, Uhn, Uhn.
Thomas Jefferson, evangelicals, separation of church and state, and a giant cheese. Who knew! (Via Arts and Letters Daily).
March 17th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Wow, cheese and presidential history–sounds like a dissertation topic. Andrew Jackson had a 1400 lb piece sent to him too. The National Archivees reports (with a practically audible chortle) that “The White House smelled for weeks.” Engraving at:
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/23/mcms.html
March 17th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
there’s a novel called the mammoth cheese which is loosely based on the jeffersonian cheese.
rebellion to tyrants is obedience to god. takes on a whole different meaning today.
March 17th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
The article quotes c. 1800 “proto-evangelicals”,
I’ve been learning more about how politically charged Jesus’ ministry and the early church were in the 1st century. I thought for the first time reading this article, maybe major growth/revival in the church (eg the Great Awakening this article cites) coincides with a renewed realization that the Kingdom whose Lord is Jesus subverts and challenges every earthly power. One modern example, maybe, is the growth of house churches in China - surely not explicitly revolutionary, but surely implicitly revolutionary and subversive, right?
Hrm… pensees, pensees.
March 17th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for the visual aid, Tara! I love that website, never seen it before. That drawing is even better than my imaginary giant cheese in my head. At first when I read the article, I thought maybe giving giant cheese was an insult of some kind? The equivalent of “you giant cheeseball of a politician!” But no. It’s just a fad, like Prada bags.
Heatherfeather, darnit, I was thinking about writing a novel about giant cheese, and now you tell me it’s already been done! Rats. It seems like two novels about giant cheese would be at least one too many. Well, is the book any good?
Nate, Nice quote from the text. Can an act only be defined as subversive in the context of a hostile environment? If so, house churches in china are probably becoming less subversive over time as the society becomes more “open.”
I was noticing how when the spiritual forebears of evangelicals were a threatened minority, they viewed government as a potentially hostile power to be reigned in. Now that evangelicals (am I one? I wonder.) are a majority, they view it as an instrument for furthering social goals.
March 17th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
the book is okay. i liked reading it the first time…it’s an ambitious undertaking and has interesting factoids and views of rural farm life, as well as more insight into the bioethics involved in fertility treatments (i bet you weren’t expecting that) which is one of my pet areas (i am still toying with the idea of getting a second master’s in bioethics)…
it’s mostly entertaining, anyway. i’m not going to give it a resounding thumbs up, but i won’t dissuade you from reading it.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Wow, this is a great line
“The sky has put on its palest face today, vague and distracted. It would turn away from us if it could.”