02/09/2010

Time to Share

So, dear readers, I'm eager to hear what you think of:

1. Lost in Austen
2. Ballet Shoes

Just curious to hear about your thoughts on a few of the things I've recommended in that last few months.

02/05/2010

Pants on the Ground

You've all seen this, but....

01/26/2010

Conscience

Ran across this in some stuff I was reading for my dissertation.

"But the world, the love of money makes all to make shipwreck of a good conscience. The Devil offered Christ all the kingdoms of the world, to worship him: but if he offer us but a groat [English coin worth four pence] or six pence, we are ready to worship him. Money makes all, in church and commonwealths to smother the check of conscience, to nip them in the head, and not to regard them: but though we can put conscience to silence in this life, he will open his mouth against us in the life to come. When we die, as a father observeth, we must leave all books behind us. Saint Augustine's works, Saint Basil's works, the book of the Court, yea and the Bible, the book of books: but the book of our consciences we must carry with us: and that when it is opened, shall either accuse us or excuse us at that day: therefore let us look well to this book here, let us examine it, as the Father willeth us, let us confer it with the book of life, let us put out all the blots that be in it, that it may speak for us, not against us, at the dreadful day of judgement." William Jones, A Commentary Upon the Epistles of Saint Paul to Philemon, and to the Hewbrewes... (London, 1635). I modernized the spelling. He's commenting on Hewbrews 13:17-18 there.

01/24/2010

On the Banks of Plum Creek

Been reading this book to the boys lately. It's one of the Little House on the Prairie books. Imagine how cool it would be to live like they did.

1. No cell phones; no phone of any kind
2. No health insurance premiums
3. No electric bill
4. No gas bill
5. No water bill
6. No trash bill
7. No sewer bill
8. No rent
9. You would own a house that you built yourself
10. You would have a spare house (the underground one on the creek bank)
11. You would have a team of horses, a beautiful creek in your front yard.
12. All the free fish you can catch
13. A milking cow with fresh butter, cream, etc.
14. A beautiful prairie right outside of your front door.
15. Town 2 miles away
16. A good day's work
17. A nice fire from wood you cut yourself
18. Very few possessions

That life is so much better than the lives most of us lead, that it amazes me that we don't all strive to live that way. But "the good life" is so situated in the particular place and time in which you live, that longing for the 'good life' of another time looks almost like insanity at worst, or eccentricity at best. That life is very hard, but our lives are very hard too. Their lives were filled with much more death - infant mortality, sickness for which there were no cures, dangerous work. Our lives are filled with less death, but more stomach turning stresses. Their lives were simpler - less entities to organize and keep up with. Our lives require each of us to be managers of a complex of interests, schedules, payments, receipts, locations, etc. Each month is divided into pay periods, each day into work periods, each hour into tasks, each task into records of for whom the work was done and for how long. This work is detached from the earth and its schedules - from seedtime and harvest, even from winter and summer. In order to connect with those natural rhythms we have to be intentional. Just as we have to schedule physical exercise because our jobs give us none, we have to intentionally plan to see nature, note the weather, etc. Power outages plunge us into a half-world, where we have one foot in the desire to have light at midnight and entertainment on any given day, and one foot in the world where night means darkness for the most part, summer means heat, and winter means cold. Maybe I'd hate the life that they had on the side of that creek, but something tells me that I would thrive there.

01/20/2010

I Can't See through Muddy Water

When I was a kid and I would rudely stand in front of my parents while they were watching the news on television, they would say "I can't see through muddy water." I thought about this last night (wonder why?) and it occurred to me that your parents probably had a different way of telling you to move. So, readers, tell us what your parents said when you obscured the television screen.

01/18/2010

American Idol Guy

Despite his weird attitude, I thought this guy's voice was really good - resonant, very accurate, had a nice crisp feel to it.

01/15/2010

Lost in Austen

I'm not a Jane Austen purist, so adaptations and derivative works do not really bother me. And so if you're like me and you like Jane Austen books and movies and anything from the BBC about gentlemen and ladies with witty banter and good manners, then I think you'll get a kick out of this BBC movie: Lost in Austen:



Basically, a modern girl who likes Jane Austen goes to her bathroom one evening and finds Elizabeth Bennett in there, telling her that there is a portal from the Bennett house to her apartment. The modern girl goes into the Bennett house, Elizabeth locks the portal, and the rest of the movie is the modern heroine trying hard not to mess up the story of Pride and Prejudice. It is hilarious because they have to write new dialogue, imagine Darcy and Bingley in new situations, and we get a modern girl's take on Mr. Collins. The modern girl has to account for her strange clothing and passes it off as "Otter Hunting Kit." I also think the movie was well casted. The actors who play Bingley, Darcy, Bingley's sister, etc. are perfect choices. We learn Mr. Bennett's first name and Mr. Collins's middle name. The modern girl has a falling out with Charlotte, and there is some hilarity involving lip gloss. It isn't a farce by any means, and the movie is respectful of the source material. They do something really clever with Wickham's character, probably the biggest departure from Austen's vision for the character. And yet, it is really plausible. So don't hesitate to watch it so that we can talk about it next time I see you. The libraries in St. Louis already have it.

I'll leave you with a scene where Miss Price (the modern girl) meets Mr. Bennett. It's not a great scene, but you get a feel for the quality of the dialogue they write for the book's characters:

01/12/2010

Anyone See Avatar?

Would love to hear from readers who have seen Avatar. I haven't seen it and probably won't get the opportunity, but just wanted to know what those of you who saw it thought.

01/09/2010

Chicago Manual of Style Question

Ok, so if I'm giving someone's dates of life in parenthesis after the name, how do I format it when one of the dates is approximate. Here's what I think it should be, but if someone could confirm, that would be very helpful:

John Doe (1520-ca. 1591)

Does that look right? Something looks wrong about it.

12/31/2009

Once in a Blue Moon

When there are two full moons in a single month, the second one is called a "blue moon." There's one tonight! It is beautiful. But it is not, of course, blue.

Back from Christmas trip. Somehow we made it through Thanksgiving travel and Christmas travel. The price of gas makes me weep. Now it is time to do the hard work of catching up on everything... (Wimper.)

12/28/2009

Up

Finally saw "Up" - the Pixar movie. One of my boys received it as a Christmas present. Just a really well done movie; I finish seeing a Pixar movie and I feel respected, catered to, challenged. It is so unlike the feeling I get from most entertainment. I don't think I've ever seen a movie for children whose main point is that it is the workaday things in life that are our adventures and that grand acts may be respected and celebrated, but they are nothing compared to the little bits of living. From The Incredibles we learn that not all gifts and talents are equal and that the world needs exceptional people who have to break a few eggs from time to time to make omelettes. From Up we learn that little moments can be exceptional; that these are the heroic moments for most of us. The disgraced adventurer in Up says "adventure is 'out there'" and the movie's whole point is that adventure is embedded in the mundane. Something I wish I would have known as a younger person. If a child is unusually gifted, he or she needs to cultivate an appreciation for the ordinary and a suspicion of high achievement which too often comes at an unacceptable cost.

12/21/2009

Christmas Poll

12/19/2009

Ballet Shoes

If you have little girls, be sure to rent "Ballet Shoes" - a movie. It has Emma Watson in it. Just really a nice movie, I thought. I don't have little girls, but Netflix thinks I am one, so it recommended the movie to me. I should clarify that Netflix thinks I'm a little girl who loves sci-fi.

12/12/2009

English Comparatives

Always a tangle with comparatives. We have great words with "er" and "est" in English, but we also have "more" and "most" and sometimes both can be used.

Just ran across one - my advisor marked my use of "likeliest" - said I should use "most likely." Obviously, both are acceptable, but I will do what he recommends without hesitation. And yet sometimes using "most" and "more" just sounds ignorant. Think of "more clear" vs. "clearer." Surely, "clearer" sounds better. I usually notice this during sermons, that's about the only time in my weekly schedule where a formal attention to grammar couples with speaking. And I always hear when preachers use a "more" or a "most" when a "er" or an "est" would sound better to me. But what sounds better to me is probably just a function of the books I read and not of some kind of standard.

Anyway, of course grammar changes and standards are stipulated, but this area of comparatives seems especially subjective.

12/02/2009

Me and the Fantastic Mr. Fox



I saw this taxidermy fox a few days after seeing The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Great movie, by the way, and very cleverly executed. Even the departures from the book felt like things from other Roald Dahl books. It was also very funny; all four of our boys really enjoyed it and they range from 5 years old up 13 years old. Their grandmother took all of us to see the movie over the Thanksgiving break. I haven't been to a movie in a coon's age, so it was a great treat. Anyway, hope you guys all had good Thanksgivings too.