Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Even the Mexicans know the truth, if they won't admit it: We bring tamales by the bagful to holidays gatherings, trading them like baseball cards with friends and cousins—I’ll give you some of my TÃa Meme’s pineapple tamales if you hook me up with the potato ones from your Guatemalan sister-in-law. And, once we’ve put …
Continue reading "The Wrong Side of the Border for Good Tamales"
A little bit of their recent Christmas program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlxVwnaLc7g The Roueché's are some of my favourite people. They hosted and led our Catholic Charismatic prayer group for many years, which included youth trips to the University of Steubenville. They did so while resisting the siren song of the covenant community. They are great people and …
For those of us who owe our theological sanity to marching through St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae and Disputed Question on Truth, his Christmas sermon, which encapsulates his method in a very nice form.  Merry Christmas! The Aquinas Institute would like to give our subscribers and supporters a Christmas gift: Aquinas’s Christmas sermon Ecce Rex …
Continue reading "Ecce Rex Tuus: St. Thomas Aquinas’ Christmas Sermon"
The first Christmas album I ever owned--and I still have it--is the Robert Shaw Chorale's Joy to the World, released on RCA Camden in 1958.  Recorded right after World War II, it has two distinctives: it's entirely a capella and all the carols are traditional and sacred. "Jeffnham" has done something completely different: he's recorded the …
Continue reading "Sounds of Christmas Past: Robert Shaw's Joy to the World"
It's just a tad late in the Advent calendar, but just in time for Christmas: "Gaudete," sung a capella by the British folk/rock group Steeleye Span. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQ3kbxegHY Getting British rockers (even folk types like Steeleye Span) to sing in Latin was no mean trick, but they did it, and this video furnishes the lyrics. Guaranteed …
At this time of year I usually think of my mother, who passed at this time of year. But I heard this gem on Jradio Rewind this AM, had to share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_AfMKuOB80
Check out this interesting thread at Stack Exchange, one of the premier sites for programmers of all kinds.  There are at least 2,400 other questions on Tolkien topics, and you can check them out, too.
It's the classic hymn for the Second Sunday in Advent: "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending," done in good Anglo-Catholic style here: https://youtu.be/RPmO75cXXcM?list=PL203B2568FF4CD221 The lyrics were written by Charles Wesley in 1758; more than one tune has been affixed to them, this is my favourite. It's about the Second Coming, which is really what Advent …
Continue reading "The Wesleyan Advent Hymn the Wesleyan Pentecostals Don't Sing"
One of side "benefits" of being in the Anglican/Episcopal blogosphere is to get to know "Anglicans Unscripted," the video interview series hosted by Kevin Kallsen, with frequent contribution by fellow Palm Beacher George Conger. In a recent episode with Kallsen and the Queen's former chaplain Gavin Ashenden, they discussed a float in Justin Welby's parade …
Continue reading "Does Anyone Really Believe This Current System is Permanent?"
An interesting observation from Jonathan Haidt about what college students are being indoctrinated in these days: But what do we do now? Many students are given just one lens—power. Here’s your lens, kid. Look at everything through this lens. Everything is about power. Every situation is analyzed in terms of the bad people acting to …
