Kenneth Sutton's aide-mémoire
The irony, of course, is that I hardly ever get around to sending Christmas cards. But my Second Life alter-ego, Otenth Paderborn, is part of a neo-Victorian community where it is an absolute must to send greetings, so I hunted around and found this graphic to make a card. (Click the image for a larger view. The graphic is from the December 1888 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.)
A really cool project in the UK: The Woodland Trust | Ancient Tree Hunt
Help us to find and map all the old, fat trees across the UK.
Well, I’ve cherry-picked the best part of Paul’s post: Showers of Blessings: La Natividad: Year 2
The most touching part for me happens at St. Paul’s when, through a nice bit of stagecraft, the masked José y Maria are replaced with a flesh-and-blood couple holding a real baby. The switcheroo can’t be seen by the audience until the right moment when the adoring animals and wise men part, and when they realize what’s happened and see the living actors and baby there’s a spontaneous “ohhhh” that fills the church. I tear up every time. I realized tonight that this is what happens whenever we are able to break through the masquerade of religion and illusion and encounter the Living God on the other side.
But how better to note his beautiful image of breaking through illusion to the Living God.
I’ve just finished the last two Anthony Trollope novels set in the ecclesiastical environs of Barsetshire: The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset. Repeating the pattern I found in earlier volumes, these two novels complement one another, although the Last Chronicle, as befits a novel by that name, does bring back some beloved (and not so beloved) characters from earlier tales. I shed a tear or two as I discovered heroes in unexpected places, felt for dashed hopes, and said goodbye to what felt like old friends.
I find myself quite satisfied with the experience of reading these books, and intend to continue with Trollope’s Palliser novels.
The Nation has a review of Liberty and the News by Walter Lippmann. It (the book!) was written in 1920, but it sounds like it has a lot to say for today.
“There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.”
One of the engaging things about Second Life is meeting people and learning new things. Somewhat to my surprise, I am part of a radio station, for which I serve as an event host and occasional music presenter. At about midnight tonight I will begin broadcasting Radio Riel: From the Library . . . Luciafest on http://music.radioriel.org. You can listen in iTunes or any other streaming audio player. The broadcast includes about nine hours of music, set on shuffle, and will conclude early tomorrow evening.
The most recent blog meme has been going through Second Life like a wildfire, and I was tagged earlier today at Tenth Life. I thought it was potentially interesting enough to cross-post here.
First, it was the Defender of Murdann; then my web-friend Marion Rickenbacker, whose photography I love; and now I’ve discovered that Lady Edwina Heron has joined the fray. (And I suppose I should also count Miss Achariya Maktoum, who tagged “all of Caledon”).
The rules of tagging are simple, and as follows.
- Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
- People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
- At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog
Now, really, who’s left to tag? This thing has spread faster than any noxious blog meme I’ve ever seen, so I refuse to check to see if I’m repeating people: nox Pinion, and via Twitter, cala, Kirakitty, Lactose, rikomatic, Gloire, SinTrenton, ZoeConnolly.
The GayCityNews has information on how to register a comment on proposed regulations concerning the entry of people who are HIV-positive into the United States (comments close December 6):
Individuals who wish to protest the harsh new DHS regs on HIV-positive travel may submit comments online . . . — but to do so you must include the docket number of the proposed regs, USCBP-2007–0084.
Select the pull-down for Department of Homeland Security-All, and at the bottom, select Docket ID and paste in the number. You can read the proposed regulation as well as previous comments (which include such sentiments as “i oppose giving any visas for aliens with hiv. none should be given. the law as it stands keeping them out is a good, sound, healthful one. there is no reason to change it.” and “I OPPOSE ANY CONSIDERATION OF CASE BY CASE BASIS. KEEP ALL WITH HIV OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.” Such are our fellow citizens.)
(Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for keeping this before us.)
Via QuakerQuaker and Martin Kelley, I found Jeanne’s Social Class & Quakers blog and her blog game on class. As she says,
It’s based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. . . . The exercise developers hold the copyright but have given me permission to post it here and ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.
Go on over to Jeanne’s blog for a link to the creators, in addition to wonderful comments and links (in the comments) to others who have done the exercise.
Bold items are advantages I received.
Jeanne adds:
To participate in this blog game, copy and paste the above list into your blog, and bold the items that are true for you. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to post your responses in the comments. Once enough people participate in this little game, I’ll do a Part II post about what all this has to do with Friends. (And you can, in your blog post, ponder what it means to Friends).
Go on over to Jeanne’s blog if you do this exercise, and let her know.
Al Jazeera reports Indonesia presses for Myanmar talks:
Indonesia’s president is calling on Myanmar’s ruling military to speed up the process of democratisation and hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Al Jazeera also have a report that Aung San Suu Kyi has met with members of the political party she leads.