Unitarian Universalist minister and blogger James Ford (Monkey Mind) posted a video — a very funny video — from The Onion. But let’s be clear: everyone I know had already seen it. But it’s the summer, it’s hot, I’m tired and it was still funny. So if you missed “Web Site Story” from last August, [...]
Oh, four days without a post makes Scott a dull boy. But the irons I have in the fire aren’t quite hot enough. Instead, here are some fun or interesting things I’ve read recently: OSE License for Post Scarcity Economics (Open Source Ecology) “This license is written with the intent of good faith, integrity, and commitment [...]
P. T. Barnum, the circus man, was a Universalist and an avid promoter of the faith. Today is the bicentennial of his both — thanks to Kinsi for reminding us. I used to have this booklet of his on a couple of my sites, but at some point I cleaned up and down it came. [...]
I recently had a birthday, and am now 41 years old. That gives me a year before I reach 42, which — as I knew, and surprisingly others also volunteered — is “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.” But the proof that I really am in my forties is [...]
The banners at General Assembly hardly rise in importance as governance or policy matters, but the parade at the opening plenary has become important in General Assembly culture. Alas, most aren’t every memorable. What might work as a piece of fixed wall art fails to make an impression when moving, seen from a distance or [...]
Vuvuzela must be the word of the week. It’s a long horn, popularly blown at South African soccer matches. Photo source: “South African Tourism” http://www.flickr.com/photos/south-african-tourism/ Creative Commons BY-NC license. Not unlike what your garden-variety heralding angel plays. And that’s blog-appropriate since Universalists long used the figure of a herald angel as something of an emblem, [...]
So Arizona lawmakers pass a repugnant immigration bill that reignites the Brown People Fear. (I’m sure that would scan better in German. Then again, ethnically, I’m both part Mexican and German.) And the 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) General Assembly (GA) is scheduled for Phoenix next June. Cue the agita about bringing them convention dollars. [...]
All too often, I just want something well-considered and well-designed. Something that’s the best it can be and honest, rather than grasping at qualities it cannot deliver or afford. A diner with good service and fresh pie, rather than a pretentious restaurant with its best years behind it, say. And failing that, I’ll take clean [...]
Threads, a 1984 BBC television movie, is an all-too-believable tale about the destruction of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield (and the world) from nuclear war. I watched it several times in the 80s and 90s — a foundation made VHS copies available to libraries — and ran across it again last night while browsing on [...]
The Chesapeake Bay watershed has been hit by a large snowstorm; indeed, two outsize storms since December, and a supplemental snowfall is due this week. The sidewalks are a patchwork of the clear and dry — a crown in heaven for those responsible persons who shoveled them — or, when, left uncleared like a wet [...]
