“If a preacher is not a man of his age, in sympathy with its spirit, his preaching fails”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 40
Unlike Other People
“Professors like to talk about themselves, and so the key was to ask them to talk about themselves”
Ecochondriacs, p. 71
Rules of the Game Though
The Space That Beans Take Up
“When they had moved from Choctaw Valley, Trevor had settled into his studies easily, and found that full-time load, given his energy levels, was really only about half time, and because his was a personality that was full of beans, with scarcely room left for one more bean, he saw right away that he would have to find some edifying way to fill up the remainder of his time”
Ecochondriacs, p. 69
A Respectable Outlet
“Jill was an avid baseball fan, and was there at the stadium using up her season tickets as often as her schedule permitted. ‘It gives me an opportunity to yell at people without incurring any societal disapproval,’ she said. ‘That’s an argument,’ Larry said”
Ecochondriacs, p. 62
A Gallimaufry of Random Observations
Inspired by the spirit of our times, I have decided to throw together a gallimaufry of random observations. A salmagundi of insights, as it were, or an Eton mess of ironic inversions, a mélange of right wing virtue signaling, a potpourri of punditry. And see how you like it. This is the sort of moment …
Audio Reading of Post
Which Is the Usual Tell
“Larry jumped to his feet to follow her, and Eve noticed how quick and cat-like he was. Big cat. But when he disappeared from her line of sight, she cocked an ear for a moment. There was no indication, faint or loud, of anything like fee fi fo fum”
Ecochondriacs, pp. 59-60
Letters in Springtime
Letter to the Editor: No particular recent post but that seems to happen a lot recently. First off, I am increasingly finding you to be a wackadoodle nut job with significant blind spots ...
When a Fat Face is Called For
“‘Oh, deadly serious. No God, above us, only sky. It seems that boinking nubile young dopes would be just the ticket. If morality is just a social construct, one has to admire that kind of clear-headed behavior. And in a Christian school, too.’ Marcie just stared. Jill looked back at her with her very best fat face. And, as fat faces go, it was a pretty good one”
Ecochondriacs, p. 59
Missed Opportunity
“Of the three women, the one who was out in front and apparently the spokesman for them all could have been attractive if she had wanted to be, or she used to be attractive, or something of that nature. The other two were in a different category entirely. They looked like nothing on earth”
Ecochondriacs, p. 57