“Real people are never cool; only their projected identities are. Smooth guys far too often have child support to pay. Fine dressers are often broke, party animals look a whole lot better at midnight than at four, and a lot of world-traveling backpackers are really just hiding from their parents” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the …
And Is Catnip for Consumers
“Cool is the most powerful spiritual environment possible for advertisers” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 18).
Odd Cousins
“American cool and American racism were born together and have grown up together. Cool as we know it was born in the shadowy intersection of black and white America” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 16).
Gritty Realism
“To the extent that women have begun to appear in this shooter world, they do so as caricatures—with cartoonishly erotic bodies. The characteristic pose of Laura Croft from Eidos’s Tomb Raider is a straight-on view of her scowling face, skinny waist, pneumatic breasts, and two huge guns that she’s aiming directly at you. Like other …
A Problem in the Ritual Catechesis
“The beauty of fluid movement through the screens and the technical challenges of doors, elevators, and teleporters can captivate players for hours at a time. But the story arc is invariable: you, the righteous one, are licensed to kill until you die yourself. And you can revive yourself to kill again” (Lawrence and Jewett, The …
Belay My Last
A few weeks ago, I had some fun posting pictures of all the global warming that was making it hard to get up the hill to my house. One response was that one local cooling variation does not a global global warming hysteria undo, and point taken. But it turns out to have been the …
Imagination in the UK
I believe I have mentioned before that someone — Napoleon I think — said that imagination rules the world. Discounting what we need to discount here — Napoleon not being a font of spiritual wisdom, and adjusting for different meanings of the word imagination, this remains quite true, profoundly true. The imagination that I refer …
Free Chocolate Milk for Everybody!
I have just been listening to Hillary’s and Obama’s speeches (I know, I know), and decided that I just needed to modify an observation of H.L. Mencken’s, to wit, that it appears to many that America is a giant milch cow with 300 million teats. This is a tad more reserved than a comment from …
The Code-Mongers Dilemma
Okay, here is a ripe one. Those who have been following the lefti-capades here in Moscow should remember that this last November, a strident hard-left Moscow City Council was voted out and replaced by some grown-ups. In a fit of pique, before the old council left, they extended benefits to domestic partners of city workers. …
As Camp as a Row of Tents
During this visit, I was speaking with a pastor here who said, quite accurately, that quite apart from theology (on which we did not differ) women’s ordination in the CoE has been a disaster. We were not differing on the theology of the thing (God says not to do it), but rather agreeing that disobedience …