1. We’re approaching the part of the year where I start shifting from thinking how I can make this year better to thinking how I can make next year better. 2. Last week’s movie night, courtesy of one of my co-workers, was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. To say “they don’t make them like this … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Classic Films and Some State of the Union
History
Saturday Flotsam: Prayers for the Pope and Tycoons
1. I think I crushed one of my students' spirit a little bit when I told the class that Braveheart was mostly made up. 2. Prayers for the Holy Father, who sounds like he's on his way out. Whether immediately or in another year, all accounts are that he won't be here much longer. Now, … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Prayers for the Pope and Tycoons
Sunday Flotsam: Reconstruction Narratives and More
1. My illness has mostly recovered, leaving me only extremely tired, hence I've been spending most of the weekend resting. 2. My US history class has reached the period of Reconstruction. In trying to research it, I spotted what I think is a narrative in progress. See, I was trying to look up specifics on … Continue reading Sunday Flotsam: Reconstruction Narratives and More
Saturday Flotsam: More Civil War, More Snow White, and ‘Wall Street’
1. I've fallen sick this week and ended up staying home yesterday. 2. Before that, however, I was telling my US history students about the Rebel Yell. They weren't quite getting it, so I tried to demonstrate (poorly, since I'm not Southern). I then had to admonish them, "Guys, don't do the Rebel Yell in … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: More Civil War, More Snow White, and ‘Wall Street’
Friday Flotsam: Mostly Civil War, Some Anime and Music
1. In my judgment, when it comes to great men of American history, there is George Washington, there is Robert E. Lee, and there is everyone else. 2. My history class has finally gotten up to the Civil War (the second one), so I've been reading up on it to patch up my knowledge of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Mostly Civil War, Some Anime and Music
Saturday Flotsam: Teaching History, Kansas Context, and a Paradox
1. My history book for sixth grade starts off its survey of the men of the Middle Ages with an account of the Norse gods, paralleling previous entries in the same series which started with the Greek gods to set the stage for famous Greeks and so on. The trouble is that, from what I've … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Teaching History, Kansas Context, and a Paradox
Sunday Flotsam: More Teaching and Some Fire Thoughts
1. From today's sermon: St. Augustine said that, "Peace is the tranquility of Order." That's a line to build a frame of life on! And, as you can tell by the fact that this is going up two days late (again), I lack order in my life. Something I need to work on. 2. Back … Continue reading Sunday Flotsam: More Teaching and Some Fire Thoughts
Friday Flotsam: Christmas
1. When God comes among men, He comes not as a figure of awe and terror, but as an infant sleeping in His mother's arms. 2. I'm home in Michigan for Christmas; going back to Arizona for New Years'. It's nice to see rain again, though I wish it were snow (meanwhile, my sister in … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Christmas
Noble Cobra Magazine Lives: ‘The Discarded Image’
My long-neglected Substack has at last been coaxed back into life with the first of a commentary series on C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image: Lewis starts off with a lengthy illustration of a key and oft-neglected fact of the Medieval mind: Medieval man shared many ignorances with the savage, and some of his beliefs may … Continue reading Noble Cobra Magazine Lives: ‘The Discarded Image’
Friday Flotsam: In Which I Critique Both Walt Whitman and Muhammed, but Mostly the Former
1. If nothing else, it's a relief to actually have an election that ended 'clean'. No talk of cheating or collusion, no 'too close to call', just a clear outcome arrived at in the space of a single night. Seems to me that used to be the norm, once upon a time. 2. I really … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: In Which I Critique Both Walt Whitman and Muhammed, but Mostly the Former
Serpent's Den 