The Junk Drawer

One of my pals, disgruntled by the lack of phone calls originating from NW Ohio, sent me the following story. Here’s the bit that, admittedly, resembles me:

“Denial is strong in Internet addicts who claim they cannot be addicted to a machine,” Wieland notes. The “one more minute” response to being asked to go offline is common and is similar to an alcoholic who says they will quit drinking after “one more drink.”

Come on, who hasn’t asked for just one more minute?

I imagine that all of you saw this at the NYT site. It’s an interesting list in part because I had no idea that Roth was so highly thought of. I’ve read four, five of his novels. Portnoy’s Complaint, of course (because of you, Matt?) And what he calls the Zuckerman trilogy. I’ve also read the DeLillo novels, some McCarthy (not Blood Meridian), the Robinson novel (which I have blogged about), Updike’s Rabbit, and Ford’s Sportwriter (not the one listed here).
I’m ashamed that I have yet to read Beloved, though I have read Sula and the Bluest Eye. I’d like to comment on the list, but have not read enough of the novels to put forward an opinion. DeLillo’s Underworld is remarkable, but it does seem to repeat with less “grunge” the work of Pynchon. Similarly, Robinson’s Housekeeping deserves to be on this list. the rest…I simply do not know.

I’m hoping to do some fun reading this summer and would live to read Blood Meridian, Beloved, and/or a Roth novel with any of you. . .Right now, I am reading To the Lighthouse and a mind-blowing novel, House of Leaves, which is the most experimental novel I have come across in a long while.
While I am at it, check out this article on Borges in today’s NYT.–tc

(Read on …)

It’s dead over here.

Can I just offer a word of advice from someone who has recently done some insane modifications to her PC for the sake of a game?

Don’t do it.

Look before you leap. Don’t trust a bunch of half-educated, half-cocked, know-it-all do-it-yourselfers who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

It becomes an obsession, overruling anything else. You seek rumors of ways to squeak some more performance out of your aging machine.
You think regretfully how much easier it would’ve been to simply buy the Xbox 360 and save lots of aggravation. You think sadly to yourself how that’s still an option, how a new CPU would still be pretty cheap if you played your cards right.

Don’t do it. Be happy with what you have.

Sigh. I need to get back to my slow-playing game.

From the Washington Post, William SLoane Coffin, Jr. Chaplain was Lifelong ‘Disturber of the Peace’:

William Sloane Coffin Jr., 81, a Presbyterian clergyman and former Yale University chaplain whose early activism against the Vietnam War brought him international notoriety during a lifelong career of civil disobedience, died April 12 at his home in Strafford, Vt. He had congestive heart failure.

From the moment in 1958 when Mr. Coffin roared onto Yale’s campus atop his motorcycle, he signaled that his presence would mean a distinctly radical approach to the social, political and moral upheaval that defined the next decade.

Mr. Coffin called himself a “Christian revolutionary” and believed that his outspoken activism sprang from the principles of his faith.

His 18-year tenure at Yale encompassed the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam War, each of which he confronted in bold and daring fashion.

You can read the rest of the article here.

I like his view of Christian ministers as people who disturb the peaceful slumber of parishioners. I am less excited by his view of ministers as “prophets.” It’s far too easy for a man to believe himself a prophet when in reality he is merely another vain, self-righteous prig, like Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Coffin states that, “The Prophetic role is…to bring the minister himself, the congregation and entire social order under some judgment.”

I have problems with that word “judgement,” from a Christian perspective, because of course Christians are not called to judge, but to serve others.

NYT has a brand new look. I like it a lot.

Here’s a side of the the pro-choice movement you don’t normally see–the religious side. Read the full article here.

TC

In any given week, if you walked into one of Washington’s big corporate hotels early in the morning, you would find a community of the faithful, quite often conservative Christians, rallying the troops, offering solace and denouncing the opposition at a prayer breakfast.

So you might be forgiven for thinking that such a group was in attendance on Friday in a ballroom of the Washington Hilton. People wearing clerical collars and small crucifixes were wedged at tables laden with muffins, bowing their heads in prayer. Seminarians were welcomed. Scripture was cited. But the name of the sponsor cast everything in a new light: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

To its critics, Planned Parenthood is the godless super-merchant of abortion. To its supporters, it is the dependably secular defender of abortion rights. But at this breakfast, God was everywhere, easily invoked by believers of various stripes.

“We are here this morning because, through our collective efforts, we are agents in bringing our fragile world ever closer to the promise of redemption,” Rabbi Dennis S. Ross, director of Concerned Clergy for Choice, told the audience. “As clergy from an array of denominations, we say yes to the call before us. Please join me in prayer: We praise you, God, ruler of time and space, for challenging us to bring healing and comfort to your world.”

“Amen,” the audience responded.

The Interfaith Prayer Breakfast has been part of Planned Parenthood’s annual convention for four years. Most ministers and rabbis at the breakfast have known the group far longer.

A NYT article that might be of interest. I find it astounding that a religion based on someone’s death–the symbolic divestiture of all wealth–can be evolve into this prosperity rubbish. Go here for the full article.

Todd

March 30, 2006 By RALPH BLUMENTHAL HOUSTON, March 29 — Last Sunday morning, as usual, the ever-smiling preacher, best-selling author and religious broadcaster Joel Osteen took the stage at Lakewood Church, formerly known as the Compaq Center, the 16,000-seat home of the Houston Rockets basketball team.