Film, Television, Sex, Music, Literature, Pop
It’s a Small World After All, with a few nasty bugs.. YouTube can more or less read my mind, but that’s really nothing more, technically, than an observation of the Patrick Henry wisdom I impart nightly: “I know no way of judging the future, but by the past.” That means Tucker Carlson updates, Jonathan Winters,..
We tend to get better at the easy, largely technical stuff. We do our math homework first, and then settle in for a long frustrating night of trying our hand at a sonnet. There’s a reason the movies you watch these days seem 90% CGI, 8% sex and 2% soul: Beautiful people are cheap; photo-realistic..
High School Juniors There’s a sad day in a parent’s life when he comes to understand that his teenage child has the world figured out, and that mom and dad–once heroes–are hopelessly compromised. The child, now an adolescent, is seeking a much better world for himself, but he’s got at least seven or eight years..
Agents of Wrath As I’ve tried to explore recently, most of us have not gouged out our eyes and cut off our hands. I know Christians who have sold houses and fields and lands, but it’s usually to buy another set of houses and fields, with a little something extra for that mission trip to..
Picture a baseball stadium full of Hasidim — somber faced, bearded men wearing black hats and frock coats. Their hair, by our standards, appears both a little ragged and severely uniform at the same time. Shaved close above the ears and in the back and then allowing for long, curled sideburns in front, (what they..
PC isn’t just annoying. It’s Dangerous. With the possible exception of gun owners and white guys over 40, we are not allowed to “generalize” or “profile” or “stereotype” in our culture, and I think all reasonable people understand why: if, say, God forbid, your wife were sexually assaulted by a Catholic, you would not be..
All Souls Day “Look out the window,” my wife said. It was a Sunday afternoon. I had my dates mixed up, and there was an early evening Halloween party in the works. All of the Riley grandchildren and cousins and little people friends were gathering for a hayride. I’m telling you it was a grand..
The United States Of America No Longer Exists? It’s a good thing Matt Walsh wasn’t there at the battle of Trenton. He certainly wasn’t there during the battle of Hillary. When George Washington’s army had dwindled to a mere 2,000 soldiers, down from 25,000 during the summer of 1776, it looked as though the American..
Early on in my married life, I was introduced to a Greek Orthodox tradition that involved showing up at the church with cups of a dish made (I think) from rice, cinnamon, and raisins and serving it to the congregants as they left the church. The ritual had something to do with remembering the dead..
Hairspray and Hamburgers When our house empties of our children and grandchildren, Mary and I have been settling into wine and just about whatever is on HGTV — Fixer Upper, Flip or Flop Atlanta, House Hunters International, Love it Or List It, and Beachfront Bargain Hunt. (Neither of us like Property Brothers; it earns an..
