Slippery words

Friday, February 1st, 2013 Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

You might like my latest post at Good Letters. An excerpt: "We are used to words not meaning anything, you see, and so who cares if foot-long is not supposed to mean eleven inches, that cheese is not supposed to be a vegetable ...

Confederacy of Dunces

Saturday, August 11th, 2012 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

"They would try to make me into a moron who liked television and new cars and frozen food. Don't you understand? Psychiatry is worse than communism. I refuse to be brainwashed. I won't be a robot!" "But, Ignatius, they help out ...

About what comes next

Thursday, January 26th, 2012 Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »

Sometimes I care about a political battle or news event or Item of Great National Debate enough to write about it, but then I stop, because I think someone has already said this better, or said its opposite more persuasively, ...

Dreaming God

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Some of you might like my most recent essay at the Image Good Letters blog, "Dreaming God." Here's an excerpt: ". . . my experience is that nothing enrages the rational, scientific atheist more than when you get rational and scientific with ...

Liberty

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

My July 4th thoughts in brief and extended form. I hope you all had a lovely 4th, and have all your digits intact. The boys and I launched all manner of barely legal rocketry into the Kansas night. It was ...

All I want for Christmas

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

U.S. Postal Service employees are reporting that more children are asking Santa for basic needs rather than toys this year: "Melanney, 9, asked Santa for a coat and boots. "I have been a very good girl this year," she wrote."

Second printing

Thursday, December 9th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Alicia Bruxvoort offers some kind words about my book at her blog, taking encouragement from my own family's mealtime travails as she struggles to maintain some semblance of order at her own dinner table. Michelle DeRusha also says nice things ...

More singing out loud

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 Posted in The Artful Life, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

In response to my post about how much I love unexpected public music, my friend Betsy sent me this clip of a food court flash mob. There's something about singing that makes people look more lovely, don't you think? Almost like ...

Black Friday

Friday, November 26th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

From my latest WORLD post, regarding Black Friday: "At least back then the phrase referred to overvaluation of assets that still possessed some underlying capacity to produce wealth; now it refers to buying clothes that will be out of fashion as ...

Tyranny of good intentions

Thursday, October 28th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity ...

It’s all a matter of perspective

Thursday, October 21st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

So that's the problem. I'm a genius.

Perhaps trade the long e for a short i

Thursday, October 21st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

All sorts of interesting questions about causality arise from these jerky little boys at Yale. Is it Delta Kappa Epsilon that turns boys into doofuses, or is that twits are drawn to DKE? From what I recall of these nimrods ...

The trouble with poetry

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Adam Roberts begins a five-part manifesto on why you should be reading poetry: "I remember, as a young person, being posed the question, 'what kind of music do you like?,' and coolly, sensibly replying, 'everything but classical!' Now, as a graduate ...

Pssst, wanna see some data?

Monday, October 18th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Funny that on the same day I learn about the school transparency database, I hear a report on NPR about a new medical cost database called the Healthcare Blue Book, where you can compare prices for all manner of medical ...

Rainbow Connection

Monday, October 18th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Sunday night is movie night. Tonight, oldest boy chose one of my favorites. I defy you to listen to Kermit sing "The Rainbow Connection" and not get teary.

Another reason not to get medical advice online

Friday, October 15th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Several people in the office have come down with the pinkeye. I always thought it came from poopy hands, which makes me think less of everyone afflicted. When I mentioned this to Wife, she said I was wrong, that pinkeye ...

Courageous admission

Saturday, October 9th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A key figure in the 1980's recovered memory movement, during which hundreds of fathers, teachers, and priests were accused of molestation, explains to Salon how she came to realize that she and many other accusers had in fact manufactured their ...

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Steve West offers many kind words in his review of my book.

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

"Hey Worm, did you see old Crumbliss in the paper this mornin? What's he done now? They found him about six oclock this mornin under a tree in a big alfalfa field. He found the only tree in the whole field and ...

Friday, October 1st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Yeah, I'm trying to be better with the pictures.

Free words

Saturday, September 25th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Candice and Steve Watters announce the winners of their Somewhere More Holy giveaway. Congratulations, Carolyn and Rhonda! Between their contest and Ann Voskamp's kind words to her loyal readers, the book shot way up in the Amazon rankings. I know that ...

The love criterion

Saturday, September 25th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

“I came to this church,” he told me, his eyes watering, “because they had a pancake breakfast. And they accepted me. So I stayed.” This from my latest World piece, which some of you might appreciate.

Friday, September 24th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Ann Voskamp is one of my favorite writers, and one of my favorite people, for that matter. We find ourselves walking down similar paths; my first book came out this spring, hers comes out next spring. I'm very excited to ...

Free books!

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Not that I think you shouldn't rush out and buy ten copies, but Candice and Steve Watters have been kind enough to do a giveaway of Somewhere More Holy at their site, Family Making. You should check them out regardless, ...

Monday, September 13th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

"He said that he did indeed have a long journey. He said he did not know what the end of his journey would look like or whether he would know it when he got there and he asked her in ...

Book reading and signing

Friday, September 10th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

If you plan to be in the Wichita area next Friday, be sure to come to Watermark Books & Cafe for my reading and signing at 7pm. What am I reading and signing, you ask? Let your eyes roam to ...

All’s fair

Friday, September 10th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Speaking of Woodlief vacations, you might enjoy my latest piece in The Wall Street Journal, "Our Love Affair With the Fairs."

Laboring days

Monday, September 6th, 2010 Posted in Faith and Life, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

I've cut grass and cleaned offices and guarded buildings; I've been a grill cook and a college teacher and a karate instructor. I've bussed tables and stocked labs and punched numbers; I've managed more emotional twenty-somethings than I can count, ...

The latest news

Friday, July 9th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

The fact is that I'm a terribly neglectful blogger these days. If it's any consolation, I have been up to some writing here and there. For example, you might enjoy my latest essay in The Wall Street Journal, about my ...

Kind words

Friday, June 18th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The folks at Image Journal have some very nice things to say about my new book, which I've added to other reviews.