Tony Woodlief | Author

Month: March 2008

Saudade Saturday

The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday doesn’t prompt much consideration. It’s a nothing day, wedged between man’s greatest shame and our greatest hope. To the people who had followed Jesus like fools through the land and across the water, it must have felt like the day after a funeral, when clouds continue to …

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Madness?

By now we’ve all heard that America’s productivity takes a dip because of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The most widely touted estimate comes from Chicago research firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, which estimates this year’s tourney will cost up to $1.7 billion in lost productivity. I think we’re missing the silver lining. There’s a …

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Sound Familiar?

From Walker Percy’s 1957 article, “The Coming Crisis in Psychiatry”: “We all know perfectly well that the man who lives out his life as a consumer, a sexual partner, an ‘other-directed’ executive; who avoids boredom and anxiety by consuming tons of newsprint, miles of movie film, years of TV time; that such a man has …

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Nature

Since we have bidders on our house, we’ve gotten back into the habit of looking for houses in the country. The boys’ favorite thus far has been a log cabin-style house in lovely Mulvane, which is the sight of the finest Italian restaurant in all of Kansas, and an elderberry winery to boot. The house …

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Yesterday I received G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, which has languished on my Amazon wishlist for months and months. It came courtesy of F. Michael Forrester, who hails from London, and who is undoubtedly a gentleman and scholar. Thank you, Mr. Forrester.

Sunlight

I came to work late this morning, as part of my protest against daylight savings time, which I refuse to reify with capital letters. I have nothing against daylight that knows its place, nor against saving time. What I protest is that a country as technologically advanced as our own can’t figure out how to …

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