Notes from a Common-place Book

Common-place Book: n. a book in which common-places, or notable or striking passages are noted; a book in which things especially to be remembered or referred to are recorded.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Silly Season: Fearless Political Prognostications for 2012

With a little over a year and a half before the next Presidential election, I thought I would have a little fun with the current crop of as...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Unlikely Headlines

' National Tea Party Leaders Endorse Obama Re-election Bid Up: The New Down Pope Benedict Confesses to being Closet Methodist Mike Hu...

Saturday, March 26, 2011

New Book by Fr. Alexis Trader

I am pleased to pass along news of a new book by Fr. Alexis Trader. The premise certainly sounds interesting. Fr. Alexis explains about the...

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The False Dream

I have never been one to speak of the "American Dream." I was always a bit skeptical of the concept, and thought it silly to colle...

Sunday, March 06, 2011

The Either/Or-edness of Things

I recently engaged in some spirited correspondence with an old friend from back in my Church of Christ days. In that past, we shared a mutua...

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Mike Huckabee is a Buffoon

. MIKE HUCKABEE IS A BUFFOON , Part One : HUCKABEE: [O]ne thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for e...

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Bacevich on Being Irrelevant

If the Muslim masses demanding political freedom and economic opportunity prevail, they will do so not thanks to but despite the United Stat...

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

There'll Be No Butter in Hell!

A favorite of mine--from Cold Comfort Farm . Flora Poste accompanies her cousin Amos Starkadder to hear him preach at the Church of the Qui...

Met. Hilarion Speaks at Highland Park Presbyterian, Dallas TX: No One Has Ever Seen God

Met. Hilarion Speaks at Highland Park Presbyterian, Dallas TX: No One Has Ever Seen God

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Impasse

The following is an excerpt from The Impasse by Fr. Touma Bitar, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Silouan the Athonite in Douma, Lebanon. I r...

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Americanism as Religion, Plainly Stated

I really should stop reading the local newspaper as it is not good for my blood pressure. I live near the most right-wing city in the natio...

Monday, February 07, 2011

John 6:60+

The Teetotaler engages in a bit of exegesis on John 6:60-63, 66. He quotes from the MSGV (More Spiritual than God Version.) A sampling, b...

Friday, February 04, 2011

Conspiratorialists of the World, Unite!

One disturbing thing I noticed when I first began to travel in Turkey was their penchant for believing the most bizarre conspiracy theories ...

The Joke is on Me

The other day my son and I were talking about books. He keeps about a dozen books going at the same time. One is T. E. Lawrence's orig...

Monday, January 31, 2011

Taybeh's Plea vs. the Likes of Mike Huckabee

We've trimmed our magazine subscriptions in recent years. The wife still gets Good Housekeeping and Southern Living (which I also read...

Tulips Istanbulli

My friend Hakan posted this close-up of tulips on his fb page. The Theodosian walls of old Constantinople make for a nice backdrop.

Friday, January 28, 2011

St. Ephrem the Syrian

St. Ephrem the Syrian is commemorated today. In June 0f 2006, I visited the ancient Meryamana Kilisesi--the Church of the Virgin Mary, one ...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Day and Night in the Middle East

JORDAN , here : For nearly 50 years, Wadi el Kharrar served as a highly militarized border zone — littered with land mines — between the Isr...

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

St. Davit the Builder

Blessed Davit IV the King of Georgia Commemorated on January 26 At the end of the 11th century the Georgian Church underwent a trial of phys...

Monday, January 24, 2011

"A Renaissance in Georgia"

I have decided that during 2011--if nothing else--this blog will be somewhat Georgia-centric. In that light, here is another good article o...

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About Me

Terry (John): Now past middle age, married, two sons, interested in lots of things.

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