Tuesday Miscellany
New Chesterton books that I hadn’t heard of until last weekend: The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton Vol. I: Non-Fiction and The Fantastic Fiction of Gilbert Chesterton. The first is merely a commercial re-packaging of three of his books (though it’s kind of an odd combination), the second a commentary by Martin Gardner, who’s a Chestertonian with a unique take on things.
Related link.
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Notre Dame called me last night, asking if I’d donate again this year. Heh, heh, heh. That was fun. I made sure to tell the ND sophomore that I’m sure he’s a fine man and all, but that I simply couldn’t donate in light of The Invitation.
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Just last week, I was talking with my partner about the unemployment rates. I said (rough quote), “Unemployment is over eight percent, but I gotta believe there are a lot of people out there who have taken pay cuts in one form or another. For instance, I know many companies that are either shutting down for a week, once a day every month, or doing other things to save labor costs. And what about people who lost their job but found lower-paying jobs or part-time paying jobs? What about the self-employed who no longer have enough work to keep themselves busy 40 hours a week?”
Well, this article at Bloomberg answered some of my question: The unemployment rate does not include people who can find only part-time work. If you include those folks, the unemployment almost doubles to 16%.
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Interesting: Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said yesterday in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years.
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This is why my study is in my basement: A helicopter rescue team were scrambled after screams were heard in a German forest – only to find a man laughing his head off at a new book.
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Newt crosses the Tiber? I’ve always liked what he says, but never been able to get my head around his, er, ummm . . . marriage problems. Maybe this third wife and his new faith will take.
His conversion reminds me of the guy who pointed out earlier in my comments box that, though more Catholics become Protestants than vice-versa, the Protestants normally pick up the soft Catholics, whereas the Catholics tend to pick up the Protestant cream (Newman, Brownson, Knox, Chesterton, Waugh, Maritain, Merton, Adler, Muggeridge, Neuhaus, Hahn, Gingrich, Scheske (heh heh)). Of course, given his personal history, maybe he’s not Protestant “cream,” but he is a heavy-hitter and definitely welcomed aboard.
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PSA: Blogging will be light the next two weeks. It’s Holy Week and I’m getting ready to go to California. It’s all brain cells on other decks for the next six days, then I’m leaving. I’ll have some pre-programmed posts for the days I’m in California, but nothing much.
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April 7th, 2009 at 7:50 am
Who’s Adler? Mortimer? I think he was atheist most of his life but then became an Episcopalian.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:32 am
I belive Mortimer Adler converted to Catholicism before he died.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Yup, Mortimer.
Daniel: he “converted to Catholicism before he died.” Is there any other way (chuckle)? But yes, from what I know, his was a conversion at the very end of life.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Adler has a famous book called (I think) “10 Philosophical Mistakes”. It’s a very dense book, but it goes through basic philosophical theory and then points to the crucial errors in western philosophical thought over the last 150 years or so.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:31 am
P.S. What brings you to the Golden State?
April 7th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Re: Ten Philosophical Mistakes.
One of the first philosophy books I ever read. You’re right, very dense, but helpful. I keep meaning to go back and read it again, at least the chapters dealing with our ability to abstract, form universals, and how it points to the existence of the soul.
Re: Golden State
I’m speaking to a Catholic business group in Fresno.
http://www.cpbcfresno.org/
Neither my wife nor I have ever been to California, so I’m bringing her along. We’re going out two days early to see San Francisco.
April 7th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
If you can squeeze the time, a day-trip to Napa Valley is worth it. The tour of Sterling Winery/Vineyards is very nice (with a sky-tram) and V. Sattui has a nice picnic area for lunch.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I don’t think we’re going to make it to Napa Valley. I really wanted to, but I think that’ll have to await another trip. We have only two days in San Francisco.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Eric, while you’re away maybe people can read this article about “Beer and Civic Life” at Front Porch Republic:
http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=1691
Here’s a quote:
“Drinking beer emanates, albeit clumsily and with all the familiar risks, from essentially social impulses. Most people drink beer to lower social inhibitions, to make it easier to have conversations with other people, to assuage loneliness, to grease the wheels for engaging in what my students euphemistically call “relationships” – in other words, to give a form and excuse for social life. You don’t drink beer to improve your private, individual health.
“By contrast, you don’t drink bottled water if you want to have an excuse to hang out with your friends. Drinking bottled water emanates from essentially private or individual concerns. It’s pretty straightforward, actually: you drink bottled water precisely because you do not want to drink common water; you literally do not want to sip from the public trough. The ascendance of bottled water in America is yet another signal of the ascendance of a culture that is individually oriented, almost pathologically obsessive about bodily health, and suspicious of the public sphere.”
It looks like some Catholic writers hang out at that forum, too. Some of what’s written there reminds me of you.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Happy Easter, Eric, and safe travels!
I always feel a little smarter after reading your blog, and then ruin it all by going back to mine! ha ha