dual personalities

Sorry I am late with Paul Zahls’ recommendations for TCM viewing in July. I don’t check the Mockingbird site as regularly as I used to, because a) I am no longer an Episcopalian and b) I am kinda done with their glib, never quite serious attitude which is so prevalent in hipster Christians. Why can’t they admit they are just a bunch of nerd believers (like me)? Anyway, PZ is great and I love him.

“Of all preaching in the world, (that speaks not stark lies,) I hate that preaching which tendeth to make the hearers laugh, or to move their mind with tickling levity, and affect them as stage-players use to do, instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God.”

–Richard Baxter, “The Reformed Pastor,” 1615-91

Erica Wilson: A Life in Stitches, a new exhibition at the Winterthur Museum, looks interesting. It delves into the life and work of the “Julia Child of needlework.” I remember Erica Wilson and her needlework kits back in the 1970s and 80s. Our mother appreciated her historically referenced work. She also had a successful 1970s television program that taught needlework and was one component of many business ventures that included embroidery kits, books, newspaper and magazine columns, public appearances, and a store bearing her name on New York’s Madison Avenue.

A belated happy birthday to Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817-May 6, 1862). I would toast him, but you know, he said, “”I would fain keep sober always. … I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor. … Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?” So I’ll take a walk instead.

And here’s Travis Tritt’s new song/video, “Set in Stone.”

*Henry David Thoreau, “Walden”