After a long and alarming disappearance, Friend Bear is back, with fun deconstructionist socialism for all. Be sure to see his visit to the objectivism theme park and the wonders of Professor Dog-Ear.
Christ Church Lutheran
Here’s another church in the immediate vicinity which I might check out: Christ Lutheran, an Evangelical Lutheran church just a few steps from the Inner Harbor.
I’ve never been to a Lutheran service, though. Any tips? Warnings? Is this something an ex-Catholic Baptist shouldn’t even be thinking of doing? ;)
“ACID TONGUE?”
Sometimes, people arrive at my page by an inane search pattern and think I’m some sort of Pinoy showbiz tsismis columnist. That’s when I get comments like this. I don’t know if he thinks I’m Kris Aquino or if he’s just plain incoherent. Quite entertaining, in any case.
Star Trek Politics
Star Trek Politics. Tim Hagan pulls some sci-fi strings through his wife, Captain Janeway, and gets Kirk to help campaign for him.
Verdana and Georgia
A history of Georgia and Verdana, and their designer, Matthew Carter. We have him to thank for today’s eminently readable on-screen fonts of choice for websites everywhere. (Link via NSOP.)
On Opie and Anthony
Society’s standards of decency are there for a reason, and when radio shock jocks find it amusing to broadcast live public sex from a Catholic Church just for ratings, then something is going wrong.
“It’s the work of people so jaded they think that intellectual bravery is defined not by the traditions you honor, but the ones you debase.” Lileks says it quite well.
Maryland Crab
Wallking home from dinner at Harborplace Food Plaza, I saw this crab clinging to the harbor pier. Ain’t it cute?
Photo taken with an Aiptek Mini Pencam 1.3MP.
Ice Cream Truck
A big white ice cream truck has parked across the street, and is playing a dinky electronic ditty which sounds like a cross between “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain” and “God Bless America.” The tune is surprisingly infectious.
Living in Little Italy
I must admit, living in Little Italy, just a stone’s throw from Inner Harbor, has done much to cure my initially negative impressions of Baltimore, formed from those first days walking the mean streets of the inner city. This weekend is the St. Gabriel Italian Festival outside St. Leo’s Parish, with food and drink and music and little stalls sprawling through the tiny streets of the neighborhood. Walking amongst the stalls, chewing on a Greek gyro, looking at little trinkets interspersed with small handcrafted Catholic images, I almost felt like I was back home at a village fiesta (except that the music was Italian). I was especially amused by the image of a saint (St. Leo, I guess), with rays of masking tape radiating from his halo, to which visitors were encouraged to stick dollar bills.
Early this morning, I jumped onto a Water Taxi and crossed the Harbor to Federal Hill to check out Sailors Union Bethel Church. The church (no longer on board a ship), is very small, and is now Anabaptist — rather more fundy than I’m used to: dispensational premillenialism, Trail of Blood, KJV, the works. While I’m willing to overlook most fundy foibles in a church whose heart is right with Christ, this was a bit too hardcore for comfort.
It’s going to be a bit tough finding a good Baptist church in this neighborhood, I think; everything in the immediate vicinity is Catholic.
Well, strains of O Sole Mio are echoing from around the corner for the third time today. I’m going to skate for a bit.
Tony Woodlief on Faith
“Of course this is unreasoned, self-soothing prattle to those who wait for God to justify himself by reconciling with what they believe their precious sciences reveal. The great tragedy inherent to faith and man’s condition is that it can be neither reasoned out nor conjured. Those of us who truly love God, and those of you who do not, are separated by a divide that cannot be traversed by the will of man. I cannot summon words to express my thankfulness for being on this side of that gap — and, I see now, for having lived on the other side.”