Thursday, January 18, 2007

Slices of the Daily (B)reads, along with a couple of heels

First things first:

This Monday the Kansas Guild of Bloggers' Carnival circles back to good old Blog Meridian. All KGBers and those for whom Kansas is at least a passing thought are encouraged to submit a post of their best work from the previous week.

Some unfinished business now. You may remember the little song-title contest in which I asked the willing among you to submit, um, song titles that would befit the drivers of the futuristic rig you see posted there. Thank you to emawkc and Sheila Ryan for participating. In view of the fact that Sheila not only posted a title but actually wrote lyrics intended to be sung to the tune of Red Sovine's classic truck-driving song, "Six Days on the Road," she wins the Blog Meridian virtual snow-dome. She has also asked me to post a link to her Clusterflocker biography, wherein she hopes you'll note her profession of archivist/historian/curator-for-hire and engage her considerable talents.

On to the Slices now:


I have mentioned Camille's excellent blog, 327 Market, before; I've neglected to mention, though, that she also writes comic books. Scroll allllll the way down to the bottom of her blog to find links to her work.

R. Sherman recounts the past weekend's adventures with the Official Offspring. I think it's safe to say that those of us with children will recognize ourselves or our offspring in this post.

From the land of the Scopes Monkey Trial, Winston of Nobody Asked . . . sparks a lively but civil debate on the standing of evolutionary theory in this country.

Over at his place, Raminagrobis has a nice review of Nikos Kazantzakis' sequel to the Odyssey.

Is it possible to love more than one person? At the same time? Debra "would really like to know."

Josh of Thoughts from Kansas has an elegant and eloquent post that addresses issues raised by Sam Harris in his blogospheric exchange of "letters" with Andrew Sullivan on whether religion and rational thought are fundamentally incompatible.

Read this clause:
If every schoolboy were to know what 'every schoolboy knows',---
If you can think of a rhyming line to finish it, Conrad would like to hear from you. UPDATE: Also of late, Conrad has been posting his translations of entries in Alphonse Toussenel's 1847 book on animals, L'Esprit des Bêtes. Imagine a less-made-up but more Romantic Mandeville's Travels. The entries Conrad has so far posted are "The Mole-Rat" (quite graphic in its descriptions of the mole's bloodlust, so you are warned), "The Ermine," and "The Bat."

And finally, the last heel: For some months now it's been the case that almost all the people finding their way to this dinky little post on Modernism are from . . . Iran. This is one of those facts that, because I don't have a larger context within which to place it, has to remain, for now, "odd." Moreover, it's to their detriment, in my opinion, that my Iranian visitors visit only that post, so (as far as I can tell) they remain ignorant of this blog's greater virtues, such as, oh, its holding song-title contests. I am pleased to know, though, that Iranians with access to the Internet have access to "us." Education, via access to and the exchange of knowledge, is a slow means of waging war against ideologies, to be sure; but far better that means than by the quicker but costlier means of blowing up the bodies of the very people whose hearts and minds we say we seek to win.

Anyway.

I hope you find some worthwhile reading in the links above.

Don't forget to submit a post for the KGB Carvival.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the plug.

BTW, a few weeks ago I got a hit from Teheran. Someone found his/her way to the post in Musings about the King James Bible.

Alas, the Google search string referred to "French maids."

Cheers.