February 2012
1 post
Boarding School Stories
I love books and movies about boarding school, especially British boarding school. I re-visited George Orwell’s essay “Such, Such Were the Joys” this weekend. The title is ironic and the essay is far from nostalgic— abuse, deprivation, and humiliation characterized Orwell’s boarding school experience. Amid the trauma, though, he recalls a few moments of grace. I...
September 2011
1 post
Mr. Goodstuff
I was fortunate enough to happen by the “Sexy Soul Oldies” tent on the east side this weekend. The tent’s proprietor is none other than Mr. Goodstuff (pictured below). Apparently, Mr. Goodstuff spins his mix CDs in street fairs and flea markets all around New York, and on Saturday he was in fine form: blaring groove after groove and busting moves for the (completely into it)...
August 2011
6 posts
We made a trip up to the Newport Folk Festival...
July 2011
8 posts
Friday Ephemera
The US in 1920s-30s… in color
Lorrie Moore’s opening paragraphs in her piece on ”Friday Night Lights”
For my cube: this mousepad?
All of Russian Lit Scholar Elif Batuman’s Amazon reviews… including a particularly effusive write-up of a book called “A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag”
Word-hoard from “The Shipping News”:
...
“God never places us in any position in which we cannot grow. We may imagine that...”
– Elizabeth Prentiss, “Thoughts Concerning the King”
Watch
John Piper on John 8 (“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”). If it comes with a yoke, if it ties you down, if you know it cannot last, and then when it ends, it fills you with regret— then it’s not real pleasure.
I take it for a certainty that everyone in this room wants to be free in the deepest, fullest sense. If the opposite is bondage and...
“When people express what is most important to them, it often comes out in...”
– Terrence Malick, director of the staggering and beautiful Tree of Life— the most provocative movie I’ve seen this year and the subject of this morning’s write-up at The Millions.
The Search
The Paris Review, 1969
INTERVIEWER
Faulkner has said of writers, “All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection.” Would you put yourself in this category?
E.B. WHITE
Yes. My friend, John McNulty, had a title for a popular song he always intended to write and never did: “Keep your dreams within reason.” We both thought this was a very funny idea for a song. I still think it is funny. My...
May 2011
10 posts
We are All of Us Infinitesimally Small and...
I was listening to this sermon by John Stott this morning, and he closed with these five steps to humility from Michael Ramsey.
1. Thank God, often and always, carefully and wonderingly, for your continuing privileges. Thankfulness is the soil in which pride does not easily grow. 2. Take care about confession of your sins. Be sure to criticize yourself in God’s presence: that is your...
I went down to North Carolina last weekend to help with the FCA Middle School Retreat, and I’ve included a few pictures of the fun below. It was awesome.
“I recently read the most incredible thing…Elisabeth Elliot wrote this poem...”
– Excerpt from a recent blog post by my sister, Quinn
I Love Taking Pictures of Delicious Food With My...
Last weekend, I went to Washington, DC for about 18 hours to visit my friends Christine, Andrew, and Anna.
We browsed at Capitol Hill Books,
tried on novelty rings in Eastern Market,
cheesed it up in front of Easter-themed street art,
and ate homemade pop tarts at Ted’s Bulletin.
Last week, I went with friends from work to the Tribeca Film Festival to watch a documentary about...
This is my generation:
So now I am older than...
He Doesn't Let Me Ruin My Soul
J.I. Packer, in Knowing God, writes that we serve a God who “will not let us ruin our souls,” a God who folds up our wanderings and mistakes into His perfect plan for us… and brings good out of them.
The Jesus who restored Peter after his denial and corrected his course more than once after that is our Savior today and He has not changed. God makes not only the wrath of man...