There has been some good discussion and debate. I thought I’d take a moment to lighten things up since it’s Friday. Over on my arts blog, I wrote about some promising developments in the film version of The Hobbit. Not the least of which is the opportunity to see Ian McKellen as Gandalf again. Here is a fantastic clip from the show Extras where he explains his acting method, using his portrayal as Gandalf as an example.

My good friend Eddy has a funny list of “Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained For Ministry.” It made me laugh. Here are a few items:

7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.
6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football and basketball games demonstrates this.
5. Some men are handsome, and this will distract women worshipers.

Is it just me, or does contemporary advertising not use jingles as much anymore? Or at least jingles that bore their way into my memory so that years later they continue to vex me because I can still sing them word for word. I woke up yesterday with this jingle from commercials in the 1980’s stuck in my head and couldn’t get it out. Share my misery, please.

Here’s the announcement of the “something new” I mentioned in my last post. (Sorry Eddy, my post didn’t mean only one thing).

I have a new blog. I’m still going to write on this blog. Lately I’ve written a lot of reviews and have enjoyed the process, but I don’t want The Space Between My Ears to be just a blog about reviews. So I started another blog for my reviews and commentary on the arts: The Space Between the Arts. I’ve put up all the reviews I’ve written this year as well as a couple of new pieces. It will be less personal and more focused than this blog. Might I suggest starting with my reviews of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 or the magical film Once?

The new blog does have an RSS feed and you can also subscribe to it there or by using this link.

Something new is coming from yours truly. Be forewarned…

Last night Carey told me about a procedure at the hospital involving lasers, which got me thinking. I’ve grown up in a world where lasers have always existed and are used with increasing frequency in numerous fields. Lasers, however, still connote the future (read that with a loud, booming voice and lots of reverb) and technology found only in science-fiction. Why is that?

In a cheap ploy to get more comments on my blog, I’ve decided to make a controversial post in the controversial realm of politics.

The candidate that you like for President sucks.

He/She would be bad for the country, sending us into the dark ages.

Go ahead, defend your views against that onslaught of impervious reason.

Dave tagged me with a meme that I think is rather original. “The rules are to pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more, find page 123, find the first five sentences, post the next three sentences, and then tag five people.”

I reached down and found Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, which I recently finished.

A single bit of sediment coiling in the jar on some slow hydraulic axis. He tipped the jar and drank and he drank slowly but still he drank nearly the whole jar. He sat there with his stomach bloated.

I won’t tag others, but if you feel inspired to join, feel free to play along. Just be sure to trackback to this post so we know that you’ve participated.

I take a lot of enjoyment from looking at home exteriors decorated for Christmas. I love the tasteful string of lights as well as the garish lawn covered with inflatable Santas and reindeer. But one decoration has grown in popularity in recent years that has left me scratching my head. Our popular celebration of Christmas has adopted the North Pole and all things Arctic even if they have nothing to do with first century Palestine. Fair enough. I present to you these exhibits from my neighborhood:

Exhibit A. Notice that this exterior is covered with all sorts of Arctic symbolism. Two Santa Clauses, reindeer (inflatable and illuminated), inflatable carousel, etc. Notice, however, the decoration in the upper right hand corner of the picture.

A penguin wearing a Santa hat.

Exhibit B.

More penguins. Wearing more Santa hats.

What gives? Penguins are Antarctic animals, not Arctic. Perhaps one could say that these decorations aren’t confusing the Earth’s poles, but I doubt it. To support my claim, I present to you Exhibit C.

A penguin on an igloo. In cased you missed it, I’ll repeat myself. A penguin. On an igloo.

There are no igloos near the South Pole because no indigenous people live there. Nor are there any penguins near where the Eskimos have ever lived. Ridiculous. I hope Santa brings a lot of people atlases for Christmas.

I recently ran across Virtual Parks, a cool website where users have uploaded interactive 360 degree panoramas from different national and state parks, mostly in California. Here are some of my favorites:

Mt. Whitney summit.
Yosemite Falls.
Guitar Lake (on the western side of Mt. Whitney).