Regent’s Park in the snow
A wondrous wander in a frozen Regent’s Park on Wednesday inspired these. Another magical winter’s walk… Park wildlife… But beware the Regent’s Park sharks…
A Christmas present: reviews and reflections
Bet this is first as Christmas presents go: a link to my reviews. Well, here is a new Q page – links to all reviews and reflections in one place. Deep joy. Happy Christmas.
The perils of English pronunciation: O-U-G-H
Thanks to the ever wonderful Futility Closet, here is a sure and trusty guide for those learning English as a second language, by a sadly forgotten American genius, Charles Battell Loomis: O-U-G-H I’m taught p-l-o-u-g-h Shall be pronouncé “plow.” “Zat’s easy w’en you know,” I say, “Mon Anglais, I’ll get through!” My teacher say zat […]
An English Village in winter
Had a lovely day out of London with a family lunch at the in-laws’ village. Went for a fantastic walk after lunch in an idyllic wintry landscape – perfectly clear skies and cathartically cold air (-3°C), crisp ground and light powdery snow. Perfection.
Flickering Pixels and Message Shaping Media
A couple of weeks ago, I was involved in the EA’s Digimission day with such online luminaries as Jonny Baker & Maggi Dawn – quite a fun event all round organised by the indomitable Krish Kandiah. And as if to prove how technologically on the ball it all was, we had a talk live-streamed from […]
The slavery see-saw of Romans 6
Was speaking on the decidedly unAdventy passage (we were coming to the end of a series) of Romans 6:15-23 this Sunday. It’s certainly a challenging (but rewarding) chapter, in more ways than one. David Turner did a brilliant job on 6:1-14 last week and I struggled to get my head round the last bit. But […]
SUM: 40 Tales from the Afterlives – the sheer impossibility of eternity…
This is quite simply the strangest, most provocative, beguiling and fascinating book I’ve read in a long time. In fact, EVER. SUM: Forty Tales from the Afterlives does exactly what it claims. It’s about death – and what happens after death. In just 100 pages, we’re offered 40 versions – parallel universes, parallel narratives, parallel […]
Compassion fatigue alert: Steve Turner’s TELEVISION NEWS
He’s a great poet – but hasn’t produced much recently. (Hint hint, Steve) This is a gem – nestled in one of his great children’s collections. TELEVISION NEWS by Steve Turner While we take burgers, cokes and fries The TV tells of hate and lies Shows death beneath bright foreign skies Can someone pass the […]
Jaw-dropping glory: awe at Christmas
Had some fun with my carol service talk last Sunday night. Was striving after the jaw-dropping, the point being that in the end there is nothing more jaw-dropping than Christmas itself… as alluded to when we trace the theme of glory from Isaiah 40:1-5, through Luke 2:8-14 to John 1:14-18 The service opened with great […]
Corporate culture vs Kingdom culture
The New Yorker is an unfailing source of insight and humour. Just love Paul Noth’s cartoon from 30th Nov edition. It speaks for itself.
Lessons from history: the 1922 fall of Smyrna and the modern world
One of my reading habits/disciplines is to try to read about every place I work in or visit. One of the dangerous joys of living near the unsurpassed Daunt Books is that it feeds this habit perfectly! If you don’t know it, Daunt’s warrants a visit to London W1 all by itself. Its genius is […]
World AIDS day 2009 – statistical realities
I posted about World AIDS Day a year ago (and yesterday got 100s of hits as a result). But I came across this graphic representation of the current stats for 2009, representing %increases and decreases. Chilling. The 5 biggest rises are way off most people’s mental maps… Click on it to be able to interact […]
