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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 simple – a travel bookshop that groups fiction, history, maps and guidebooks altogether, by country and region. Now why don’t they all do that.
Because my Langham Partnership work takes me to Turkey twice a year (see various previous posts), I’ve been reading quite a lot about the country and its history over the last few months. I picked this book up there as a result and couldn’t put it down. Some may be familiar with Giles Milton’s other books (like Nathaniel’s Nutmeg and Big Chief Elizabeth etc) and he is a wonderful writer. This is no exception, though the focus is of a particularly dark chapter in European history. (more…)
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…
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