I'm going to start here by saying that I don't feel particularly protective of this particular big game hunting dentist (but I do feel for his wife and kids). There are hunters in my family, bow-hunters even, but they do the hunting themselves, and there's an...
Hiya, and welcome to this summer's FINAL edition of Answer Me This, the internet's favorite virtual cocktail party, where we all answer the same six random questions and get to know each other a little better. If you've always want to play along, now's your chance! 1....
Superman (although born pagan and raised Methodist) has a very Calvinist ethos. Dude is SAVED, right? Once and for all.* Superman's heroism is predestined. But not Daredevil. His friends, and even he himself, aren't always sure whether he is doing the right thing. He...
I am so, so late to jump aboard the Once Upon a Time train. Not as late as I was for Doctor Who, I guess. But still, Once Upon a Time has been on the air since 2011, and I only started watching it last month. I had heard of it. I knew Haley liked it, but . ....
The recent stories of Brittany Maynard and Jennifer Lawrence are quite different in circumstance and gravity. But both women are suffering. And both have a skewed way of rationalizing what is happening to them. My glioblastoma is going to kill me, and that's out of my...
First things first, can you spare a moment to say a prayer for Bonnie's son and Micaela's friend? And now for the quick takes . . . --- 1 --- Heather sent me a link to an article that claims that the eldest children in big families are exploited by their...
--- 1 --- CCM Just when I think I'm the controversial Catholic blog, Haley goes and makes the internets mad by insulting CCM (that's Contemporary Christian Music for those of you who, like me, didn't know what CCM was). Anyway, I think her larger point was lost on the...
On the surface, two shows that I have recently watched (and reviewed on this blog) wouldn't seem to have much in common. The Walking Dead is a modern fictional dystopia about a rugged band of travelers trying to outlast a zombie apocalypse. Call the Midwife is the...
--- 1 --- So it was kind of a big week, blog-wise. Between guest posting for Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas, impressing Heather from Mama Knows, Honeychild with my (admittedly hilarious) moustache party food tags, and my wildly popular (for me) handmade Jesse Tree...
Call the Midwife should have been perfect for me. It has everything I like about shows going for it: it's old-timey, British, and on Netflix streaming. Plus THIS show has nuns (Anglican not Catholic, but in full habit!) and people having babies. I love nuns. I have...
My opinion about Breaking Bad is well known. But I'd hate for you to think it was just a delicate constitution that kept me from enjoying Walter White's descent. The three episodes of that show that I watched were gruesome in parts, for sure. But that wasn't the...
We are big fans of the National Park System. Each year, we head out on a different National Park trip, to appreciate God's majesty and Teddy Roosevelt's foresight, and to meet some Germans (who are usually the only other people we see in the National Parks). This...
I love the tradition of Catholic schools and homeschool groups doing All Saints dress up days in lieu of Halloween costumes. (When my son was enrolled in Kindergarten at our parish school, the Halloween costume parade was the straw that broke the camel's back for us....
Well, since at least 1812. That's when the Grimm brothers set out to scare the dickens out of generations of children. But clearly these stories, and the concept that scary stuff is good for kids, existed well before they started gathering the stories up.  What we...
--- 1 --- So, this happened during a family rosary in the car this week: All: . . . He will come again in glory to judge to living and the dead . . . Jack (11): What about the living dead? Will He judge the living dead?Me: Zombies? Well, since that issue isn't...
 It's not you, it's me. I get that. I totally get that you guys are brilliant and challenging and that people love you. But I don't. I just can't. You guys are huge bummers and you make me want to drown myself in the bathtub to escape the futility and pointlessness...
--- 1 --- Okay, maybe that's hyperbole. But SCIENCE says that women tend to have allergies and auto-immune diseases at a statistically higher rate than men, perhaps because they don't get exposed to as much immune-system-boosting mud and dirt as children. So here my...
Why, oh why, won't this Miley Cyrus thing just go away from my Facebook? the reaction of Will Smith and his family seems about right And I tried, I really did try, to just not say anything about it. But I kept having thoughts. And I have a blog. So . . . ...
--- 1 --- I cannot explain why I find this so amusing. It defies explanation. I just really, really like it. I want to put a bunch of these up in my house and not caption them or anything, but just chuckle to myself every time I go by one. Or maybe if I ever have a...
 I feel like I need to preface this with a warning: A Rant is Coming. I'm not big on rants, as a rule. Reading them OR writing them. Because I really do mostly think even this fallen world is pretty wonderful. But this started as the first of my seven takes and was...
--- 1 --- I was so sorry to read Dwija's sad news that they lost baby Nicholas at 21 weeks along. I have felt so identified with her struggles since I am also 21 weeks pregnant. It's been such a joy to witness how she dealt with the challenges of this pregnancy with...
--- 1 --- The effects of Felix Felicis, as described by Harry Potter Wiki, are thus: Felix Felicis possibly works by providing the drinker with the bestpossible scenario. This usually registers in the drinker's mind in theform of an unusual urge to take a certain...
Especially the "Catholic" ones (oh yes I did)*. I intended this to be just a Facebook post, but you know me, it got long. So it's here. I've been pretty silent about the gay marriage debate on Facebook, not because I don't have an opinion about it, but because I know...
New and Improved: now with awesome updates! Â --- 1 --- I set out to begin my quick takes this week with a zippy little analysis of Season 2 of Sherlock . . . but it really got away from me, quickness-wise. So it got to be it's own post. Check it out, if you're so...
I'm pretty sure I read a quote somewhere to the effect that you shouldn't read a book that promotes immoral behavior no matter how well it's written, since that would basically be the mental equivalent of drinking poison just because it was in a particularly beautiful...
--- 1 --- Â Back in January, when I started this here blog, I hooked it up to Amazon Associates. That means that when you click on a link from the blog that takes you to Amazon, then you buy something, I get a teeny, tiny percentage of what you spend. Â Now, as...
For grownups, this movie would be worth watching just to see Merida's hair, and the dark and wild and beautiful setting. Â For kids . . . I have my reservations. Â Â Things you've probably heard elsewhere . . .It has magic:Â Yes, but fairy tales do, and that's not an...
 --- 1 ---    You Can Never Go Down the Drain  You can never go down Can never go down Can never go down the drain. You can never go down Can never go down Can never go down the drain. You're bigger than the water. You're bigger than the soap. You're much bigger...
My children seem to genuinely not much care for pop music, which is a blessing, since if I ever do flip on the radio I can get through one song, maybe two, even on the "soft rock" station before I have to dive for the buttons over something inappropriate (Your sex...