Thursday, January 06, 2011

Starbucks and Alexandria

A few folks have emailed me about the new Starbucks logo, which remains, I am convinced, even in the new form (following medieval precedent), a spur to chastity.  It's all in the backfiles.

On an infinitely more sober not, I'm afraid to say that my previous meditations on what it would be like were violence to hit the Copts have an unfortunate currency due to the recent attacks in Alexandria. From The Rowdy Mysticism of Coptic Cairo: "The energy in this liturgy cannot be so easily extinguished. Indeed, any other kind of explosion would be dim in comparison to the clamor of this praise. Terrorists summon fear from their claim that the power they wield is ultimate, which it is not.  The deathless one so boisterously exalted in the Coptic liturgy – He is the one with power over life and death."

I understand it may be tasteless to quote myself, but if the chief weakness of blogging is the tyranny of the moment, then archival references are a necessary evil.