millinerd TOP 5 series #5

Top 5 similarities between...
Lost in Translation and Woody Allen's Manhattan


1a. Both involve an older man enchanted by a younger woman.
1b. But both seem to nevertheless strangely avoid being skeevy movies.
2a. In both movies the older man is primarily funny while the younger woman is primarily pretty.
2b. Both seem to nevertheless strangely avoid being offensive to women (perhaps women have been offended, but if so they've yet to organize - to my knowledge there were no boycotts in 1979 or 2003).
3. Both are set in a major city and involve lots of skyline shots (okay, I'm stretching).
4. Both involve karaoke bars and pink wigs (okay I'm lying to fill the list).
5. Both are really good movies in a way that's hard to describe.

Incidentally, my favorite line from Manhattan -
Woody Allen to Mariel Hemingway:

"You would have been God's answer to Job. Job would have said 'Alright you do a lot of terrible things, but you also made one of these. It would have settled the argument right there.'"

Now that's romance.

millinerd TOP 5 series #4

Top 5 books of the Pentateuch...
Oh dizzle. After much deliberation I can't decide.

But a quick check under the Latin quote of the week is a nice reminder that there have always been (for both Christians and Jews) many different ways to read it.

Thinking it should always be literal is like thinking a car should only drive in 1st gear.

millinerd... "C'est le Jersey Frais!"

Has everyone tried the translator thing on the bottom left? You simply must. It's quite a hoot.

But it actually has a functional purpose: I got an I.M. from CHINA last week! It was from a college student whom we met when we took our Youth Group to Shanghai (Are you impressed? Aren't I exciting?). He, I assume, might have an actual need for the translator if he wants to resort to the mother tongue.

Imagine having to ask permission of your government to go to church, as does he.

Rather sobering, n'est pas?

millinerd TOP 5 series #4

Top 5 theologians whose name begins with the letter "A" (along with the millinerd summary of their life work in six words or less).

1. Aquinas - Aristotle and faith are not incompatible.
2. Anselm- Intellect and faith are not incompatible.
3. Augustine - Plato and faith are not incompatible.
4. Athanasius- Arius is wrong.
5. Apostle Paul- Welcome Gentiles!

Yes the last one's a stretch, but what's amazing about the list is that there seems to be an "A" theologian for almost every major shift in church history. That means in our transitional era, one candidate for the theologian to save the day might be the following author, whose promise should be evident to all by this penetrating insight into the mysery of faith:

"We all have great inner power. The power is self-faith. There's really an attitude to winning. You have to see yourself winning before you win. And you have to be hungry. You have to want to conquer."

Hi!

I hope you all made the transition from the www.millinerd.blogspot.com (which will no longer be updated) to the millinerd.com (which will)... but I guess asking that is like the teacher who asks, "Is anyone absent?"

Having your own web-space is interesting... I used to think the internet was magic. Now I've been let behind the curtain. Wow it's intricate. Al Gore was a genius.

millinerd TOP 5 series #3

Top 5 non-mega museums.

1. McMichael Art Gallery near Toronto - Specifically for its collection of the most underappreciated artists ever to paint in North America, the "Group of Seven."
2. The Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA - This man made a fortune in pharmeceuticals at the beginning of the century, then hoarded all the popular works of art before they were cool (Monet, Matisse, Cezanne, etc.).
3. Isabella Stuart Gardner Musueum, Boston - Handwritten letter from Napolean, First Edition Divine Comedy, not to mention some great art - if you go, make sure you talk to the guard on the ground floor by the coat-checks.
4. The Cloisters- Rockefeller money (like everything else in NYC) bought this extension of the Met in way north Manhattan - houses most of the Christian artwork of the Met's collection.
5. The Frick Collection, NYC. Worth it for to see this painting alone.

I'm a bit late on this, but Conan O'Brien's Harvard commencement address to the class of 2000 is really good stuff:
     "I wrote a thesis: Literary Progeria in the works of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner. Let's just say that, during my discussions with Pauly Shore, it doesn't come up much."

24 Vindicated

Okay, I take back my criticism of the show 24 as "unrealistic" because they included a mountain lion chasing Jack's daughter in the second season. Turns out mountain lions actually do kill people nowadays and it therefore was a legitimate addition of suspense.

millinerd TOP 5 series #2

In our infoverloaded world, nothing beats a book that can give the skillfully presented overview of a given discipline... and only a real master of a field can do this well. In light of this... millinerd's top 5 intro textbooks

1. Great Themes in Art by John Walford - In the history of Art, Christian subject matter pops up more than a couple of times. One has to admit then, that in chronicling art's history, a bias against faith would be a handicap... Dr. Walford does not have that handicap.
2. Christian Theology: An Introduction by Alister McGrath - Balanced, clear, broad, concise... He covers it all, including recent trends which are evaluated with fairness and perspective.
3. Introduction to the New Testament by Raymond Brown - Right before his death, Brown summed up all the current scholarship while directing us to the best of it. As a professor here put it, remarking that he could never have read all that Brown (a priest) had - "Celibacy has its advantages."
4. The Logic of the Spirit by Jim Loder - A one stop intro to human psychology that takes the spiritual perspective into deep consideration... Hauntingly insightful.
5. Wheelock's Latin by err... umm.... Wheelock - Six editions can't be wrong.

I got this from the comments page of Matt's site... I'm still tring to figure out if it is for or against Dean.

Field trips are fun.

Just got back from a couple day retreat with the Cemet.. Seminary at this place, an Episcopal Benedictine monastary (i.e. the monks wear Birkenstocks). We practiced this method of prayer, and also prayer with icons. A little hippy-dippy-flaky-shaky, but the ancient practices of prayer nevertheless really work. Oh Calvin, what were you thinking?

millinerd TOP 5 series #1

A town is only as good as its best coffeeshop. In light of this millinerd presents the first in a series of several TOP 5 installments.

1.Someday Cafe- Somerville, MA
2. The Point - Bryn Mawr, PA
3. The Bean Cafe on South Street, Philadelphia, PA
4. Moxie Java -McCall, ID
5. The absolutely palatial Panera off Route 1 near Princeton, NJ (even though their coffee isn't fantastic, the space is... so they made the cut).

I support the
Pacific Northwest
Tree Octopus

Let's take this cause to the streets! I'll see you at the barricades.

Only in the Information Age could the Boston-based Lenlowland be the first to encounter something happening in millinerd's own backyard. Straight from the Princeton hood comes Generic Rap Song. Following along with the lyrics is recommended.

In my opinion the greatest sitcom moment ever was when Mike on Growing Pains said to his sister that he found a foolproof way of cheating... "They'll never catch me... I'm writing the answers... in my brain."
(It was all in the delivery.)

I just had to store a lot of stuff in my brain, but finals are done: Latin "finis" (finis - 3rd declesion parasyllabic adjective, masculine feminine "i" in ablative and "ium" genitive plural, for neuter form add "ia" in nominative and accusitive plural).

But back to Genre-defyers, this C.D. is quite likely being held hostage in the "Country" section of your local music store. Liberate it!

The only way you could not like Emmy Lou's Red Dirt Girl is if you were allergic to beauty. Then you'd really hate it.

Stop. Grammar time.

Musically, it seems like "Genre-defying" is fast becoming a genre in itself. So due to its hyper-hybridness, I suggest looking for the new Over the Rhine C.D. in the "downright-unnatural" section at Barnes and Noble.

They must have said to themselves: If we go country we'll lose half our fans, if we go hip-hop we'll lose the other half. So let's do both in a double CD (a little country on the first, some hip-hop on the second), and while our fans are trying to figure out "Wha-happened?", we'll amass brand new fans from country and hip-hop audiences.

The strategy worked, but no surprise there. Ever since this album, Over the Rhine been hitting musical and lyrical home-runs.

Perhaps it's nostalgia for college (they're connected with the alma mater), but I am continually amazed by the music that these guys produce. They've broken up, but one is still going. Hopefully this does not mean that the other will be "Garfunkalized." But from what I hear he's doing fine.

Speaking of The DaVinci Code, what could be wrong with a little fiction? Nothing, when one has the maturity to distinguish fact from fiction. But what if one does not?

So why is everybody, (including the DaVinci Code author, Newsweek, the Discovery Channel, Princeton professors, etc., etc.) so in love all of a sudden with the Gnostic Gospels?

Reviewer Sandra Miesel writes "What these books neglect to mention is the infamous final verse of the Gospel of Thomas. When Peter sneers that “women are not worthy of Life,” Jesus responds, “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male.... For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Ouch. Maybe there was a good reason the Gnostic Gospels were rejected after all... M.M.L.J. all the way.

Incidentally, here is an interesting review of that ever popular novel. This review is a little less forgiving, but does do a good job of straightening up the historical record (weird collage at the top of the page though). But I haven't even read the book, so why listen to me?

I regretfully break the 5-7-5 syllable rule of Haiku to inform you that

Guacamole Doritoes
Taste the same as
Regular Doritoes.

We wild Westerners are beginning to realize that we're not at the center of the world anymore. But making this adjustment may require more than a think globally bumper-sticker, a college course in non-Western literature, and a Christmas gift bought at Ten Thousand Villages. If you'd like to hear more, give a listen to this NPR interview with Phillip Jenkins, a history professor at Penn State. The interview is based on this article in the Atlantic Monthly.

So I think I found another Susan Howatch! For those of you wondering why that is significant... let me explain. Susan Howatch (under writers of distinction to your left) wrote an utterly absorbing series of novels (7 altogether) that take you through the Church of England in the 20th century. I may have lost you already I know, but take it from a not-so-avid fiction reader: they hook you in. It takes a lot to do that to someone like myself who (to my wife's chagrin) won't even read Harry Potter. Everybody loves J.K. Rowling, but Howach is the other woman from England who wrote a long string of compelling books dealing with supernatural themes.

Gail Godwin, who wrote Evensong, which I read over the holiday, is almost as good as Howatch (...almost). If you're one of the unfortunate ones who knows what it means for something to be "churchy," I can assure you neither of these women write "churchy" material... they actually (especially Howatch) can be quite, I dare say, racy. If you don't enjoy trudging through long tracts of academic theology, reading either of these woman's books is a great way to give the spiritual muscles a work-out.

Being still within the 12 days of Christmas (the eighth today, formally referred to as the "Christmas octave"), I am busy pondering the ultimate questions which are spurred by my mediatation on the Incarnation. Questions like: "Whutdyaget?"

I got fantastic gifts from some astonoshingly generous people in my life... but a decision had to be made, and the results of the give-a-Christmas-gift-to-millinerd competion are finally in (Thank you to all who participated). The winner gave me this. (Remember... millinerd). If you are bitter that you did not win, submit more entries immediately. Multiple entries will not be penalized.