Yesterday was, in some parts of the country, Election Day. I’ve sat down to read about elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Maine. I’ve not even had my coffee yet. It’s still brewing. The Democrats were crushed at all levels of state government in the Old Dominion. The Republican candidate for governor pulledContinue reading “On Last Night’s Elections”
On Peter Gabriel’s Next Album
Sometime early next year, Peter Gabriel will be releasing a new album, Scratch My Back. The Guardian describes it thusly: “[The album] is a ‘song swap,’ according to one of Gabriel’s collaborators, where the singer and a host of ‘extremely legendary artists’ will cover each other’s material.” And one of those artists, supposedly, is Elbow.Continue reading “On Peter Gabriel’s Next Album”
More on a Biblical Book Burning
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the sad tale of Pastor Marc Grizzard and the Amazing Grace Baptist Church of Canton, North Carolina. Grizzard and his flock planned to spend their Halloween not giving out candy or dressing up for the holiday. Rather, they planned to burn Bibles that were not the King James Version.Continue reading “More on a Biblical Book Burning”
On October’s Web Stats
Before we start looking forward to November, let’s take a look back at October and what people wanted to know from allyngibson.com. 🙂 First up, I had 10,925 distinct visitors for the month. Which works out to roughly 360 a day, give or take. Wednesday is the least visited day of the week, versus SaturdayContinue reading “On October’s Web Stats”
On an Amish Halloween
Some readers may be unaware that, for a few years, I lived in Pennsylvania’s Amish country, a little to the east of Lancaster. My first year there, ten years ago now, I was excited. It was Halloween. There were kids on my road. Amish kids. Halloween! Two years ago, I told the story of thatContinue reading “On an Amish Halloween”
On the Fissures in the Republican Party
If you’re any sort of political junkie, today has been endlessly fascinating. In upstate New York, a bizarre 3-way special election campaign to fill a House of Representatives seat has been waged. The Democratic Party put up Bill Owens, the Republican Party put up Dede Scozzafava. One of New York’s minor parties, the Conservative Party,Continue reading “On the Fissures in the Republican Party”
On the Consumption of Cashews
This week just past was a week of Mondays. Nothing but Mondays. Even Friday, which started out like a Friday, ended on a Mondayesque note. One contributing factor? On one of the Mondays this week, I ate some cashews. I needed a mid-morning snack. I went to the vending machine, I saw a packet ofContinue reading “On the Consumption of Cashews”
On Reading Republicans
Recently, for Sooper-Sekrit reasons, I have been following the post-Senate career of Rick Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania (though he didn’t really live there). This has meant, for instance, reading Santorum’s newspaper column for the Philly Inquirer. I feel a thousand brain cells cry out in terror, and then suddenly silenced, every time IContinue reading “On Reading Republicans”
On an Upcoming John Lennon Biopic
A friend of mine, Michael Schuster, pointed me to this, the trailer for Nowhere Boy, an upcoming biopic about the teenage years of John Lennon: Aaron Johnson, whom I’ve never heard of, plays the young Lennon, and Thomas Sangster plays Paul McCartney. While Sangster doesn’t look especially much like McCartney, Johnson, particularly when he putsContinue reading “On an Upcoming John Lennon Biopic”
On Lunar Exploration
An image taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has just been released. It’s of the Apollo 17 landing site. The last place where man set foot on the moon. You can see the descent module sitting on the surface, and the American flag. Very nifty!