The phrase "less than zero" entered the sync stream with my post "The Jolly Switzer" (April 29). Searching my blog for the name Bret (as in Bret Harte, author of "The Jolly Switzer") had led me to Bret Easton Ellis and his novel Less Than Zero. Just the day before, Vox Day had published a post also titled "Less Than ...

symbolism really does happen, and sometimes it happens so poetically it couldn’t have been planned. it just had to be so. in this case, it is the man who coined the phrase ‘symbolism happens’ who apparently used the example of ‘heirloom yeast’ sourdough starter as an image and metaphor ...

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St Andrew's Church, Bywell

We have recently begun a project to visit old churches in Northumbria; starting by getting suggestions from a little book by the legend that was Stan Beckesall ; backed-up by a copy of "Pevsner" for Northumberland; plus whatever booklets or leaflets we find in the ...

Considering that our life and world - and much of our social interaction - is underpinned and permeated with moral evaluations; we have a terrible problem about discussing the nature and presence of evil!

The difficulty about discussing evil is so lasting and intractable that there are plenty of people, including ...

the desire for meaning is universal, but the pursuit of it is a recent affair. medievals did not pursue meaning. it was just there. we have this freedom. and this blessing. of pursuing meaning, not having it just given to us. thus our meaning, when found, is more meaningful.

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in the realm of coincidences, ...

In "Whale-watching from the shore" (July 2018), I wrote:

This has been a weirdly persistent theme in my dreams for the past couple of years: taking a walk along a coastline of rocky cliffs for the express purpose of “seeing the whales.” And I do see them, looking down from the cliffs, dozens of them — rights ...

Christian faith is - or should be - focused on resurrected eternal life in post-mortal Heaven... So, not this moral life, not this earth and universe.

But what should we Do Here and Now?

The answer could be - Do what you evaluate as best: and start now.

...BUT - don't expect to make a system from it.

Do not ...

I have written before about the corrupting spiritual vortex that is prepper survivalism; where low-level people (such as you and me) engage in preparing to escape survive catastrophes, to become the nucleus and leadership of future human civilization... or something.

I have also discussed "elite" survivalism, of the ...

The following includes some meandering commentary on Iben Thranholm’s article Will Hungary be a Christian Nation After Orbán, which appeared on the First Things site yesterday.

Those wishing for a succinct encapsulation of my views regarding the article may be satisfied by the summary below:

Thranholm ...

In "A very pale White guy with a Phrygian cap" (May 23), I referred to my habit of clicking for randomly selected /x/ threads as a "sort of cleromancy" -- meaning divination by casting lots. It's not really proper divination as I practice it, though, since I generally just click without any question in mind.

This ...

I suppose Mozart is the greater composer but I often prefer Haydn. There is an innate goodness about his music and it appears there was about him too. Portraits show a kind looking man and reports about his life confirm this impression. He was widely regarded as a good and honourable person, and noted for his ...

Is it true that everything changes, and yet everything stays the same?

It does seem to have a general truth, especially over the long term, and in one-direction - when the first "everything" is taken to mean the superficial aspects of daily life and things, which are always changing; but the second "everything" ...

In "The ladybird, the six-legged spider, and the dandelion" (May 2025), I discuss this image from an English book for preschoolers:

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I noted that the black bug looks a lot like a spider but quoted some kids saying this about it:

"Is that one a spider?" asked one of the kids in Chinese.

"No," said ...

Last night I listened to a Zion Media video about the Mentinah Archives, a.k.a. Nemenhah Papers, which I guess would be classified as channeled Book of Mormon apocrypha. That made me think of the channeled Book of Mormon apocrypha my own circle is into -- Daymon Smith's Words books -- so I searched YouTube with ...

In a comment on yesterday's "Julio-Claudian octopods and cats named Cat," I wrote:

I happen to be feeding a stray tom these days in addition to the permanent-resident felines. It is my practice to name everything, though, so the stray is called Timofey.

One of my own toms is called Scipio on account of his uncanny ...

I have always found "Fog on the Barrow Downs" the least satisfying chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Over at my Notion Club Papers blog, I analyse the structural reasons why.

Since my earliest readings of The Lord of the Rings, I have felt that there is "something wrong" with the Barrow Wight episode in the chapter "Fog on the Barrow Downs" (FotBD).

At first, there was just my vague awareness "doesn't seem to work" as well as the rest of the book; that it fails to make an impact.

There ...

The world provides choices.

We must choose - and we can personally choose; or else we can accept external (societal, institutional) choices.

That is to say: some things we choose to accept, others we choose to make a personal choice.

Therefore, we choose what to choose.

In some cases our situation provides a ...

Not only does Alfred Molina play both Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and an actual octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures, but the names of the characters also sync. Doc Ock's real name is Otto Octavius, while the octopus in Creatures is called Marcellus. In Roman history, Octavius is the birth name of Caesar ...

Courtesy of Austrian rap/rock/pop artist Bibiza, whose full name happens to be Franz Bibiza.

Crude, lewd, loud, and irritating; everything a song about my name should be.

Sorry. I'm feeling particularly lighthearted today.

​Lyrics below.

Yeah

In Amerika bin ich Frank, in Vienna bin ich Franz

In France ...

I see a very general problem; that is of people seeking generic experience, rather than particular and specific experience.

Consider the vast edifice of advice and aspiration for men concerning "marriage"; the question of the "how to get a girl" type - including all that "manosphere" stuff.

The problem is in the ...

Three days ago, on May 24, I posted "Charlie Kirk, Ulysses, and twin flames," part of which deals with the They Might Be Giants song "My Evil Twin" and why I have interpreted it as being about Odysseus.

Today, fishing for new alt-Mormon content on YouTube, I was putting in various search prompts that I thought might ...

I've made another blog specifically for all the posts about my time in South India between 1980 and 1985 that come under the Indian Story label on this blog. It is called A Sojourn in South India and can be found here. So far I've just put a couple of posts up from this blog but I will gradually add more until they ...

Because spirit is primary: the material, the embodied, that which is perceived by the senses - is a kind of spirit.

Incarnation is indeed a developed form of the spirit - which is why the timeline of creation manifested as physical beings, such as ourselves.

And why the pre-mortal spirit of Jesus manifested as a ...

Last night, Laeth sent me an epub of his latest novel, Powerless. I haven't started reading it yet, but I know in a general way what it's about. In the author's May 5 post "about a shift," he explained that it was inspired by a day last year when "the power went out for the entire iberian peninsula for ten hours" -- ...

In my last post, I argue that "Alma introduced baptism to the Nephites" -- meaning the actual practice of baptism; clearly they were aware of the concept of baptism prior to Alma, but I think I've made a pretty strong case that the Nephites at Zarahemla at least did not practice baptism before Alma and did not ...

I had a very strange dream that I was directing a film adaptation of one of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories, and one of the actresses was our own Debbie (much younger than her current age), who was playing the role of Madeline Bassett.

In the books, Madeline is known for her excessive sentimentality, ...

A while back, there was a very enjoyable musical style called electro swing; which led to a style of solo dancing (mainly for men) which is just about the most enjoyable I have ever seen.

As an intro, with snippets of the style; there was a German TV advert

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featuring the dancer JustSomeMotion. ...

Yesterday, after some persistent prodding from the sync fairies, I started reading the novel Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

Today, an employee told me she was a little tired because she had been up late last night watching a movie.

"What movie? Was it good?"

"It was amazing. It's about an ...