Weekly Diary

Katie's Big Week - A nice week for our daughter Katie. She received an academic award at school, and was cast as a Gossiper in the musical, Once on this Island, she'll be part of in June. It has been really fun to watch her find that she likes musical theater, and watch her step up into her roles. She loves acting and singing, but not in a self-centered kind of way. I'm very happy for her.

The New Pope - ...has turned out to be Catholic after all. I mention this because some folks seem surprised that the Cardinals would select someone who is dedicated to upholding core Catholic doctrine, even though this group of Cardinals is much less intellectually and theologically diverse than then group which selected the previous Pope. I can understand the frustration of many American Catholics, and I share many of their concerns, but then again, that's not why I'm a Catholic. And don't be fooled when Ratzinger/Benedict talks about "unity" - he uses the phrase the same way President Bush uses "bi-partisan" - we can be together as long as you agree with and submit to me. (I wonder if this will ever begin to bother American Evangelicals).

Science? Interesting article from Scientist/Blogger Chad Orzel in his blog Uncertain Principles. Seems he got stuck waiting in a doctor's office (and not in Canada or France, but right here in the US - I thought this only happened where they have socialized medicine) and started leafing through the pages of Children's Ministry magazine. (I have used this magazine in the past and found it occasionally helpful). For Orzel, the magazine was a trip to a strange land, but it was the issues article on using science experiments for ministry purposes that got his attention. But wasn't the article's attempt to fuse faith and science which got him - he's broadly sympathetic to that idea - it was that the experiments didn't have any science in them! I think this is very bad, and even though Orzel and I have very different faith commitments, I share his perspective.

Chivas Tonight! - I'm not having birria, but I'd like to. No, tonight the LA Galaxy will be taking on their new inter-city rivals, CD Chivas USA. (Is it "inter" or "intra"? I can never keep those things straight.) This will be very intense. I'm taking my brother to his first soccer match - I figure if he doesn't like this, he won't ever like soccer.

Worst Book Ever - Fred Clark over at Slacktivist is doing all of us a favor by offering his reading of Left Behind, an amazingly best-selling book which some (in fact, a rather appallingly low number in proportion to the book's sales) recognize as being amazingly bad. Fred points out just how bad it can be in this week's installment, in which he comments on the books "we're not conspiracy theorists but here's our conspiracy" point of view and the rather startling tendency the author's have of naming their male characters like porn starts. Go take a look.