Here’s a fascinating story at Pyromaniac, the WW II experiences of missionaries Herb and Ruth Clingen who were imprisoned by the Japanese at Los Baños near Manila, the Philippines. They were rescued by Allied paratroopers just in time to save their lives and those of their two children.
An interview with P.D. James in the magazine The Age. Her new Adam Dalgliesh mystery, due to be realeased in the US on November 22nd, is called The Lighthouse and is set on an island off the Cornish coast, a refuge for the rich and famous. Thanks to H2Oboro blog for the link to this article.
1. Find a blog you don’t read.
2. Go to the third post down.
3. Quote the second sentence from that post along with these instructions and with links to the blog and post.
4. End your post with “Thanks to Collected Miscellany” with the link. (Or you can link to Semicolon–or both.)
So I tried a blog called Booklinker from the Collected Miscellany’s blogroll and got this, dated July 28th (my birthday, by the way): “Yes it is that time again, time for deathless prose to fall drippingly from the hissing neurons of a thousand writers brains as the results of the 2005 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest are released!” Booklinker seems to post only about once a month, but he’s got lots of interesting links to his book reviews in the sidebar, both fiction and nonfiction, old and new.
High School student Karen Kovaka blogs at Rhetorical Response, and the interesting thing for me is that she seems to be reading from MY British Literature class syllabus. She just finished discussing Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain, and now she’s on to Elizabethan poetry. I just discussed Elizabethan poetry with my students this morning, and we’re going to spend the week reading Macbeth. I got the tip on Karen’s blog from another great “teen blog,” The Rebelution by homeschooled twins Alex and Brett Harris. Whoa, I’m slow. I just figured out that Alex and Brett are related to Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye) and Gregg Harris (homeschooling pioneer).
Doug at Stones Cry Out on polygamy in the Netherlands. Yes, it seems that for all practical purposes polygamy is already in fact legal and condoned in the Netherlands, on the the first countries in the world to give full “marriage rights” to homosexuals. If two men or two women can call their relationship “marriage,” why not one man and two women? Or three? Or five?
While I was gone on the Texodus, I received in my email a copy of the book How To Write by Herbert and Jill Meyer. Yes, in my email. I got this ebook for free in return for my review (which I’ll write using the tips in the book just as soon as I get it read), but you can buy it here for only $1.99. What do you have to lose?
And maybe Charlotte, as in Charlotte’s Web by EB White, can inspire us to become better writers whether we write on webs or walls or computer screens. Spinning a Web: The Unobtrusive Perfection of Charlotte’s Web by Lauren F. Winner (Thanks to Kevin at Collected Miscellany for pointing me to this appreciation of Charlotte’s writing technique.)
George Grant on Reading Aloud“Silent reading is actually a fairly modern innovation. As late as the eighteenth century, it was thought that the best way to truly appreciate the classics was to read them aloud–all the better to relish the beauty of the words, the music of the composition, and the architecture of the ideas.”
And on the same note, the nanny at Poppins Classical Academy writes about how she and her children are enjoying not only reading aloud, but also reading in small snippets, a chapter or a few pages a day.
James M. Kushiner at Mere Comments blogs about tunes of lament for homes lost, not in New Orleans although the thoughts apply to that situation, but in many other places and other times. “I have bee(n) thinking of late, because readings, family history, and current events, about the fragility of even the places that we take for granted as our homes. The world is full of lost homes and lost homelands, and history is partly an itinerary of families moving to new homes and homelands for a host of reasons: war, famine, gold, persecution, family feuds, and so on.”
Annie Crawford on Downward Mobility. Having children, spending my days serving children in humbling ways, loving the tiny vulnerable ones of this world, these things have taught me far more about God and brought me closer to his heart than any degree full of classes and theses could have. I must have been very proud, for merely learning to whole heartedly love my husband and children has left me feeling very vulnerable and meek.
Will Duquette reviews In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. He also talks about the difference between a “romance” and a “novel proper,” a distinction with which I was not very familiar. Helpful stuff, I’ll have to think about it and get back to you. Oh, I read In This House of Brede a very long time ago, but I think I’ll have to add it to the list to re-read.
Hello, My Name Is Blog is Scott Ginsberg’s blog. Scott is “a professional speaker, the world’s foremost field expert on nametags and the author of two books including HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He has worn a nametag all day, every day since November 2, 2000 to encourage people to become more approachable – and will never take it off. Ever.” What a great idea. Maybe I’ll try it. The smiling at people idea that I got from Adrian Warnock isn’t working so well. Mostly I forget. If I remember, the smiled-at-person and I play chicken; who will avert their eyes first? Eye contact between strangers seems to be very threatening–even here in friendly Texas. Maybe a nametag would work better.
Joe Missionary is somewhere in Asia, and he says TODAY that he’s giong to change the blog to something new, new blog, new address. You’ll want to follow him wherever he goes next because he has interesting ideas.
Dr. TIm Hutchison writes at Mission Safari about his family’s experiences in Kenya. Yes, he’s a real doctor, a medical doctor, and he and his family have been in Kenya for eleven months now.
The Davey family is headed to France from Wales. Alan Davey is an evangelical pastor, and he blogs at Daveys to France.
Joel Vestal works with an organization called ServLife and blogs at Zayd’s Dad. In addition to son Zayd, he has a new daughter, born August 19th, Daya Teresa.
Pura Vida is a fairly new missionary blog from Nicaragua.
Encouragement and helpful comments are welcome at all five blogs–and at those of any other missionaries you know who are working to share the good news of Christ in different cultures and countries.
Catez at AllThings2All is already well- known in the blogosphere. She did some amazing work during the Terri Schiavo fiasco, and she’s hostessing a Spotlight on Darfur to which you can contribute a post if you wish. Catez blogs from New Zealand.
IreneQ at Unravelled will be blogging in Malay today because in addition to being Blog Day, it’s also Independence Day in Malaysia where she lives. Never fear, she usually blogs in English and shares very honestly and transparently about her struggles and joys as a single Christian young woman.
Fiona Pinto is a new blogger from UK who so far is writing mostly about pro-life issues. She has a degree in bioethics and has been active for the past five years in pro-life activities in the UK.
Finally, there’s Ashley at The Lion Rampant. She’s another American living abroad, this time in Scotland. Ashley and her husband are students, and they write a good blog–when they’re not travelling all over Europe.
From George Grant (no permalinks to individual posts): “. . . true education is a form of repentance. It is a humble admission that we’ve not read all that we need to read, we don’t know all that we need to know, and we’ve not yet become all that we are called to become. Education is that unique form of discipleship that brings us to the place of admitting our inadequacies.”
Francis J. Beckwith at Southern Appeal knows what causes That. We moms of large families get asked the question sometimes by people who are trying to make a joke, “Don’t you know what causes That?” Rest assured, anyone with eight children, knows.
Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or on Your Birthday by Don Whitney. Since it’s the start of a new school year for many of us, these questions about where we’re going and why would be a good idea. Mr. Whitney writes, “The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.” I got this link from Carla at Reflections of the Times. Thanks, Carla.
