Spice

I love Glasgow. The bathroom scale in my flat reports my weight in kilograms and stone, but not pounds, so I can pretend that my weight bears no relation to the quantity of pounds that I know I really ought to weigh.

Signs

In my on-going efforts to keep Margaret’s memories of Glasgow alive and radiant, I took a series of photos of signs between the flat and my office at the University.

Sunny Summer Stromateis

• Nice piece from NPR about a neuroscientist who discovers that he is related to a number of notorious murderers, including Lizzie Borden — then learns that his own brain has several features associated with murderers. He is not a dangerous psychopath himself (so far), which he attributes to a loving upbringing. That sounds a…

:-/

Hey, Amazon, I’ll bet the demand for those St. George’s Cross-branded Flip HD cameras is going to drop off a wee bit now, isn’t it?

What About Your Weekend?

I woke up promptly yesterday morning, to head to church for Morning Prayer, whence Kelvin gave me a lift to the Solas Festival, where he and I were both on the day’s program. My talk was earlier, providentially scheduled against one by Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and…

Not What I Was Thinking

The other day I was in Marks & Spencer picking up biscuits for the biblical studies seminar tea, when the gent behind me in line and I both noticed this magazine. We stared somewhat incredulously at the cover, and wondered together whether there really was a market for Eulogy subscriptions.   I’ve written before about…

Speaking Of Research

I’ve sounded Google every few months for the answer to a question that has nagged at me for more than twenty years, and now I’m going to turn it around and leave the question on my blog to see if it turns up in the search results of someone else who knows the answer.  …

Comics Alert

Ahead of the upcoming Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World movie, the publicity department has prepared another character generator (joining the Simpsons, Mad Men, and various others). You may want to shut down the volume before you hit the site and raise it carefully; the site soundtrack defaults to “on.”  

One Year

A year ago today, I was interviewing for a job on Pluto. At least, that’s what I let out on Facebook (the “Pluto” part was an inspired idea of Pippa’s); terrestrial observers might have seen me wandering in a spaced-out, jet-lagged, delighted, anxious sort of way through the streets of Glasgow’s West End. I explored…

To Promote The Common Good

The Anglican chaplaincy’s contribution to the West End Festival here in Glasgow was to offer a continuous reading of St John’s Gospel from the Authorised Version (King James Version) of the Bible. Seven readers — this blogger included — processed into the University chapel, stood and sat for twenty-one chapters, and proclaimed the Johannine gospel…

Excluded Middle

The General Synod of the Church of England will consider a report on its ecumenical relationship with the Church of Scotland (the CoE is established (entangled with the government) and observes an episcopal polity (government with bishops) whereas the CoS is a national church (largely disentangled from government) and observes presbyterian polity (government with councils…