Author: AKMA

Margaret “Hot Zone” Adam called my attention to this story from CNN about reasearchers who try to learn about the present impending bird flu pandemic by re-engineering the flu strain that killed millions in 1918, and asked, “Do you think the novel has a movie contract yet?”

With a headline such as “Researchers reconstruct 1918 virus” or a photo caption such as “Workers take a blood sample from a chicken at an Indonesian farm where 156 chickens died” — that alone is a movie-worth of plot premise. Margaret wonders whether it’s hard to find actor-chickens, but I suggested that Jeanne and Gail could supply the cast.

Pippa, then, would get to portray the little girl who becomes a tragic first victim — who has a chicken as a pet (she loves her aunts’ chickens)!

I feel sad just thinking about it; at least, I will till the first royalty check from Hollywood rolls in. Spielberg, you know where to find us.

In honor of Margaret and Chris (on whom I rely for advance warning of any conceivable catastrophe), I’m pointing to Rebecca Blood’s Flu Pandmeic Awareness Week post and an article in Foreign Affairs on “Preparing For the Next Pandemic” (via Frank and Liz).

Reading them makes my throat feel scratchy. Maybe it’s not my bad back — maybe those are muscle aches. And my head. . . .

No, I haven’t vanished into the ether; I’ve just been alternating between trying hard to work productively (not that successfully) and trying to rest up so that I could work more productively. My back is flaring up, too.

On the good news front, Rosh Hashanah has come; l’shanah tovah, may you all be inscribed for a good year. My beloved Margaret passed her grad-school German exam mit Fliegenfarben, and my Early Church History class has responded well to their readings. Pip is doing well with Hope and Beth, and Katie has been doing marvelous work whipping our house into shape. Now, I just have to step up and match all this good work with some effective labor of my own.

Finish preface for Winslow Lectures book, keep up with my class in Early Church History, write out my presentation for the SBL meeting (“ ’He Set Himself in the Order of Signs’: Exegesis Signifying Theology”), keep up with the Introduction to the Bible class I’m leading at St Luke’s, prepare for the Sunday Lectionary Introduction I’ll be leading in a couple of weeks, work out two book reviews, referee an essay, and prepare the sermon for Jane’s ordination. Oh, and pay bills and send in a bunch of miscellaneous forms. Highest priority: being present to and responsible for Pippa. Next highest: the preface, followed closely by the SBL paper and the refereeing. I have a few bloggable ideas, but they fall by the wayside for now.

I’m more impressed with one Calvin than with his antecedent.

After spending the morning in the ATR board meeting, and then feeding Pippa and trundling her downtown to get her hair cut, then back homeward to get to Game Day with Heather, I tried to get some work done this afternoon — to no avail. I think I’ll just go to bed early tonight and try for tomorrow.

Of course, we have church tomorrow morning and an ordination tomorrow evening, but if I rest well there may be a chunk of afternoon time to work in.

I spent most of the day in meetings of the Anglican Theological Review Board of Directors (and the meeting continues tomorrow). For every hour that my other editorial boards devote to meetings, ATR devotes five or six.

Toward late morning, though, I snuck out of the Editorial Committee meeting to preside at St. Jerome’s Day mass. It all went fine, and I’ll tuck the sermon into the Extended section. Then I tried to get away for a few hours with Pippa, but the afternoon meeting ran longer than I’d hoped. I fixed dinner and set her up with Ghostbusters.

Now I’ll try to get some sleep before tomorrow’s meeting (preceded by eight-o’clock-on-Saturday-morning mass. . .).
Continue reading “Board”

Right now, I’m pondering tomorrow morning’s sermon for the Feast of St. Jerome (2 Tim 3:14-17/Ps 19:7-11/Luke 24:44-48), readying a shopping list for the grocery store, appreciating Pippa’s independence and creative activity, imagining a plan for dinner, and trying to shake a headache.

So if I seem short-tempered, please be a little more patient with me. I apologize in advance.

Tim of SansBlogue is working on a hands-down obvious winner of an idea: a podcast audio Bible. I hope they make it available without the devotional questions (plenty of listeners might want an audio Bible without devotional aids, or without these particular devotional aids). It’s happening, it’s all happening, and I just wonder where they’ll put the scattered pieces together first.

Today was the first session of Early Church History, my fall term required course at Seabury; it’s a small class this year, so we’ll operate it as a more of a seminar, which’ll be good. Much as I delight in lecturing, there’s a special joy in a discussion wherein participants can follow their interests and their own reasoning to get at a finer understanding of the issues we’re studying. The class showed a ripple of enthusiastic approval when I indicated that we had commissioned audiotexts of some of the primary source materials for the term; Trevor and I had known this was a winner, but have been having a hard time setting it up.

A week from tomorrow the biweekly Introduction to Christianity course begins in earnest (we had an organizational meeting last week). I’ll be teaching five sessions that draw on these chapters from St. Luke’s Guide to the Faith, the Church, and the Parish; I have an audio version of the first chapter posted at the Disseminary site (subject to slight enhancements shortly intro and outro added), and will add the subsequent chapters as soon as I can.

I have my copy of Andrew Huff and the Pool of Lost Souls — do you? (I’d propose an audio read-along of this, but I honestly can’t imagine when I’d have the time. Plus, I’d mangle all those Anglo-tongue-defying names.)

Chris is cooking with propane these days, laying out the background for his tour de force dissection of New Age “spirituality”; once he fills in the details, the lurid story will set straight one side of the complex story of theological pornography of which The da Vinci Code (still selling in hardcover!) and Left Behind (of which the debunker nonpareil is the Slacktivist) [are examples] (added after Chris charitably completed the sentence I originally left fragmentary).

When people substitute wish-fulfillment for critical thinking, fantasy for imagination, self-validation for disciplined inquiry, you get the sort of tissue-paper-thin spiritual expression that ornaments current best-seller lists, talk-show platitudes, and church mediocracy. “Wouldn’t it be cool if?” modulates into, “As we all know. . .” without argument or examination.

Rock on, Chris and Fred, let ’er rip.

When you look at the information for a given selection, iTunes should be able to tell you whether it’s part of any playlists — lest one delete a song that one has incorporated into a playlist for some memorable person or purpose.