Wednesday April 26 - Friday April 28, 2006

A La Carte will be on a brief hiatus for the remainder of this week while I attend the Together for the Gospel Conference. I do not anticipate having time or opportunity to read other blogs while I am at the conference. It will return, Lord willing, next Monday.

Tuesday April 25, 2006

Poetry: The Bible Bard, having read an article I linked to in one of last week’s A La Carte editions, thought about carbon monoxide and came up with the following limerick.

Publishing: Thomas Nelson has a new imprint called NakedInk. Their first book will be called “The Hot Mom’s Handbook: Blondes Moms Have More Fun!” Ligon Duncan asks “What would Thomas Nelson think?”

Ministry: Everyone’s favorite Reformed research site, Monergism.com has begun fundraising to allow it to undergo a major upgrade. John is asking for our help.

Entertainment: Hasbro, the company that owns Monopoly, is creating a “Here and Now” edition. They are asking for the public’s help in choosing landmarks that will appear on the board and the order in which they will appear. CNN reports.

Monday April 24, 2006

Film: Early reviews of the upcoming film United 93 are beginning to trickle in. Mary Katherine Ham posted one such review at Hugh Hewitt’s site. “I’m not gonna lie. It wasn’t easy to watch. But I’m glad I watched it.”

Military: Canada suffered its worst military tragedy since the Korean War, losing four soldiers in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan.

Politics: The Washington Post reports on the age-old American battle plan for the invasion of Canada. I’ve got a hunch that it would be executed successfully.

Emergent: Vikupedia shares the definition and etymology of a new term, “Emergingent Churchmentsation.”

Friday April 21, 2006

Culture: Ann Coulter takes a devastating swing at our culture. “However the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don’t hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money. ”

Theology: Rick Phillips at Reformation21 shares a great metaphor in a post entitled “Why Carbon Monoxide Kills.” “Not because it is poisonous, since carbon monoxide is not poisonous. It kills because it occupies the space where oxygen is supposed to be…”

Emergent: Tall Paul continues to examine emergent by posting a paper he presented last week. If you’re wondering what this emergent thing is all about, be sure to check out Paul’s site.

Business: Dave Givens is the proud recipient of a strange award. He has the dubious honor of having America’s longest commute. He makes a 186-mile drive—each way—five days a week to his job in San Jose. He spends seven hours of every day commuting to and from work.

Thursday April 20, 2006

Theology: Brandon Porter struggles with the practical application of a few verses from 1 Corinthians 12. “This is a very real issue that we need to get right. Paul has people in mind here, not just parts of a body that make up a nice analogy.”

Humor: Yahoo has a neat little story about a man who decided to see just how far he could get by “trading up.” He began with a paper clip and is hoping to eventually trade up to a house.

Quiz: Rebecca has posted a quiz dealing with original sin. It is more difficult than you might think. She promises to post answers tomorrow.

Theology Bonus: C.J. Mahaney has posted a good article on “A Plan for Reading and Study.” While it is directed in particular to pastors, the wisdom it contains is as relevant to the laity as to the clergy.

Wednesday April 19, 2006

Theology: David Field manages to encapsulate the 5 points of Calvinism in the form of a limerick. For other Bible-based limericks, check out the Bible Bus.

Conference: Timmy, who has organized the Band of Bloggers meeting prior to the Together for the Gospel conference, has added a post to his site telling you how you can submit questions to the panel.

Utility: If you are one of those people who lost marks on college-level essays due to improperly citing your sources, you might appreciate EasyBib, a utility which takes all of the guesswork out of creating bibliographies.

Humor: A Colorado man has been fined for operating a device that interferes with traffic signals, causing them to turn green as he approached intersections. The device, which he bought on eBay, is similar to what is used on emergency vehicles. The man received a $50 ticket.

Tuesday April 17, 2006

Politics: Arizona candidate for governor, Len Munsil (who blogs at lenmunsil.com) points to an article detailing Dick Cheney’s tax situation and says, “If Cheney walked on water, the headline would be ‘Cheney can’t swim.’” Cheney donated almost 80% of his income in 2005.

Bible: ESV Blog points to an article from the Chicago Sun-Times which discusses various Bible translations available to us these days.

Technology: Internet guru Jakob Nielsen, who backs up his beliefs with a really ugly site, has an interesting article showing that web users browse pages in “F” patterns. “In a few seconds, their eyes move at amazing speeds across your website’s words in a pattern that’s very different from what you learned in school.”

Theology: The April 9 Marks newsletter is now available. As always, it has some good articles and a great book review.

Monday April 16, 2006

Site: Over the weekend I moved my site to a new server. I hope and trust that this server will prove more stable than the last and that we’ll all enjoy more problem-free reading and writing!

Nature: This could also have been filed under “humor.” Take a look at the rabbit tracks and note how and where they end.

Entertainment: Following the unexpected success of poker on television, producers have been looking for the next big thing. They think they may have found it in darts. Like most television fads, this one is imported from Britain. The day I blow two hours watching darts on TV…

Politics: Justin Taylor points to an article which helps explain why the US of A is so hesitant to allow Iran to gain nuclear capabilities. The task of the Iranian president is: “provoking a ‘clash of civilisations’ in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the ‘infidel’ West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.”

Friday April 14, 2006

Easter: Rumor has it that Americans do not enjoy Good Friday as a holiday. That is tragic. Almost all Canadians have the day off work, myself included. I suppose that taking the day off in the US of A would conflict with the separation of church and state.

Deal: Jacob Hantla alerted me to a good deal for anyone who uses Logos software. “Bob Pritchett, the founder of Libronix (logos.com), has a great freebie to boost initial sales of his just-released book, Fire Someone Today.”

Technology: Oliver Rist, who writes for InfoWorld has some fine examples of the sort of problems that technical support types have to deal with. Reading an article like this reminds me why I no longer do tech support!

Weird: A woman’s body was discovered in front of her television some three years after dying. The Telegraph reports that “Joyce Vincent was surrounded by Christmas presents and the television and heating in her bedsit were still on.”

Thursday April 13, 2006

Web: William Dicks points out that Google is hosting a blog that promotes ‘boy love’—sexual relationships between men and adolescents. He recommends urging Google to drop the site.

Music: The Thirsty Theologian has written a song. A really bad song. But he points to a post by Libbie that contains a song that is far, far worse. It could be one of the most meaningless worship songs I’ve ever read. The chorus is, “Wash over me, wash over me ‘til I can’t take any more”

Modesty: The Girl Talk ladies, just in time for summer (shorts, short skirts, tank tops and all the other accoutrements of warm weather fashion) are beginning a series dealing with modesty. “…My dad says it this way, ‘Any biblical discussion of modesty begins by addressing the heart, not the hemline.’”

Business: In an interesting little bit of business news, the BBC has discovered that Google earns $0.12 in revenue for every Google search you and I do. Google controls almost half of the search market and that number seems to grow constantly.