Odds and Ends

I’m mostly taking time off through the end of this week, but wanted to share a few links I found round and about.

The first shares the sad news that Disney has decided to walk away from the Chronicles of Narnia films. This leaves Walden Media looking for another distributor who can take them on (which Fox probably being the most obvious contender). It’s not that the movies were losing money; far from it, really. It’s just that they were not turning enough of a profit for the investment and that there was a significant reduction in profit from the first to the second. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been in pre-production and there is no word on whether that will now cease or if it will continue while Walden shops the franchise. It also calls into question whether, even if the franchise does continue, they can secure the same actors and actresses. So here is hoping a studio like Fox can see some good in the franchise and pick it up without completely destroying it. And here’s hoping they can turn the future films into something better than Prince Caspian which was, at least in most people’s eyes, not nearly as good as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. You can read more details here.

Second, I don’t know what the Media Research Center is, but I had a great time reading through their 2008 quotes of the year. Awards were handed out in categories such as The Obamagasm Award, From Camelot to Obamalot Award, Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis, and so on. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews won “Quote of the Year” for this doozy: [Listening to Obama], “I felt this thrill going up my leg!” You can read more at this link.

And finally, this looks like a great program. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got quite a few Bibles lying around your home–Bibles that have been replaced at one time or another and are now just gathering dust. You don’t want to throw them out, but also don’t quite know what to do with them. Well here is one way of putting them to good use. You can bare your bookshelf and send the books to pastors in other parts of the world. Christian Resources International has a program in place that will help you do just that. “Just enter your name, address, and denomination in the form below, and then we’ll send you–free–all the mailing materials you need to send a Bible to a specific pastor, Christian worker, church member, or seeker overseas. We’ll send you the recipient’s name and address, so you can pray for the recipient by name.” You can go to the post office (if you’re in the U.S., at least) and send that envelope anywhere in the world for only $12. And, because ” the mailing materials bear CRI’s return address, you need not worry that you’ll be personally contacted by anyone overseas.” Take a look at the program and see if it may be a good way of finally clearing out some of those old Bibles.