Saturday Good Reads

It’s the Advent season, and a number of writers are talking about it, including Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition, who has a post about what’s behind the Christmas carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” written, in case you didn’t know, by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

If you ever questioned the presence of blatant bias in the American news media, the anecdotal evidence continues to pile up. As the story of the San Bernardino shootings was developing, Bloomberg Business tweeted that the Social Services site in California was less than two miles from a Planned Parenthood facility – attempting to infer that this must be about the “climate of hate” directed at Planned Parenthood. At first I couldn’t believe they were this blatant (and stupid), but I checked their Twitter stream, and sure enough, that’s what they did. Bloomberg did eventually apologize (to “any who might have been offended”) – after Planned Parenthood said the shootings had nothing to do with their facility. Rod Dreher has the story.

We still have poetry, and several good articles on writing. And Placido Domingo teams up with The Piano Guys.

Poetry

Elizabeth Jennings – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

November Fog – Tim Good at Arts by Tiwago.

Love – Seth Haines.

One a Day - Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

Writing

Some of the Best Byproducts of Writing – Mick Silva.

Your corporation can't tell a story for the same reason my 12-year-old can't tell a story – David Murray at Writing Boots.

The Part-Time Novelist — Advice for Writers Who Have a Day Job – Mike Duran at deCompose.

'People Need Other Things to Live By' – Rod Dreher interviews novelist Eugene Vodolazkin at American Conservative.

Life and Culture

Censors on the Flagship – Wendell Berry at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

San Bernardino Spite – Rod Dreher at American Conservative.

Photography

Clark Monument – Bellefontaine Cemetery – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

Faith

Thanks, Santa – Winn Collier.

Noel – Amanda Hill at Hill + Pen.

I Lay Myself Before Thee – Martha Orlando at Meditations of My Heart.

Advent Reflection #1 – Chris Yokel.

The True Story of Pain and Hope Behind “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” – Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition.

When Your Country is a Prison – Ahmed’s Story – Shawn Smucker.

Have a Mary Christmas, Not a Martha One - Doug Spurling at Spurling Silver.

Silent Night by Placido Domingo and The Piano Guys

Photograph by Sergey Klimkin via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.