A Year Away from Twitter / X

Twitter was the first social media platform I joined, way back in 2008. I was far from being an early adopter, but I was one of the first people at work to sign up. 

Even that early, you could see the enormous potential for good and bad that a social media platform like Twitter could have. What we know as cancel culture developed early.

 

From 2008 to 2023, I had a consistent strategy in how I used the platform. I tweeted positive stuff. I didn’t engage in politics or controversies. I highlighted good things people were doing or writing. And I have to say I was steadfast from the beginning to the end.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Photograph by David Paschke via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Failure to Thrive – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian.

 

The Previous Lives of Used Books – Thea Rosenberg at Story Warren.

 

Buckner, Jr. at Gettysburg 1913 – Chris Kolakowski at Emerging Civil War.

 

Why Are the Classics Necessary? – Louise Cowan at Th imaginative Conservative.

 

In Search of the Rarest Book in American Literature: Edgar Allen Poe’s Tamarlane – Bradford Morrow at Literary Hub.

Honeybees, Death, Grief, and Life: “The Honey Field” by Laura Boggess

Years ago, my company hired an expert on bees. Concern had been expressed about one of our product’s effect on bees and bee colony collapse was a general issue. I spent considerable time with this expert on work projects, and I learned, among many other things, that honeybees came from Europe, that Missouri is home to some 75 different kinds of bees, that most bees live in the ground, that commercial beekeepers transport hives for pollination of crops like almonds in California, and what I should plant in my home garden that bees would like.  

Our beekeeper expert became a good friend. And I was inspired to plant Monarda, commonly known as bee balm. It’s a member of the mint family, and it spreads like mint, so you have to manage it. And I found myself spending considerable time watching it attract bees – four different kinds, in fact, two of which were easy to identify – bumble bees and honeybees. The other two were small, almost tiny, and you had to get close to see that they were indeed bees, not gnats.

 

The Honey Field by Laura Boggess is about bees, too, but it’s also about much more. Of novella-like length, it’s a story of death and grief, illness and healing, and life and love. And food, including a few recipes. And bees, honeybees to be precise, occupying several hives in a semi-rural area.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

“Hyla Brook” by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Wordsworth’s “Excursion”: 1 and Wordsworth’s “Excursion” 2: The Ruined Cottage – Adam Roberts at Adam’s Notebook.

 

Reaching for Something Beyond: Father Ian Ker and The Catholic Revival in English Literature 1845-1961 – Dermot Quinn at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

A pair of sonnets for St. John the Baptist – Malcolm Guite.

 

The Poetry Club: Bookmark It – Tweetspeak Poetry. 

I Shall Return – poem by Claude McKay at Every Day Poems.

Some Monday Readings - July 24, 2024

A Brief History of Bedlam Hospital – Robert Lloyd at CrimeReads. 

Initially – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

The life you save may be your own – Jon Schaff at Current Magazine.

 

1 Mom, 2 Boys, and a Big, Classic Novel – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Remnant Rubens – Michael Prodger at The Critic Magazine on the British folk artist George Smart. 

 

The Man in the Arena – Douglas Murray at The Free Press on the speech by Theodore Roosevelt.

 

Two Tree Island – the Last Standing Place on the Thames – A London Inheritance.

 

Saturday Wanderings – Pamela Steiner at Closed Doors, Open Windows. 

 

See Something and Say Something – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

Instructions for the race

After Hebrews 12:1-17 

Listen, runners: here are

instructions for the race.

Lift your drooping heads.

Strengthen those weak knees.

Make straight paths.

Strive for peace with all.

Strive for the holiness

known only to the Lord.

Share the grace.

Avoid bitterness.

Know your birthright is

worth more than a meal.

Accept the discipline

meant for your good.

Endure.

Endure to the end.

 

Photograph by Steve Lelham via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

When Christian Groups Subvert Religious Liberty of Christians – Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Summer Reading for G.K. Chesterton – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Female Faith Poets: Where to Begin – Jody Collins at Poetry & Made Things. 

 

You’re Useless – Br. Gerard Rosario DeAngelis at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Saturday Good Reads - June 22, 2024

Hell hath no fury like the federal government scorned – or caught doing something embarrassing. The U.S. government has sought the extradition of Julian Assange since the Obama Administration. His crime: committing journalism. Had The New York Times done the same thing (and did, back in Daniel Ellsberg days), no federal agents would come banging at the door. But times change.  

Conservative journalist Christopher Rufo learned that Texas Children’s Hospital was doing what had been outlawed by the state legislature. He was given chapter and verse, with names blanked out, of children still being operated on for transgender purposes. He wrote about it, and wrote about it again. And the feds have now come for the young doctor who was his source, with a 10-count indictment. A legal defense fund has now been set up for the doctor.

 

“A government with a permanent deficit and a bloated military. A bogus ideology pushed by elites. Poor health among ordinary people. Senescent leaders. Sound familiar?” Historian Niall Ferguson explains how we’re all soviets now.

 

In 1861, Missouri stayed in the Union – barely. The governor tried to lead the state into secession. The move to join the Confederacy was stopped with bloodshed, and it happened here in St. Louis. Tonya McQuade at Emerging Civil War describes how the “Wide Awakes” helped keep Missouri in the Union. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

Speaking Responsibly about Religion and Politics: A Review of Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism? – Paul Kruse at Front Porch Republic.

 

Techno-Terror: If It Drives You to Drink, Have a Drink with Me – David Murray at Writing Boots.

 

News Media

 

Washington Post Foreign Desk, Accused of Pro-Hamas Bias, Teems with Al Jazeera Veterans – Joseph Simonson at the Washington Free Beacon.

 

Israel

 

Israel’s Double-Edged Sword (Part II) – Michael Oren at Clarity with Michael Oren.

 

Faith

 

Let’s Hear It for the Second Parents – Tim Challies.

 

O, Brother – Sean Dietrick at Sean of the South.

 

Observations on Exvangelicals and Deconstructing – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Man Who Introduced Evangelicals to C.S. Lewis – Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Reading War and Peace in Both War and Peace – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

The Taste of Strawberries: Tolkien’s Imagination of the Good – Jeffrey Bilbro at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Metaphor Magic: Wield Your Pen Like a Wand – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

 

British Stuff

 

The Markets of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Defend Christian private schools – Steve Beegoo at The Critic Magazine.

 

Poetry

 

"Telling the Bees" by John Greenleaf Whittier – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Lord is by My Side – CityAlight

Painting: A Good Read, oil on canvas by Theodoros Ralli (1852-1909).

Discipline has a purpose

After Hebrews 12:1-17 

We are children, learning;

we are children inevitably

wayward, choosing the wrong,

ignoring the right. Because

we are loved, we are

disciplined.

 

It is sons who are disciplined,

sons and daughters, heirs,

disciplined to be trained

to endure the race,

the discipline running

with us in the race, keeping

in our lanes, propelling

us forward, training

us all the way, training

us because he loves

us.

 

Photograph by Candra Winata via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Entropy of the Modern Mind – Greg Doles at Chasing Light.

 

From The Finding of the True Cross – hymn by Yared at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Fisher of Men – poem by Chris Slaten at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

The Uselessness of Prayer – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Sacred Heart – artwork by Jack Baumgartner at The School for the Transfer of Energy. 

A Taste of Honey, Poetry & Love: An Interview with Laura Boggess - T.S. Poetry.

"From the Ashes" by Damien Boyd

An elderly widow has been found dead in her home. The attending doctor diagnoses natural causes, but a rather clever young policewoman tells her partner that they’re to report any death of an elderly person, according to a note on the Avon and Somerset Police Department’s intranet. They do, and soon enough, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dixon visits the scene. And he quickly sees that the woman has been strangled.  

A similar case had been reported in a neighboring police jurisdiction, that of an elderly man initially believed to have died of natural causes. It turned out that he, too, had been strangled. A regional task force is created, and Dixon is made an Acting Superintendent so that Avon and Somerset can keep control.

 

Both victims were teachers from the same seaside community. They taught at different schools but likely knew each other. But Dixon and his team, which includes his partner Jane Winters now six-months pregnant with their child, can’t find anything else that might be a connecting point or a reason for their deaths. That is, until there’s a third murder, and a chance remark leads to the first breakthrough in the case.

 

Damien Boyd

The victims played for the same bridge club team. And, 20 years before, they were all in Torquay for a tournament the night the tournament hotel burned down, killing three people. And it’s that discovery from which Dixon moves the investigation forward. 

 

From the Ashes is the 14^th DCI Nick Dixon mystery by British writer Damien Boyd, and it’s a clear winner in the series. Boyd keeps Dixon (and the reader) guessing as he builds the tension and then brings the story together in a thrilling conclusion.

 

Boyd uses his own experience as a legal solicitor and a member of the Crown Prosecution Service to frame his stories. And that knowledge and experience is telling. He understands how policemen do their work, how prosecutions operate, and what happens when a former tax lawyer (Dixon) brings his very unorthodox thinking to police work. 

 

Boyd has to do a 15^th entry in the series; we want to find out about Nick and Jane’s wedding, the baby, the politics at police headquarters. And we want another cracking good tale.

 

Related:

My review of Damien Boyd’s As the Crow Flies.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Head in the Sand.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Kickback.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Swansong.

My review of Damien Boyd's Dead Level.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Death Sentence.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Heads or Tails.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Dead Lock.

 

My review of Damien Boyd’s Beyond the Point.

 

My review of Down Among the Dead by Damien Boyd.

 

My review of Dying Inside by Damien Boyd.

 

My review of Carnival Blues by Damien Boyd.

 

My review of Death Message by Damien Boyd. 

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Nicholas Kristoff tries to figure out who destroyed the West Coast – Stephen Miller at The Spectator.

 

Yesterday’s Men: The death of the mythical method – Alan Jacobs at Harper’s Magazine.

 

The odd couple: Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene – Jeffrey Meyers at The Critic Magazine.

 

Red Marks, a Dark Teesside short story by Glenn McGoldrick, is free on Amazon today.

 

What Comes After Liberalism? – John Horvat at The Imaginative Conservative. 

The Unexpected Ballerina

The summer issue of Cultivating Oaks Press is live online, and the theme is courage. It includes a short story I wrote, "The Unexpected Ballerina." The issue is chock full of articles, poems, photography, and more by Annie Nardone, Junius Johnson, Maribeth Barber Albritton, Amelia Friedline, Kris Comely, Justin Lee Parker, Amy Wevodau Malskeit, Rob Jones, and more, under the general editorship of Lancia Smith. It's a wonderful issue.

How I Came to Social Media

It was work that originally led me to sign up for Twitter and other social media platforms. For a number of years, social media became my work. Even when I retired, I was still managing the company’s social media platforms. 

From 2003 to 2004, I spent nine months working in communications for St. Louis Public Schools, which was in dire straits. Enrollment had declined to an official 40,000 from a peak of about 100,000, and the district was still operating school buildings, a headquarters building, and an administrative staff that supported a 100,000 enrollment. A management firm was hired by a reform school board to take over and do the painful stuff that had to be done. The management firm was in place all of two days when it discovered that the district was bankrupt.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Photograph by Sara Kurfeß via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

R.E. Lee, the father: Great tickle fighter and more – JoAnna McDonald at Emerging Civil War. 

 

How Normandy Remembers the Only U.S. Military Chaplain Killed on D-Day – Blake Stilwell 

at Military.com. 

 

Book Notes: Union General Daniel Butterfield – Civil War Books & Authors. 

A Poetic Masterwork: "The Shield of Achilles" by W.H. Auden

In 1948, poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973) received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The Age of Anxiety, a long poem in six parts that addressed the search for identity and meaning in an industrialized world that was constantly changing. His poetry was already recognized as among the very best being published; the native-born Englishman and naturalized American occupied the top, or almost top, of the poetic literary world. 

The poem reflects an event in Auden’s life that would become more pronounced as he grew older. He had embraced religious faith, and his poetry was increasingly reflecting that acceptance. But his poetry was also developing into a more cohesive entity, with poems informing and relating to each other in a directed and consistent way. 

That cohesiveness (critics usually call it coherence) blossomed into full maturity with Auden’s 1955 collection The Shield of Achilles. It’s a remarkable work, not only for how the individual poems relate to each other but for Auden’s mastery of language that is often stunning.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The Necessity of Continual Pitching – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Grandmother – poem by Eva Salzman at Every Day Poems.

 

6.16.2024 – poem by Paul Wittenberger at Paul’s Substack.

 

How to Sell Your Next Book – Harvey Stanbrough at The New Daily Journal. 

James Boswell’s East End – Spitalfields Life.

Some Monday Readings

“Recuerdo” by Edna St. Vincent Millay – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

The Tragedy and Triumph of The Killing Fields – Bradley Birzer at Law & Liberty.

 

Turbulence After the Trump Verdict – Charles Lipson at The Spectator.

 

What Lowry saw in the sea – William Cook at The Critic Magazine on the philosophical side of the British painter.

 

How Hadrian’s Wall is revealing a hidden side of Roman history – Julia Buckey, CNN.

 

A Confederate Buried at Mount Vernon? – Evan Portman at Emerging Civil War.

 

AI, Poetry, and Prayer – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Comps and Circumstance – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Daniel Defoe: The first futurist – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

London Maps in Books – A London Inheritance.

 

Photograph: Hadrian’s Wall near Waltown Crags,by Ray Harrington via Unsplash. Used with permission.

 

Run with endurance

After Hebrews 12:1-17 

We are to run

with endurance,

this race set

before us, keeping

our eyes on the prize,

the founder and

perfecter of our faith,

our belief, our hope,

the one who kept

his eyes on the prize

and endured,

endured the cross,

enduring the pouring

of the sins of all

upon himself, endured

the hostility and hatred,

so that we, too, could

run the race, and

run with endurance.

 

Photograph by Isaac Wendland via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A Son’s Journey to His Father – Art Kusserow at Front Porch Republic.

 

Making Good Return – Tim Challies reviews the book on caring for aging parents by Kathleen Nelson.

 

Seven Things Good Days Say – Chap Bettis at The Disciple-Making Parent.

 

The Getting of Wisdom – Andy Farmer at Biblical Coalition.

 

The Least of My Brethren: Sally Thomas’ Works of Mercy – Abigail Wilkinson Miller at The European Conservative.

My Dad Gave Me Books - and More Besides - Joel Miller at Miller's Book Review.

Saturday Good Reads - June 15, 2024

If you visit New Orleans, a must-see is the D-Day Museum, expanded into the World War II Museum. You can watch movies about the war in Europe and the Pacific (part of the admission fee) produced by Steven Spielberg. And the exhibits are incredible. The reason the museum ended up in New Orleans has to do with a man named Andrew Jackson Higgins, whose New Orleans firm designed and manufactured the D-Day landing boats. Higgins has been called “the man who won the war for us.” 

Charles Dickens was a major writer (some say the major writer) of the 19^th century, but he wasn’t a poet. And yet. Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern considers a poem he wrote and placed in The Pickwick Papers. It’s about a dying frog, of all things. 

 

This is what passes for journalism today. Concerning the rescue of the four Israeli hostages, CNN reported they’d been “freed” and Reuter’s sad they’d been “released.” And the BBC asked an Israeli interviewee if the residents of the apartment building where three of the hostages were imprisoned should have been warned first. (Not to mention that three of four rescued were being held in the apartment of a journalist for Al-Jazeera.) Seth Mandel at Commentaryexplains the truth about the war in Gaza.

 

Quote of the Week: “The New York Times, which will delete its own website before admitting they got anything wrong about Biden, Russia, or Covid, is still saying the Hunter Biden laptop could all be fake: ‘Many claims about the laptop’s contents have not been proved, but it played a role in the prosecution of Mr. Biden over a firearm purchase.’ Hmmm. Claims. Not been proved.” – Nellie Bowles, The Free Press.

 

More Good Reads

 

Israel

 

Why We Shouldn’t Trust ‘The Facts’ Coming Out of Gaza – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Helping – Ahmed Fouad Alkatahib at The Free Press.

 

I Went to Cover a Protest. I Was Surrounded by a Mob – Olivia Reingold at The Free Press.

 

Iron Dome: Israel’s Double-Edged Sword, Part 1 – Michael Oren at Clarity with Michael Oren. 

 

Activism Uncensored: Thousands surround White House with two-mile long “red line” banner for Palestine – Ford Fischer and Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

American Stuff

 

The Foundation of American Folly – N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval.

 

Lincoln’s Grief – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic.

 

Faith

 

Dickens, Diabetes, and Positive-Sum Games – Dr. Anne Bradley at Acton Institute.

 

Does Bach’s Music Prove the Existence of God? – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

 

1994 and All That, 30 Years On – Matthew Hosier at Think Theology.

 

Culture

 

A Doctor Told the Truth. The Feds Showed Up at His Door – Emily Yoffe at The Free Press.

 

FBI Asked Co-Workers of Bureau Employee About Trump Support, Vaccine Beliefs – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

We are not Users: The Hidden Impact of Digital Labels – Brent Lucia at Far From Equilibrium. 

 

How Public Schools Became Ideological Boot Camps – Robert Pondiscio at The Free Press.

 

Ukraine

 

War and (A Just) Peace in Ukraine – Yury Avvakumov at Church Life Journal.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Good (and Bad) Fathers: Six Perspectives on Fictional Fathers, for Father’s Day – Dixie Dillon Labe at The Hollow.

 

The Problems Posed by AI and Flannery O’Connor’s Unfinished Novel – Jessica Hooten Wilson at Church Life Journal.

 

Poetry

 

The Inaugural First Things Poetry Prize – First Things Magazine.

 

Longfellow’s Bridge – Gunny Markefka at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Looking – poem by David Whyte.

 

British Stuff

 

‘I wouldn’t call it a victory’: Fossil Free Book Organizers on Baillie Gifford’s exit from literary festival funding – Lucy Knight at The Guardian.

 

J.S. Bach’s “Chaconne” – Marc Bouchkov and the Frankfort Radio Symphony

 Painting: An old man reading by candlelight, oil on canvas by Godfried Schalcken (1643-1706).