Friday Links, December 22, 2017
What happens when nobody shows up to your book reading? "I went to the Fiction & Literature section and worked through some options in my head. I could go into the bathroom and try to drown myself in one of the toilets. I could fake an illness. I did that once when I was an altar boy in junior high. I could email my publicist and say… well, I have no idea."
Looking for some good Catholic music? Try the Hillbilly Thomists. "While The Hillbilly Thomists will have obvious appeal for people of faith and fans of roots music, there is also something universally human about these songs. ‘Sacred music, when it's beautiful, can give us a glimpse into the divine mystery that words can't quite access,’ Br. Simon explains. ‘Folk music does something similar. It takes us on a journey into the depths of the human heart.’"
Christmas is upon us, gentle readers! Don't feel bad if you are exhausted by the atmosphere of Christmas cheer even before the proper liturgical season has begun. Others feel as you do. "Scrooge was right to say humbug. The word humbug means ‘deceptive speech.’ Well might we have been to have contemplated the word in 1843. Alas, we live now under the insidious Clausiarchy. Even Scrooge fell to its machinations, after three supernatural visitations transformed him into another Christmas extrovert. (This should be seen as an early form of Orwellian brainwashing, a Victorian Room 101.)"
Speaking of Christmas ghost stories, did you know that Christopher Lee used to narrate them for television? You're welcome.