I Repent.

I now believe in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and I want my belief taught in the public schools. Thank you, Steve P., for giving me direction.

A College Friend's Take on Intelligent Design

Howard Troxler and I both lived in Morrison dormitory, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1978-9. I remember him as a friend and mentor. (He was a junior when I was a freshman.) Now, he's a columnist at the St. Petersburg (FL) Times. Here's his take on intelligent design.

Twenty-Three Years.

This weekend, Julie and I celebrate 23 years of marriage.

Back in 1982, Julie's mother, Lona, predicted annulment within three months. Clearly, she underestimated her daughter's patience.

Happy anniversary, darling. I love you.

GLMS on the GLRC

The Great Lakes Radio Consortium did a great story on the Great Lakes Myth Society the other morning. Yes, indeed, it was great. Listen to the story via this great link.

A Brief Guster Tour!

My pals Adam, Ryan and Brian will be at the Michigan Theatre on Wednesday, November 2. Matt Pond PA opens. Tickets go on sale 9/19 (Music Today) and 10/1 (Ticketmastersoftheuniverse.) I think they'll sell out the Michigan Theater, so get your tix as soon as they go on sale.

Must Reads.

The End of the Bush Era by E.J. Dionne

9/11 and the Sport of God by Bill Moyers (against religious fundamentalism and probably more palatable than Sam Harris, even though he echoes some of Harris's points.)

Katrina Shows the Importance of Government by Steven Hill (If you're like me, you've already encountered the argument that government is obviously going to respond slowly to disasters -- it's government, after all, and can't do anything without bumbling. Of course, the rhetorical play is that conservatives have damned government by "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, FEMA responded rapidly during the four hurricanes in Florida last year, an election year in a swing state governed by the president's brother, so you make the call.)

A Ton of Work, But It Looks Like Fun.

My Advanced PR Writing class will wear me out this term with all the real-world PR projects we'll be doing, but it might be the more rewarding of the two classes. We're to work for real people with real PR needs -- either an established firm or a firm trying to establish an identity. The instructor is the communications director for the Auto Group, which is a consortium of six AAA clubs, representing 6,100 employees and 1.4 million members. He's young, about my age, and full of energy and love of writing. He'll have us produce materials that we can use in our portfolios and will be useable by our clients.

So, is your business in need of a PR burnishing? Talk to me. Be my guinea pig and my master.

Those Wacky Religious Conservatives

Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey and Charles Colson say that hurricane Katrina was an omen or a punishment from god. You might think that Robertson, at least, would start censoring himself after all his gaffes, but you'd be wrong.

I think the only adequate response is ridicule. Although I haven't embraced all of Sam Harris's The End of Faith, which I hope to talk about again soon, I like this little trick he suggests: whenever you see "God" in the transcripts of these religious conservatives, substitute the name of your favorite Norse, Greek or Roman god. It's pretty funny. Thus, Charles Colson reads like this:

COLSON: Katrina gave us a preview of what America would look like if we fail to fight the war on terror. "Did Neptune have anything to do with Katrina?," people ask. My answer is, he allowed it and perhaps he allowed it to get our attention so that we don't delude ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is put things back the way they were and life will be normal again.

James Dobson sounds like this:

By uniting in prayer as a nation, we can avail ourselves of the wisdom that only Zeus provides. By petitioning Him for mercy and grace, people everywhere can be a very real and necessary part of the hope and healing. Through prayer, we can access the power of Zeus Himself.”

You can have endless hours of fun with the god-substitution game.

Word Verification Is Now "On."

More comment spam has been pooped onto this blog so I've enabled "word verification." Now you must enter the trippy, wiggly word you see onscreen before Blogger will accept your comment. I'm sorry to have to do this to you, dear reader. Thank you for your understanding.

I Used to Think That Wolf Blitzer Had the Best Name in Broadcast Journalism

But that's old skool. The best name in broadcast journalism belongs to the BBC's Damien Grammaticus.

First Night of Grad School, and I Live to Tell the Tale

I confess to being anxious these last few weeks, which seems to make me less communicative. Income and performance are, I think, my greatest anxieties. Most people understand the first, but are a little hazy on the second. Will I live up to expectations? And it doesn't matter whose expectations we're discussing. Everyone's -- anyone's -- expectations are fair game for my anxiety.

So it was with great relief that I found a wonderful group of grad students around the table in Pray-Harrold room 312, for "The Rhetoric of Science and Technology." Yes, they're all younger, slimmer and hipper than I, but they didn't care and, pretty soon, neither did I. I might wear on them as the semester progresses because I have long since lost my inhibitions around people with doctorates and tend to speak my mind. As I like to say, Ph.D.'s are all just like me: they put on their panty hose one leg at a time.

I found that I was just as prepared for class as anyone else. I think my contributions to discussion were on point, like everyone else's, and that maybe I provided a different perspective.

Early on, there was an interesting discussion about the use of "BCE" versus "BC" in technical writing. I thought the instructor belabored the point that, generally, people now use BCE, as in "Before the Common Era." One of my comrades took offense to this, saying that it was wrong because it took christ out of the expression; BCE is an expression that only liberals would use and conservatives would continue to use BC (Before Christ.) There was a little back-and-forth with the prof, who merely wanted to say that BCE is common terminology, and the student who emphasized that what was removed offended him and others of his faith.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is a gauntlet I love to pick up.

I wanted so much to say that although Western Europeans had the guns, germs and steel to conquer most of the world, we've evolved at least a little bit since then -- enough, at least, to know that the world is not Jesus-centric, and that's okay. Even if the birth of Jesus is the demarcation for ancient vs. modern, we don't have to rub cultural noses in it. Really, now -- why should Shintoists have to refer to Jesus?

I tried to give the prof a little help by saying, "I'd love to get in on this discussion but that's probably not how you want to spend the next hour." She agreed, made her stylistic point, and moved on. Whew.

Next class: tomorrow night, Advanced Public Relations Writing, taught by the communications director of the Auto Group -- six AAA clubs with 1.4 million members and 6,100 employees. I think I might learn some practical shizzle.

Spoon Update

Tonight, 9/1, Spoon will be on Late Night with David Letterman. And on Saturday October 29, Spoon will play St. Andrews in Detroit. Anyone up to going to the show? Tickets go on sale 9/7.