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Obscenity
Just as I was ruing the plight of the human mind at the hands of publicly instituted censors, I received this delightful piece of unsolicited advertising in my mailbox. “You’ll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content.” And beside the copy is an example of the kind of inappropriate content I might wish [...]
Continue reading...Phonics
7. February 2005
George Bernard Shaw advocated the use of a phonetic alphabet and even made provision for it in his last will and testament. What a sad little man. To be fair, his impulse was well—intended. He recognized that the English language is distinguished by its anomalies. Classical Latin, for example, is a wonderfully ordered language and, [...]
Continue reading...About Education
3. February 2005
There is an apocryphal story about Einstein that goes something like this: One day, Einstein was standing at a counter while a civil servant completed a form for him. The person asked for his telephone number but he couldn’t remember it. The person was incredulous that a man of Einstein’s genius and reputation was unable [...]
Continue reading...Progress
24. January 2005
I do not believe in progress. The evidence weighs heavily against it. Everything worth thinking was already thought nearly 2500 years ago. There are only two stories to tell, and Homer told both — the Iliad and the Odyssey— the siege and the quest. There are only two philosophies, and both arose in the Athens [...]
Continue reading...The Presumption of Incoherence
16. January 2005
Today, in the west, we scrutinize everything with a presumption of incoherence. We use post-modern theoretical models to call into question even the possibility of coherence, suggesting that the world we inhabit is fundamentally fractured. This presumption reveals an underlying anxiety about the old certainties and reliable truths of a time long-past. Meanings are now [...]
Continue reading...The Sin of Incoherence
13. January 2005
Today, in the west, we elevate coherency to a virtue that surpasses all others. In an earlier entry, I allude to this issue in the context of politics. We assume, without question, that our lives must conform to the strictures of an unwavering consistency. But this is impossible. And yet we further burden ourselves by [...]
Continue reading...Having Insight
4. January 2005
My greatest fear is that I might be utterly lacking in insight, like the emperor with no clothes. Occasionally, we meet such people, and we laugh or shake our heads and wonder what it must be like to pass a lifetime wholly oblivious to whatever it is that makes them distinctive. There is a man [...]
Continue reading...The Student Point of View
3. January 2005
This week, we all go back to school. The holidays away from school have reminded me why it is I keep slogging it out as a student. There is something important about a student’s viewpoint. Unfortunately, we often abandon the student’s viewpoint when we leave school. We assume that maturity entitles us to adopt one [...]
Continue reading...What Does a Metaphor Mean
19. December 2004
There is a metaphor for the religious life that has been gaining ground for years now. In fact, it is an ancient metaphor. But you hear a lot about it nowadays. We speak of the religious life as a journey. We are on a faith journey. This may come from the pilgrimages that people made [...]
Continue reading...Demonic Possession
17. December 2004
Fall term is over. I can only describe it as harrowing. To on outsider, I am certain there was little indication of the interior foment. By the time I delivered my last paper, I was satisfied that I achieved — maybe even exceeded — my goals. I had used my courses, not merely to learn [...]
Continue reading...Queer Theory
29. October 2004
Knock, knock! Who’s there? Boo. Boo who? Don’t cry. As I prepare to write a paper for one of my courses, I find myself exploring a different literary form — or a literary form of difference — the coming out story. It must be an important form. You can find examples of it everywhere: –> [...]
Continue reading...When Religion Becomes Abusive
11. October 2004
This weekend was (Canadian) Thanksgiving, so we spent it with Tamiko’s sister and her family at Pine House Farm near Hillsdale. No, we did not eat either Sally or Chocolate Milk (see my Elmvale Fall Fair where the kids (theirs; not mine) had different veggies entered in the contests. I stayed behind to read all [...]
Continue reading...Math Puzzles and Stupid Numerologists
2. October 2004
In the Autumn, 2004 issue of the University of Toronto Magazine, there is an article by Marcel Danesi about thinking outside the box. He illustrates this with an old mathematical teaser. Without lifting your pencil from the paper, use four straight lines to connect the dots of this 3 X 3 grid. This puzzle first [...]
Continue reading...The Voynich Manuscript
6. September 2004
In this month’s issue of Wired, there is an article which gives me much encouragement. It’s an account of a psychologist named Gordon Rugg who, in his spare time, has devoted himself to the puzzle of the Voynich manuscript. This is a medieval manuscript which appears to have been encrypted by its author. No one [...]
Continue reading...C Force in Hong Kong
21. August 2004
One of my prized possessions is a Christmas card I discovered in my aunt Lila’s correspondence after she had died. It’s the strangest thing. Not until she had died did I discover that she had been married once before — to Capt. Norman Chalmers. I leave him to another entry. For now, his only role [...]
Continue reading...New eFiction from David Allan Barker
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26. February 2005
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