A Message from Blogger about Followers

I just got this. I'm not sure what it means, but it seems to be saying that if you're following this blog via something other than google, you'll be cut off. Maybe the date of January 11 means that my non-ggogle-using followers have already been dumped without notice. Anyway, FWIW, here's what they just sent me.

The latest from Blogger Buzz

An update on Google Friend Connect

5 weeks ago by A Googler

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

Intriguing New Website — Your Other Brothers

There's a new website, Your Other Brothers, which you may find interesting — http://www.yourotherbrothers.com — dealing with the stories of its authors, who find some tension in living as Christians with a homosexual orientation. It started yesterday, November 30, and so far four* of its multiple authors have posted to the site's blog. It's interesting to see that there are significant differences among them (for example, two have married women), despite what they have in common in terms of faith and orientation.

In addition to the blog, there is a resources page that lists books that explore their topics (including some by members of the site.

One of the writers on the site is Tom Zuniga, whose visit here about a year ago was the topic of a blogpost at the time. He's written a "quarter autobiography" titled Struggle Central. In it he tells of his own struggles in his first 25 years, including coming to terms as a Christian with his homosexuality. One thing that helped a lot was a site he discovered about seven years ago called Xanga. It's now defunct, but he considered it so important and valuable that he hopes Your Other Brothers can play a comparable role for people now.

Tom has his own blog and is on Twitter, both of which let us keep up to date with what's happening in his life. They're worth following, but the point of this post is to suggest that you check out the new site, Your Other Brothers. Even if you are not a young person dealing with issues of self-acceptance and faith, it can give insights into who you are, how you got to where you are in life, and what possibilities exist going ahead. I expect that for myself as I read the personal accounts of the Brothers.

So check it out.

*Since I wrote that, two more writers have posted on the blog.

An Evangelical with a Good Example for the Catholic Church

I just came across this blogpost by Father David Barnes. What struck me first about it was that the same-sex-attracted Evangelical was in a leadership position in his organization. Next and more importantly, his presentation seems to be very consistent with the basic message of St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body, although there was no overt reference to it, and it may well be that the Evangelical has never heard of  TOB.

Finally, I think Fr. Barnes is quite right that this sort of thing is what we need in the Catholic Church. John Paul II gave us the material we need. Now we need to have people who will affirm the message in an engaging manner, rather then undercutting it by suggesting that it's not for everybody. And along with that, we need the witness to our welcome to homosexuals which can be given by giving avowed homosexuals places of prominence such as the Evangelical has in his community.

I think Fr. Barnes has hit the nail on the head in this post (as he often does).

Tom's Visit

Fellow blogger and tweeter Thomas Mark Zuniga is about six months into his trek (#RunningTo) across the United States and much of Canada. He's been doing it by "couch surfing" and staying with friends. I became aware of him earlier this year, possibly via a retweet or blogpost from Gabriel Blanchard. He seemed an interesting and pleasant person, so I've been following him on Twitter, and I offered to host him if he came to the Boston area. After spending a day or so in Maine, he arrived here about 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening.

My brother was here as well. When I had told him Tom would be here, he thought he would not stay, but he subsequently decided that he would stay here as well. I did some tidying up, so the house was minimally presentable. That Sunday was the Feast of Christ the King in the Catholic calendar, so it merited special food. Tom had agreed to have lobster.

When Tom arrived I had just begun dinner preparations: beginning to heat the water for the lobsters and corn (what you call maize), and putting salad greens in bowls. Tom cut up a tomato, while I began to prepare some crackers and cheese (Brie and Port Salut). In the living room, Tom had some cranberry apple juice, Jim, his usual beer, and I my usual manhattan. We talked mostly about where to park (subway station garage) and what to see in Boston (I recommended Beacon Hill and the Freedom Trail). I gave Tom an official Boston and Cambridge Visitors' Guide. Tom helped shuck the corn. At dinner, we talked about eating lobster, visiting Boston, and Jim and I shared a number of family stories. I hope it was entertaining. If not, at least Tom was polite. When my manhattan was gone, I went for a beer, and Tom decided to try one too. We each had a Spencer Trappist Ale (the only Trappist ale brewed in the United States). He liked it. It's fairly full-bodied, and not bitter. Dessert was coffee ice-cream and cookies.

After dinner, Tom autographed my copy of his book, Struggle Central, which I had just gotten through my local bookseller on Friday. Tom has blogged about it. Although I'm only beginning to read it now, I expect it to be very good

This morning, I got some specific information from the MBTA about fares and parking facilities, which I printed out. I also attached little post-its at places in the Visitors' Guide that I thought would be useful. At breakfast, Tom talked about how he's been able to play for the trip so far, and his plans for the remainder of the trip.

It would have been pleasant for me if Tom could have stayed a day or two longer. I'd have liked to show him around my home town and some of the surrounding area. That was not possible. Tom already had plans to stay overnight Monday with a friend in Cambridge. Then he wanted to see Worcester and Providence (I recommended taking a look at Newport), before heading to Philadelphia for Thanksgiving with his family. Beyond that, even if there had been more time, I've realized that Tom prefers to see places on his own. That's what he's been doing for six months, and that's what he wanted to do in Boston. He'd be happy to have suggestions, but I think he'd rather not have me alongside talking a blue streak about what everything was, and how I had once done something here and something else there.

So he headed off shortly before 9:30, and I trust he's finding enough points of interest in Boston to fill his day. He was a good guest, and I hope my hospitality was satisfactory. Edited to add: I had been planning to suggest that he make himself a sandwich or two to take along for lunch, but it slipped my mind. Hospitality fail.

Catching Up

Actually, there haven't been a lot of events to write about since I did my post on February 8.

I went to the theater in Boston on February 13 to see "Red Eye to Havre de Grace," a play with music about the last days of Edgar Allan Poe (who, I was surprised to learn, was born and raised in Boston, the son of actors who had immigrated from England). It showed his impecuniousness, and his attempts to present his latest ideas about the origin and destiny of the universe, which he had spelled out in a book titled "Eureka." While there is, as the playwrights note, some slight foreshadowing of the Big Bang theory, mostly it came across as incomprehensible. On the lecture circuit, where he tried to present his theory, audiences were more interested in hearing him recite "The Raven," which he found very frustrating. All the while, he was haunted by the death of his wife. After a lecture in Philadelphia, he was supposed to go to New York, but he was seen headed south on the train going to Havre de Grace. Several days later he died in a hospital in Baltimore. It was fascinating to see the depiction of this unfold.

Amazingly, perhaps, I've only been to one concert during this time: the Boston Symphony on February 20. But the BSO has only given one other on a Thursday in that time, namely, "Salome" on March 6. I had a ticket for it but exchanged it for the concert on March 18, when they'll play Beethoven piano concertos and one of the Leonore overtures — part of a series which will include all 5 piano concertos, all 3 Leonore overtures, and the triple concerto. I'll get to all of them. As for the Harvard Musical Association, they had a concert on March 7, but I forgot about it until it would have been difficult to get there.

But I have been making plans. My 50th college reunion will be May 29-June 1 in D.C. I've registered for it and made my flight and hotel reservations. I've also made arrangements to spend June 23-27 at the monastery I thought of joining shortly after college. It will partly be a spiritual retreat, and partly a visit with my old friends. At some point in the summer, I'll go to PEI to visit my cousins and see some of the festivities marking the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference. And I'm very much looking forward to meeting (former?) fellow blogger Peter when he visits Boston for a Pops concert conducted by John Williams.

I went to the movies a couple of days ago and saw "12 Years a Slave." It's a powerful depiction of the evils of slavery in the pre Civil War South.

As I watched videos of Pete Seeger after his death, I came across a couple with Johnny Cash in them. Following links from those, I was reminded of the Carter Family. (Johnny Cash had married Maybelle Carter's daughter June.)I had first encountered the Carters' music through recordings of some of their songs by Joan Baez early in her career, and I had bought a couple of LP compilations of some of their songs. I started listening to videos of that music (audio, mostly, accompanied by pictures) and became really fascinated by them — so much so that I went to Amazon and bought three books about them, a set of 5 CD's of their earliest recordings, and a CD and vinyl LP of Sara and Maybelle. I even toyed with the idea of going to Virginia early in August to attend a couple of performances at the Carter Family Fold, but I don't think I can afford it this year, with all the other trips I have planned.

If you're interested in hearing what the Carter Family actually sounded like, here are some links.

Bury Me under the Weeping Willow, the first song they recorded. This may be a later recording of the song, but it gives the full flavor of what they could do. (Some of the accompanying photos, with children, are for a spread that was made for Life magazine in the fall of 1941. It was preempted by the attack on Pearl Harbor and never got published.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCniFuHlPG0

Wildwood Flower, which became one of the signature tunes for Maybelle and her daughters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4xjqpARrHM

The Storms Are on the Ocean, the fourth song recorded the first day in Bristol, Tenn. (That's Jimmie Rodgers at the left in the photo, which dates from several years later.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-iXemfEkFw

The Poor Orphan Child, third song they recorded. I hadn't heard it until this year, and it became an earworm for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-EkYhJR3gs

When the World's on Fire, with a tune that Woddy Guthrie later used for This Land Is Your Land. The Carters also used it for Little Darling Pal of Mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxo-zayI6tE

Farther On, sung by Sara in about 1966-7 on a reunion album with Maybelle (but this is a solo by Sara, at age 69), nearly 40 years after the original recordings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OSxpkNHshw

You'll see links to lots of other videos. God Gave Noah (pron. Noay) the Rainbow Sign contains the line, "the fire next time." The later ones with Sara and Maybelle have their own interest. I find the 8 minute one especially interesting — it contains some reminiscences by Sara along with footage of the two performing.

Two Blogs and a Play

My 501st post was about Thanksgiving, not, as I had promised, about a couple of blogs I like. So here's what I wanted to say, plus a bit about my doings.

One of the blogs I'd recommend taking a look at is Spiritual Friendship. It is a group effort, with two editors and twelve additional contributors. Some of their names are familiar to me and others are not. But I think well of those I know, and I suppose the others are comparably good. They say that they "believe that marriage is not the only way of life God calls us to, and so we seek to explore different ways of serving God in celibacy. And Christ-centered friendship is, we believe, essential to that task." The idea that friendship is important is not new, and I expect that the thoughtful essays they present can be helpful.

They sometimes expand their scope beyond matters of friendship strictly speaking to include other topics related to gay people. For example, there was an article about Tom Daley's "coming out."

Their description of the blog includes this as well. "In trying to create a new approach to homosexuality, we have drawn on the wisdom found in the broader Christian tradition. We explore God's calling, the nature of the Church,celibacy, our nature as embodied souls, and related topics. Thus, what began as questions addressed to our situation as celibate gay Christians has led to answers which may be of interest to a much larger Christian audience."

So I see this blog as something which can encourage those among us who want to be celibate, can demonstrate the reasonableness as well as the possibility of celibacy for those who are wondering if it what they are called to — those who are asking themselves what kind of life they ought to lead, what kind of life they can lead — and can provide any who may consider "Side B" somehow homophobic a clear example of non-homophobic upholders of the "Side B" view.

As I've been writing this, I was drawn into reading a few of the articles and, in addition to the recent one on Tom Daley and this more recent one about romantic love, I highly recommend looking at this one from last August about C.S. Lewis's very balanced take on homosexuality. Those should give you some idea of what the blog is about, and I hope you'll find it worth reading.

The other blog is Mudblood Catholic. The blogger is a young man named Gabriel Blanchard, "a gay Catholic bookworm (incorporated into the Anglican Use in 2013). Huge fan of indie and electronica, as well as Mediaeval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. I have a degree in Classics, and get paid to snark across an espresso bar. I can be reached by Nigerian princes who need my assistance at gabrielblanchard25@gmail.com.." In his first post, he explains the word "Mudblood," for the benefit of those of us who haven't read the Harry Potter books. In his case, he means that he is a convert to Catholicism. But his choice of such a striking word gives you an idea of how visceral his approach is.

That first post gives a glimpse of his thinking and his original intent for the blog. I haven't read through the whole thing, even though it is still less than a year old, but based on what I have read, I think I'd do well to take the time for it. I'd suggest looking at a couple of posts — almost any will do — to get an idea of what he's about. His ideas are in some ways very unusual and striking,  and his writing is visceral, as I said, and personally revealing. Don't let the intensity scare you off.

Each blog in its own way does some of what I wanted this blog to do, and I'll probably find myself occasionally recommending posts from them here and/or on Twitter. But don't wait for me. Look for yourselves.


Wednesday evening, I trekked in to Boston to see a play presented by the Huntington Theatre Company, "The Cocktail Hour," by A. R. Gurney. Just in case the page I've linked goes unavailable after the run is over, here's how they describe it: "The pre-dinner cocktail is a revered ritual in John's parents' elegant home, but when he returns to announce that he has written a play about them, their calm demeanor dissolves. As the martinis flow, so do the revelations and recriminations, both funny and poignant, in this heartfelt comedy about the ties that bind."

While we may not have had the official designation in my home as I was growing up — and we didn't have hired help in the kitchen to allow everybody to relax in the living room — a pre-dinner drink was part of the daily routine.* Some of our friends and neighbors may even have had the more formalized version represented in the play. In other words, the play brought me to a setting reminiscent of my earlier years, and it was interesting to see what the author did with his characters in that setting. But the author regards that setting as one that is fading away. While the parents cling to the lifestyle that included it and made it possible, the next generation are moving away from it — it is a way of life that is fading away.

Into that milieu, the author places his characters with a drama exploring the author/son's relationships with his parents and siblings. He feels somehow excluded from the rest of the family, rejected from infancy by his parents (going so far as to suspect he was not his father's son). He comes to understand himself and his family more clearly by the end of the play. In a way, it's almost a play within a play. The play itself is semi-autobiographical, and the play which the protagonist has written is also semi-autobiographical and titled "The Cocktail Hour."

I enjoyed it a lot — so much so that I'm actually thinking of trying to get in to see it again.

* At one point I came up with a parody of the opening lines of Longfellow's "The Children's Hour."
Between the dark and the daylight
When the night is beginning to lower
There comes a pause in the day's occupation
That is known as the cocktail hour.

Welcome, New Follower Shane

I happened to glance over at my "followers" on my front page and saw an unfamiliar avatar. I verified that it was new by checking the number, which had risen to 108. It's Shane! His blog is titled "I just want to be me," and this is the url.

Here's what Shane has to say about himself in his header:

I'm out of college and working on my career now. I live in western PA and took a job in CT for two years. Now I am back home and trudging through my student loans. This blog is intended to be a journal that otherwise I would normally consider writing on paper and keep private, but I've decided that stories (lives) are worth sharing.

He's been on Blogger since 2009 and has just resumed blogging after taking a year off. I was following when he was in Connecticut, and it was interesting reading. The new post looks promising too. So I hope he'll be posting more or less regularly, and I recommend checking it out.

Thanks for following, Shane.

And Now I'm Back Home

First, I have thank MartininBroda for being my host and guide in Berlin and Potsdam, even though it meant he had to suffer through a day which he found extremely uncomfortable, and perhaps endangering to his health, as you can read in his own blog. And if you don't know German, scroll down to the English translation which he provided. I enjoyed meeting him and seeing all he and Pastor Roloff — whom I also enjoyed meeting — showed me. I hope to give a post about each day of my trip, so I'll reserve more about that day until later.

Next, I want to thank all the people who tweeted their good feelings toward me. I was really surprised and pleased at Martin's report of the tweets. It's always gratifying to know that  one is well thought of. So thanks again for all your kind thoughts.

I took a lot of pictures, and I hope I'll be able to post a few with each post about the trip.

For now, I'll just add that it was a good trip.

The Good, the Bad, and the Puzzling

The Good.


I attended two shows last week.

On Wednesday it was "Private Lives" by Noël Coward. It's a 1930's comedy of manners in which a divorced couple, who have each remarried, meet on their second honeymoons. It was well performed, I thought, and quite entertaining. It's probably best not to think too seriously about how this would all be in real life and what it would mean for the characters — just relax and enjoy the ride. James Waterston (Sam W.'s son) had the male lead and played the piano very well in the second act.

Then on Thursday I attended one of what is billed as the final performances anywhere of Hershey Felder's one man show "George Gershwin Alone." It was a fascinating look at the musical life of the composer. To me, the most poignant bit was when he told of an incident a couple of weeks before Gershwin's death. He was working in Hollywood had gone late at night to a dark soundstage and was playing a piano when heard a noise. It was a fifteen year old janitor, to whom the name Gershwin meant nothing — didn't even know what a composer is — but got permission to take a picture of him. After the show finished, Felder came back out for a brief singalong of things requested by the audience. After it was all over it occurred to me that it would have been fun to call out a request for "God Bless America" since both Gershwin's mother and Sam Goldwyn had suggested that he should write music that was more like Irving Berlin's. But Felder and the audience might have thought it was a mistake, rather than a joke.



The Bad.

For St. Boniface's Day I decided to celebrate with a veal chop for dinner. I would brown the chop and some slices of leek in a little oil, then add water and simmer it for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile I'd make a nice white sauce (butter, flour, milk) with shiitake mushrooms. I added chervil and mild paprika, then wavered for a minute between "Beau Monde Seasoning" (an onion and celery flavored salt) and plain salt, finally deciding on the latter, and as I went to sprinkle some in, the top fell off the shaker and a tablespoon or more of salt fell into the sauce. I removed what I could, but it was still terribly salty and ruined the meal. It later occurred to me that I should have rinsed the mushrooms and started over.

Then on Friday I decided to try something I'd been thinking about from time to time: tuna salad with tomato paste. I put a bit of mayonnaise on slices of bread and on a leaf of swiss chard. I took half a can of tuna, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and a tablespoon of mayo and mixed them well with a fork and assembled the sandwich. The tomato paste was too much. The sandwich wasn't as bad as the sauce on the veal. In fact I may try it again, but with considerably less tomato past. In the right proportion, I think it could add an interesting bit of flavor.


The Puzzling.


As some of you may have noticed, Martin has been unable to reach me by e-mail recently. (See comments on that post.) I've sent e-mails to him with three possible addresses to use for me. I sent one to the address in his blogger profile (which is the one that shows when I get e-mail notification of his comments), and I sent one to the address he put in his recent comment on the previous post. He doesn't seem to have gotten either. If you're still reading I'd like request a favor from you:
please send an e-mail titled "Test" to me at the address given in my profile, another to me at naturgesetz@gmail.com, one to Martin at the address from his profile, and finally one to martin-klaus.wisser@web.de, and when you've done so, please let us know by posting a comment here. That way, maybe we can begin to figure out where the problem is. Thanks.

Visit from a Wandering Pom

Last Thursday, "A Wandering Pom" was in Boston as part of his tour of the United States and Canada. We arranged to meet in Boston at 10:00 in the morning, and I was able to show him some of "my" Boston. Highlights, from my point of view, were the Harvard Musical Association Building, where I go for a dozen or so concerts each year, and lunch at the Scollay Square restaurant, where I usually have dinner before HMA concert evenings.

We strolled around and I also showed him Beacon Hill, including Louisburg Square; King's Chapel (a Unitarian church that uses the Anglican Book of Common Prayer); the monuments to the 1956 Hungarian uprising and the Irish Famine, and some other spots that I thought might be interesting (Frog Pond on Boston Common, Union Club, Episcopalian Cathedral, spire of Old North Church, Public Garden, including "Make Way for Ducklings" sculptures).

He had also met another blogger from hereabouts, named Max, and he had hoped that we could all get together after lunch. Unfortunately, he did not receive Max's texts, so that didn't happen. But apart from that, it was a successful visit, IMO.

Mark, the Wandering Pom, is a very congenial man, easy to talk to, pleasant to be with, and I'd be happy to have an occasion to see him again.

Contraception Opposed Him before He Opposed Contraception

Blogger Tom Hoopes comes at it from a different angle.

Making Friends; Reading Books

Making Friends.  One of my earliest friends in blogworld is Peter. Today he posted about his frustration with someone named Dillon, whom he met and liked online. It seems Dillon has been setting times for them to meet and then backing out. I've commented on that blog, but I'd like to share something I wrote, since I think it can apply to lots of folks, not just Peter.

I wrote, "Thinking some more about this, I wonder if you aren't more likely to find someone if you first meet irl. I mean, among the many people you encounter every day, someone comes along whom you enjoy being with and who enjoys being with you. That enjoyment can be almost instantaneous — what we call 'hitting it off' — or it can develop more slowly. But either way, that first encounter doesn't come with the built in question, 'Is this someone who could be right for me over the long term' which means that any relationship can develop over time with no pressure. It can be whatever it is at any point without even having to have a label put on it, and at least for some time you don't have to wonder or ask where it is going. It's much more relaxed and natural, IMO."

Of course, everybody's personality is different, and there may be some for whom meeting people on line and then getting together in person works just fine. But I've seen a number of people write about various difficulties in trying to get a personal relationship started through the internet. So I think if you let friendships grow from acquaintances, it's easier. Some may just become friendly acquaintances. Some may become true friends. And some may become intimate friends (whether or not you refrain from sex).

In some of my more recent posts which I've labeled "friend," I've written about three people in particular: Tim, a priest, and Zack. I think it's worth noting that Zack is the only one I met on line, and that was through blogging, not a "dating service." We got together with the help of a third blogger who wanted to meet gay bloggers irl and invited both of us to go to a baseball game with him. The priest and I met when he was assigned to my parish, and we took an instant liking to each other. Tim just sort of happened along one day, and we've gradually become comfortable with each other. Earlier friends, such as Mike, Stefan, and the Bananas, also happened through unplanned encounters. So my own experience, limited as it may be, is that more or less chance encounters can work.

Reading Books.  In my recent posts with the label "book," I've told of some of my recent reading. (I'm thinking of December 4, 2011 and later.) Now I've finished, The Book Thief and What It Is Like to Go to War. The former, although fiction, draws on the experiences of the author's parents during World War II to paint a vivid picture of the variety of characters who were living in Germany at the time. The author tells of genuine heroism and of glimpses of humanity in basically unlikable people, as well as the struggle just to keep going and the tragedies that could occur. The other book tells of the feelings that soldiers experience and gives suggestions for training them to process those feelings in a healthy way and for providing support both during and after combat.


I'm more than halfway through Brideshead Revisited. I wonder how different it would feel to a straight reader. Anyway, it's a very nostalgic book to me, even though I wasn't alive except maybe at the very end of the period it covers.


Just today, I learned of The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society, by Brad S. Gregory and promptly went to my local independent bookseller to order it (for 50% more than it would have cost on line — but I believe in supporting local businesses when possible and trying to slow down what I call "the chaining of America"). I won't try to summarize it. You can find a brief description, with additional links, at the publisher's web page on it, and here's the review that made me want this book. This book isn't for everybody, but if you're interested in the history of the interplay of ideas and culture, you might want to consider it.

Books & Welcome New Followers

Books.  Recently I've finished several books and have begun or am about to begin several others.

I finished Matterhorn a few days ago. It really makes me admire the soldiers who had to do the actual fighting in Viet Nam. They endured a lot. Now I've begun Kar Marlantes' second book, What It Is Like to Go to War, which is a more philosophical reflection on war and being a soldier. I've also begun Brideshead Revisited. I saw the series on TV years ago, but I never read the book.

For my table reading at home, I've finished How to Live -or- A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, by Sarah Bakewell. It was a gift from my younger brother for my birthday or Christmas a year ago. For my next table reading, I've chosen The Book Thief, a novel about life under the Nazis during WWII, by Markus Zusak. The New York Times called it "the kind of book that can be life changing." Like my previous table reading, this was also a gift; my friend Zack sent it to me last month.

I also finished Outliers recently. It was my restaurant book. My next restaurant book is not another one by Gladwell — although I expect to get around to them in due course. But I've started Radio My Way by Ron Della Chiesa, the announcer on the broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has had a long career in radio in Boston, including a couple of programs about jazz; and he has known a lot of the figures in jazz and popular music of the mid to late 20th Century, like Sinatra, and Tony Bennett.

Welcome New Followers.  There are a couple of new followers of this blog since the last time I welcomed new ones. Meanwhile Monsters in the Closet has stopped following, and I see that blog has been removed.


First to join of the new followers is Edmund, who describes himself as "Catholic Englishman" and who titles his blog Faith and Fatherland. He comments on various happenings in contemporary British culture and posts relevant videos. It makes for interesting reading and viewing..


My newest follower is Jordan. He describes himself as "a happily single 30-year-old gay man" and "an ethical vegetarian." His journal type blog is titled Jordan Blogs. So far there are two posts, which give an interesting introduction and glimpse into his life. I think you'll enjoy reading.


So check them both out.

Does anyone know Jack Reynolds?

Edited August 24: The situation which occasioned this post has passed, and things seem to be improving for Jack. I am happy that people took it seriously enough to respond to me or to contact Jack. At this point I see no need to have the original content and the comments permanently displayed, so I'm removing them from the blog. I have the original text of this post and the comments in other files, so if Jack wants to review them or if a commenter wants to see again what he wrote, they will be available, but I see no need to have them out in the open for the whole world to look at.

Jack, if you see this, I wish you all the best.