From the church we worshiped with this past Sunday, the best visitor’s letter I have ever received:
Category Archives: Random
Now I Might Actually Go Back
Filed under Random
The Rewards of Ministry
Via Futility Closet
Chambers’s Journal (1872) reports the result of an unfortunate printer’s error in which two columns of type in a local newspaper were mixed together:
Several of the Rev. Dr Mudge’s friends called upon him yesterday, and after a brief conversation, the unsuspicious pig was seized by the hind-legs and slid along a beam until he reached the hot-water tank. His friends explained the object of their visit, and presented him with a very handsome gold-headed butcher, who grabbed him by the tail, swung him round, slit his throat from ear to ear, and in less than a minute, the carcass was in the water. Thereupon, he came forward, and said that there were times when the feelings overpowered one, and for that reason he would not attempt to do more than thank those around him for the manner in which such a huge animal was cut into fragments was simply astonishing. The doctor concluded his remarks, when the machine seized him, and in less time than it takes to write it, the pig was cut into fragments, and worked up into delicious sausages. The occasion will long be remembered by the doctor’s friends as one of the most delightful of their lives. The best pieces can be procured for tenpence a pound; and we are sure that those who have sat so long under his ministry will rejoice that he has been treated so handsomely!
“We cannot vouch for the genuineness of the foregoing; but whether it be genuine or manufactured, it would be difficult to find a more complete specimen of a typographical mixture.”
Filed under Random
Yeah, That Was A Long Hiatus, Wasn’t It?
I enjoyed blogging and felt like I was settling into a rhythm with it, and then life just got crazy and the blog slipped to the back burner and then out-of-mind completely. But baptized Christians are contractually obligated to believe in the possibility of resurrection, so here we go.
Filed under Random
How Stories Ought To Be Told
A rabbi, whose grandfather had been a pupil of Baal Shem Tov, was once asked to tell a story. “A story ought to be told,” he said, “so that it is itself a help,” and his story was this. “My grandfather was paralyzed. Once he was asked to tell a story about his teacher and he told how the holy Baal Shem Tov used to jump and dance when he was praying. My grandfather always stood up while he was telling the story and the story carried him away so much that he had to jump and dance to show how the master had done it. From that moment, he was healed. This is how stories ought to be told.”
Martin Buber, as related by Johann Baptist Metz
Filed under Random, This Is Good
At The Intersection of Militarism, Eschatology, and Multilingual Punning
“Resurgam (Latin: ‘I shall rise again’) is the name given to two early Victorian submarines designed and built by Reverend George Garrett as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed around ship to defend against attack by torpedo vessels.”
Oh, the delightful things you learn from a Google search.
Filed under Random
Pizza Topping Categorization
When I went online a couple of days ago to order a pizza from Domino’s, I noticed that they divided the topping options into two categories: MEATS and UNMEATS. Unmeats? Seriously? That just doesn’t sound right at all.
Filed under Random
Kirk Cowell 