In principio erat pulsus.

I just had a thoroughly satisfying class in which we discussed the character to Rebekkah in Genesis and the social construction of womanhood, all while wearing an elf hat complete with jingle-bell.

Best line of the afternoon:
I'm just remembering something my pastor said a while ago. "Men, watch out! They're thinkin' while you're sleepin'!"

Er... I mean breaking news from the Lutherans.  And its GREAT news!


http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_113671_ENG_HTM.htm

Teaching

When I was in high school, I had this weird and wonderful opportunity to work with Andre Gregory.  He was a personal friend of the woman running the drama club and came in to coach us all on our production of Murder in the Cathedral.  I played Thomas à Beckett.  Did I mention it was an all-girls school? 

Anyway, while were talking he told me that when he first started acting he gave himself a deadline.  If he had not become a working actor by 30, he would become a Lawyer or a Rabbi.  As you can see, I never forgot this.  It's one of the zillion things that kept me off the ordination track for a while.  "Am I considering the priesthood simply because I couldn't make it in show business?"

There is something extraordinary that happens when acting really works.  The connection is electric, and you can feel why drama has so often been regarded as sacred ritual.  It's an even keener feeling when you're doing good improvisation, a shared understanding that can feel like (or maybe even be) an altered state.

This is what teaching feels like when my students start to understand new ideas. 

On an intellectual level, I value my teaching because it's what makes my scholarship relevant in two ways.  First, it means I am working on material that will get passed on to more than the 15 people who are likely to read anything I publish.  More important, the work I do in the classroom informs the questions I pursue in my writing.  My last article arose quite clearly out of a conversation with a student.  My next one is likely to do that too.

On a moral level, I value my teaching because it allows me to think of myself as a superheroine, battling my nemesis Bibilical Literalism, and fighting for the freedom of biblically-interested minds everywhere.

But honestly, the best part of teaching is the high, the physical euphoria of changing someone's mind.  It's magic.

I'm not sure how much sense that made, but it's the best way I can express it right now.

The Next Age of Discovery

Just found this little web-project of TEC. I'd like to encourage other Episcopalians out there to contribute!

My apologies for letting it slide, but it's not a bad thing to keep remembering veterans after Veterans Day, is it?

May the source of all life and grace bless those who have served in our armed services.  May they know comfort, healing, encouragement, and love.  And may we all live to see a day of peace and justice that rewards their efforts. 

Who knew we had a Halloween liturgy??

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81834_102048_ENG_HTM.htm

When I have not been holed up trying not to scratch myself to death this week, I have been visiting farmers markets, cooking, eating, and reading The Omnivore's Dilemma.  The bounty of the markets here in August has astonished me.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe I'm just paying more attention to detail.  Instead of noticing that there are a lot of plums, I have noticed that there are a huge variety of plums, and that I have never appreciated plums so much.

I'm really not a cook at all.  silverbackbutch is a much better cook with a traditional food culture and history.  She is very patient with my dabbling.  My mother hated cooking, my father's mother was cordon bleu (i.e. not so accessible to me), and my father has always relied on the women in his life to give him most of his nourishment.  I have no *history* of cooking.  What little I know I have pieced together from cookbooks, books on cookery, and the food mythology of the South.  I actually enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, but I have only rarely succeeded in coming up with truly great food.  I harbor some envy for those people I know who are able to reliably produce great food.  There is an artistry to it, a subtlety.  I'm pretty good with simple--my gravy kicks ass--but I'm no so good with subtlety.  I'm sort of the amateur landscape watercolorist of culinary artists.

This is especially frustrating now when I am *so* inspired by the harvest that is happening now.  Yesterday, I made this celestial sauce out of cardinal plums, ginger, and brandy (I bought a whole bunch more of these plums today so I can make more and maybe can some).  I'm pretty sure the brandy was a big part of the success, since all we had in the house was Remy.  But here's the thing, there's just a lot I don't understand about food.  I don't have a clear sense of how much is enough to bring home for two people, how to keep it all properly, how to preserve it long term, how to plan ahead sensibly, how to think in terms of a whole meal.  I don't know how to make the most of food. 

And this makes me sad, and a bit fearful of experimentation.  I want to go to the downtown market tomorrow morning and buy tons of tomatillos to make a glorious salsa verde...but I have no idea what to do with it (not to mention the fact that I have no idea what will be the best way to make it).  Yes, yes, I can dip tortilla chips into it, but I wish I knew how to think about salsa verde in the conext of a meal or even a single dish.  Take my plum sauce (which is actually golden), for example.  Right now, all I can think to do is spoon a lump onto a grilled pork chop.  That will be tasty, but not subtle.  Would it be possible or advisable to simmer something with plums, ginger, and brandy?  I have no idea.  Frustrating.

Anyhoo, green salsa recipes are most welcome at this juncture.  Tomatillos are so beautiful right now, I can stand not to try.

Well, I *used* to dream of publishing with Routledge. No longer. I am truly (and perhaps naively) shocked. SHOCKED. Horrified, even.

2 Authors Say Routledge Recycled Their Work Without Credit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=rxm56spWpttNRpgcmcfRbRVfcp6Rh6dx

I think the point of the problem is brought home in the last part of this article, where a sentence in which the two original authors state they will do a particular analysis is changed by the new (author) to state that he will do it. He never did a damn thing. It's a bald-faced lie. By the way, if I wanted to cite something from this "new" book, I wonder how I would do it?

I just want to know how Routledge imagined they could get away with it. I mean...duh...if the fields are close enough that the theory overlaps *this much*, don't you think there's a good chance we talk to each other and read each other's work?

One of the professional list-serves I'm on occasionally sends me gems like this. I give you the ten oldest jokes in the world. It's nice to see that some things are universal...like potty humor.

http://uktv.co.uk/dave/item/aid/604717

Happy Birthday, lizsybarite!

For my life I cannot figure out how to embed a URL in text, but no matter. Below is a link to a video from Nature on the Antikythera Mechanism (a 2200 year old day/month/year/eclipse/olympiad clock) and researchers' efforts to reconstruct it *and* build replica. Some people think it may have come from a workshop founded by Archimedes. It is truly amazing. Makes me miss Greece a lot.
http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/antikythera/

We have a Carolina Wren! 

I learned from halleyscomet that the American Family Association's (AFA) has petitioned to ban an upcoming Nova episode 'The Bible's Buried Secrets'.  The AFA lists the following "offensive" ideas as highlights of the show.  Well if NOVA is pissing of the AFA, that's enough for me.  Still, even I would quibble with a few of these statements.  I have (unsurprisingly) annotated the list.

Let me know if you want to be in on my biblical writings and ramblings.

I need to show it around and clean it up according to the JSOT style sheet, but I am pretty much done with my Abe and Job article. Good Golly, this feels exciting!