Required reading for anybody who is familiar with the “Archie-verse” (even just a little!)
Archive for October, 2005
Given what we know about “Hot Coffee,” I find this CNN headline pretty hilarious.
I read an essay by Momus a few years ago in which he referenced an Economist article about differing “values” in the US and Europe. While the US and Europe are pretty much in line with regards to their feelings on self-expression and individuality, it seems that on matters of religion, the US has more in common with your Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. I found this interesting because while I was not raised in a religious family, it was always a strong presence in my environment. Even without attending church or Sunday school regularly, it is hard to grow up in America without absorbing all variety of bible stories and christian messages. How strange then, to think that places like Britain, so similar in language and culture to America, could be so different in their attitudes to religion. While traditional (i.e. non-evangelical) churges in the US have seen a decline in attendance in recent years, it would seem that this is small change compared to the total collapse of Church of England attendance that has been going on for decades now. So pronounced is this phenomenon that England now finds itself with a church surplus. An article in this week’s Economist examines several approaches to finding new tenants for these architecturally intriguing properties (pubs, apartments, even wall-climbing and a health spa). Ironically enough however, even as these former CoE buildings are being occupied by your typical middle-class businesses, there exists a simultaneous church shortage among Britain’s immigrant population! And rather than simply pick up on the CoE’s bargain-bin real estate, these folks are in many cases taking over yet another form of disused architecture, the big-ass inner-city movie house! I don’t what kind of deeper meaning you can take away from all this church-swapping, but I’ll be damned if there isn’t something in there somewhere! =)
I am testing out this new web browser called Flock that lets you share bookmarks over the web and even post to your blog directly from the browser. I’m doing that right now, so let’s see how well it works, if at all!
Last night I dreamed that I was in downtown Chicago, frantically looking for someplace to take a crap. I went into one of those colleges down there… Roosevelt or Columbia or something. I snuck around until I found what looked like a really nice bathroom. The door locked, and it was super clean with a cool looking sink and everything. When I got inside, I found out there was even a shower in there. The only problem was that the toilet was made of wicker. Wicker like a clothes hamper or a table at your grandma’s house. It wasn’t just a cover either. There was no tank, no water hookups or plumbing. It was a stand-alone toilet. I guess in retrospect, it was kind of like the chair from the Burgandy Loaf sketch on Mr. Show. Except there didn’t seem to be any way to remove people’s uh… leavings from this thing, aside from maybe turning it over and shaking it. So I looked inside and down at the bottom was a plastic lunch tray, with a piece of wax paper on top of it. Oh, and a big turd. Which, surprisingly enough, didn’t smell. As I was considering whether I should make a deposit somebody knocked on the door. For some reason I got real freaked out like, “Oh no, they’re going to think I did this!” Even though, it really seemed like that’s exactly what the wicker toilet was there for. Then I woke up. Exceedingly odd!
