It’s so gratifying and exciting to see the huge outpouring of love and respect that the United States Women’s soccer team received at the fantastic demonstration for teamwork and patriotism represented by the huge parade in New York City.
It was such a fantastic showing that no one needed to blame the weather or the tele-prompters for anything dumb or boring that might have occurred. It’s about time this country had something to celebrate.
The proponents of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster argue, much as the Intelligent Design folks argue, that one theory is as good as another and we should leave it up to a mythical eighth-grader to decide the rules of the universe.
Here is an example of the FSM argument:
It seems strange that Evolution is singled out as “just a theory” when there are so many basic ideas in science that remain unproven, yet are still taught as fact. The objections to teaching Evolution have only illustrated this point further: Alternative theories must be taught in order to give our young students’ minds a broad foundation. The Intelligent Design proponents make a compelling, and totally legitimate, argument that if a theory has not been proven, then one suggested theory is just as good as another.
Looking back over last month’s collection of suggested reading I am struck by the high number of titles I want to see on in personal reading pool without too much delay. This brings up a perpetual problem in my reading plans.
There are, perhaps, four major themes in my reading which are currently demanding to receive the greatest part of my attention. Right now I am happily reading one detective story after another, always with a sense of fun and entertainment, but never without a sense of sacrificing the last months and years left to me to less than enlightening literature. So maybe I need to concentrate on classical novels for a while: all those Victorians that once were societies entertainments but now are fodder for university study. Continue reading
I intend to dedicate a month again to reading two or three of those big fat, often classical, novels that have been hovering off the edge of my reading lists for year after year. I had hoped, but July is still overloaded with detective novels, interesting entertainments, and unabashed fluff.
I do have one big novel from my Bucket-List: Doctor Zhivago. I was in college when one Saturday they bused a bunch of us down to one of the big Hollywood movie palaces to see David Lean’s interpretation of Doctor Zhivago. I disliked the film, complaining that the music was not integrated with the visual effect. Possibly because of this personal opinion left over from the 1960s, I have avoided reading Pasternak’s novel for over fifty years. I guess this is the month and, surprise, I’m finding it an easy, satisfying read, despite all the patronymics.
