Theology in tight places...

I had the pleasure and privilege of hearing Jürgen Moltmann speak in the faculty last Thursday on the topic of German theology since 1908. I was enlightening and exciting, not least because one of the greater figures in the last century of German theology was present giving the lecture.

As those familiar with Moltmann's theology will know, he was captured as a prisoner of war in World War II, and interred interned by the British for quite some time. At one point he was given the option of transferring to a prisoner of war camp near Nottingham, at which he could study the Bible and theology. It was that formative and moving experience which launched him into the field of theology, and both he and theology were never the same again.

It was at this point in the lecture where someone leaned over and said: 'A prison camp where you could study theology? It sounds like my old seminary!'

The New Three Dollar Bill

(The Euro has reached fresh highs against the dollar.)

I know, it's been done before. I totally ripped it off from Superfrenchie, who got it from Shakesville.
But if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

While we're at it, here's the look of the new ten dollar bill:


(The pound sterling remains trading at two to one, and is likely to go higher, soon.)

Distractionfest 2008 continues! (Why not?)

At the risk of promising to actually post on Gower Street with regularity, nevertheless I have decided that Distractionfest has been fun and interesting enough to become an irregular (but ongoing) feature here, bringing you intriguing, inspiring, and/or lighthearted findings from around the internet.

So for the first entry in Distractionfest Unlimited*, I bring you: The Condiment Packet Gallery, a collection of 700+ condiment packets culled from fast food establishments near and far. In fact, if you know of one which is not found in his collection, he would be keen for you to submit it to him, for which he will give you a genuine Condiment Packet Gallery Pin.

*patent pending

Decision '08

Although I'm living in the United Kingdom, I am nevertheless closely monitoring political developments back in the United States - I even voted in a primary election recently.

It's not easy getting current, accurate news, naturally, but I am finding YouTube to be a reliable informant, and it is on that basis that I am finding myself fairly impressed with the quality of candidates, not that I would endorse all of them. Despite the evident intellectual prowess of the three main candidates, I am rather dismayed that they have stooped to attack ads, as can be seen below:



And sure enough, the other major candidate wasted no time responding in kind:



Is there no depth to which these men will not stoop? How could we possibly elect one of them?

Nevertheless, there is a clearcut third option, for whom I am particularly partial and whom I give my support unreservedly:



Well, I say 'unreservedly', and by 'unreservedly' I mean 'with significant reservations owing to the needless and foolish anti-French sentiment expressed in the video'. But other than that, I'm a Kierkegaard man! (Mmmm...Danish!)

By the way if like me you are fed up to the back teeth with anti-French sentiment and would like to read someone else who is and...I don't know, get more fed up, I guess...check out SuperFrenchie! (It will also satisfy whatever appetite you have for occasional atheistic rant,not my cup of tea, but that's him and there you have it.)

Hat tip to J.P. Sherman for the tipoff to the Kant and Nietzsche videos!

Intelligence Report I

Or: Adventures in Missing the Point

Apparently Northern Rock's strategy of making loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them hasn't paid off like they thought, with the result that the government have nationalised the firm.

Unfortunately - according to the opposition - this nationalisation doesn't include the profitable arm of the venture, Granite, which is an offshore trust registered in Jersey, and so the government have annexed the failing part of the failing bank.

Apparently Alastair Darling didn't notice Archangels Michael and Gabriel running away at top speed.

in other news...

There is a serious problem here in the UK with teenage binge drinking and it leading to subsequent violence and vandalism (not to mention city centres looking awful after dark). Supermarket giant Tesco and others have called for the government to ensure 'responsible pricing' of alcohol, that is, for prices to be mandated to be higher, presumably so that teens and younger adults won't be able to afford it, or at least not as much.

Which is really great, you know, because cheap booze is really the root cause of drunkenness. This way only the posh kids will go on a bender.


(Of course - turning off my sarcasm for a moment - this is foolishness itself and completely fails to address the deeper social problems at the root of this sort of behavior. But I suppose this way we can tell ourselves we're doing something, and shake our heads and cluck our tongues when it does nothing.)

Progress, of a sort...

I have had the perhaps odd experience of people - strangers - often remarking that I reminded them of a celebrity. (I don't know if this happens to others, too?)

The most...ahem...interesting thing is that the celebrity that I remind people of has changed over time. When I was in high school, quite a number of people thought I could have been a twin for actor Cary Elwes (of Princess Bride fame), pictured right.

But in university, that experience waned, the flower of youth somewhat faded. One summer I found myself working on a movie set (for The Babe), and was told that I had a more-than-passing resemblance for Charles Grodin (of Dave and the Beethoven series, um, 'fame').

More recently, this occurence has virtually disappeared. I have gone years on end without someone rumbling me as a celebrity lookalike. Until today.

I was getting a coffee at a great new shop in Cambridge called Origin-8. The shop itself is part restaurant, part grocery, and it specialises in local, sustainably grown (or humanely raised) food. A great idea whose time has come.

As I was struggling to get my money out of my pocket to pay, wrestling with my cumbersome coat, the lady behind the counter said in a friendly manner 'has anyone ever told you that you look very much like Bill Bryson?' At first I was touched, even a bit flattered. Bill Bryson is among my absolute favourite non-theological authors, I read everything he writes at least once. I thought of his engrossing books on the English language, and the American version of it. Warmly encouraged, I recalled his ever-growing list of humourous travelogues, of places such as Britain by (more or less) foot, America by car, Australia, Europe and Africa: there are few places in this world where he hasn't looked hilariously out of place and befuddled.

It was at that moment that I called to mind my mental pictures of Bill Bryson, which turned out to look something like this real life picture, to the right:

Bill is good-natured enough to be able to poke fun at himself - a tradition I hope I'm following through this ridiculous post - and so in one book (I think it was Notes from a Small Island) he introduced the term 'old flubba-wubba' which was his son's term for a middle-aged, out of shape, red-faced chap: namely his father!

It occurred to me that I wouldn't mind being compared with Bill Bryson at all, but would prefer that the comparison be made to his sharp wit, rich imagination, and formidable prose composition skills, and not his befuddled frumpiness. (Or more accurately, having my befuddled frumpiness compared with his.) Well, he is an American living here, who quite loves England, so the comparisons continue.

Looking back on it, I guess there seems to be a pattern to those celebrities to whom people have felt they can compare me. I'm not sure it's entirely encouraging, to be honest, but there you have it. It is progress...of a sort.

Distractionfest 2008: day 3 - Coffee, IKEA, and Mark Malkoff madness

Well, I guess I didn't promise my friend James that Distractionfest would be on consecutive days.

And after all, isn't the internet mostly just distraction anyway? So, in some sense it's like the old saw about kids' day when we were growing up : on the internet, every day is D.

Besides, I haven't been able to do much with Distractionfest recently because I've been...well...distracted.

But without further ado, here now is Distractionfest, Day 3.

I've recently discovered the comedy stylings and general hijinks of Mark Malkoff. I think I first ran into him on YouTube. He's a comedian, a filmmaker and a writer for (I think) Stephen Colbert.

Apparently his apartment in New York needed fumigating recently, and none of his friends could put him up while he waited for the poisons to recede. Finding hotels to be ridiculously overpriced, he did what any sane, rational person would do - and moved into IKEA in Paramus New Jersey. I'm honestly surprised no one's thought of this before; I'm even more surprised that IKEA - seemingly - went for it. Below is the introductory video for the series which lays out the situation and gives you a sense for how most of it will go. You can access the subsequent days spent at IKEA either on his webpage or via YouTube.



And here is his first day, moving in: hijinks ensue! Good humour.

The other thing which Mark is known for, and which I think is a bit cooler than the IKEA gig, is visiting all 171 Starbucks Coffee locations in Manhattan in 24 hours. It is crazy cool - he had to plot his trip to make sure he took in the 24-hour locations in the middle of the night; he had to buy something at each store; he started out bicycling but the caffeine wore on him. I wonder if he's come down from the high yet? Anyway, the entire lark was recorded and is available on YouTube; a fun watch, and nothing if not a modern-day Herculean Labour - which begs the question, what would be the latter-day equivalent of cleaning out the Augean Stables? Answers on a post card via this blog, please. But in the meantime, feast your eyes on 171 Starbucks:



Tomorrow Some subsequent day on Distractionfest 2008: Improv!

Distractionfest 2008: day 2 - keeping it smooth

Obviously, yesterday being Ash Wednesday, there was a one day hiatus in Distractionfest.

But today we return, after having witnessed the sublimity of Jacques Brel, to behold the ridiculousness of Yacht Rock. The phrase 'yacht rock' is used to describe the smooth rock hits which proliferated in the years 1976 to 1984, associated with names such as Michael McDonald, the early Kenny Loggins, The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Christopher Cross and others. Yacht Rock is also the name of a series of videos released on channel101.com and youtube.com, created by J.D. Ryzner.

There are currently 11 in the series, the most recent being released just last week. Each of the videos manages both to send up the genre and also serves as an affectionate, if ironic, tribute to it. They are worth watching for a laugh, as well as to listen to some fine older smooth rock. (Tho' they aren't afraid to pull out the f-bomb...you've been warned.) Each fictional story focuses on the creation of at least one song, featuring outlandish yarns of how it came to be and the personalities behind them; if they are noteworthy for nothing else, they at least present a staggeringly accurate portrayal of John Oates and his personality...or not.

My personal favourites are episodes one and two, and I present them here for your distraction...er, enjoyment.

Here's Episode 1, the one that started it all, with the story of the genesis of 'What a Fool Believes'.


And here is Episode 2, featuring a songwriting duel between Hall & Oates (on the one hand) and Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (on the other). Some fine cameos by Peter Cetera and Christopher Cross fill out what might be the best episode of the series.


In case YouTube is being stroppy, you can also see all eleven episodes at channel101.com.

Many thanks to my brother Matt - of Baconsteak fame - for connecting me to these videos when he was recently visiting. Here's a link to a cool short video of him playing the guitar.

Look for more Distractionfest 2008 soon!

Terrorism in the UK

I know, I know: comedy is tragedy plus time, and I may not have time on my side here, but...

A few friends from back in the US have expressed concern about the level of terrorist activity here in the UK over the last few days. And yes, it is certainly worth being concerned about. But it is also a bit odd how actually, um, non-terrifying it has been. Inept is more the word.

The folks at Fridaycities, on Facebook, have started a group poking fun at the terrorists. (And, hey, I guess if you can't laugh at terrorists, they've actually won...or something like that.) It features a brand new 'terror threat levels' graphic for London (along the lines of the conventional terror threat levels for both the UK and US). I found it humourous and thought I'd cadge it and share it for those of you not on the dangerous waste of time that is Facebook:

I know, I know, I'm probably just baiting them, and before we know it more NHS-employed terrorist sleeper cells* will be activated and it will be my fault. But for now, stay determined and vigilant whilst we endure a period of ludicrous terror threat.

*If I thought the NHS were awful I would insert an obvious joke here. Feel free to if you'd like.

Funny like a clown?

A Times New Roman priest is preparing parents for the baptism of their son, when the father jumps up and shouts "I'll not have my child christened in your font!"

In other news, happy fiftieth birthday to the Helvetica font, designed in Switzerland shortly after the end of the second world war. (BBC story here.)

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

I was burning a few idle moments on recent changes patrol at Wikipedia when I found an article of the same name as this entry's title. I thought it was vandalism or nonsense and went to investigate -- but it turns out it is a rather interesting article on the flexibility of the English language. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is actually a complete (if repetitive) sentence. Go and read here for the explanation.

Britisher than thou

In order to instill civic values and cultural knowledge, the British are moving to offer classes in schools on 'Britishness'. There is also a 'Britishness' test that potential immigrants take as part of becoming a citizen to gauge how easily they will integrate into society.

If you go to the website, you can purchase resources to study for such a test, including taking a free online version. Curious, I took the free online trial: 10 questions to be answered in 20 minutes or fewer.

I got 10 out of 10.

In under a minute and a half.

There weren't even any questions about cricket. The mind reels.

Maybe that means I'm 'Britisher than thou' -- although I should note that I was listening to NWA's single 'Straight Outta Compton' while writing this, so maybe not. Not exactly a top-selling British single, that.

Or maybe it just means that the test is surprisingly easy. (Hint: the Queen is head of state -- who knew?)

Hat tip to James Aylett on Talk to Rex

Red Versus Blue

What happens when you gather 26,000 or so of the cleverest people from the UK and the world, and subject them to intense ongoing pressure? You get antics such as flashmobbing, in which a large group of people gather at a certain point and do something (usually) meaningless and/or silly for a defined (usually short) period of time. There is a group of people who do this more or less regularly in Cambridge. Here is a video taken of one such flashmob, which was a 'red versus blue' tickle fight which went on for about a minute. The video is taken from the top of Caius college in the city centre, and the flashmob itself happened directly in front of Great St. Mary's.

Distractionfest 2007: fifth day (Whew! We've made it!)

Well, here we are, friends, at day five of Distractionfest. It's been a great week: we've seen some new things, had a few laughs -- and I'd like to think we've learned a little something too (not least, that I have no compunction extending out a joke two or three days beyond its natural lifespan.).

So without further ado, here are today's features:

Kevin 'The Nalts' Nalty, web video director extraordinaire, has constructed a website with all of you cubicle dwellers in mind: Cube Break.* He also has a blog, entitled Will Video for Food, on which you can find more videos. The ones where he talks about his company provide a few chuckles.

But even funnier in the video category is the feature entitled Ask A Ninja. If you've tried Ask Amy or Ann Landers and you're still looking for life guidance, The Ninja is your friend. Each video features him answering questions mailed into him by viewers. Much better than John Belushi's old 'Samurai Advice Columnist'!

Picking up this week's developing theme of travels in America: If you were considering a trip to America and were having trouble deciding between the Westin and the substantially-cheaper competition (often name 'the Breezewood Inn'), then check out Motel Hell. The blogger documents the last 80 years or so of motel accomodations in America through his collection of old motel postcards. It's kitsch! It's schlock! You'll plotz!

Finally, let's return to where it all began: Chicago, Illinois, with a website featuring art along Western Avenue (the world's longest street). The art is not 'connoisseur's' art, but rather the art of everyday life, and outsider art, particularly as found in many working class and immigrant neighbourhoods of Chicago. It's actually really fascinating and a neat look at a vast cross section of the real city. And if this tempts you to want to visit Chicago, but you're less than flush, the Chicago Tribune has an article for you today, entitled "Chicago on $5 or less". Just think, with the strength of the pound, that's actually only £2.60!

So that's all for this year. Look for Distractionfest 2008 next year -- unless, that is, I get distracted.


Oh, and James: you're welcome.



*(I've only seen a couple of videos there, and it looked okay -- if there's offensive stuff buried there, let me know and I'll remove the link.)

Distractionfest 2007: fourth day

Get keen, lads! It's time for the fourth day of Distractionfest 2007!

First on our lineup of useless, amusing, (and/or) bizarre offering of the internet: The website of Demotivators, the aptly titled Despair.com. We've all seen those insipid posters which implore you to follow your dreams (so long as your dream matches with the company's vision statement, anyway). Demotivators takes these posters a step farther: whether you find that step amusing, horrifying, subversive, or just refreshingly honest is a decision you will have to make. They feature such 'motivational' sayings such as:

Leaders:Leaders are like Eagles. We don't have either around here.
and:

Motivation:If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.
and:

Quality: The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march.
and two of my favourites:

Get to Work: You're not being paid to believe in the power of your dreams
and:

Cluelessness: There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.

Many of them work better with the picture that they're correlated with. But I generally find them quite hilarious, and I wager it would provide a welcome diversion for your workday. Go there and spend mad amounts of money to outfit your office and gift your friends. (You can even create your own! (AKMA has come up with one.))


Next up, as a complement to yesterday's lightning-quick tour or roadside Americana, J.R. Daeshner's website (and book) featuring what he calls 'True Brits', doing what they do best. This includes such traditional pastimes as drinking rather a lot and rolling a cheese down a hill, or drinking rather a lot and playing mob football, or drinking rather a lot and going shin kicking. Who says the Brits don't have a wide variety of leisure pursuits? His book is fairly diverting leisure reading (while drinking rather a lot, naturally); it's available at Amazon.com if you would like to read it. (Alcoholic beverages are best procured locally, however.)


But let's take a brief detour back across the pond, shall we? First, we'll glance at Barraclou.com, a photography site run by a French Canadien. Among his treasure trove of photos, you will find a set of pics of Flora, Oregon, ghost town in a verdant, pastoral setting. You will also find a nearly comprehensive tribute site to Dixie Square Mall, a shopping centre which I lived a few miles north of for about five years. There is much that can be said about Dixie Square, little of it good, but it is best known for being the mall that the Blues Brothers drove through during a chase scene in the first Blues Brothers movie. But I think the most amazing thing about it is that it was open as a mall for a mere 12 years, and has sat as a vacant, rotting hulk for more than 25.

The final highlight from his site is a page filled with information about pay phones. Would you like to call the payphone on the observation deck of the Sears Tower? He'll get you set up.


If the reference to the Blues Brothers has you fondly reminiscing of the movie, and especially the chase scene, you'll want to check out this site, which boasts 'Return to Chicago 2005', a movie shot in the locations of the original film, 25 years later, using the same model cop car.


Finally, if the pictures of the vacant interior of Dixie Square Mall intrigue you, then maybe you're feeling a tug in the direction of Urban Exploration (UE). If so, then you need to check out UE headquarters, simply titled: Jinx. Jinx is the magazine of a group of Urban Explorers in New York who explore and document abandoned buildings, subway stations, and the like. They have even scaled the Williamsburg Bridge (and the Brooklyn Bridge, and the George Washington Bridge...). Oh, and they wear uniforms of black suits, white shirts and black ties -- the women wear black cocktail dresses and (I think) heels. They have put out a book (which I read shortly after its release; I would recommend it), entitled Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York, detailing some of their exploits -- and also their ideas. You see, exploring old buildings and forgotten parts of the city is not enough with them, they also engage in what they call 'Athenaeum', regular public debate (a cool idea). It goes with saying (I hope) that even if UE is interesting, and Jinx is a good read, I don't necessarily endorse everything they say or do.


Come back tomorrow for our madcap final installment of Distractionfest 2007 - because it's pretty much back to the usual stentorian essays after that.

Distractionfest 2007: third day

Well, here I am dutifully back on the third day, to present to you:

Distractionfest 2007: the third day

Meanwhile, it turns out that James Lark -- the original impetus for the great goodness which is the Distractionfest -- has been laid up ill, and too distracted on his own terms to truly enjoy the 'Fest. So, dear friend, bookmark these pages for later. But for today, we're sending out good feelin' distraction vibes to you, hoping that you feel better (and more distract-able) soon.

First, providing some rationale for torturing squirrels in 'squirrel fishing', check out Scary Squirrel World, replete with pictures, games, features, and down-home warnin' agin' the dangers of them skwerls! Or maybe we made them this way by torturing them. Whatever.

Perhaps you fancy a tour of 'real America', land of peanut butter and a curious rounders-inspired game called baseball (and that other football). From the comfort of your own desk -- in James' case, his own sickbed -- you can see many of the attractions of roadside America, featuring many pictures of the near-ubiquitous giant Muffler Man. This site is frequently updated with personal reports and photos, including, recently: Man on a Pole. With Spurs. from Bossier City, Louisiana. (It is in fact more painful to look at than contemplate.)

But alas, a road trip in contemporary America can't feature the roadside commonplace of bygone years: Howard Johnson's Restaurant. The familiar orange and blue-emblazoned restaurants now only inhabit our memories of stunningly mediocre food served in a forgettable setting. In fact, if it weren't for bad memories, I wouldn't have any memories of HoJo's. Once when I was 10 I became violently ill after consuming an innocent-looking turkey lunch platter. We should have taken it as a bad omen when we saw a dead rat out in front of the restaurant. Never again! Well, never again is now, as the chain has closed (very nearly) every single outlet. Yet the memories, such as they are, live on in cyberspace at HoJoLand. It is a testament to the draw of this quirky site that it actually made me slightly wistful at losing something that I couldn't imagine being rid of too soon.

I don't know why but I am having a huge Tim Horton's jones right now, eh? Wouldn't a box of Timbits be great? I've got to stop writing these late at night...

So, finally, what we all want: a video of fainting goats!



Come back tomorrow for Distractionfest: day four!

Distractionfest 2007: second day

Welcome back to day two of the first annual Distractionfest. Feeling distracted yet? Wait until you check out these features...

First, we turn to dedicated blogger Joe Mathlete, who explains todays Marmaduke comic strip. Daily, Joe goes 'behind the panel' to unearth the literary parallels and philosophical subtexts of everyone's favourite dog. There is enough here to keep even the most dogged deconstructionist among us satisfied. Oh, owner-man! Will you ever win?

Next up, the weblog for Trip Adviser, aptly entitled We Are Not Making This Up. For your reading pleasure (and, sometimes, pain), the Snarky Owl takes the best in thoughtless comments, shiftless management, and half-baked feedback and brings it direct to you (eliminating the middle man). Go now!

But then come back and play...Park the Car! A surprisingly addictive game which puts you in the driver's seat of a Peugeot 107. The game consists of (as the title implies) parking the car. Sometimes you have to nose it in, other times back it in; you even parallel park sometimes. As I say, it is surprisingly addicting.

Or, you can play Zwok, an online computer game that simulates being in a three-on-three snowball fight. It is also addictive! I played it twice, and each time after that said to myself 'I've gotta stop...after just one more.'

Finally, in a feature which can only be called "Noli turbare circulos meos", here is a video featuring a world champion circle drawer, who can draw a 1 metre perfect freehand circle in under a second.


Remember to come back tomorrow for Distractionfest 2007: day three!

Distractionfest 2007: first day

I have been -- as we Americans might say -- taken to the woodshed by my friend James, who berated me for not giving him sufficient distraction from his real work last week.

Well, farbeit from me to let a friend down -- or at least to do so two weeks in a row.

So I hereby declare this Distractionfest 2007, the first annual weeklong webfest in which bloggers everywhere (starting with me) will post the most amusing, annoying, bizarre, or absurd findings that they have gleaned from the web. If you choose to participate, please leave a comment below so I (and, more importantly, a procrastinating James) can see what you have found.

My first day's contributions consist entirely of links found at the faculty page of Abraham Stone, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

First, there is a mirror site of walruses.com. If you love walruses -- or know someone who does -- you can't resist this site. There is no explanation for the tragic heartbreak of why the original walruses.com is no longer with us.

Next up: Squirrel fishing. No, this is not a site about squirrels going fishing (although how cool would that be?); it is about fishing for squirrels. In a very reasonable attempt to enhance rodent perfomance evaluations, these engineers have devised a method known as squirrel fishing. You wonder about engineers who have such time as to think about how to exploit squirrels: what sort of a fellowship do they have (and where can I sign up?). Oh, I know what you're thinking: what about a theologian who can blog about squirrel exploitation? Well, I'll tell you: I don't have a fellowship. This site also supports G.K. Chesterton's dictum that it is not poets that go mad, but mathematicians -- or, in this case, applied mathematicians.

And finally, pictures of philosopher Rudolf Carnap's (pictured left) mother and father.

And James: You're welcome.

What's in a name?

I have recently learned that my name means a bad word in French.

Which one? you might well ask.

Well, as it turns out, all of them.

That's right, apparently very nearly any rude, profane or vulgar expression in French will involve some form of my name. I'll say this for the French: they're certainly efficient.

The mystery goes deeper, though. You see, my people are French, we come (so I have discovered) from eastern France, near Strasbourg and Colmar. I can hardly imagine the story behind a family whose name is synonymous with a vulgar verb. Culturally, it may reflect the French insouciance in the face of contradiction: Oh, there's Jean-Jacques @#&%! Who cares that his name is a rude expression? Or perhaps it is a case of French stubbornness: So my name is Jean-Jacques @#&%! So what?

Which leads me to my sentiment about it, a great chance to use the expression: Je m'en fou!

I also happen to know that my surname, in Dutch, means 'error' or 'mistake'. It is common, when you get 'the blue screen of death' or other serious computer error to call it a 'fout'. Where does it all stop, I ask you? (I can only imagine that in Italian, my name is synonymous with a discredited politician or other animal excrement.)

To help shed some light on this, I asked a friend, who is Dutch, what he thought of it. He confirmed that 1) it does mean 'error' or 'mistake' in Dutch, and 2) it is an uncommon name in Dutch, but 3) 'Voet' -- pronounced the same -- is a common surname in Dutch, and it means 'foot'. No it's not exactly 'Windsor' or 'Saxe-Coburg', but it's better than 'mistake', or @#&%!. The only problem is, to my knowledge, I have no roots in Holland. But this does seem suggestive, and I may follow it up as a lead sometime.

In the meantime, I am wondering just what to do in the off chance that I am called to serve a church in France -- or, more practically, what name to give the hotel in Nice that we are going to next month. Currently, I am considering the following two possible aliases:

Roger Brightman

Slim Bootleg

I briefly considered Colonel Sanders as an alias, but rejected it because I would invariably have to spell out 'Colonel' to people.

Perhaps, in the end, this is why my people immigrated from France to America. Given an ignominious name, they sought for nothing more than to settle down to a quiet life of farming in Indiana. No doubt they bought property situated between the farms of Richard Cephalous and Randy Wanker.

Ain't no sunshine when [it's] gone...

Things have been sort of tough around here recently, owing to the fact that we haven't seen the sun since Tuesday -- that's five going on six days for those of you keeping score at home. This is partly due to our getting less that eight hours of sun in this part of the year; but it is also because we had four solid days of thick fog, and the last two have just been severely overcast. I never realised that the weather -- or at least the sun -- has such an impact on me until I moved here.


So I thought I would post some pictures from some of the (other) most beautiful (and sunny) places in the world, namely, Barbados and the Maldives. Which, by the way, if I ever go walkabout and you need to find me, give me a few days and then try one of these two places -- you'll probably find me there. Not that I ever will, I'm just saying...


And tomorrow -- today, actually -- will be Christmas, which will hopefully help my spirits. And if not, I've got a bottle of Merlot that might help. (And a happy Christmas to you all!)


And then the next day, Boxing Day, we're going with some friends to see the County Beer Barrel rolling contest in Grantchester. We'll be cheering on our lads from the local, the Red Bull in Newnham. It should be a good time for all.