E Logomorphs

Ecclesiophobia:  An inordinate fear of anything and everything to do with the church or people from the church actually getting involved in our communities.

Ecnalubma: A rescue vehicle which can only be seen in the rearview mirror.

Ecologian:  A theologian whose worldview is dominated by the world.

Ecominous:  The doomsaying vision of pessimistic economists.

Econausea:  One possible side-effect of an over-exposure to sundry environmentalists' greenspeak and eco-babble scare tactics.

Econtrivance:  A manipulation of the economic mechanism for political ends.

Ecstatology:  The tendency of some Christians to allow ecstatic concern about the "End Times" to distract them from their responsibilities.

Eekonomics:  The frightening financial projections of doom-and-gloom economists.

Elbonics:  The sometimes not so subtle maneuvering of two people for one armrest in a on an airplane.

Elleceleration:  Pressing an elevator button over and over again in an attempt to make it arrive quicker.

Elvistibule:  A small shrine to the King of Rock and Roll—complete with velvet portrait and Avon commemorative collectibles.

Even More E Logomorphs

Empty-Vee:  The vapid contentlessness and valuelessness of current TV programming.

Environmentia:  A worldview dominated by whatever the latest ideological rant may be.

Errstats:  Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Establishmentality:  The inability to think beyond accepted institutional/ideological parameters.

Ethoplegic:  A malady that suddenly paralyzes the ethical scruples of elected  officials once they arrive in Washington.

Europa Nervosa:  A condition resulting from the geo-political instability of Europe.

Europhoria:  The ecstatic mirth that centralizing politicians exude over the possibility of saving the economies and bureaucracies of a united Europe.

Evangeneric:  The bland mainstream of American civil religion.

Evangerenity:  An ethically suspect mish-mash of Evangelical Christianity and Twelve-Step serenity pop-psycho-babble.

E-Vangelist:  A proselytizing internet enthusiast.

Exaspirin: A child-proof medicine bottle that proves to be very nearly adult-proof as well.

D Logomorphs

Datadiddling:  The digital manipulation of facts.

Deatherapy:  The medicalization of murder.

Demigraphics: A poorly composed, wretchedly distracting PowerPoint presentation.

Demockeracy:  Making a mockery of constitutional freedoms and liberties in the name of constitutional freedoms and liberties.

Designosaurs:  Perpetuators of bad, out-dated design.

Destinesia: Arriving at a destination but having forgotten why you went in the first place.

Dipsomanagerial:  The insatiable, often periodic craving of government functionaries to micro-manage rather than macro-lead in the face of a cultural crisis.

Disconfect:  To sterilize the piece of candy you dropped on the floor by blowing on it, somehow assuming this will remove all the germs.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of ridiculous ideas to gain currency simply because they are repeatedly, incessantly broadcast over the airwaves.

Dyspecia:  An anti-human bias among certain social scientists.

Dyspensensationalism:  A manically dystopic, feverishly sensational  eschatology.

C Logomorphs

Cacophantasy:  The noisome notions of mindless debauchery that pass for “having a good time” among the young and restless.

Celefeign:  Someone who is famous for being famous—a celebrity with no discernable talent.

Cleresy:  Religious error perpetrated under the cloak of respectible clerical authority.

Codependustry:  The therapeutic industry that has been built up around the specious notions of pop-psychology.

Compascism:  Coercive pseudo-compassion—another name for our failing and flailing welfare system.

Consciousness razing:  The curious practice of defiling young minds through modern educational innovations.

Copapathetic:  Blithe acceptance of the tragic and the pathetic.

Cornea Gumbo:  Topological or graphical gobbledy-gook—eye candy.

Correctigensia:  The self-appointed enforcers of Political Correctness—the mind-fashion police.

Cyberbarian:  A high tech barbarian.

Cyberpork:  Government subsidies of high tech industries.

B Logomorphs

Begathon:  Online, Cable TV, or Radio fund-raiser—a guilt and pity party.

Bitnik:  A hyper-hip computer nerd—the postmodern version of a beatnik.

Blandiose:  A grandiose blandness—a seemingly incurable malady that afflicts the minds of politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Blamestorming:  The modern rant of Facebook rants and talk radio call-in shows.

Bloatocratic:  The ever expanding bureaucracy in Washington.

Blockbluster:  The hype surrounding many a Hollywood dud.

Bloodba’ath:  The mode of political operation in the Middle East where Islamicists and Ba’athists scramble for absolute control.

Blurbonic Plague:  The static inclination of the media to edit down political sound-bites into even smaller nuggets for popular mass consumption.

Bozon:  an isolated example of stupidity—a single unit or particle of dim-wittedness.

Brutalitarianism:  A brutal regulatory governmental regime that interferes with virtually every aspect of life.

Bureausaurus:  Lifetime appointments to the professional federal ruling class.

A Logomorphs

Academentia: The pathogenic moral and intellectual epidemic that currently ravages most politically-correct campuses.

Accordionated: Being able to drive and refold a road map at the same time.

Adhocracy:  The modern tendency to govern on the basis of whim rather than on the basis of law—especially evident in the rulings of federally appointed judicial activists.

Affluential: To shamelessly utilize great wealth for personal political aggrandizement—all in the name of “the people” or “the owners of the country.”

Agoraphopolitica:  A fear of political involvement—a peculiar psychotic manifestation of the "evangelical ghetto" ethos.

Ambiguography:  The Washington and Hollywood puff-piece inclination to omit all salient questions of substance, qualification, and character in their hagiographical celebrity profiles.

Anthropocide:  An odd habit practiced by advanced societies to insure their ultimate extinction—the slaying of our progeny.

Anthropophobia:  An inveterate and consuming fear of all things human--despising the comforts and joys of civilization.

Anti-semantic:  The refusal of liberal humanists to define terms in any significant debate--cultural, political, moral, or economic.

Aquadextrous:  Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet on and off with your toes.

Auldlanxiety:  The woe-begotten longing for fifties-style traditional values—as opposed to ageless Biblical values.

Man as Thinker

A Plethora of Online Sites

1. Our primary ministry blog: http://grantian.blogspot.com

2. Our church website: http://parishpres.org

3. Our school's website: http://www.franklinclassical.com

4. The college website: http://newcollegefranklin.org

5. Our coop website: http://www.thecomeniusschool.com

6. Our study center website: http://kingsmeadow.com

7. This site, just for fun: http://eleventary.blogspot.com

8. Our pro-life blog: http://ppgi.blogspot.com

9. Our blog for the Parish Life Network: http://parishlife.blogspot.com

10. Our seldom updated (shame, shame) running blog: http://deruns.blogspot.com; which is a corollary of our running team website: http://sumergozoom.com

11. And then, there are all our  social media sites: https://www.facebook.com/Gileskirk?ref=tn_tnmn, https://www.facebook.com/KingsMeadowStudyCenter, https://www.facebook.com/ParishPresbyterianChurch, https://twitter.com/#!/gileskirk and this doesn't include the King's Meadow Google + site, the Pinterest site, the King's Meadow Twitter site, and probably a couple of others we're not able to remember right off the top of our heads right now!

Poetry: A Guide on Where to Start

1. G.K. Chesterton--start with the "Ballad of the White Horse" and "Lepanto" but don't miss his short, humorous verse and his Christmas poems.
2. Hilaire Belloc--almost all of his poetry is worth reading, but especially his traveling verses.
3. Sir Walter Scott--nothing beats his great epics like "The Lady of the Lake."
4. Arthur Quiller-Couch--again, almost everything from Q is worth careful reading, but especially his local sea town tales and his verse parodies.
5. Alfred Noyes--you'll especially want to read his epics like "The Highwayman."
6. Q's edition of the "Oxford Book of English Verse" must not be missed (but make sure it's Q's and not one of the wretched modern updates).
7. And of course, Francis Palgrave's "Golden Treasury" is a classic collection.
8. Louis Untermeyer's wonderful anthology, "This Singing World," was my favorite for years and years.
9. "The Collected Poetry" of T.S. Eliot is not to be missed.
10. All of J.R.R. Tolkien's poetry is not available in a single volume, but whenever you can find collected anthologies, grab them--works like "Tom Bombadil" and "The Lays of Beleriand" are stunningly beautiful.
11. The various collections of verse from C.S. Lewis are also delightful--but, be sure to get an edition with some of his longer, more complex Medieval reflections.

Favorite Chuck Colson Books

1.     Born Again

2.     How Now Shall We Live, with Nancy Pearcey

3.     The Body: Being Light in Darkness, with Ellen Vaughn

4.     Why America Doesn’t Work, with Jack Eckerd and Lloyd Billingsley

5.     Kingdoms in Conflict, with Ellen Vaughn

6.     Against the Night: Living in the New Dark Ages, with Ellen Vaughn

7.     The Good Life, with Harold Fickett

8.     The Faith, with Harold Fickett

9.     A Dance with Deception: Revealing the Truth Behind the Headlines

10.  Burden of Truth: Defending the Truth in an Age of Unbelief

11.  Justice that Restores

Why Are These Lessons So Hard to Learn?

1.     Look before you leap.

2.     Aim before you shoot.

3.     Think before you speak.

4.     Get the facts before you judge.

5.     Verify before you crucify.

6.     Read the fine print before signing on the dotted line.

7.     Wait a day before you send the scorching e-mail.

8.     Context, context, context.

9.     Lend no credence to gossip.

10.  Get the story right from the horse’s mouth.

11.  Know what you know and who you know.

Eating in the UK

1. Pret a Manger: Charing Cross

2. Nero’s Coffee: St. James Piccadilly 

3. Barbacoa: St. Paul's

4. Wagamama’s: Tower of London

5. Jamie’s Italian: Brighton

6. The Cambridge Eagle 

7. The Borough Market: Southwark

8. West Cornwall Pasty: Victoria

9. Nandos Peri-Peri: Brighton

10. Maoz Falafel: Leicester Square

11. Jamie’s Italian: Covent Garden

Japan: One Year Later

Japan: One Year Later

Holy Week

The Shelf Life

Serious reading and classical methodologies: such things hardly represent the kind of wiz-bang razzle-dazzle doohickeries that excite the educational reformers, social planners, religious leaders, and political prognosticators these days. But then, who asked them anyway? They're the ones who got us into the current designer disaster of cultural disintegration and disarray--where all the profundities of a civilized moral order have become so much rubbish. So, how do we go about developing the habits of lifetime learning--reading, studying, and resisting the tyranny of the urgent--that we need in order to do the things we are called to do and to be the things we are called to be?

1. Read. “A broad interest in books usually means a broad interest in life.” Lyman Abbott
2. Read Deeply. “ Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Richard Steele
3. Read Out of Your Time. “I hate to read new books. Contemporary writers may generally be divided into two classes—one’s friends or one’s foes. Of the first we are compelled to think too well, and of the last we are disposed to think too ill, to receive much genuine pleasure from the perusal, or to judge fairly of the merits of either.” William Hazlitt
4. Read Classically. “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” Italo Calvino
5. Read Above Your Head. “You may perhaps be brought to acknowledge that it is very well worthwhile to be tormented for two or three years of one’s life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it.” Jane Austen
6. Read According to Plan. “It is a good plan to have a book with you in all places and at all times.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
7. Just Read: The Medium Is Nearly as Vital as Message. “If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them.” Winston Churchill
8. Read All Along the Footnote Trail. “If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.” John Ruskin
9. Read with an Eye to Leaving a Legacy. “A little library, growing every year, is an honorable part of a man’s history.” Henry Ward Beecher
10. Read with All Joy in the Journey. “When I get a little money, I buy books; and if there is any left, I buy food and clothes.” Desiderius Erasmus
11. Read Constantly (at least daily). “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” Mortimer Adler

"You can find all the new ideas in the old books; only there you will find them balanced, kept in their place, and sometimes contradicted and overcome by other and better ideas. The great writers did not neglect a fad because they had not thought of it, but because they had thought of it and of all the answers to it as well." G.K. Chesterton

“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not yet read them.” Samuel Butler

A Busy Ministry

http://kingsmeadow.com

http://parishpres.org

http://grantian.blogspot.com

http://eleventary.blogspot.com

http://ppgi.blogspot.com

http://parishlife.blogspot.com

http://deruns.blogspot.com

http://www.ms-academy.org

http://csmedes.org

http://www.franklinclassical.com

http://newcollegefranklin.org

Favorite Indonesian Foods

1.     Satay

2.     Nasi Goreng

3.     Char Siew Wonton

4.     Popiah

5.     Roti prata

6.     Goreng Pisang

7.     Kalamansi Limes

8.     Rojak

9.     Ayam Penyet

10.  Sambal Belachan

11.  Nasi Lemak

Schaeffer 100 Conference

On the Nightstand

It seems I'm always reading several books at once. I read some for my work--so, for instance right now I'm reading "The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition" by Richard Gummere and "Sailing the Wine Dark Sea" by Thomas Cahill. At the same time, I am working through Derek Kidner's "Genesis" and Victor Hamilton's "The Book of Genesis."
I am almost finished with Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs," which I got for Christmas. But, I couldn't help getting started on Rick Marschall's "Bully: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt," also a Christmas gift.

My friend Mike Milton's new book, "Songs in the Night," came in the mail just a few days before Christmas--I started it the minute I opened the package. Likewise, I began reading the new N.T. Wright translation, "The Kingdom New Testament," right after I brought it home.
I try to read everything Douglas Wilson writes--which is a feat in and of itself. I always learn so much about writing--besides whatever it is that he happens to be writing about. But with his "Wordsmithy," a book of advice to writers, I am getting a double-dose.

After slogging through Umberto Eco's very dark "The Prague Cemetery," I thought I probably needed something really edifying to read next. So, I am re-reading Ian MacLaren's "St. Jude's."

And, for my devotions, I am slowly savoring the third volume of "Daily Scripture Readings" by Thomas Chalmers. So rich.

Next up: I gave copies of Niall Ferguson's book, "Civilization: The West and the Rest," to three different people for Christmas, but I didn't keep a copy for myself. So this week, by hook or by crook, I'm going to get over to Parnassus for that--and while I'm in that part of town, I'll also step into Logos to re-supply and re-provision.

Christmas Favs

1. "On Christmas" by G.K. Chesterton

2. "Christmas Stories" by Charles Dickens

3. "On the Incarnation" by Athanasius

4. "Nativity Hymns" by Isaac Watts

5. "The Birth of the Savior" by C.H. Spurgeon

6. "No Holly for Miss Quinn" by Miss Read

7. "Corrie's Christmas Memories" by Corrie Ten Boom

8. "The Fourth Wise Man" by Henry van Dyke

9. "Shepherds Abiding" by Jan Karon

10. "A New England Christmas" Henry Wadswoth Longfellow

11. "The Invention of Lefse" by Larry Woiwode