A World of Speculation

Why people look at me funny

I used the word “arguably” in a spoken sentence yesterday, and my boss looked at me quizzically and said, “Did you just say ‘arguably’?”Well, yes.But this isn’t really about my odd speech patterens; rather it’s about...

Another dissenting voice on applause

Fr. John Whiteford also thinks applause at Pope John Paul’s funeral is weird. Fr. John writes: It seems to me that applause during a worship service is the final step in the process of making the services a show. This is not unconnected with the innovation of...

Finding the value of failure

I arrived in speed building in my court reporting class last week. I had gotten to the end of Phoenix theory, theoretically having learned all I needed to record anything in the English language — all, of course, except speed.So I went into the first...

Memory Eternal

To Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America, forced out of office in 1996 by the Patriarch of Constantinople for calling a meeting of Orthodox bishops at Ligonier, aiming for Orthodox unity in the United States.The multiple Orthodox...

Some kinds of prayer I don’t understand

A Catholic priest from a “traditionalist” parish was keeping vigil in St. Peter’s Square with thousands of others when the announcement came that the pope was dead.To pick up the story:Within moments, a cardinal announced to the crowd that the pope...