Comics
A New Pentecost, or Maybe Just a Rhetorical Revival, According to Peanuts

A New Pentecost, or Maybe Just a Rhetorical Revival, According to Peanuts

We have written several pieces on Charles Schulz’s Peanuts here before, and in particular on Robert L. Short’s prophetic interpretation in his The Gospel According to Peanuts (1965) here, here, and here. Both Peanuts in general and Short’s book in particular have played meaningful roles in my life ever since my conversion to Christian faith. In fact, I recently reread Short’s very important (and Mockingbird-esque) first chapter, “The Church and the Arts.” I found that he gives us—as Thornton Wilder called it—some “new persuasive words  for defaced or degraded ones” about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit’s work in the arts and…

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Poorly Navigating Kamikazes and the Secret History of the World

Poorly Navigating Kamikazes and the Secret History of the World

How do you write about the reality of the human condition in concrete terms without coming off as sanctimonious or a total downer? I don’t know, but I think Tim Kreider may. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was so impressed with (and addressed by) his essay “The Busy Trap” that appeared in The NY Times recently that they immediately ordered his essay collection, We Learn Nothing, which came out in paperback last month. Hard to imagine there’s another volume out there with endorsements from both Judd Apatow and David Foster Wallace, not to mention an astonishing opening…

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A Quick Get Fuzzy

http://assets.amuniversal.com/8be09d4082d801302725001dd8b71c47

From Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

From The New Yorker

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A Quick Calvin and Hobbes

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From The New Yorker (Happy Valentine’s Day)

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From The New Yorker

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A Quick Calvin and Hobbes

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David Byrne on Superrationalization Engines and the Legacy of Good Habits

David Byrne on Superrationalization Engines and the Legacy of Good Habits

A bit random: last week Brain Pickings highlighted David Byrne’s 2006 collection of pencil diagrams, Arboretum, and suffice it to say, the project is in keeping with the oddball beauty/eclecticism of everything the former Talking Head does. The diagrams in question are as funny as they are unorthodox, but it was the rationale laid out in his introductory essay that made me want to post a few of them here. Certainly the most charming musings on intelligent design I’ve come across in ages:

I happen to believe that a lot of scientific and rational premises are irrational to begin with—that the…

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Another Week Ends: Manti Te’o, More Humblebragging, Russian Arrested Development, Pauline Economists, Pentecostal Megan Fox, Don’t Label Me and Shaking Caricatures

Another Week Ends: Manti Te’o, More Humblebragging, Russian Arrested Development, Pauline Economists, Pentecostal Megan Fox, Don’t Label Me and Shaking Caricatures

1. Some of the biggest news this week was Notre Dame quarterback Manti Te’o’s girlfriend – the one he had reportedly visited between games, who was sick and eventually died of leukemia – turning out to be a hoax. It was one of the most inspirational and heart-rending stories of the 2012 college football season and then, on Wednesday, in the span of a quick article, Deadspin debunked the myth:

Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school’s football program back to glory, Te’o was whipsawed between personal…

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A Quick Peanuts

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From The New Yorker

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Run, Dog, Run!

Run, Dog, Run!

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

I’ve written on Stephan Pastis’ work before; Pearls before Swine is my favorite comic strip, and I read it daily. Pastis typically displays what we might call “great acumen about human nature.” And he’s done it again here in the above (and below) strips.

It’s naïve Pig’s response that caught my eye. When asked…

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From The New Yorker

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Resolving to Love Calvin and Hobbes (17 Years Later)

Resolving to Love Calvin and Hobbes (17 Years Later)

It’s hard to believe that today (12/31) marks the 17th anniversary of the end of Calvin and Hobbes. While 17 years may sound like a long time, the strip has hardly dated at all. Instead, it is slowly but surely being recognized as the work of art that it is/was, and not just by us. The amount of expression and joy and humanity that Bill Watterson was able to wring out of those four panels over ten short years (1985-1995) is simply astounding. Mark my words: Calvin and Hobbes will go down as one of the abiding cultural achievements of…

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