Food
Gordon Ramsay Isn’t Jesus, Or, Criticism Is Not on the Menu at Amy’s Baking Company
Celebrity / Food / Theology / TV

Gordon Ramsay Isn’t Jesus, Or, Criticism Is Not on the Menu at Amy’s Baking Company

by Michael Sansbury on May 16, 2013 • 5 Comments

Until yesterday, I had never watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, but, according to its website, here’s how it works: Ramsay, a notoriously mean chef, visits struggling restaurants, observes them, and then tells the owners how to fix their restaurants. Knowing how I usually respond to criticism, I cannot see how this premise ever works. Instead, I would imagine every episode ending in denial, retreat, and, ultimately, violence.

In other words, I would imagine that every episode proceeds along the same lines as this episode, which features Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona:

If you don’t have time to watch…

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Squatters Rights, Impossible Commands and My Fitness Pal
Everyday / Food / Identity / Law / Religion

Squatters Rights, Impossible Commands and My Fitness Pal

by Michael Sansbury on Mar 19, 2013 • 5 Comments

Q. Since we do not fully obey [the Ten Commandments], are they useful at all?

A. Since we do not fully obey them, we see more clearly our sin and our need for redemption.
- An Outline of the Faith, commonly called the Catechism, from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, Episcopal (USA), pages 843-862.

My wife and I have a friend who owns rental houses. Let’s call him Jeremiah. Last fall, one of Jeremiah’s friends lost his job and got a divorce, so Jeremiah let this friend move into one of his rental houses and live there rent free “until he could…

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Another Week Ends: Miracle Baskets, Doubtful Essays, Optimism vs Quitting, Paternalism, Secret Menus, Netflix Puppetry, Bowie and Mats Return, and Hathaway Haters
America / Books / Celebrity / Film / Food / Grace in Practice / Humor / Identity / Music / Psychology / Religion / Social Science / Technology / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Miracle Baskets, Doubtful Essays, Optimism vs Quitting, Paternalism, Secret Menus, Netflix Puppetry, Bowie and Mats Return, and Hathaway Haters

by David Zahl on Mar 1, 2013 • No Comments

1. In need of a little (heart)warming on a cold winter’s day? Look no further than the spontaneous act of mercy that occurred on a high school basketball court in Texas last month, ht JD:

2. Phillip Lopate ponders the declining place of Doubt in an essay for The NY Times, evidence perhaps of deeper denials, ht SY:

Despite periodic warnings of the essay’s demise, the stuff does continue to be published; if anything, the essay has experienced a slight resurgence of late. I wonder if that may be because it is attuned to the current mood, speaks to the present moment.…

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Another Week Ends: Poptropica Love, Retrospective Bullies, Foolish Proof, Colbert Logs, Lucille Bluth, and the Nabokov-Anderson Connection
America / Art / Film / Food / Identity / Relationships / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Poptropica Love, Retrospective Bullies, Foolish Proof, Colbert Logs, Lucille Bluth, and the Nabokov-Anderson Connection

by Ethan Richardson on Feb 22, 2013 • No Comments

1) Club Penguin is one of several multimedia and game sites geared towards tweens from the ages of seven to twelve. Club Penguin itself has over 200 million registered users worldwide, and was purchased by Disney not long ago.  And there are plenty of others: Poptropica, Wee World, Moshi Monsters, Fantage. Alongside the sheer breadth of these programs’ appeal to children, they also seem to picking up the tendencies of commensurate older-kid web lives. In other words, 8-year-old kids are getting boyfriends and girlfriends online, ht JD.

Kids pair off by asking “say 123 if u want me” and break up…

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Food Is Everything? Serving Salvation on a Silver Platter
Food / Identity / Law / TV

Food Is Everything? Serving Salvation on a Silver Platter

by David Zahl on Oct 30, 2012 • 5 Comments

An incredible column appeared in The NY Times recently, “A Matter of Taste?”, in which William Deresiewicz observed the religious characteristics inherent in the ascendency of “foodie” culture. Cuisine has always been a personal and ethnic identity marker of course, but in the last twenty or so odd years, what we eat/cook has become a much more powerful and widespread barometer of personal sophistication and merit. A cultural law of undeniable potency, in other words, with chefs serving as high priests of taste, in both senses of that word. No wonder that so many (excellent) cooking shows have emerged on…

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Comfortable Myths, Outright Lies and Breaking through the Fog of Disbelief
Education / Food / News / Psychology / Science

Comfortable Myths, Outright Lies and Breaking through the Fog of Disbelief

by Matt Schneider on Sep 24, 2012 • 2 Comments

Hat tip to a wise friend who recently sent me an article from The Chronicle of Higher Learning entitled “Why Lies Often Stick Better Than Truth.” The thrust of the article has to do with recent psychological research about how people often hold onto slanted information and outright lies—even after being presented with sound counter arguments. It would appear that rejecting previously-believed misinformation involves some hard and undesirable work, which many of us would rather not do. In my context as a minister, the article inspired a brief exchange about why, even when we repeatedly preach salvation by grace through…

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Another Week Ends: Incarnational Kerouac, Lutheran Austerity, Dream Identities, Rev, Arrested Development, Mormon Sci Fi, Foodie Piety and Daytrotter
Books / Children / Church / Food / Grace in Practice / Literature / Music / Poetry / Religion / Suffering / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Incarnational Kerouac, Lutheran Austerity, Dream Identities, Rev, Arrested Development, Mormon Sci Fi, Foodie Piety and Daytrotter

by David Zahl on Aug 24, 2012 • No Comments

1. Newsweek published an excerpt of D.T. Max’s forthcoming Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace and what an excerpt! It concerns Wallace’s relationship with Mary Karr, and the genus of Infinite Jest. Almost enough to dispel the reservations we voiced earlier this week. It also makes for a great lead-in to another literary find, the blog for The Library of America’ amazing interview with Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell, the editor of the forthcoming Jack Kerouac: Collected Poems. Asked why she thinks Kerouac’s poems still speak to us, she gave the following (jaw-dropping) answer, which gets…

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Food / Humor

I Don’t Do It, But I Believe in It

by Matt Schneider on Aug 16, 2012 • 1 Comment

Image thanks to Nikki.

“McDonald’s of the Soul”: A Few Lessons from Jim Gaffigan
Addiction / Food / Humor / Psychology

“McDonald’s of the Soul”: A Few Lessons from Jim Gaffigan

by Matt Schneider on Jul 31, 2012 • 5 Comments

Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan has a relatively new and insightful comedy special, Mr. Universe. Are you familiar with Gaffigan or his stand-up? You may recognize him in Flight of the Conchords (or his brief appearances in any number of other sitcoms and movies). If you don’t know who or what I am talking about, his bits on Hot Pockets and bacon are mandatory viewing.

For my money, the highlight of his Mr. Universe special is a bit on McDonald’s. In fact, it inspired me to list a few observations (in no particular order) about Gaffigan’s act and persona that are highlighted by the…

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Another Week Ends: The Casual Vacancy, Perfect People, Moral Licensing Kohlrabi, Kinkade Kitsch, Atheists and Non-Apocalypses, Dawes and Metta World Peace
Addiction / America / Art / Books / Death / Food / Forgiveness / Humor / Identity / Music / Psychology / Sports / Suffering / Technology / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: The Casual Vacancy, Perfect People, Moral Licensing Kohlrabi, Kinkade Kitsch, Atheists and Non-Apocalypses, Dawes and Metta World Peace

by Ethan Richardson on May 25, 2012 • 1 Comment

Filling in for DZ, who is on vacation this week.

1) Little, Brown released details regarding J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy. It is due to be released in the UK and US September 27. Here is the back blurb:

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Seemingly an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers…

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Another (Holy) Week Ends: Unachievement, Damsels Reviews, Gastrodad Confessions, Youth Ministry, Music Snobs, Girls and Darth Vader
America / Children / Church / Film / Food / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Technology / TV / Week In Review

Another (Holy) Week Ends: Unachievement, Damsels Reviews, Gastrodad Confessions, Youth Ministry, Music Snobs, Girls and Darth Vader

by David Zahl on Apr 9, 2012 • No Comments

1. At this point, you’ve likely seen Andrew Sullivan’s Newsweek cover story on the “Crisis in Christianity”. While there’s regrettably little talk of salvation – which I’m not sure is really within the purview of such a piece – and the reference to Jefferson is a bit dubious, the overall diagnosis strikes me as sound. Sullivan’s conclusion is particularly stirring:

The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in…

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The Onion Reports: Majority Of Instances Of People Getting Lives Back On Track Occur Immediately After Visit To Buffalo Wild Wings
Food / Humor

The Onion Reports: Majority Of Instances Of People Getting Lives Back On Track Occur Immediately After Visit To Buffalo Wild Wings

by David Zahl on Apr 2, 2012 • No Comments

SEATTLE—According to a University of Washington report published Friday, more than two-thirds of major lifestyle reassessments take place after exiting a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise. “Typically, the moment of self-reflection begins when people find themselves in the parking lot asking questions like, ‘Why the hell am I here?’ and ‘What terrible life path am I currently on that led me to a Buffalo Wild Wings?’” said researcher Dr. Priyank Sarin, adding that most individuals hit bottom when they notice the stench of stale barbecue sauce clinging to their clothes and remember how depressed they felt when they caught their own…

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The Law and Gospel (of Lent) according to Chocolat
Film / Food / Grace in Practice / Religion

The Law and Gospel (of Lent) according to Chocolat

by Matt Schneider on Feb 22, 2012 • 5 Comments

Much like the nation of Greece, the season of Lent is characterized by “austerity measures.” And while such devotion can be beautiful, Lenten observance can also border on piety for piety’s sake, or what we might call works righteousness. Please do not misunderstand me: I enjoy and value the season. Who of us wouldn’t benefit from setting aside time to reflect on the grace and mercy of God (and our need to repent)?

The tension between the need for mercy that defines Lent (in theory) and the works righteousness with which it has all too often become synonymous is the theme…

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Waning Thoughts on the Waning Year
Art / Books / Film / Food / Music / Playlist / Poetry / Politics / TV / Year In Review

Waning Thoughts on the Waning Year

by Matthew Stokes on Dec 29, 2011 • 3 Comments

As if you haven’t read enough year-end lists, I offer you a few thoughts.

Best personal experience:  Adding the fourth member of Team Stokes, Lucy Carpenter, who arrived on the ubiquitous date of November 11, 2011.  Gentleman beware:  She will be reared on a steady diet of Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson, and I’m giving her a copy of Joni Mitchell’s Blue when she turns fourteen.

Best live show:  Like most who are married with children, I don’t get out nearly as much as I’d like.  This year I was fortunate to a handful of live performances, and a few really stood…

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Choking the Chicken: A Locavore’s Lament
America / Food / Identity

Choking the Chicken: A Locavore’s Lament

by Ethan Richardson on Sep 13, 2011 • 1 Comment

It’s undeniable that the Locavore Movement has been gaining momentum for years now, and that having a small backyard vegetable garden is no longer a reliable counterculture identifier.  (You only grew kale from seed?) The phenomenon of buying local, eating local has settled in stride with the contemporary (and arguably ancient biblical) values for the neighbor, the gift of good land; the public awareness of a dissipating ozone layer, the (apparent) dissatisfaction with gargantuan supercenters and megaplexes; and so its arrival spawned a fecund harvest of lo-fi documentaries and hipster publications–until it became the thing, rather than a thing. It’s…

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