One of my summer projects is to clean out the porch so we can use it. As you can see above, Eileen and I made some headway yesterday on this. Notice the windows. I took all the curtains down to wash. Eileen made these years ago.

I threw them in the washer and then Eileen rehung them.

 

The clutter is now all on the other end of  the porch. Sigh. I will attempt to organize and get rid of some of it before snow falls.

Also on my summer reading list is Margaret Atwood’s trilogy which begins with Oryx and Crake. I have read this before but thought I would reread it before reading the rest of the trilogy. It’s another future apocalyptic novel by Atwood. I started it yesterday.

I started Paul Bradshaw’s The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship, Second Edition this morning. I continue to be bemused by my attraction to things religious. Liturgy in specific continues to interest me for some reason. Bradshaw’s book is an examination of literature and techniques on the subject. I find that I recognize much of what he is discussing and find that his analysis informs my previous understanding and educates me into better and more current approaches to this scholarship. So what the fuck, right?

While I’m indulging in obscure weird reading, I have begun Philip Baxter’s charming little survey of Sarum Use. I’m sure I bought this when I was in England in some shop, probably the Westminster Abbey bookstore. It may have been the Oxford U Press bookstore since that press publishes it.

Cranmer was well aware of the Sarum rite (used in England) and borrowed from it. That’s Dr. Cranmer burning above. This illustration is apparently from an edition of Foxes’s Book of Martyrs.

Before reading MacCulloch’s bio of Cranmer I sometimes perversely thought of reading this book (the Book of Martyrs), but MacCulloch points out a great deal of omissions and distortions in it (especially in the English version) that now I would be uneasy unless I was reading an annotated up-to-date edition (if such a thing exists).

My latest Greek project (besides the daily reading) is to force myself to memorize the above table.  So far I have about twelve of these in my head. I copied the table into my Greek notebook and prop it up so that it’s visually obvious as I do stuff.

After I get the definite articles, I will memorize the above conjugation which is the simplest Greek verb form. Notice how religious stuff seeps back into my life via my interest in Greek via the Biblical references for the specific verb forms.

Why fight it?

1. A Judge Rules for Alabama Women on Abortion – NYTimes.co

detailed and cogent debunking

2. Intervening in Our Name – NYTimes.com

Why we should pay attention

3. Sentencing, by the Numbers – NYTimes.com

Sometimes statistics are the wrong way to go

4. The C.I.A. and Torture – NYTimes.com

Before the USA can recapture any sense of its historical goals, it must abolish torturing people.