Coffee in a Grab Bag of Topics
My wife runs a nice little food blog here on WordPress, adventurous and skillful culinarist that she is, and she recently asked me to do a guest spot for her. If you’d like my rundown on Starbucks’ newest attempt to grab the edge of the sink, head on over to No Slivers Here and check it out. While you’re at it, browse her blog history, for there are great recipes aplenty. I personally recommend the garlic bread knots.
And I just noticed that the two “roadblocks” I reference in the post have consistency issues. Oh, well.
Is anyone else noticing a prevalence of non-Catholic Lent participation in recent years? My sister, Protestant, has been observing Lent for a couple of years now. My wife, occasional Methodist, is also kicking off the month with giving up Starbucks coffee (her Friday treat). I’ve polled my co-workers, and I’ve heard “no eating after dinner,” “no TV after 10pm,” and “no junk food.” None of these folks were Catholic, practicing or otherwise.
I am a Christian Hedonist, so you might say that giving up something I enjoy is against my religion. I get Lent. The idea is to separate yourself from worldly pleasures so as to better attune yourself with the will of God. I’m more of the “live while I’m alive” persuasion though, and Mom and Dad always taught me to not do anything just because everyone else is. Still, what up with Lent participation? Any ideas?
I’m sure that for those of you who follow such things, the news about Patrick Rothfuss’ highly-anticipated sequel is already old, but I thought I’d link and comment anyway. I know, like he said, some folks will be upset, some will be gracious, and some will attempt dark rites of unholy energy to vent their frustration. I am in none of these categories however. I am actually, yes, excited about this.
I had the rare opportunity to glimpse Book Two years ago in its raw form, and it was beautiful and entrancing and completely captured my imagination. With the time and care going into its revisions, I know that Wise Man’s Fear is going to blow my mind.
Lastly, your Zen quote of the day is from Confucius himself who said, “Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.”
Meditate on that.