Ancient Israel looks fascinating.
In fact, the land of Israel is the subject of my new series of columns.
But medieval Italy, the land of Dante and the Popes (except when there were three claimants) looks more fascinating still.
It always did, I confess.
That's why, in part, I enjoyed writing this column on the Pope's resignation -- which I, along with many other journalists, keep calling a "shocker."
Shocking even though it is perfectly canonical, and he's hinted at it before.
Shocking although his older brother Georg apparently thought Benedict XVI was a little too old to be Pope to begin with.
Shocking even though he left his pallium on the tomb of the last Pope to resign of his own free will...the Pope that Dante apparently castigated for making "the great refusal."...
To borrow a metaphor from the great poet, let me admit that I, along with many others, apparently find this story, rent from the back pages the Catholic Church, a hell of a lot of fun.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/815662_Column--How-will-history-judge-Benedict-XVI-.html
samedi, février 16, 2013
vendredi, février 15, 2013
Online dating: how it can ruin a nice evening
The thing is -- I'm incredibly straightforward.
Not only that, but I stubbornly try to stay calm and polite, even when the guy on the other end of the correspondence doesn't.
I am a bit baffled tonight.
The guy who said last week he wants to meet me isn't returning my emails.
A man who has my email address isn't using it -- which makes me wonder...
A 78-year-old gentleman in New Jersey begs me to talk to him. I wonder what he would think of me dating a young man in his thirties.
Then, of course, there are the married guys and all the other online bounders.
I never seem to be QUITE cynical enough for the online dating universe.
Instead, I take a break from one site, and leave my profile up on another.
While it may not be a change of characters, it is a pragmatic move.
And what is online dating about among the middle-aged, in the end, but pragmatism?
Doomed, moody pragmatism...not even the delusional feel good kind.
Why do I continue?
I suppose that I'm as entitled to my delusions as you to yours.
Ain't American romance wonderful?
Not only that, but I stubbornly try to stay calm and polite, even when the guy on the other end of the correspondence doesn't.
I am a bit baffled tonight.
The guy who said last week he wants to meet me isn't returning my emails.
A man who has my email address isn't using it -- which makes me wonder...
A 78-year-old gentleman in New Jersey begs me to talk to him. I wonder what he would think of me dating a young man in his thirties.
Then, of course, there are the married guys and all the other online bounders.
I never seem to be QUITE cynical enough for the online dating universe.
Instead, I take a break from one site, and leave my profile up on another.
While it may not be a change of characters, it is a pragmatic move.
And what is online dating about among the middle-aged, in the end, but pragmatism?
Doomed, moody pragmatism...not even the delusional feel good kind.
Why do I continue?
I suppose that I'm as entitled to my delusions as you to yours.
Ain't American romance wonderful?
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