Snow earlier this week

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Pixar Remake

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Summer Storm


This storm cooled the place right off a week or so ago…

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Monday Night Sunset

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A Few Pics

Taken last week in and around Logan, Utah:

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Good Story 299: St. Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

Just in time for his feast day, Julie and I read a book about St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G. K. Chesterton. The book was mostly about philosophy, and what Aquinas brought back to the table. Thoughts like this:

Thus, even those who appreciate the metaphysical depth of Thomism in other matters have expressed surprise that he does not deal at all with what many now think the main metaphysical question; whether we can prove that the primary act of recognition of any reality is real. The answer is that St. Thomas recognised instantly, what so many modern sceptics have begun to suspect rather laboriously; that a man must either answer that question in the affirmative, or else never answer any question, never ask any question, never even exist intellectually, to answer or to ask.

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.

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Exoplanets

Some awe for a Thursday:

That nifty graph shows light from a star being blocked (so very slightly) by a planet crossing in front of it. These measurements were taken by NASA’s Webb Telescope, which is possibly the niftiest thing ever. The star is 41 light years away and is in the constellation “Octans”, which can be seen from Earth only while standing in the southern hemisphere. The planet is called LHS 457 b (was “Planet Karl Urban” already taken?), is Earth-sized, and rocky.

It wasn’t that long ago that we could only assume the existence of planets outside of our solar system but now, as of this writing, we’ve found 5,241 of them.

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Good Story 298: The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy

For most of the years we’ve been recording the Good Story podcast, Julie and I have invited a guest to join us on our opening episode. This year we invited Cy Kellett, the host of Catholic Answers. I was thrilled that he agreed! I wanted to meet him for a few reasons. First, I’ve been listening to Catholic Answers for years and respect the guy a lot. Second, he wrote a great science fiction novella called Ad Limina about a bishop on Mars making his way to Earth for his ad limina visit. I wanted to let him know how much I enjoyed that. And third, he brought a book by Walker Percy to the podcast, and Percy is an author that has been on my radar for a very long time, but that I never picked up. Now I have, and I’m happy I did.

The Thanatos Syndrome is a remarkable book. It’s Walker Percy’s sixth and last novel. The main character is Dr. Tom More, who has returned to the world after two years in prison. He’s a psychiatrist who notices strange connected behaviors among his patients. He investigates, and this leads to a story in which Percy touches on freedom, sin, loss of meaning in life and in words, and the mystery of humanity. Highly recommended!

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.

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Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, with Pope Benedict XVI

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Good Story 290 and 291

These two episodes of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast were very interesting to me. Julie selected two movies to compare and contrast: Thelma and Louise (1991) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1955). They are both considered (by some) to be “feminist movies”, yet they are so different.

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.

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Saturday Night Chinwag


Thanks to Mark from “BookTime with Elvis” and Shawn D. Standfast for letting me join their conversation!

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A Few Books (Alternate History Edition)

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