If you need your spirit to be stirred, this hymn will probably do it–My Ransom, sung by Doxology, the a capella vocal ensemble at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Lord, your wounds have paid my ransom”: if that message doesn’t move you, I don’t know what will
Suggested by Susan–and thank you, Susan!
I think it’s the same cat in all these scenarios–and boy, is he smart! He wins the shell game, three out of three, and has figured out how to unlock his crate–from the inside. I know college grads who couldn’t do that. Then again, how many cats could get a master’s degree in Gender Studies?
I love Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and this wonderful 1984 movie version of it, starring George C. Scott as Scrooge. And I really love this theme music, composed by Nick Bicat, And God Bless Us, Every One.
I guess there are those who think A Christmas Carol is old hat. Are you kidding me? This is a movie about repentance and redemption–and who in this fallen world doesn’t need repentance and redemption? Who is more to be pitied than someone who has no hope of redemption?
But that’s exactly what Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to do for us.
This comes from O.P. in Australia, originally posted on my “Playground Player” chess forum on http://www.chessgames.com . I have his permission to post it here. I have edited it slightly, only because it’s so long. Here goes:
I’ve finished “The Last Banquet” and found this fourth installment to be a most enjoyable read, just as I did the first three!… You continue to come up with fascinating new characters and the further development of your existing characters from the previous books is ingenious.
The obsession of Lord Reesh with the past Empire is an intriguing sub-theme throughout the series.
“But to be free, we must have power. Power to feed ourselves, regardless of the vagaries of rain and drought and frost. Power to go where we wish to go, when we please, regardless of how far away the destination, regardless of the weather. Power to channel human labor, and direct it. The men of the Empire had such power. So must we.”
I wonder to what extent the old Empire, and its demise, is a commentary on our own society.
Orth is an interesting counter-point.
“Folly, Orth thought. You collect bits of rubbish from the ruins of the Empire and treat it like fine jewels, and you delude yourself. If the men of that age were so great, why is there nothing left of their greatness but useless pieces of trash? Why did they perish? You say they flew through the air, and sailed the seas, and spoke to one another over great distances as if they sat across a table from each other–but did any of that save them? Where are they now, First Prester? Why should we try to emulate a civilization that has utterly died out?”
Orth develops into a compelling character. He is pathetic and cowardly, yet retains a residue of conscience, which only emerges when driven by his fear of “the dark angel” with the slaughter weapon. His reaction to the human sacrifice, in contrast to the cynicism of Lord Reesh, is particularly stark.
Your treatment of the various animals throughout the series is particularly heart-warming. Cavall is so reliable and the addition of Angel was a nice touch for Helki, who preferred “the company of hawk and hound”…
Wytt’s importance in this book, as in the first three, cannot be overstated. The little hairy fellow becomes more captivating with each book.
“Wytt leaped out of her arms and chattered loudly. He snatched up his little sharp stick and brandished it over his head and started dancing all around…He made a squeaking noise that was Omah-laughter.”
You really do bring him to life with your remarkable writing.
The finale of this book, as with all of them, is very dramatic! Of course I won’t give anything away, but Chillith’s last stand before the Thunder King, “You are delivered into judgment!” was spine-chilling!
There’s more, but O.P. says he’ll post the whole thing on The Last Banquet amazon.com page. There’s a lot of praise here that is very gratifying to me–but I’ve posted this not to blow my own horn, but in hopes that some of you out there, after reading the review, will want to read the book.
Lets face it things is goin to be Bad untill we Can “get” Hillery to bee ore Pressadint and “untill that” hapens we is going to Need “a” sankturairy like Al them Sankturairy Citties whare Donold Trump he cant De-port nobody. My prefesser “he” says This here Collidge it got to bee our Sankturairy but i sayed No i got a Idea that is Even Better!!
Thare is a iland in the Carob Bean Sea it is caled Madrigasscar and whe Can biuld a sankturairy thare! Madrigasscar it was Dis-covvered by Colombas in 1942 and then It was part of the countree of Hungry for a wile but now Noboddy lives Thare becose it has Got too Crowded!! It is a Big iland i think its abuot 250 Sqware Foot and Whe can go and Live “thare” untill Hillery she “is” Pressadint and then Us Interllecturals we can al “come back” and Take Over!!! Aslo thare Is a grate Big House thare, yiu can See a piture of It up abbove and that wuld Be “ideel” for Smart peple to live in it!
Well My prefesser he sayed Yiu “are a idiat, dont yiu know no jeogriffy, Madriigasscar it is not in the Carob Bean it is In the Medritaranian See and ” thare are Zombees on it!! but i am Pretty Sure he “is” Wrong abuot that becose i Seen the piture! Wel even a Presser he cant Be rihght Al The Time!!
So i has been sining Up other Interllecturals hear at Collidge to go live in Madrigasscar untill Michale More he can get Rid of Donold Trumpt and then Hillery she “wil” be Pressadint and we Can putt al the Racists and Biggits in Jale! I also heared that Our Grate Pressadint Obamma he “was” born in Madrigasscar once after he was born in Americka and he Wil come and vissit Us and aslo Make the Sea Levvels to go down! and i Dont think we whill Has to stay in the Sankturairy very Long “befour” that Trump he Is all gone!!!
See yiu in Madrigasscar!!!
Requested by Ina, The Little Drummer Boy featuring a duet by Bring Crosby and David Bowie–two giants from two very different eras of popular music. Bing died just before this could be shown on television, and David passed away recently. Now they sing on Christ’s Kingdom.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing–from St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, performed by choir and full orchestra: well, our King deserves the royal treatment. Requested by Erlene.
P.S.–Erlene, Patty wants to remind you that sometimes it’s easy to turn off your computer’s speakers by accident, or hit the wrong key and mute the video, again by accident; so you might want to check that. Come to think of it, it’s happened to me; and there I sat, puzzled, no sound… and I only had to turn the sound back on.
This video purports to list “11 signs your cat is happy.” Look for the items in hard-to-read lettering in the lower left-hand corner (took me a while to find them). This is a very polite little cat with nice manners.
To the 11 signs of a happy cat, given here, I would add one more.
You know your cat is happy when he pulls your jacket off the back of the chair and makes a nest of it on the floor.
You know your wife is unhappy if she does that.
Democrats in America, and left-wing loons in Europe, are lustily singing the blues, these days, over “fake news” that supposedly has tricked the people in their countries into falling out of love with their DeLuxe Globalist Fun-Pak of open borders, perpetual expansion of the government, and the invention of assorted thought crimes that need to be punished by the government. They’re pressuring Facebook and other social media, and lobbying for new laws against “fake news.”
“Fake news” is, it seems, news that is not provided by the Left’s bought-and-paid-for henchmen in the “mainstream” (LOL) nooze media–which has been cranking out phony, misleading, and just plain lying nooze for decades. While few noozies can hope to match the towering lies told by The New York Times’ Walter Duranty in defense of Josef Stalin’s workers’ paradise in Russia, he has had more imitators than you can shake a stick at.
A really big piece of journalistic fraud, now mostly forgotten, was the “exploding Ford Pinto” reportage of the 1970s which, before it was exposed as fraud, spawned journalistic attacks on other car companies ( http://www.fordpinto.com/index.php?page=228 ). Man, they all climbed aboard! NBC, CBS, and ABC. Dateline. 60 Minutes. 20/20–all the major nooze shows were accusing auto manufacturers of selling cars they knew to be death-traps.
And they had exploding car video to prove it. Exploding car video obtained by installing incendiary devices in cars and blowing them up on purpose, sabotaging brakes, drilling holes in the transmission–all sorts of little journalistic tricks designed to get the kind of video the noozies wanted.Even the National Highway Traffic Safety Board chided the alleged journalists for basing their reports on, at best, “abnormal test conditions and unrealistic maneuvers.” And that was when they weren’t hiding rockets in the trunk.
So, yeah, “fake news” has been with us for a long time–and the nooze media who are complaining about it the loudest have been among the guiltiest purveyors of it.
As a simple rule of thumb: any “news” report that benefits left-wing political causes is almost certain to be false.