And it takes a pretty big voice cajon to do some stuff on national television!

Fun stuff here. Watch it all the way to the end.

Anyway, Perrone talked about how Origen talked about how the imperative (command form of a verb) being directed to God in the “Our Father” was a consequence of the freedom of speech (parresia) accorded to the righteous as adopted children of God. Those who obey God are commanded by God to command Him, in a way. (Video of the lecture. Copy of the paper.)

Pope Francis mentioned parresia back on St. George’s Day.

It would seem that a lot of Christians do speak in a reserved or frightened or politically correct way, instead of using parresia.

Sheldon is best known as a late blooming sf writer whose stories were hailed for their understanding of women because she submitted them under the male Tiptree pen name, thus causing embarrassment when she decloaked. Unfortunately, Sheldon is also known for murdering her husband and killing herself, apparently due to mutual frustration with the husband having Alzheimers. Both the Sheldons had served in the OSS during WWII and the CIA afterward.

If you’ve never read it, go buy it now for 99 cents, and thank me later.

John Myers Myers was an amazing and fun writer, and it’s a shame he didn’t write a thousand zillion books. But he did write this one, so get it.

That is all.

Dude. Shakers did prayer-dancing as an integral part of their sect. Before that, they just shook around and whirled a lot. Anyway, inspired prayerful/ecstatic movement was their thing.

So yeah, if there were a Shaker version of Footloose, it would be about some crazy rebellious kid who wanted to be a 19th century couch potato. (And who also snuck off to kiss girls, probably.)

Silver Spoon issue 14 recommends that, if you run over a deer with your pickup, you should stick the meat in the fridge for a few days, then cut it up and put it in a pot with lots of sake, ginger, and soy sauce to simmer for a whole day. Serve on piping hot rice.

Of course, Japanese deer are a lot smaller than American deer, and the flavor probably differs somewhat.

Silver Spoon is all about vocational high schools where you actually farm. The anime’ll be coming out later this year, but the manga has already been out for a while in Japan. (I don’t think it’s been licensed over here. So here’s a link to the scanlation.) The comic is by the same lady who did Full Metal Alchemist, and an alternate version of Major Armstrong appears near the end of the first issue.

Our protagonist is so desperate to get away from his family in Sapporo (Japan’s fourth largest city, up in Hokkaido) that he applies to the farthest school he can find: a dairy farming high school that’s as rural as it gets on Hokkaido (ie, pretty darned rural), where the students board in dorms. He’s confident in his ability to get A’s on any kind of academics, but is dismayed to find out just how much hands-on work there’s going to be. But while some of his classmates aren’t good with academics, the ones there for the genetics program are able to blow him away — and somehow, even the kids who can’t do math can discuss cow cloning!

Even worse, his classmates all seem to have clear dreams and goals for their future and an adult attitude, whereas he doesn’t have any idea what he wants from life, much less as a job.

It’s going to be a hard transition….

Issue 2 grapples with “where eggs come from.” Also, the amazing egg-cooking abilities of a bowl of really hot rice.

I think Foxfier will be particularly amused by the Holstein Club in Issue 3….

They didn’t give him a Superior at the Wyoming state science fair.

Now, since they live near the border, kids in his school usually also go to the South Dakota state science fair, and nobody ever complained about it. And South Dakota’s judges, being sane, gave the kid a Superior and qualified him to an international science fair sponsored by Intel, where he could win cash and fabulous prizes as well as pretty colored ribbons.

At this point, the Wyoming science fair head called the international folks and ratted him out, because it turns out that you’re not supposed to attend two state science fairs, even if you technically qualify to go to two. Fine. It’s the rules.

But she didn’t call right away. No, she waited until the kid had hauled his reactor all the way to the international fair, so the kid could be disqualified there.

Yeppers, some people are truly well and truly in the business of trying to mess up other people’s lives.

Apparently the state of Wyoming was not amused by this, and has now fired their jerk official for being some kind of authoritarian annoyance (probably around the office as well as in this case). But it doesn’t help the kid.

OTOH, a kid with his own fusion reactor doesn’t need any help.

Anyway, for all of us who wondered what kind of science the judges could possibly want that our wonderful projects didn’t include… well, apparently a fusion reactor isn’t even enough, if the judges don’t like you. This should cheer us up a bit. (Aw. There, there, you little bean plant experiments. It wasn’t you.)