I leave for the airport en route to Grove City College in Pennsylvania later this morning but thought I’d write a quick miscellaneous post to the blog before my departure. I’m speaking at Grove City College at the behest of the Center for Vision and Values and will be speaking on the edifying topic of “G.K. Chesterton and Modern Education”. Needless to say I agree with the former in his criticism of the latter!

On a completely unrelated matter, notwithstanding the shared edifying nature of both, I must recommened Sean O’Leary’s superbly innovative CD in which he sets some of the great poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins to music. StAR subscribers may recall that this particular CD was reviewed in a recent issue by Al Benthall, who shares my enthusiasm. O’Leary’s musical adaptations of Hopkins’ “Felix Randal”, “God’s Grandeur” and “The Windhover” send shivers down my spine! I urge you to purchase this cultural gem: “The Alchemist: Hopkins Poems in Musical Adaptations” by Sean O’Leary. Go to www.earthsweetearth.co.uk or www.gerardmanleyhopkins.net for further details.

Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous (in the best sense of the word!), you must also check out the hilarious lampooning of postmodern theology by my friend and colleague, and regular contributor to this very site, Kevin O’Brien. Kevin has invented the character of Standford Nutton, an aging hippy theologian of the Church of Whatever. Check it out. You will be falling off your seat in apoplexisms of guffawing delight. Go to www.youtube.com and search for “theater of the word” or “theater of the word inc”, then select “Standford Nutton” and “authors today”. Kevin’s “Sally at the Mall” is also very funny.

Must dash …