Religion of Comic Book Characters

I assume this has been around for a while but I've never seen it.

The Oscars of Food

The 2008 James Beard Awards have been announced.  The rewards reflect the broader trends moving through the food world these days - an emphasis on local production, high-quality "real" ingredients, whole grains, sustainability and a vision of food that takes seriously its place (and its place of importance) within systems large and small, local and global.  Winner's that I've brushed up against lately:

Peter Reinhart won again in the Baking and Dessert category for Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.  Like his previous winner, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, this is a must have for any baker - hugely informative, great recipes, solid go-to breads as well as more challenging novelties.  Having said that I haven't opened it nearly as much as I have Bread Baker's Apprentice.  Using Apprentice we've made breads that rank in our "best breads we've ever eaten" category but its been more hit and miss with Whole Grain, which I think is simply an indication of a steeper learning curve for working (and eating) with whole grains than a flaw in the book.  

Barbara Kingsolver won in the Writing on Food category for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.  My wife read it and I thumbed through it and we both came to the same conclusion - a useful "beginners" book for those who are becoming interested in local, sustainable food production and consumption but unless you are already on board you'll probably be turned off by her tone and shrillness.  Kingsolver is a good writer and I think her editor did her a disservice by not steering her in a more broadly accessible direction.

The Victory Garden won for Television Food Segment, National or Local - I remember seeing this as a kid and would have bet that it wasn't even on anymore.  Not only are they still around but they have a podcast.

The Splendid Table won again for Radio Food Show.

Undoubtedly with an eye on the current global food crisis, Frances Moore Lappe won the Humanitarian Award.  I've mentioned Frances before in the context of her book World Hunger: 12 Myths, The Food First Institute and the Small Planet Institute.  A very worthy recipient.

Feeds for Your Needs

Spiffy new feed generator wizard from Google.

Words to the Wise

Three interesting glossaries that I had reason to track down over the last week:

16th and 17th century tailoring vocabulary.  I'm not a tailor, nor do I know or frequent one personally so I'm wondering if most of these are still in use.

Glossary or sheep husbandry.  "Bellwether – originally an experienced wether given a bell to lead a flock; now mainly used figuratively for a person acting as a lead and guide."

Names of winds.  "Cordonazo -  The "Lash of St. Francis." Name applied locally to southerly hurricane winds along the west coast of Mexico. It is associated with tropical cyclones in the southeastern North Pacific Ocean. These storms may occur from May to November, but ordinarily affect the coastal areas most severely near or after the Feast of St. Francis, October 4."  

Related:  One of the best nonfiction books I have ever read is Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind by Lyall Watson.  Part science, part mythology, all extremely interesting - pick up a copy if you find it in a used book store.

Religion In the News

Lots of intriguing religion stories floating around this week:

Billboards for nonbelievers.  (the author needs to check the style manual or a good dictionary, he's throwing around some religious vocabulary pretty fast and loose)

Obama campaign to launch "Joshua Generation Project" to reach out to "younger evangelicals and Catholics."  It will be interesting to see how high the messianic portrayal of Obama gets ratcheted up before there is some backlash.  Not surprisingly, this is the first time I've ever linked to CBN so I should probably be more gracious, but I wonder if this was a near-Freudian slip:  "The Brody File said awhile back that the Obama campaign would be making a concerted effort to attrack Evangelicals and Catholics to their campaign."  Was he thinking "attack" but wanting to write "attract"?

The Economist says Obama and McCain have "problems with religion."

The Pope made some good comments to the World Food Security Summit in Rome.  I haven't found an English translation of the full text yet.

Virginity, Islam and divorce in the news in France.

Interfaith dialogues in Saudi Arabia.

Obama's prayer ministry team.  Just as interesting to see who's not mentioned - not many evangelical or mainline protestants - would be nice if the reporter asked why.

Recently Spotted: Headline Edition

This was a pretty good one/two combo on Yahoo's front page earlier:

The first one is about a viral ad the paper ran to track their marketing effectiveness, here's the site.

The second one . . . . well, what to say.  I assume they are working on a similarly astute story with the headline, "After McCain, shoes catching on as new trend in U.S."