media spotting

Ed Park manages to work a mention of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB into a short column about books with really long names. It's an aside issue:

There's also a subgenre to this effusiveness, specimens for which text becomes texture; you can judge these books, at least a little, by their covers. The sleeve of David Denby's American Sucker breaks up the first 75 words in stock-ticker fashion, and the bound proof of Karen Joy Fowler's forthcoming The Jane Austen Book Club has a similar inside-out conceit.

Jane Austen

Public theologian? Is this blasphemy or praise?

Furries for Jesus?

Ah, the internet. It seems that this is a rendering of a furry Mary and the J.

Yes, there is a Christian furry community, which actually seems alarmingly dull and deviant at the same time. Some of these people are remarkably talented... I think.

(found via twinkle blah lest anyone worry about my googling habits.)

speaking of the National Park Service

Apparently the Grand Canyon bookshop is selling a Christian guide book claiming it's only a few thousand years old, and the rest of this (via Maud Newton):

Some critics fear that the Park Service, traditionally devoted to maintaining the nation's parks and placing geographical wonders and monuments in their true scientific and historical contexts, is becoming an instrument of right-wing Christian fundamentalists.

The Park Service, they note, recently responded to pressure from conservative groups and re-edited a video on the Lincoln Memorial to exclude footage of gay rights and abortion rights demonstrations at the monument.

Is there any government institution left that isn't becoming an instrument of R's?

p.s. We have a winner, Mr. Butner -- but that doesn't mean we can't all still post!

red rover, red rover

I dare you to post. The first person who posts something to withboots will win a prize that is not the men vs. women game (because Richard and Barb are now the proud owners of that -- ha!) but picked just for you. Maybe it will be the one and only copy of an installment of Christopher's periodic comic, "The Hideous Tale of the Hideous Vampire."

Or maybe not.

Happy New Year! May we all get new boots and be happy.