As a parent and grandparent, I smiled at this:
The reason you see so many little kids on screens in public is because the parents rightly perceive that normal toddler behaviour is unwelcome in the public square (today). You want a kid to learn how to behave on a plane without a screen? Great. It’s not going to be pretty.
via bonnie kristian
Our culture is built on an imaginary foundation of planning and action. We judge civilizations by what they have constructed and the tools and techniques that have been mastered. All the while, the world in which we live goes on as always. The same rain falls (or doesn’t), the same sun shines. The same stars assume their positions in the sky (though, at present, they are harder to see). The lilies still grow and tomorrow still comes whether we take thought or not. And the larger part of our lives operates in the same manner.
Major league composting: My wife composts not only our food scraps and so on, but clothing that’s gone beyond wearability. A pair of denim jeans in the compost pile disappears in a year, leaving a few pieces of metal and a tangle of polyester thread. One time she composted a cotton-polyester blend shirt. Next season the cotton had decomposed, leaving behind a ghostly see-through shirt of plastic mesh.
Niche reading: The Heavenly Gift: the ancient art of liturgical bread-making. A good how-to for traditional prosphora prep. I liked the emphasis on the process as a spiritual/ascetic practice.