Platypus of Truth

Nothing pacifies your students like an extended World history test last period the last day before vacation. Winter break has begun and I'm safe and sound without any rebellions to put down. Sure, the kids were a little bitter about not being allowed to have five hours of unbroken partying, but they've got two weeks to forget about it. Score one for education. Score one for my kids' ability to be mature.

Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans. Should I be excited?

Homemade ginger beer go BOOM!

Almost there... Almost there.... just six more days of class. Hope I don't get blown out of the sky.

My tenth graders are reading C.S. Lewis' " Perelandra " this month. The class has been getting into it, and I had the privilege to hear as several of them were walking down the stairs: "Class is too short. I wish we had more than an hour every day to discuss this stuff. We need to make class longer."

I re-read Bill Waterson's "Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Edition" a little while back. In it, Waterson lays out his comic author's manifesto. Looking at the funny papers today, it seems as if his push for greater creative freedom in that sphere has gone totally unheeded, and the doom Waterson prophesied is about to be fulfilled. Fifteen years ago, however, he was shrugged off as an idealistic crank. This sense of being treated like the "Cassandra of comics" seems to have played a part in Waterson's decision to retire early. Then it seemed as if a lone voice of dissent had been snuffed, but the world would go on. As we know today, Waterson's predictions were on target, and far from being a crank, he was prophetic and ahead of his time. Just as the rise of the internet is quickly making newspapers obsolete, the chance for artistic freedom offered by the internet is making the newsprint comic obsolete. In the rise of the web comic, we see a...

Over the past few eeks, we've been re-reading Charles' Williams' "Descent Into Hell" in preparation for a high table meeting. I believe this is my third time through the book and a few new things are beginning to pop out at me. What I noticed most, however, was the absence of overt references to Christ. Though his presence and oblique references to Jesus fill the work, He is mentioned by name only once, and only in the context of saying that Pauline needn't bring him into it. Now don't worry; I'm not trying to take on the big guy. Tolkien's references to Christ in "The Lord of the Rings" are even more indirect, and yet the presence of Jesus can be felt on every page. Instead, the presence of this immanent yet hidden Christ in "Descent Into Hell" makes me ask: "what is Charles Williams doing?" I've heard the overall impact of William's novels described as making one feel what Christianity would look lik...