Query:

I write about one of your presidents, Abraham Lincoln.  Since I studied the man in the United States, he has become my favorite historical character, barring Christ and some of the saints.

 

“The Argument to a First Cause is very logical,” said the fellow on the bench, “but maybe God is exempt from logic.”  I hear this often.

 

I thrived on the hymns of my Baptist church when I was small.  My family was musical, and it seemed natural to listen to the counterpoint and sing in harmony.  Thinking that I would love it, my mother put me in the children’s choir.  To her great dismay, I rebelled and dropped out.  It was unspeakably humiliating to me.

 

** Spoiler Alert **

I recently read Upgrade, a Michael Crichton-style technothriller by Blake Crouch, in which humanity almost comes to an end because someone decides to play God, trying to implement an involuntary, virally transmitted polygenetic hack in order to make the whole human race smarter.  What could go wrong?

 

Roe may have been overturned, but abortion is still with us, and language is endlessly manipulable.  In homage to George Orwell, here are a few more words, phrases, and idioms for the Newspeak Dictionary.  The long-delayed Eleventh Edition is still in preparation.

 

Hilaire Belloc’s occasional dourness conceals an underlying cheerfulness – for he believed in the chastening grace of God.  This is from his reflection “On New Years and New Moons”: