Been off for a bit, teaching and getting ready for the big move to the Midwest.

MCJ, in its short and direct way, explaining why the Anglican\Episcopal Church remains a very derailed faith, one of "moral, intellectual, Scriptural and spiritual bankruptcy."

Free Jeeves. Here, here.

We also do not approve of men with ponytails. To steal a thought from Eliot, for once stop trying to be eccentric, and hop the terribly exciting, thrilling ride that is being centric. We recommend it with conviction.

Puff this. A Galway pub defies the Irish national smoking ban and allows its patrons to light up: Galway-based Fibber McGee's decided to flout the law after suffering a 60% drop in sales since the ban was introduced in March.

Its owners are undeterred by warnings that they could lose their licence.

"We're going out of business. We might as well go out with a puff of smoke," said co-owner Ciaran Levanzin.

Here's a good headline: Sculptures mistaken for dead bodies

And on this day in history:

John D. Rockefeller, oil tycoon and world's richest man, was born in 1839.
Alec Waugh (brother of Evelyn) was born in 1898.
And William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous (or infamous, if you are a goldbug) "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention: You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country ... If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.