Various & Sundry, now with 82% more snark!

Just a few tidbits for you this week, which is probably just as well after the deluge of links a week ago.

First of all, $26.99 seems a mite steep for a collection of theologian trading cards. I don't believe they even come with gum. Still, for geekery alone, they are compelling. Behold the description:

Patterned after the all-American baseball card, Theologian Trading Cards provide essential information about the major teachers, leaders, and trouble-makers throughout the history of the church, including the time they lived, their contribution to the church, major significance, and the location where they lived.

Start saving your pennies; they don't come out until November.

On the Art of Non-Conformity blog, Chris Guillebeau gives excellent advice on How to Be Unhappy. Meanwhile The Lark described what happens when a man starts a church for jerks.

To round out this segment of our broadcast, Father Tim asks the perennial question, Is Snark Unchristian? Given that he and few other ne'er-do-wells on Twitter have now established #Snarktoberfest, I believe it is safe to say the answer...depends on what you think of Tim as a human being.

Finally, the obituary for Nicole, Duchess of Bedford reads like a romance adventure novel. Until you get to the end. But let's focus on the happy times, shall we?

Nicole, Duchess of Bedford, who has died in Monte Carlo aged 92, was the third wife of Ian, 13th Duke of Bedford. From 1959, when the press first seized on the story of their romance, until their sudden departure to France in 1974, the Bedfords were seldom out of the news, flamboyantly leading the stately home business as they promoted Woburn Abbey all over the world.

And don't forget her part in the French Resistance: "she conveyed messages and sometimes machine-gun parts past the German occupiers, occasionally using her children’s pram."

A technique to remember.