Various & Sundry: Sad Affairs, Fairy Tales, Superheroes, Parents, Happy Endings

I'm on my way shortly to Fort Bragg where I will be covering the service for St. Michael and All Angels. While on my way, I plan to listen to Colin Firth performing The End of the Affair. Doesn't that sound delicious? In a tortured, repressed sort of way, of course. I'm wondering if Colin will need to move books slightly to the left.



My sister brought these Six Fairy Tales for the Modern Woman to my attention, and I think they're pretty fabulous. My favorite:

Once upon a time a woman grew up in a land-locked state, and continued to live there because she had married her high school sweetheart, and his job was tied to the area, and she wanted to stay close to her parents, but she had always wished she had learned to surf. So when she turned 65 she used some of the money from her savings account, took her first ever solo vacation to the coast, and took a week's worth of surfing lessons, and had a very nice time.

The End.

Also, while we're talking about modern fairy tales, I thought Lance Mannion had a mighty interesting take both on Iron Man 3 (arguing that it is a commentary on The Incredibles) and on Star Trek: Into Darkness (or as he put it, Into Perpetual Adolescence). I haven't seen either of those movies to comment further, but I loved the insights nonetheless.

I'm not a parent either, but I thought this article asking other parents at the park not to help her kids was terrific. "They're not here to be at the top of the ladder; they're here to learn how to climb." True for so many things.

Not that there's anything wrong with winning. Let's just pause to admire the fact that the A's swept the Yankees this week, and especially their win in 18 innings on Thursday.