IVP - Strangely Dim

Fun with Misplaced Modifiers, or, Even Monkeys Need Editors

I was recently made aware of a clever blog by Rachel Held Wilson, "Evolving in Monkey Town," about the challenges of practicing faith in a postmodern era and a fundamentalist context. Or something like that. The author writes from Dayton, Tennessee, home of the Scopes Monkey Trial, which bolstered the theory of evolution as a staple of public education and played a significant role in the launch of the fundamentalist movement in the United States. The city has memorialized its moment in the spotlight with a plaque:

Here, from July 10 to 21, 1925 John Thomas Scopes, a County High School teacher, was tried for teaching that a man descended from a lower order of animals in violation of a lately passed state law.

So, here's where I reveal my inherent nerdiness and bore you with an English lesson: This sentence as constructed implies that the man who "descended from a lower order of animals"--not the high school teacher--was "in violation of a lately passed state law." So be warned, ambitious lower primates: if you're going to evolve, don't do it in Dayton. And to the school district let me offer the following advice: worry less about biology and more about grammar. (Of course, I'm biased.) For the rest of you, feel free to suggest an alternate sentence construction for the revised plaque or to chastise me for my nerdiness or lack of graciousness.

Facebook Fever

Likewise Books has Facebook fever. Ever since Facebook--the social networking utility that has linked college students online for years--opened itself to noncollege students, growing numbers of InterVarsity Press employees and Likewise authors have opened accounts and are keeping tabs on one another there.

One of Facebook's standard features is an online poll, updated daily and limited to one thousand responders. I must say some of the polling questions are among the lamest I've encountered online: my favorite so far is "Do you have good taste in music?" But some of them offer interesting insights into what goes on in the Facebooking mind.

Today's poll is "Is the glass half-empty or half-full?" Fully 76 percent of the respondents are, apparently, optimists. (Don't ask me why, because I'm decidedly among the minority. As my beloved daddy regularly reminds me, "An optimist can never be pleasantly surprised.")

There's no negligible difference in outlook between men and women; women may be slightly more optimistic than men, or they may be slightly more inclined to respond to online polls--who can say? The least optimistic age group--only 74 percent of them--are ages 18 to 24, probably because they're just now back in school, trudging into 8 a.m. astronomy class after a summer of sleeping till noon.

The other polling question that caught my eye earlier this summer was the simple, even simplistic, "Are you religious?" The consensus was "No" by a similar margin: 70 percent over 30 percent. I can't decide if I'm surprised by these results or not. I'm also not sure how to interpret them, especially taken together: if three-fourths of the Facebook community are irreligious and generally upbeat, what do you suppose they want to talk about? What do you suppose they want to read about?

Best Imitation of Myself

This morning I hopped into my car, put the key in the ignition, started my car and switched my radio on just in time to hear my name on Lin's Bin.

Lin Brehmer, morning DJ of the best radio station in the world, responds to listener questions with an audio essay supplemented by bits of popular music and film and television sound bites. Lately I've been sleeping late and missing the broadcast. Today, though, I got there in time, to hear him declare, "Today's question comes to us from Dave Zimmerman in Downers Grove."

Technically I don't live in Downers Grove, I haven't been alerted by WXRT that Lin would be using my question, and I don't remember submitting the question. But it sounds like the kind of question I might ask.

I've encountered other Dave Zimmermans in the area before: when I was married, my wife's checking account was joined to some other, far more wealthy me; and I refer to myself as Dave Z 2 at checkups so that my dentist doesn't give me someone else's root canal. But really, what are the chances that this guy and I would have the same bank, the same dentist, the same taste in music, the same fondness for Lin's Bin, and the same burning question for the ages? Somewhere out there is my doppelganger, living my vida loca.

The question, incidentally, was fittingly ironic: "How do you explain serendipity?"

As of this morning, the broadcast wasn't available yet as a podcast, but you can find the archives here.

When Soul Meets Student Body

InterVarsity has launched a new website for students. I've been itching for it for some time now, even though I'm not technically a student. Call me biased, but nobody integrates the thought life and the life of faith quite like InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Check out Student Soul to get a feel for what's on the minds of college students, which is what will be on the minds of everybody else come graduation day.

Too Pretty to Drink

Rick over at Mmmm, That's Good Coffee has posted a cool YouTube video. If you only like coffee right now, you'll love it by the time Rick is finished with you.

Come back when you're finished and tell me what's the deal with YouTube. Where are all these videos coming from? Beyond the individual merits, what's the appeal of these homespun art films? Most of the ones I've seen remind me of the film American Beauty, in which a kid captures ephemera on film and takes consolation in it. Some of them, unfortunately, remind me of the TV show America's Funniest Home Videos, in which people do stupid stuff and other people film it.

Favorites & Other Ephemera

Because I'm lazy, and because one of my commenters raised such an insightful question, I thought I'd use said question as a springboard for another Strangely Dim entry. Read on and comment often.

2e writes:

So, I'd be lying to say I didn't add this blog to my favorites. But I guess I'm confused: is it more of an insult, now, to add you to my favorites or not to?

Excellent point, 2e! I think I'd say that adding a site to your favorites is always complimentary but often ephemeral. Maybe it's because so much web-surfing is whimsical to begin with; you're likely to find Strangely Dim, for example, only after stumbling onto the InterVarsity Press website. Maybe I need to ask a new question, one I now recall I originally heard from Margaret Feinberg:

What websites are must-see for you, that you'd return to regularly. And to build on that question: what makes these sites so consistently compelling?

I'll accept family tree sites, your weblog, whatever you can subsequently explain your compulsion for. I'll even allow posts about internet gambling as long as you're not just some lame spammer and as long as you're willing to tell the world (or the five of us) that you have a gambling addiction--in which case, if you send me a dollar there's a chance I might send you two dollars back.

Hey, it's worth a shot.

To Favorites or Not to Favorites?

Today at lunch I decided to visit all my favorites--not my favorite coworkers, in case you're reading this and wondering why you were left out, but rather the web pages I've assigned to my "favorites" folder. The problem is, most of these "favorites" I'm largely ambivalent about, and some I haven't visited in more than a year.

It's just so easy to assign the term favorite to whatever tickles your fancy at any given moment. You click on "favorites," then--just in case you forgot how you felt about this particular page--you click on "add to favorites." I have subcategories of favorites--favorite blogs, favorite music sites, favorite research pages, favorite online magazines, and so on and so on. I can go to any of my favorites at virtually any time, virtually without any effort. One click and I'm there. Still, I treat my favorites like I treat my cousins, which is best described as "unfavorably."

It's nothing personal. I like my cousins quite a lot, and something about these pages got me sufficiently effusive about them that I was willing to declare them highly favored in the first place. But online relationships, like any relationships really, are notoriously difficult to maintain. (See the run of comments to "The Vanishing Breed of the Attendant" at Loud Time for insights into that one.)

My fickle favoritism leaves my computer looking something like a coffee table or end table, cluttered with books, magazines and Bibles that seem important for me to have within arm's reach but which only infrequently come off the table and into more direct contact with my brain. I want to be the guy who has read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Paul's Idea of Community and the like. I want to be the guy who is in the thick of the Emergent conversation. I want to be the smart guy, the edgy guy, the go-to guy. I suppose I want to be the favorite. But all too often the spirit is willing to declare something important, favorite, but the flesh is too weak to follow through.

So today I deleted a blog from my favorites--a site maintained by a well-known author I've never read. She's no longer my faux-favorite. I'll probably forget all about it, though, and add her back in the next time I surf by. It's so easy that it'd be impolite not to.

All About the Bunnies

I keep running into rabbits. Not literally--relax!--but in the last few days I've seen bunnies on the road, at a friend's house and on the Internet. They're cute and oh so cuddly, even though they eat everything I plant. Last summer a rabbit had nested in my dirt garden, and when the baby bunnies were born they were oh so cute that all the neighbor kids came over to see. Rabbits are intriguing; on a good day, rabbits are darn near wondrous.

Such is the case with the link that follows, where wonderful rabbits tell a wonderful story about a wonderful life--all in thirty seconds. Enjoy.

Spam of the Year Recap

I opened my e-mail today to discover I had 140 new messages, 100 of which were posts to Strangely Dim, all of which were posts to "Spam of the Year," all of which were, not surprisingly, spam.

One of those 140 messages, however, was from new friend and sequential art guru George Macas, directing me to a clever web page that I hope you'll enjoy. In the meantime, I have lots of spam to purge.

Click here to see the Smile-Pop Soapbox.

And Now, a Word from Our Klingon Friends

I thought I was done posting for the day, but I am compelled to share this blog if for no one else, then for my dad. Passages from the Klingon Bible with commentary from somebody apparently well-versed in Klingon and biblical Hebrew. He or she offers a podcast as well, and there are plenty of Klingon-language links if you like that sort of thing. File under "I thought I'd seen everything."

http://klingonword.blogspot.com/

Name That Index!

All right, time to play the nation's least popular summer time activity:

Name That Index!!!

The following entry is from the index to a forthcoming book from InterVarsity Press. Click HERE to review our list of forthcoming titles, then post your guess to Strangely Dim. The winner gets nothing--which may be part of the reason this game is so unpopular.

And the entry is . . . "Old School Presbyterians, America"

And the forthcoming book is . . . ?

Godspeed.

Out of My Head and into My Body

I know this sounds crazy, but I've just become a regular contributor to a sports ministry website.

I've never been one for sports, but when I moved to the Chicago area I fell into a crowd of sports-guys. I figured I'd better do what they asked, since any one of them could crush my head like a blueberry, so I started going to football games and even playing the occasional round of golf.

It's still not me, but along the way I've developed a new appreciation for athletes. They were all really nice to me, for one thing. Not one of them threated to turn my head into jelly, and not even once have I been the subject of a pile-on tackle. But I've also learned by experience some stuff that I should have embraced as a kid.

First off, the body is good. God made us each with one. Exercising our body is as important an expression of our humanness, therefore, as exercising our mind or our soul.

Second, sport binds a community together. Ask your friends, and eventually you'll wander into stories centered around a Super Bowl or a World Cup or simply a round of golf or a day of fishing.

So now, I write for sportsoutreachusa.com, an organization that helps churches reach out into their neighborhoods and build community through sports. I even try to raise funds for them by golfing for twelve hours (which works out to about one hole for me). Shoot me an e-mail if you'd be interested in sponsoring this exercise in futility next week.

Shameless plug, I know, but that's how the game works. If you'd like to read my inaugural sports mini-essay (I may have just coined a phrase), visit www.sportsoutreachusa.com and click on "In the Field Training." I'm currently the last article on the list, which is as it should be, I think.

Talk About Existential

Someone sent me a link to an online mosquito-swatting game. Forgive me for passing it along to you. Fair warning: once you start playing you'll find it impossible to stop. The game never ends, for one things, and you'll be hypnotized by the activity.

http://www.shockhaber.com/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.htm

Enjoy, I suppose.

Links I Like To Link To

I have a few favorite places to go online. Some of them have come to me through readers of Strangely Dim; others have just googled their way into my life. Some are blogs managed by interesting folks whose inner workings are worth looking into; others are group efforts or anonymous offerings for fun or profit. Some are all of the above.

Feel free to recommend additions to this list. It's long overdue.

www.sacredgateway.org
Ten minutes a day is no skin off your nose, trust me. This collaboration by a youth minister in Kansas and a group of Jesuits in Ireland allows me to settle, reflect and open myself to God. Not bad for ten minutes.

www.thehungersite.com
Give food to the hungry without ever leaving your computer or paying one red cent. Just about the best thing a consumer economy has ever done.

www.bustedhalo.com
One of my favorite websites ever. Operated by the Paulists, this site features young writers and activists and artists working out their faith in real time. Featuring the Trivia Inferno.

http://deadlysins.com
A tongue-in-cheek but very informative survey of the seven deadly sins of classical Christian tradition.

www.practicingourfaith.org
The online version of one of the most valuable books on spiritual practices I've ever read.

www.ChristianComicBooks.net
A clearing house for the latest offerings from the Christian comics community.

www.homestarrunner.com
What sock puppets look like online. Ridiculous.

www.mcgees.org/notb.html
Mad at your boss? Your professor just rejected your test because you used a number 3 pencil? Get revenge without hurting yourself or anyone else. "The Number of the Beast" finds the most efficient pathway to proof that the Antichrist is whomever you designate it to be. For example, my book Comic Book Character may well be the Antichrist: "Add the tile values of the letters from the board game Scrabble(R), add them together, multiply by 18, and you get 666."

Lin's Bin online archives
My favorite program on my favorite radio station. Morning DJ Lin Brehmer answers listener questions with wit and insight. I take credit for the archives being online; I begged and begged for a copy of his response to my own question, and a few weeks later the archives appeared--minus my question. Rats.

http://ramblingadventures.blogspot.com
Rick (from Cayce) is a thoughtful guy, and his thoughts are winsomely written on this blog.

www.despair.com
For the Gen-Xer in all of us. Featuring the Pessimist's Mug "The glass is half-empty. Deal with it." These folks slay me.

www.ivpress.com/zimmer-man
Shameless self-promotion, or brilliant marketing strategy? Hmmm . . .

More to come.

David A. Zimmerman