Charis Connection: Ask the Authors: Wednesday

re: "Do you have a special process for naming your characters?"...

Strand Magazine:: Interview with Michael Bond

re: undated interview. "Since 1983 mystery fans have enjoyed Michael Bond's series of detective comedies featuring retired Sûreté member Monsieur Pamplemousse and his dog Pommes Frites, and since 1958 children have been delighting in Bond's books chronicling the very funny adventures of Paddington Bear—one of the most beloved children's characters of all time./ The Monsieur Pamplemousse series is a unique blend of comedy and mystery. As an inspector for the prestigious restaurant rating directory Le Guide, Monsieur Pamplemousse (along with Pommes Frites) travels around the country sampling the finest cuisine and wines at the best restaurants in France, while stumbling into one hilarious mystery after another. Mr. Bond has recently completed another novel, Monsieur Pamplemousse on Probation. He spoke to us about his early writing career, the inspiration behind his two most famous characters, and the state of writing in general..."...

HUGE Anti-Chavez Rally In Venezuela « Daily Inklings

re: November 26 post showing crowds as far as the eye can see...

Books & Culture Corner: Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf - Books & Culture Magazine

re: "The Top Ten Books of 2006 and the Book of the Year"... John Wilson's list... "Still, it's worth saying that these are simply the titles that came most readily and insistently to mind over the last couple of weeks as I thought about the books I've read this year..."...[snip..."And now to the Book of the Year: Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, by Timothy Larsen (Oxford Univ. Press). You know the familiar story, according to which virtually every thinking person in late-Victorian England either lost his faith or maintained a pale simulacrum of genuine belief. While Timothy Larsen acknowledges that there were of course plenty of instances of deconversion, in his new book he draws attention to a counternarrative that has been widely overlooked, embodied in the experience of men and women who moved from doubt or resolute skepticism to Christian faith. In chapter after chapter of brilliantly condensed biography, he tells the stories of individuals whose lives followed this second course. This is a book that will force honest scholars to reconsider what they thought they knew."...

NWCN.com | Amazon adds new presses for on-demand books

re: will use HP Indigo presses at fulfillment centers and BookSurge to improve quality in POD offerings...

NWCN.com | Oregon sailor pleads guilty to espionage charges

re: Salem man has pleaded guilty to several charges related to passing classified information to a foreign government...

FLW Outdoors - Leader in bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass tournament fishing.

re: July 20, 2006 press release "Wal-Mart FLW Series forms divisions, eight $1 million televised events for 2007"...

FLW Outdoors - Leader in bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass tournament fishing.

re: a history of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, through the lead-in to the 2005 professional bass fishing season...

Kids don't get building blocks of learning from high-tech play - The Boston Globe

re: interaction builds social skills - and compassion - so don't swamp the wee ones with electronic toys...

NWCN.com | Story of survival shared in Boise

re: Aron Ralston, the man who cut off his own arm with a pocket knife after being pinned by a boulder in a remote area of Utah, now gives inspirational speeches around the country. He recently spoke at a fundraiser for the Idaho Youth Ranch...

Top Stories | NWCN.com | Family missing on return from Seattle trip

re: family of four last seen Nov. 25, last heard from when they told a Gold Beach motel they'd be arriving late and asked for key to be left for them...

Top Stories | NWCN.com | Drug bust nabs 26 in Skagit County

re: Mexican based drug ring run mostly by Mexican nationals in the U.S. illegally...

The Dynamo and the Jeweler by Stefan Kanfer, City Journal Autumn 2006

re: George and Ira Gershwin, Fred and Adele Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Danny Kaye, music, theater, movies...

CNN.com - The Marquee: Why DO we care?

re: the fascination with celebrities, etc. "...But there's also the matter of what writer Maureen Orth calls the "celebrity-industrial complex," the endless machine made up of the news media, entertainment companies, performers, handlers, advisers and consultants (and, yes, consumers) that's dependent upon such stories for its daily fuel -- and, like any capitalistic enterprise, only exists as long as interest continues. Which means there's a great deal at stake to keep the machine running..."

Includes recommendations for these books: "The Image" by Daniel Boorstin, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman, and "Life: The Movie" by Neal Gabler.

hat tip: Kay S. Hymowitz/ CJ in the News/ City Journal

OpinionJournal - Taste: Single Mothers, Many Problems

re: unwed motherhood and unstable families, with a nod to the book "Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age" by Kay Hymowitz ...

OpinionJournal - Taste: The Limits of Tolerance

re: Naomi Schaefer Riley on a talk given by liberal priest Andrew M. Greeley, in which he let a few things slip in the Q & A: "...Then a middle-aged woman in the back of the room asked Father Greeley about the changing face of the Catholic Church. The greatest growth in the world-wide Catholic population, she noted, has been coming for some years from new believers in South America and Africa, and the trend shows no signs of abating. What effect would this have on the church? / "We will depend on them for vitality," Father Greeley predicted. "But they will continue to depend on us for the ideas."...

List of Classics

re: book list for people who want to understand conservatism...

Iraq is Dems’ tar-baby

re: David A. Keene has been watching Democrats come to grips with the fact that now that they've got a majority, they'll be held responsible for what they do about Iraq, etc...

hat tip: Best of the Web Today

After surprisingly dull hurricane season, experts debate why they were wrong | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

re: forecasters didn't come close on predicting this year's mild hurricane season, and they didn't see El Nino coming either...

A Different Kind of Christmas Poem « A Rose By Any Other Name

re: a soldier's gift...