Sally Thomas

We’ve had heavy rain in North Carolina this week and also, in the high country, dense fog. My mother, the children, and I discovered the latter while driving the northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which rides the spine of the southern Appalachians, just below the Virginia state line. . . . . Continue Reading »

Our friend Annie, age thirteen, keeps bees. This is a fairly new project; just after Easter, having spent the school year engaged in bee research, she brought home her colony, buzzing furiously in a box on her lap, and established them in a little green glade in the woods around her house. Every day . . . . Continue Reading »

Uh, Nathaniel, I believe that that should properly be written, “Shame on the Sea Kitten Tossers!” Just, you know, FYI. via Radio Derb . . . . Continue Reading »

One word. Corky’s.[Biased Memphis Rating: . . . . Continue Reading »

So, you’re getting married, and you want, in the words of AdvantageBridal.com, to “celebrate your Christianity along with your wedding day.” Some people get married in cowboy boots, and some people have dogs in their wedding parties, and some people get married skydiving; you want . . . . Continue Reading »

I can’t talk about the material culture of religion without, at least sometimes, talking about homeschooling. Of course, all stereotypes aside, homeschooling is not exclusively a religious phenomenon; when we began homeschooling, it was not for religious reasons, but because our oldest . . . . Continue Reading »

Now, in Memphis, Tennessee, where I come from, barbecue is a religion, and if I haven’t heard of miracle healings and raisings-from-the-dead attributed to somebody’s secret sauce recipe, surely it’s because I wasn’t paying attention. Being from Memphis, and subscribing as I . . . . Continue Reading »

My husband graduated from a Baptist high school, where the academic year was crowned not with a senior prom — no dancing allowed — but a banquet. It was a tux-and-date event, and while the tux was easy enough to come by, the date apparently was another matter altogether. When the fateful . . . . Continue Reading »

Hello? ChristianShirts.com? Whose clever idea was this? Who woke up one bright morning and thought, “I know what people want to wear to the mall! A hand impaled on a pencil, that’s what?” I mean, what are we trying to illustrate here? Jesus as more than a good teacher . . . yeah . . . . . Continue Reading »

The excellent Anchoress reminds me, and everyone else, that Father’s Day is coming, and that monk-roasted coffee makes a terrific gift. But what else? An uninspired gift-giver myself, I’ve often thought that the truly sane approach to Father’s Day would be to wait for some necktie . . . . Continue Reading »