Sally Thomas

Or, if there’s a problem, it’s time to redefine “problem.” At least, that’s what this piece from the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” blog suggests: The recently released study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points out that the . . . . Continue Reading »

At that place where language dead-ends into incredulity . . . At thesignpost marking the intersection between metaphor and meta-folly . . . At the universal crossroads where icon meets curiosity . . . . . . stand these two Madonnas from the Museum of Bad Art.Be sure to visit their gift . . . . Continue Reading »

From Semicolon , a call for favorite hymns: Hymn (according to Webster): a song of praise to God a metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service. For the purposes of this poll, I’m limiting the choices to Christian hymns, but the form of the song doesn’t matter. In . . . . Continue Reading »

I am an uninspired gift-giver at the best of times. If I gave you a little purse hand-knitted by my daughter for Christmas last year, odds are that by next Christmas I’ll have forgotten all about it, and you’ll get the same thing again, though perhaps in a different color.Graduations are . . . . Continue Reading »

Well, it is that time of year. And lately we’ve been seeing these buses roll through town: up Main Street, past the carp-juice shop and what used to be the ice-cream store but is now another purveyor of distinctly frilly antiques, around the courthouse square, and off into the blue and distant . . . . Continue Reading »

Our family’s devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Accommodation long predates our reception into the Catholic Church. After moving to England, for example, with two children and some of our earthly belongings and bridges burned behind us and no place to live, and subsequently landing in the best . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend studying Old English, having read my brief disquisition on prayer and the word bead, elaborates on my amateur’s etymology lesson: Gebed is still in use in modern Dutch as “prayer,” though they hack it out a lot more than the OE, which sounds like yebed. Those Dutch . . . . Continue Reading »

Okay, Anthony, I give up. What is Kris Kristofferson doing in his pajamas on a church wall in — there’s a place in England called “Uckfield?” Barking I’ve heard of. Dorking I’ve heard of. Duck End I’ve been to. Ditto Wenhaxon and Onehouse. But never . . . . Continue Reading »

Uh, thanks for sending me this, Nathaniel. I mean, it is May already. And heaven knows you don’t want to leave these things till the last minute. I think I like this idea of Thomas Kinkade’s, of calling yourself “Painter of Something” and then trademarking the name. . . . . Continue Reading »

Over dinner last night my German-speaking husband let drop that our English word bead derives from the German beten, which means to pray. Not one to receive a piece of information lying down — if I had written my own marriage vows, my responses would all have been, “Oh, yeah?” . . . . Continue Reading »