Sally Thomas

I’m not a musician in any real sense of the word, only an enthusiast. In good choirs I’ve sung in, my contributions have been limited to reasonably non-incompetent alto-line filler, for pieces like Mendelssohn’s Richte mich Gott. That’s one kind of good choir: the choir which . . . . Continue Reading »

Doesn’t anybody play air guitar any more? Dude, you say. Air guitar? You mean, like, just . . . listening to some loud music and . . . pretending? Yeah, see, back in the day, what you would do was, you would put on a record in your room. A record. It’s a big round thing that comes in a . . . . Continue Reading »

So says Rainer Maria Rilke, in either the first or the second of the Duino Elegies — off the top of my head I can’t remember which. Meanwhile, over at Touchstone’s Mere Comments blog, they’ve been talking about angels. Though the conversation begins with the question of . . . . Continue Reading »

All right, class. We’ve been learning how God is one God, but three Persons, and I’m wondering if anyone can tell us the names of those three Persons. Anyone? Yes, you there. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer? Um . . . well . . . those are things which the three Persons do, but they . . . . Continue Reading »

I used to love to buy eggs at Aldi.But no more. They’ve gone to a biodegradable “green” paper carton, which would be all right, except that the eggs now cost thirty cents more, and they’ve axed the Bible verse and the recipes, too.Your environmental gospel: less for . . . . Continue Reading »

I got my obedient plant from a friend, who warned me about it; she also gave me a baby Rose of Sharon, as well as several other less-religiously-inclined plants. She described them all to me as “thug-like,” meaning that you could just stick them right into the heavy West Tennessee clay . . . . Continue Reading »

Years ago, I lived in an old brown house that had been converted into apartments. Next door lived a Dutchman, older than I was and divorced, with a son who visited him on weekends. One winter night, for his fiftieth birthday, he invited me in for a bowl of soup with Madeira in it. I remember . . . . Continue Reading »

There’s something irresistible about plant names. I don’t mean formal botanical nomenclature, though that can tell its own fascinating stories, but the folk terms, the little nicknames, that get given to plants because someone happened to look down and notice a confection of foliage . . . . Continue Reading »

Lately I’ve run across some items not marketed with religious purposes in mind, which nevertheless seem full of possibilities. Take this, for example: That’s right: Glow-in-the-Dark Body Cream from American Science and Surplus. They suggest using it as “the ultimate bike-safety . . . . Continue Reading »

Many thanks to Judy for pointing me to Hempel Studios. The Virgin Annunciate, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, Potomac, MDHere is a sculptor in conversation with the classical and High Renaissance tradition in Western art, treating sacred subjects without subverting their sacredness or . . . . Continue Reading »