Sally Thomas

Let it be known, first of all, that my esteemed colleague’s commentary on my driving is based on the experience of one evening’s wandering around in the dark looking for a barbecue restaurant which had closed two hours earlier. I don’t drive all that furiously, as it happens, but I . . . . Continue Reading »

They asked you, “Why do you want to be ordained?” You told them, “I just want to help people.”Mr. Nice Tolerant Guy, this is your stole.Just like you, it makes a statement. It says, “I believe in . . . stuff.” Star of David? Star and Crescent? Yin-yang? Bring it . . . . Continue Reading »

One word: plastics. And throws. Two words: plastics and warm, comfy — Three words: plastics, and warm, comfy throws — wait, wait, start over, start over. Ahem. Among the useful words which you might wish to share with the graduate in your life are the following: plastics, warm comfy . . . . Continue Reading »

Now, you will find this difficult to believe, but when I got married, lo these many years ago — on my last anniversary I should properly have received something bronze, like a nice equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius — there was no such thing as software. I mean, not practically . . . . Continue Reading »

Has any woman ever sought holy orders purely on the grounds of having read and loved Jane Eyre?Clergy CoutureWhat do you call this kind of thing, anyway? My husband suggests the term frossock. [Rating: . . . . Continue Reading »

Even your little baby girl. [Rating: . . . . Continue Reading »

Stonecutter Karin Sprague revives the nearly-lost art of the tombstone. Though she encourages clients to explore “less-traditional” images which “offer more personal meaning,” for my money it’s her interpretations of traditional gravestone iconography — the tree . . . . Continue Reading »

So I’m sitting at the traffic light in my Ford Econoline 12-passenger van, with my four children in the back, plus several extras who needed a ride to choir, and we’re all singing along to “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” on the CD player, which I mention merely to . . . . Continue Reading »

Years ago a friend of mine took her little daughter to a Chinese restaurant and asked how she liked the fortune cookie at the end of the meal. “Well . . . ,” her daughter said, “it doesn’t taste like much. And the paper inside it is kind of strange, too.” Growing up in . . . . Continue Reading »

Alan Creech makes these beautiful, Franciscan-inspired, single-decade rosaries using natural materials with satisfying textures.If, like me, you not only have a San Damiano crucifix on your front door and a relic of Saint Francis in your living room, but are also a tactile person whose attention at . . . . Continue Reading »