Random

~ Is anyone planning an 07-07-07 party? Sounds like the perfect number for one. The Chinese, however, are looking forward to 08-08-08.

~ AT&T DSL for $10/month.

~ The organic Bible -- an attempt to re-engage the text by removing the chapters and verse markers (and rearranging the order according to this week's scholarship). Of course, if they really want to get back to an organic Bible they could remove the upper/lower case distinctions, punctuation, and paragraphs, too. They were not a part of the original text. The words all ran together -- as was the case in most ancient writing.

Didn't the early editions of Eugene Peterson's paraphrase-translation "The Message" remove the verse markers? People "demanded" that they be returned because they were having a hard time finding their places in the text.

What I think may be behind this "Books of the Bible," more organic sans-chapter and verse markers -- no extra notes and headers edition, is a reaction to the plethora of specialty editions. There are so many Bibles on the market with notes and "helps" for every conceivable group of people that we're confused. Our heads are spinning so fast trying to sort through the overload that in our dizziness we're wanting to toss out all the format and structure. This is just the pendulum starting to swing the other direction.

~ The Pope's 10-Commandments for Driving -- a few of which may further isolate Americans from Rome -- especially,
#3 -- Courtesy, uprightness, and prudence will help you to deal with unforeseen events
&
#5 -- Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination or an occasion for sin.

And what does the Pope know about driving anyway? Have you seen the non-pimp mobile he rides around in?

All kidding aside, I've not heard of anyone developing a theology of driving. But when you think about it, for many of us this is where the rubber meets the road (capitalizing on an over-used metaphor). My respect for the Pope just went up another notch.

~ Hip-Hop is hobbling. Perhaps people are just getting ready for the next fad which will be _________. That's kind of the way we are -- easily amused -- for a short time.

~ Another cultural tipping point: "The video gaming industry is poised to overtake the music industry in the US, with global spending on video games surpassing music spending as soon as this year..."

~ 11:22 p.m., Sunday: I've finally got my Google Reader under control. I almost declared reader bankrupcy. Tomorrow I'll work on tackling some more of the email. Being gone with limited Internet access for even a few days creates a major backlog.