The Professor's Bayonet

In a 1990 interview on NPR's "Fresh Air," Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire  shared that she had never experienced anything supernatural.  She believed that the claims that others had experienced the supernatural were valid; however, she herself could not be counted among them.  I found this strange, dear listeners, that Rice would make this claim, given the fact that s...

Picture this, dear listeners: Hulk Hogan and Mr. T are training in New York City's Central Park.  They are running up hills, doing pull ups, shadow boxing, getting ready for the big fight otherwise known as Wrestle Mania.  They are pumped up and doing all they can to get the crowd just as excited.  In the gym they take turns on the punching bag.  Hulk Hogan gives it a few good hits.  Mr. T all...

I certainly do not aim to be a killjoy.  A good friend had two extra tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert, so my wife and I rused home from a Homecoming event for two of our daughters, ordered an Uber, and made our way to the Mercedes Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta.  Seconds after we sat down, Ed Sheeran appeared on stage and began to perform for thousands of fans.  I simply took it all in, made som...

In Episode 51 of The Professor's Bayonet, I explored Shirley Jackson's famous short story, "The Lottery," for how it points toward humanity's shared concupiscence or tendency to sin.  The story takes place in an orderly small town populated by orderly citizens who, once a year, stone to death one of their peers.  Violence is built into their community.  It is what keeps their...

In Episode 2 of The Professor's Bayonet, I explored the significance of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in terms of both the learning and teaching process.  Plato writes about a dark cave in which there are individuals shackled in place and forced to watch a bunch of shadows on the wall.  They believe those shadows are true; however, the opposite, as it were, is true.  The shadows...

Over seventeen years ago, the husband of one of my colleagues passed away.  My response was less than appropriate.  I loaned her a book on the afterlife written, if memory serves me correctly, by N.T. Wright, an Anglican bishop.  While she accepted the book with grace, I have carried with me the guilt of responding to someone's loss with academic coldness.  She lost her husband.  He was in his...

The Book of Sirach, which is also known as Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus, is not found in the Protestant Bible.  It is one of seven books that shares this dubious distinction.  Written sometime between 196 and 177 BCE by Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, a Hellenistic Jewish scribe, the Book of Sirach is a compilation of wise sayings, much like the Book of Proverbs, and can be found in the Roman Catholic...

We might blame the steam engine.  Invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 and improved by James Watt a half century later, the steam engine is widely regarded as the machine that both sparked and powered the Industrial Revolution.  What began as an innovation to pump water out of mines, the steam engine and its many iterations soon powered paper mills, flour mills, breweries, distilleries, and iron mi...

A boy named Augustine asked Bishop Robert Barron how God was able to exist before time.  The question is common enough.  Individuals young and old ponder over it.  But his answer was simple.  Time is a creature, he said.  It is a created thing.  God is not bound by the laws of His own creation.  He exists outside of time, outside of those laws.   For the rest of us who very much do exist in time a...

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: "After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  and he was transfigured before them: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.  Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, 'Lord, it is good...

Today, we put down our beloved cat, Flash.  He was fourteen years old.  At first, the signs of his decline were small.  His fur lost its shine.  There was a scratch in his meow.  But then he stopped eating, grew skinny, wouldn’t even nibble on his treats or the deli turkey he loved so much.  I bought the fancy stuff.  Nothing.  I finally took him to the vet where they ran blood tests.  The results...

To paraphrase 20th century American author and professor of literature, Joseph Campbell, “life’s greatest tragedy is not failure but climbing the ladder of success only to realize that you had leaned your ladder against the wrong wall.”  Elsewhere, this quote is attributed to what mid-life is all about.  One falls into a career path, works hard, burns the candle at both ends, and reaches middle ag...

J. D. Salinger’s 1951 novel,  The Catcher in the Rye , retains its relevance in the present year as the very existence of artificial intelligence prompts everybody to wonder about the phoniness of a thing.  This is, after all, protagonist Holden Caulfield’s favorite epithet.  Everyone – his teachers, his friends, the individuals who populate his universe – is a phony, a fake, a walking and talking...

Nicholas Carr tells us what we likely already know intuitively: the internet, our iPhones, and AI are rewiring our brains.  His book,  The Shallows , which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, lays out the argument that, while we have a great abundance of information, we are eroding our ability to process it – to think critically about it – by off-loading various tasks to applications sold to us...

Cultural critic, poet, and Kentucky farmer, Wendell Berry, is to the publishing monolith what the late Robert Duvall was to Hollywood: a talented force who does not care a bit about changing trends and what is and what is not being liked on some silly social media platform.  In effect, Berry is true to himself and his art, making his words a breath of fresh air in a world where the aims are rarely...

www.48bconsulting.com If memory serves me correctly, Jeff Haight of Jeff News fame was elected class clown for the graduating class of 1992.  We were classmates at Youngsville High School, which is now closed.  The closing was a result of the mass exodus of youth from the “biggest little town” on the map in northwestern Pennsylvania, but not all packed up their stuff and left.  Jeff, it seems, hun...

www.48bconsulting.com https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Liberation-Definitive-Classic-Movement/dp/0061711306 First published in 1975, Peter Singer’s  Animal Liberation  is, according to the Chicago Tribune, “a most important book that will change the way many of us look at animals – and, ultimately, at ourselves.”  Riding the waves of other liberation movements – notably, the Civil Right movement and...

https://48bconsulting.com/ It was difficult to hear the news.  Out of two classes, nobody, not a soul, had ever heard of Laurel and Hardy, the comedy duo who earned international fame in the early 20th century.  The lesson for the day had to do with the evolution of humor.  Students had the choice of writing down their thoughts on the matter and then bringing that small essay to class.  Writing.  ...

https://48bconsulting.com/ https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/in-praise-of-detours-rachel-landrum-crumble/ Rachel Landrum Crumble’s collection of poetry,  In Praise of Detours , might be deemed a study of the individual’s plans versus the plans of the Divine. We have all heard the joke: Want to make God laugh?  Make a plan. The title poem certainly speaks to this conundrum of the human exp...

https://48bconsulting.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Like-Water-Leaves-Taro-Himalayan/dp/1964271282Tulasi Acharya’s memoir  Like Water on Leaves of Taro  begins with a young family’s wish to celebrate the first birthday of their only child with their extended family in Nepal. There is much to be thankful for, and by all measures, the prospects are bright; however, soon after arriving in Nepal, Achary...

https://48bconsulting.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Half-Truths-Carol-Baldwin/dp/1957656859 Kate Dinsmore is like many characters in coming-of-age stories who early on discover the power of words to reveal and defend the truth.  The seed was planted early, perhaps with the death of her brother, Jake, but readers soon learn that even her small southern town cannot keep her cooped up.  She must spread...

It is likely that author Marissa McFarland was thinking of the stereotype Italians enjoy when it comes to parting ways.  Her novel,  When Goodbyes Begin , tells the story of Anna, the daughter of Italian immigrants who spends the first thirty years of her life doing her best to please her oftentimes overbearing parents, Maria and Tony.  After taking more control over the reins of her life by quitt...

https://48bconsulting.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Close-Post-Apocalyptic-Survival-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0DSY5DD15 If you are familiar with Cormac McCarthy’s novel,  The Road , you are familiar with the genre Kristen Wade also explores in her 2024 novel,  Keep Close .  In Wade’s work, a massive meteor shower described as “cat’s whiskers across the sky” ushers in an apocalyptic world where indivi...

https://48bconsulting.com/ https://midnightmurmurs.blog/ Kevin Enners is like any writer doing his best to promote his work while continuing to generate thoughtful and engaging content.  He is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club and writes for The Kyle Pease Foundation whose stated mission is to “improve the lives of people with disabilities through sports and beyond.”  Enners is prolific.  He ha...

https://www.jannaherron.com/services https://48bconsulting.com/ Janna Herron’s brief memoir of her struggles with mental health is timely to say the very least.  Entitled  Brokenness Restored: The Path to Recovery is a Healing Journey , Herron’s open rumination on what it took to come back from the brink of mental collapse is as raw as it is insightful.  She joins the chorus of so many young folks...