Trying not to panic when letters go dark at the outset like that.

Wordle 232 3/6

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As the game put it, “Whew.”

Wordle 231 6/6

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Did “THE Batman” go to “THE Ohio State University”?

This remarkable exchange between Stephen Colbert and singer Dua Lipa about faith is making the social media rounds.

Of course, I’ve seen unpleasant comments on the old Twitter like “I cannot believe that anyone would think he is a Christian. Plus he says he is a Catholic and a Christian. You can’t be both.” 😐

And then there’s this, retweeted by no less than noted evangelical apologist and Presbyterian pastor Timothy Keller.

Having identified with all four groups in my lifetime (Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, and evangelical), I’d concur with Dr. Bradley on this.

(To clarify: I think non-Anglican Protestants and evangelicals are capable of articulating their faith. But, as Keller himself notes, “Catholicism is both a popular religion for the masses and yet has nurtured a robust intellectual class. Fundamentalism’s largely anti-intellectual stance has only grown among conservative Christians who are alarmed by the progressive excesses of today’s universities. However, this leaves conservative Protestantism in general with little ability to reach the college-educated and little ability to reflect theologically on our U.S. culture. The cultural ‘captivity’ of evangelicals—the inability to see the difference between biblical beliefs and American culture—is largely due to a lack of evangelical scholarship.")

And I disagree with Colbert on some things, but I love how open, winsome, and intelligent he is about his faith. Very grateful for his witness.

“Remembered is no longer a word you can utter on its own. You will hereafter precede remembered with ‘I finally.'”

Binging Wordle-related content in the wee hours of Friday because I’ve already done today’s puzzle and I’m wired on peppermint green tea that I ingested way too late in the afternoon. Got a few links, in no particular order:

I had nothing better to do at 1 a.m.

Wordle 230 4/6

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Washington Post (subscription): “Sixteen Penn swimmers say transgender teammate Lia Thomas should not be allowed to compete”

“Thomas, a transgender woman who swims for the Quakers women’s team, competed for the Penn men’s team for three seasons. After undergoing more than two years of hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition, she has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season. The letter from Thomas’s teammates raised the question of fairness and said she was taking “competitive opportunities” away from them — namely spots in the Ivy League championship meet, where schools can only send about half of their rosters to compete.'

“‘We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically,’ the letter read. ‘However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity. Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.'”

Best thing I’ve seen shared on Twitter in a while. H/T to @jr_briggs for posting it.

YouTube Thursday: WKRP, Cheap Trick, and a lot of late night TV

Selected highlights from recent idle drifting on the ‘Tube:

The husband got 1/6, only because somebody in an earlier time zone posted the word on Reddit; he used it for the hell of it. Be forewarned if you ever loiter in the Wordle subreddit.

Wordle 229 3/6

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Brain fart on the third line.

Wordle 228 4/6

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Today, we learned that dogs can be skunked in the middle of winter. Even before a major snowstorm.

When I got this ring years ago, I didn’t realize it represented St. Brigid’s cross. I just wanted a simple cross, and this spoke to me. I’ve worn it almost nonstop since.

It’s St. Brigid’s feast day today. St. Brigid, pray for us.

Just experimented with “frying” Spam in the air fryer. Verdict: meh. It’s good in a pinch, but unless you slice the Spam paper-thin, you won’t get the crispness (and definitely not the caramelization) of pan frying.

Had it with two boiled eggs and cauliflower rice. Didn’t quite take care of my Filipino comfort food jones, but it’ll do for a low-carb lunch.

Resisted the urge to start with “money” after yesterday’s news.

Wordle 227 4/6

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Sigh. The New York Times has bought Wordle.

It’ll remain free for now, but it’s unclear whether it will eventually be moved behind a paywall. 😔

A sure sign of cultural decline: A Hormel sweepstakes is offering a chili cheese keg prize for Super Bowl Sunday.

Too many words end with the last four letters of today’s word.

Wordle 226 5/6

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"Schadenfreude is not a Christian value"

Fr. James Martin on how to respond when anti-vaxxers die of COVID:

“The problem is that even a mild case of schadenfreude is the opposite of a ‘Christian value.’ Jesus asked us to pray for our enemies, not celebrate their misfortunes. He wanted us to care for the sick, not laugh at them. When Jesus was crucified alongside two thieves, he says to one of them, according to Luke’s Gospel, not ‘That’s what you get,’ but ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’ Schadenfreude is not a Christian value. It’s not even a loosely moral value. …

“Indulged in regularly, schadenfreude ends up warping the soul. It robs us of empathy for those with whom we disagree. It lessens our compassion. To use some language from both the Old and New Testaments, it ‘hardens’ our hearts. No matter how much I disagree with anti-vaxxers, I know that schadenfreude over their deaths is a dead end.”

Been struggling with the schadenfreude compulsion throughout this pandemic, especially with all the anti-vaxxer and anti-masker noise out there. So glad that Fr. Martin says something about it in today’s New York Times.

I sense a link to today’s epistle reading here.

F won a glow-in-the-dark rosary for correctly answering a quiz question at church today. She’s having a good day.

Tough one.

Wordle 225 5/6

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This op-ed in the Chicago Tribune speaks well for those of us who lament the loss of the Traditional Latin Mass in our archdiocese: “My concern with Cupich’s policy is that it punishes the sane majority of traditional Catholics for a minority who howl on the internet. My concern is that it mistakes an unreal commentariat for real, orthodox Catholics.”

The Marcos legacy that keeps on giving

I remember Mom packing lots of towels and T-shirts in balikbayan boxes. And cans of Vienna sausage and corned beef and Spam. Lots and lots of Spam.

Sara Tardiff writes in The Atlantic that Ferdinand Marcos, of all people, seeded this tradition of Filipino immigrants sending giant boxes of stuff back to the homeland. And it keeps going today.

“‘Often when I think of a balikbayan box, I think about when the family receiving it gathers to open it,’ Clarissa Aljentera, a Filipino American writer from Fremont, California, told me via email. ‘And if you aren’t there, someone will put the item aside and make sure you receive a piece … of the U.S.” They’re a reminder to many that they aren’t alone and haven’t been forgotten.'”

Took a while between lines two and three.

Wordle 224 3/6

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