But first, a few boring words about Hither and Thither

Howdy, boys 'n' girls.

A bit later I plan to toss up this week's H&T for your reading pleasure. I thought about adding this to it, but then decided it should be a standalone.

History. Last October, when Pyro "went dark" for a month, I took on the task of literally upping my production here by a factor of... let's see... about 7. I did a lot of news and opinion pieces and eclectic whatnot leading up to the election.

Somewhere towards the middle I started a frequent feature I called Don't Miss These. It was a collection of various essays, articles, and opinion pieces I thought noteworthy.

Well, as all that frenzied activity wound down, the election took place and Pyro lit back up, I ratcheted my production down to roughly 3X what it had been, and have kept it there since.

One poor soul (sorry, I forget who), at one point, said, "You've got to at least keep up the 'Don't Miss These' on a weekly basis."

Telling someone like me that there's something you'd like more of is like tossing a match on a pile of dried twigs, and so the weekly Hither and Thither was born.

What it is and what I do. It's just the Biblical Christianity blog at its most eclectic. It's things that have struck me as interesting, funny, and/or weird throughout the week. They don't merit their own complete posts, but they're worth a look anyway.

And that's it.

Reader contributions. Delightfully, some readers like the feature so much that they send me their own suggestions. I love that. Keep it up. Let me just make these requests, and end:

Tell me if you want to be in hiding. I strongly believe in crediting sources; it's almost a mania with me. It's even Bibley. So I think you should be thanked publicly for your contribution.

Either two or three times I've done that and gotten horrified emails saying no no no, don't do that.

So know this: I will thank you, unless you tell me not to. I won't if you say don't, that's fine. But I think it's churlish just to grab and use and get the glory. It's been done to me, and I don't like it.

Don't take it personally or cry to me if I don't use your suggestion. Please. Really. I mean it. Sometimes it's just that I'm too busy to consider everything, or I forget, or it just doesn't light me up as it lit you up. But it's never personal, and you should never take insult by it — and please don't try to make me feel bad. I think that I feel bad about enough as it is; this is just a fun thing we do together, and let's keep it that way.

Fair enough?

That having been said, you should see this week's H&T within an hour or two, tops.


Okay, okay, wake up!