Hither and thither 1/6/12

As you know from this post, I'm pretty busy today. Here's what I've got - may or may not be time for updates. Hope you enjoy, though!

A bit a lot of bloggers will think this should be some commenters' avatar! (Not you folks, of course.)

• Talk show host Janet Mefferd, in a column over at Townhall, named The World-Tilting Gospel as one of her favorite books of 2011. Absolutely loved being on her show, once for each book. She is a terrific host, and interviewer.
• Then more quietly, I heard of a young person whose dyslexia makes reading a difficult challenge — yet who is loving TWTG and sticking with it in spite of that challenge.
• You can't know how grateful I am that folks who read TWTG almost invariably report that they profit from it. They want to see others enjoy what they've enjoyed. That could happen, if only TWTG could somehow get the visibility that is given to books that are, let's say, less about 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 and more into the Ephesians 5:12 areas. What might make that happen?
• Appropriate for the new year, an article on obesity and weight-loss that is long, informative, and not exactly encouraging.
• Most helpful in my apparently endless struggle, as an adult, has been the Atkins style approach. The Instapundit offers advice and specifics.
• All this is one more thing to long for in Heaven, the death of the body's fight against its own best interests. But that's both subsidiary to, and nothing compared to, our longing to see Christ.
• Wow. Don't show your kids this, or they'll say "See? It does too!" (thx Dawn Lewis)
• What kids don't love stickers? Boy, these ones did. (Dawn Lewis again)
• And a Dawn trifecta: truly amazing toothpick sculptures.
• And then there's Chick-fil-A.
• Still with companies...
• If you had asked me last week what odds I'd give for Target doing an ad that would have tears stinging my eyes, I would have said "Zero." I've never loved Target. Their parking-lots (here, anyway) are designed by crack-addicts, and until recent years anything I've wanted has always been (A) in the farthest-away section of the store, (B) overpriced, and (C) not there anyway.
• Then came this ad. Target, you rock on. (h-t Patricia Heaton, re-tweeted by Jaci)
• Mostly, I like it when actors don't say anything that wasn't written for them by a smarter, better person. Exceptions are only occasional. HSAT, Sandra Bullock has come across as likable and down-to-earth in every quotation I've ever read. Here's an example.
• Sure, your kid's talented. They all are. But can she do this?
• Same girl, two years later.
• Hm. Wonder whether Jim Wallis enrolled in this class. (thx Randy Talley)
• Randy also noticed a miserable little story of apostasy and perversion.
• But here's the bonus round question: how many people in that marriage were in rebellion against Jesus as Lord over their sexuality? Correct answer: two.
• Rachael Starke has just the thing for your next family vacation.
• Now, sadly, some nasty reading. I introduce it with the riddle: "If you call a tail a 'leg,' how many legs does a dog have?" The answer of course is "Four," because it doesn't matter what you call it, it's still a tail.
• So if we call perversion by a nice name, what is it? Perversion. If we call sodomy "gay," what is it? Sodomy. If we call pederasty "intergenerational intimacy," what is it? Pederasty. And yet, the same sorts of forces that are trying to mainstream sodomy are hard at work trying to mainstream pederasty.
• Overkill Much? Alert. Were you ever afraid of the Library Police when you were a kid — that they'd come after you if you had an overdue book? Turns out you may have had a point. (thx Robert Sakovich)
• And now, may you have an outrageously prosperous weekend!

• Finally: