Tom Faranda's Folly

On the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah Valley, the week of November 7th over four days. More to follow on this.

If you don’t know who Treebeard is, go here. Thanks to my friend Bob pointing this out to me. Here’s Treebeard

This is quite excellent. 20 minutes long. Takes scholarly material & makes it accessible to guys like me.  

I posted this last year – decided worth repeating – Wow. What a story. What a sacrifice. The sort of thing that can make you tear up. Everything below the picture is from the Wall Street Journal. Alwyn Cashe died in Iraq in 2005 but he will no doubt be serving as an inspiration to … Read more

Chocolate and coffee – two proofs for the existence of God.  I've excerpted two three benefits below the link – hit the link for the rest. Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages. Thanks to its high levels of antioxidants and beneficial nutrients, it also seems to be quite healthy. Studies show that … Read more

Winsome Sears. I never heard of this woman until she was briefly mentioned last night. Here is her victory speech – I think in politics she'd be referred to as a "rising star".  

And the couple were experienced hikers. From Outside magazine, 13 paragraphs long. Software engineer Jonathan Gerrish, 45, his wife Ellen Chung, 31, their one-year-old baby Aurelia “Miju” Chung-Gerrish, and Oski were reported missing by a friend on Monday, August 16, after the family’s nanny showed up for work and found no one at home. Local … Read more

Solid reasoning – just ask Bernie. Do you think parents should have a say in their kids’ education? You’re wrong! Here are 7 reasons parents need to just stay away and let the professionals raise their kids. 1) Parents don’t know anything about kids: It’s true. Most of them don’t have master’s degrees in kid-raising … Read more

Showing my age, plenty of people I know, don’t know who Grace Slick is. Here she is a couple of years ago in San Francisco. And at Woodstock, 1969,  White Rabbit.  

Go here – or hit the link for youtube for a bigger view. To skip to the Gospel and the Cardinal's relatively brief homily go to minute 14. The closing remarks start exactly at the 51 minute mark.