Blogroll Business

Howdy once again, blogfans, and welcome to the NEW AND IMPROVED "It's All Straw." For your convenience and mine, the blogroll on the left has been alphabetized and expanded for easy access to favorite blogs old and new.

Among my particular new favorites, Rod Bennett over at tremendous trifles has been running a fascinating series of posts on the influence of pulp and science fiction on the writing of C. S. Lewis. (part one, part two, part three, part four) What Rod has discovered may surprise you. Seems ol' "Jack" Lewis was more of a sci-fi geek than we thought. Do check it out. I know I've railed against some really vapid pop culture on this blog in the recent past, but I've always had a soft spot for fantasy, sci-fi, adventure fiction, classic pulp, and their modern day descendants, such as Star Trek and Star Wars.

Once a Chicken, Now a Fish is the story of blogger Janjan's circuitous path from Reform Judaism to Catholicism, told with dry wit, honesty, and style. Her blog With Issue continues the story as she struggles to live out her faith like the rest of us, while looking out on this crazy world we live in. Shalom, and welcome to the Church, Jan!

The blogger known only as Anonymous Teacher Person gives us a glimpse inside her Catholic high school classroom with her blog Scrutinies. Her career as a Teacher Person may be coming to an end, however, as she and her TeacherHusband are moving and mulling the possibility of having more TeacherKids. Prayers and best wishes as they consider what comes next! Blogger Rachel Swenson Balducci tells us what it's like to live, love, and bring up kids Catholic in her male-dominated Testosterhome.

Blogger and author Mike Aquilina instructs us in The Way of the Fathers and explains why the teaching and practice of the earliest Christians are still relevant today. For my money, knowing something about the real history of the early church is a useful and badly needed corrective to all of the nonsense and lies spouted in The Da Vinci Code.

Over at The Scratching Post team bloggers KT Cat, Jacob the Syrian Hamster, and their pet human, Glenn Reynolds, "make the business case for kindness." You'll find conservative political commentary and "World of Good Blogburst" posts which describe various opportunities for community service. The first-person (um, first-animal?) reports on the ever-so-trying life of KT and Jacob are hilarious, but woe to ye who incur the terrible wrath of the mighty Feline Theocracy! Ignore their "catwa" at your peril, unbeliever!

Finally, even though he's been on my blogroll for awhile, I gotta give a shout-out to my former colleague Mark Mossa, S. J. and his blog You Duped Me, Lord. When I last saw him, Mark and I were graduate students in English at the University of South Carolina. Now Mark is a Jesuit "scholastic" or candidate for ordination, scheduled to become a priest in 2008. God bless you, Mark, as you pursue this vocation.

Watch for new and interesting additions to the blogroll as I discover them.