Writer Madeleine L’Engle is dead at 88. She wrote children’s books but she also often wrote about her Christian faith. According to this article, the price of her writing candidly as a Christian “has been steep. She has been perceived as too worldly by some conservative Christian audiences and too dogmatically Christian by some secular audiences.”
Here is an interview of Ms. L’Engle from 1979 by Christianity Today.
O’Reilly, the publisher of computer books, is known for depicting various fauna on their books’ covers. Being that I am interested in Mac computing, I noticed that the books pertaining to versions of Apple’s OS X, like Panther and Jaguar, do not feature big cats on their covers. Instead, they feature dogs. Now, why would O’Reilly do a seemingly illogical thing like that? Choosing a panther for a book on OS 10.3 would be the easiest thing to do. But no, they chose a beagle instead.
This year’s Macworld gave me the opportunity to ask someone at the O’Reilly booth the reason why cats aren’t being used on OS X books. The nice lady behind the counter told me that for Macintosh book covers, they’ve always used dogs. This is confirmed by a post at MacSlash by an O’Reilly employee:
We chose to use dogs on the covers of our Mac books long before Apple chose to release versions of Mac OS X with kitty names.
Our earliest Mac book, REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, sported a greyhound on the cover, so we decided to follow that motif and run dogs on the cover of all of the Mac books. There’s a bit more to this story, but that’s basically the gist of it.
I wonder whether O’Reilly’s decision to initally use a dog has something to do with Apple’s unofficial mascot back in the day, the dogcow. This was a system icon of a dog that was often mistaken for a cow. Now that’s one hoofed animal I don’t think you’ll ever see on O’Reilly’s covers.
April’s been a busy month. The spring cleaning that began last winter is still ongoing. A few yard sales have come and gone but the garage seems as full as ever.
Some of the design books pictured above are seriously dated but I have a hard time letting go of them (do you think it’s time to toss Fresh Ideas in Promotion from 1994?). It was difficult parting with 4-years’ worth of MacAddict magazines and accompanying CDs (from year one to four). But I know they’re in good hands. I sent them all in a balikbayan box to a worthy recipient, Ernie, who is webmaster of PhilMUG and Apple employee no., uh, 8123? (Oh yeah, he’s got a personal blog now too. Check it out.)
“What I like about The Da Vinci Code is not so much the story (in fact, the story was just run-of-the-mill), but how it shows that Christianity as we know it today was really only concocted by men in the third and fourth centuries.”
This statement by an acquaintance of mine made me realize just how much this work of fiction is impacting credulous readers eager to discount the historicity of the Christian faith. Brownpau last month posted an excellent set of links pointing to the Christian response to this growing fascination for gnostic writings. Ever-vigilant Paulo posted more relevant links today. I’d like to contribute this link to an audio discussion (check out the Nov. 30, 2003 broadcast) from STR.org.
Update (01.06.05): More liberal thinkers likewise say Brown’s claim to present facts through fiction is itself fictional and misleads readers.
I was at the DMV office the other day to renew my license. I could’ve mailed in my payment but I missed the deadline.
The DMV has a new system of servicing customers. Instead of having people form lines, people are asked to pick a numbered stub upon entry. They are then asked to go to the waiting area which now consists of rows of chairs for them to sit on. The rope and stanchions have been removed. A person approaches a window when his or her number is called out by an automated voice through the speaker system. The number of the window is also given. Several TV monitors also list the numbers and designated windows that have been called out. I think this is a much improved method of waiting at the DMV. Although the wait is still long, people are more comfortable and less stressed. One need only be attentive to his or her number being called.
I remember this one time I waited in line at the DMV sometime last year. When I came in, I was greeted by a line that snaked around the lobby and went through a hallway leading to the outside. So there I was at the end of the line. Less than a minute later, a middle-aged lady came and lined up behind me and let out a loud sigh. She then proceeded to let out a sigh every minute or so for the next forty-five minutes as we inched to the front of the line. I was thinking, “Lady, what do you expect? This is the DMV!”
I always come prepared when I anticipate long waits like this. I bring a book. Waiting in line is a great time to catch up on my reading. Unproductive time becomes productive time. Of course, with the new waiting system at the DMV I can’t be too engrossed with my book or else I’d miss my number being called!