An atheist watches The Witch

thewitch

Mary and I saw The Witch at the Morris Theatre this weekend. I liked it very much.

“But,” you say, “it’s a supernatural horror story. How can an atheist see something like that and not sneer at it?”

Easy. It’s a movie. I believe that movies actually exist. I also enjoy some superhero movies in spite of the fact that they postulate huge violations of the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. I like movies that tell me something about the human condition, and big budget spectacle is a distraction from the story at the core.

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Synergy!

It’s Inernational Women’s Day! It’s also National Pancake Day!

Shhh. Nobody tell Mary, but I know what she’s getting for her celebratory dinner tonight.


In the category of “It’s a stupid job, but someone’s got to do it,” MRA’s all over the world are currently whining in protest, But when is International Men’s Day? Richard Herring is bravely answering every one of them with two words: November 19th.

He’s being accused of “bullying” them.


Well, this day is just getting better and better. International Women’s Day, National Pancake Day, and a couple of evangelists have predicted that the world will end today.

What’s better about that? Tonight, when I’m serving the woman pancakes, I’ll have a reason to beg to open my birthday presents a day early. The world could end any minute now! Quick! Snarf down those pancakes now so I can have my presents NOOOOOOWWW!

That’ll work, right?

A charming piece

This sounds very pleasant, and it was clearly a tremendous amount of work. But I have a couple of questions. Can it only play this one musical piece? And if it lacks the versatility of most musical instruments, can you really call it an “instrument”? Would a musician call a music box an instrument?

I’m not belittling the effort put into it, I’m just wondering how it is classified.