The Bechdel test is a corrective that was thought up by comic book writer Alison Bechdel. The Bechdel test is a simple question – does this story have two named female characters who are speaking to each other about something other than a man? The idea is that a story that doesn’t pass the test…

I read recently that the normal expectation for salaried employees is right around 55 hours. This is up from the 40 hour work week that was deemed normative in 1940 by the Fair Labor Standards Act. However, it is down from what the government found in 1890. What they found then was that labor workers…

Tonight I’m getting together with some people at the LeBars’ house to talk about some of what Martin Luther was overheard saying to his students during some of the communal dinners that they shared together. These notes that record what Luther said can be pretty interesting – and were eventually combined into a compendium called…

I’m currently reading a book called “Smarter, Faster, Better” that is about how people get to be . . . well, those things – smarter, faster, and better. So far it’s interesting. If there is one predominant theme throughout the book, it is that if you want people to be smarter, faster, and better at…

Everyone gets writers block – and just like a good portion of the population of Florida State has Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease – I have writer’s block. So therefore, I present you with jokes.   “What’s wrong, Bubba?” asked the pastor. “I need you to pray for my hearing,” said Bubba. The pastor put…

Travelers and tourists – these words are synonyms for the most of us, but etymologically, they mean different things. A tourist is someone who literally “circles” an area, while a traveler is someone who “travails” in an area. The electrical workers of Gulf Power helping get Tallahassee up and working again are travelers, they are…

Last week I heard Mario, one of the elder statesmen of campus ministry at FSU, tell a story about an interaction that he had with one of the former pastors of University Lutheran. Laughingly he tells of being a new campus minister at FSU and making the rounds from ministry to ministry, introducing himself. Apparently…

It’s the beginning of another school year. My dad recently posted a picture on Facebook of me in my freshman year of college, 1996, noting that it had been twenty years since they left me at college “with heavy hearts”. I’m smiling in the picture, but I wasn’t always smiling that year.  A lot of…

The Christian author Michael Frost has put together an acronymn for the spiritual disciplines at his church (which has a pretty cool name: “Small Boat, Big Sea”). The acronymn is “BELLS”. BELLS stands for:  BLESS – Do something good for three people every week. In Frost’s church, he specifically says do something good for one…

I just got back from vacation. Here are the highlights: I got up in the morning with my daughter and we jumped in the swimming pool together. I took a nap alongside my wife in the afternoons. I got to sit on a breezy porch and read “Invisible Monsters” by Chuck Palahniuk while drinking a…