Eye candy
Eye candy DM 21st February 2026 Those Brothers Grimm were well-named. I grew up on their fables, and recently purchased the full canon. But my eyeballs nearly popped at some of the tales I’d never read. Like ‘Clever Hans’. The story is about a boy, who, I think, likes a girl called Gretel. But after […]
Star talk
Star talk DM 14th February 2026 For all its stellar beauty, the North Star (Polaris) has its limits. It can point close enough to true north, and therefore to all points of the compass, but it cannot point to heaven. Englishman George Herbert, in his famous anthology of poems called The Temple, expressed it well […]
Two turtle doves
Two turtle doves DM 7th February 2026 Whenever members of my congregation let me know that they will be bringing guests to church, I always threaten to preach on the Levitical skin diseases. They smile and know I won’t. And I don’t. But maybe I should, for there is plenty of gospel in those exotic […]
The stunning downgrade
The stunning downgrade DM 31st January 2026 In those travel-logs that sometimes pop up in magazines, there’s always one lucky person spruiking the joys of an upgrade, whether to a better hotel room, or seat on a plane, or type of car. In all my travels, the closest I’ve ever come is to score one […]
The Father’s care
The Father’s care DM 24th January 2026 When Wycliffe missionaries Alan and Faye Canavan took up their ministry posting on a small island off PNG, they were issued with a special two-way radio. Among other things, they were instructed to ring in, once a week, to report that they were safe. Should HQ not hear […]
Oiling the bat
Oiling the bat DM 17th January 2026 Fond memories. Each summer my brothers and I would take turns to brush the family cricket bat with linseed oil. I don’t know if that still needs to be done with the modern bats, but in the olden days, bats certainly required such regular treatment, else they would […]
The Acorn Child
The Acorn Child DM 10th January 2026 I’ve heard of identical twins dying on the same day, but who has ever heard of twin-oaks being erased from the world on the same day? Many years ago, a friend gave me oak-triplets – one I gave away, one I kept in its pot to attempt to […]
The Impossible Puzzle?
The Impossible Puzzle? DM 3rd January 2026 A puzzle pops up on my sidebar that requires certain obstacles to be removed in order to collect some treasure. In one obstructing-chamber is burning lava, and in another, cooling water; and the challenge is to remove, but in the correct order, and without scorching your player, the […]
O Christmas Tree
O Christmas Tree DM 27th December 2025 I didn’t realise that Isaiah wrote so many of the Christmas Carols. In their original form, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O Come, O Come Immanuel’, were penned this way: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’ Isaiah even […]
How to make Grace
How to make Grace DM 20th December 2025 The twenty-first of December in Australia is called ‘Gravy Day’, by virtue of Paul Kelly’s famous song ‘How to make gravy’ – a melancholy ballad about a family-man in jail, missing his wife and kids, and lamenting that he won’t be with them on Christmas Day. “It’s […]