Happiness For Blessing

Christianity
I know I'm about a week late on this, but Slate (!) ran an opinion piece on passion plays during Easter week.

The Dallas Morning News profiled the Cowboy Church movement.

Sports
On Thursday, Ian Kinsler of the Rangers hit for the cycle and collected 6 hits at the same time, becoming the first player in the modern era to do so. He was a triple and home run away from the "bicycle." The next day, the Rangers got themselves beat down by the Kansas City Royals. Evan Grant says Ron Washington surrendered the game, and all but called for his firing. Consider me on that bandwagon.

Film/TV
2015 is still six years away, but apparently we're close enough to evaluate predictions made in Back to the Future, Part II.
What it got right and
What it got wrong
No examination of the $50 Pepsi can. I call shenanigans.

Music
I just discovered this pretty cool site that aggregates rankings from social networks, music blogs, etc.

The Written Word
Someone has resurrected an essay from the February 1960 issue of Harpers about billboards. The author, Howard Gossage, argues that billboards are an invasion of privacy. This is a fascinating read, and the style kind of reminds me of the giant video boards of Fahrenheit 451.

Also, I just stumbled across an on-going feature from The Guardian: Digested Classics, which is just what it sounds like. Beloved literary works are retold in 700 words or less. Here is one of my favorite books, Lord of the Flies.

Games
After I received my new computer, it wasn't long before I found my way to Minesweeper. I was surprised to see that the design had changed, and my curiosity about it led me to Wikipedia. What I found was a whole bunch of theory on how to play. Minesweeper is supposed to be mindless fun, people!

Technology
Speaking of Back to the Future, apparently we're not really that much closer on the flying cars, either.

Dallas
The war between Dallas and Arlington continues as the two cities find themselves outbidding each other for a museum that hasn't even announced a desire to relocate: The College Football Hall of Fame.

Politics/World News
I don't usually condone paying attention to idiots on the internet, but take a look at the comments on this story. (Read the story while you're at it.) The response reminds me of several tragedies throughout history, perhaps most notably the internment of Japanese people during World War II. Disgusting.

The Texas Senate has rejected Rick Perry's attempt to play politics with money that could be helping people that need it. Good for them.

The Economy
So we all know by now that the housing bubble caused this whole crisis, whatever that means. So why didn't the technology bubble do the same thing?

Humor
Last week's story had to do with flatulence. Why mess with a good thing? Also, this is creepy.

Youtube
This is the worst thing I've ever seen. (Okay, that's an exaggeration.) Most of these kind of videos look staged, but the best man's horror is anything but manufactured.



Movie Trailers of the Week
Our first trailer reminds me of both 2001 and Solaris. I have high hopes for this. Release date: June 12.



Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince looks epic. This is my favorite book in the series and the only one of the movies I've been excited about seeing. Release date: July 17.



Image of the Week
I've mentioned before that I think The Big Picture is the best site on the internet. It's now got competition: Life has opened their photo galleries.

This week's image is much sillier than all that. Blow this image up and post it in your time machine. As always, click to enlarge.