OK, here's something about food

British chef Jamie Oliver gave a TED talk recently that really blew me away. He's such a dynamic, down-to-earth speaker, and he marshals some amazing statistics--for instance, in many locales, today's kids are the third generation never taught to cook, so they subsist on fast food. These same kids have a life expectancy 10 years shorter than their parents. And when shown examples of common veggies "on the hoof"--tomatoes, beets, cauliflower, eggplant, potato--none of them could identify said veggies. Here's a link to Jamie's TED talk--it's only about 18 min. long--you have time to watch it!

Btw

Btw, I take back what I said below about the perspectival differences in the two Sassetta images. Having looked more closely at the Journey of the Magi, I do indeed see a perspectivally skewed horse's butt among the procession of figures. But I still wonder mightily about the significance of the monkey being carried in procession. Perhaps an iconographic indicator of the "exotic East" from which the Magi were said to have come?

Now that more than a year has passed...

I'm inspired to begin again with my blog. I've written a talk on the art of Lent to be delivered at Our Lady of Angels Convent on 22nd February. Recently I discovered a well known (to others) Episcopal theologian, Barbara Brown Taylor (here is her homepage). I love her body-based theology and found it useful in writing the talk. I'm debating whether to post the text of my talk here on the blog. Must find out whether I can link to my powerpoint for illustrations.