The recent storyline at GPF, in which a devout Christian tends to the wounds of a killer, and then sets her free, spawned quite a bit of discussion, much of it slamming the comic and the cartoonist. I was uncomfortable during the story, because it seemed to me that the Christian character was behaving just a little irresponsibly.

Contrast that to this article about the God-fearing woman who put a stop to Brian Nichols’ alleged murderous rampage through Atlanta. This account is simply AMAZING. She never backed away from her principles, and managed to save not only her own life (which she could have done several times, apparently) but also the lives of others. See, she stuck around… and around…. and around… she calmed him down, read to him about finding purpose in his life, and fed him breakfast.

And then, when she finally called 911, he was ready to turn himself in.

It’s not that truth is STRANGER than fiction. It’s that, in this case at least, it’s BETTER on all counts.

–Howard

Also, a big shout out to nentwined who apparently has more money than common sense, and more generosity than self-restraint. 😉

You may or may not remember the Open Letter in which I mentioned Tahitian Noni Juice. If not, suffice it to say that I tasted it and found it nasty. I also held in high disregard the “science” claiming that it has medicinal effects.

Well, this morning I got the following email message:

Dear Sir,
My name is Samuel Harrison ; I work with the Deeper Life Ministry. We are a christian organisation who is dedicated in helping the needy and the sick all over West Africa.We have heard alot of great deal about this your NONI product and I would like to place an order for some.Please let me know how best you can help us get the juice over here and the things you will need in getting me the juice and i will make sure to do everything possible to get them for you .Also let me know the number of days it will take you to prepare the noni for me and let know if you it will be able to help me get the Noni Juice .I found your website in a magazine when i came across Noni distributors and sellers. Let me know how we can proceed with this order ,so that we build a health and a God fearing relationship between us. Thank you, I hope you understand our problem and give us the juice at a negotiable price because we are not going to sell the juice out. Yours Faithfully, Samuel Harrison. ( T D L M )

Here’s my multiple-choice take on this:

1) Face-value. Samuel Harrison really wants to give this stuff to his West African congregants and charges, and somehow got the idea that I’m pro-Noni. He’s an idiot.
2) Targetted scam. I mentioned Noni on my site, and he’s looking for an “in” by which he can resell the stuff to unsuspecting African consumers at a profit. He’s still an idiot.
3) Practical joke. I’ll get you for this, chalain. Idiot.
4) Spam. It’s just a coincidence that I’ve mentioned Noni in the past. I’m such an idiot.

Were I a PAID LiveJournal user I supposed I could make this a poll, and let you guys vote on your favorite. Me, I’m thinking it’s #2.

–Howard

This is a sad story.

I watched the new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trailer last week (numerous times at quicktime.com) and got all excited about seeing this movie. SO excited, in fact, that I sat down and read the first book again.

It bored me.

I’ve read this book NUMEROUS times in the 80’s and early 90’s. I don’t think it bored me because it’s boring or dull or dated. I just think I scrubbed all the funny out of it with the repeated passage of my eyes.

Anyway, it was sad for me. The good news is that the movie should have no problem at all being more fun for me than the book now is.

–Howard