The Review Revolution: Improving Culture through Kvetching

The Cincinnati Kid

Dear Mr. Reilly,

I hope I am one of about 5,782 people from Cincinnati who have alerted you to one of the most inspiring sports stories we've ever seen.  But just in case the other 5,781 are asleep at the switch, here is a clipping about our incredible local athlete, Dustin Carter, who just made state in high school wrestling.  He is also a quadruple amputee.  I have been following his story with tremendous interest in the paper.  I don't know jack squat about wrestling, but I know a great heart when I see one. 

Best wishes,
Jana Riess

This is a copy of a note I sent to Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly this morning, after reading in yesterday's paper that Dustin Carter has achieved his dream of making the state tournament in wrestling.  I am so inspired by this young man, I just can't tell you.  I think he would be a terrific subject for Reilly's weekly column about people in sports.  You can watch Dustin here on YouTube; check it out.

And speaking of Reilly, I recently read his hilarious and touching book Hate Mail From Cheerleaders and now consider myself a fan of his writing, even though I don't subscribe to SI and don't follow any of the sports that SI subscribers would consider actual sports (i.e.. anything other than gymnastics and figure skating).  The book has about 100 of Reilly's favorite columns from the last few years, taking on the heroic and inspiring as well as the bad-boy excesses of Barry Bonds and his ilk.  Some of the columns are wet-your-pants funny, and others brought me to tears.  It's a  great collection.

Lent: It's That Time of Year Again

Whoa ho!  Lent has snuck up on me this year.  I can't remember it ever being this early.  And suddenly it is time to hunker down and get serious about faith and whatnot.  (Well, not before a fun Carnival pancake supper at my husband's church tonight.  And hey -- I just learned that the word Carnival means "farewell to meat" -- the idea being that Shrove Tuesday was the last time old-school Catholics could eat meat for a good six weeks.  Isn't that a cool etymology? I never gave that word any thought.)

As many of you know, Phil and I have tried many different kinds of Lenten sacrifices through the years -- giving up shopping, meat, sugar, chocolate, and I can't even remember what else.  This year we are going to be listening to the New Testament for about a half hour each day.  I am very impressed with the new audio Bibles-- fully scored dramatizations of the Bible done by casts of professional actors--and am looking forward to this time of focused reading (er, listening).  I have already started listening to The Bible Experience from Zondervan, and will alternate between that and the new audio NT from Thomas Nelson.  When it's all done I will be reviewing both Bible dramatizations for Books and Culture. Even though I've barely started, I can already tell you that listening to Scripture is an invaluable complement to reading it.  The Bible was intended to be understood orally, not read silently or privately, and there's something uniquely powerful about these dramatized audio BIbles.  They are completely different from the dry, stilted and-it-came-to-pass recorded books of yesteryear. 

What are you doing for Lent this year?