Ormond

Just to point out -- Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, which founded this school, is a member of the denomination called the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). This is a separate and mostly Southern denomination from the Presbyterian Church in the USA (PCUSA) which is the largest Presbyterian denomination. The PCA is much more conservative both theologically and socially. It does not ordain women as ministers (which the PCUSA has done since 1956) and would not have GLBTQ affirming policies, while the PCUSA does at the national level (local congregations can of course vary in their acceptance.)

Just saw John Jakes died on March 11. https://locusmag.com/2023/03/john-jakes-1932-2023/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jakes When his novel North and South was turned into a TV miniseries in 1985, it switched the common gender of Ashton from male to female as a baby name. A decade later it switched back to male because of the fame of Ashton Kutcher.

Here's the link to today's column: https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-dee-or-day-dont-judge-sandra-by-her-name/article_9c02f172-c97b-11ed-86d6-cfa503a0318c.html

Well, since the regular publishing of fiction began there have been authors who were supremely good at putting out bestsellers in their time who are forgotten today except by the small group of academics who research past popular culture. Ever hear of Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth? Maria Cummins? Mary Jane Holmes? Marie Corelli? George Barr McCutcheon? Harold Bell Wright? All authors who were hugely popular with the general public and who contributed to fashions for baby names with their characters, but who very few people in 2023 have heard of. --As for the article, I don't see it as being as nasty as some of you are portraying it. And I was excited to see how the author met people who attended the convention who had named babies after Sanderson's characters, confirming the post I made pointing that out last September.

Well, if the "of" in the above is not a typographical error for "or", it would seem likely to me that if he's only been asked to turn in the handwritten notes that the personal audio recordings no longer exist.

I am not at all a fan of Jimi Hendrix myself, but somehow that strikes me as an incredibly cool title for a novel.

They aren't talking about Soros running the departments. They are talking about him donating to their political campaigns. In many places in the U.S. District Attorneys, who are the chief prosecutors in a jurisdiction, are elected by the public. I think that's a bad idea myself, but that's the way it is. And the New York Post has repoted that Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney in charge of the relevant Trump case, had $1 million donated to his last campaign by George Soros. Not sure if that's accurate, but it's been widely repeated in the right wing media, and mentioned by Trump himself in his fundraising emails.

Being "so far ahead of his rivals" at this point would mean just his rivals for the Republican nomination, not the general election. So his being ahead with "non-White voters" would only mean that small subset of non-Whites who plan to vote in Republican primaries. Trump has increased his popularity with non-Whites, but to my understanding he is still very far from having majority approval among them. And I believe that increase is primarily driven by working class men, who are also the biggest reliable part of his base among Whites. There are similarities in blue collar culture that cross racial and ethnic boundaries, and I think a lot of blue collar men, especially among Hispanics, interpret Trump's angry bluster as a sign of "machismo", which is very positive for them.

As someone who is not really a movie buff and has not seen a single one of this year's nominated movies yet, it's very interesting reading this thread. It would be interesting research to see how much different reactions to a film like EEAAO are based on basic personality trait differences vs. idiosyncratic past experiences vs. recent transitory mood states. And I think humor probably gets more idiosyncratic disagreement than pure drama. I didn't even watch the Oscars show. What I did was watch YouTube clips of acceptance speeches afterwards. I think seeing these out of the context of the show with all its distractions and ads gives one a different experience. I saw the four acting awards, the best director, the best adapted screenplay, and best song acceptance speeches, and somehow found them as a whole much more emotional and touching than I have in the past. It is a tad unfortunate that Yeoh didn't give some traditional mentions, but as Jamie Lee Curtis said, they were supposed to try to limit themselves to 45 seconds, so I can forgive her for that. I always find it a bit funny when people criticize the choices of the Oscars by complaining they don't match the taste of the general public, or their own taste when they are just film fans not involved in actually making movies. These are the opinions of people who have been successful enough in traditional Hollywood careers to make it into the Academy. They aren't supposed to simply reflect the taste of the general public (we have box office numbers to figure that out), and shouldn't be expected to be the same as those of critics or fans outside the industry. Though like any group of people Academy voters are going to be influenced by transitory fashions, since the original nominations are just done by the subset of the Academy who have actually been active in the particular field of the nominations, I can't imagine there has ever been any Oscar winning performance (as actor, editor, director, or anything else) which wasn't a least "very good" by the standards of the profession in the year they were awarded.

Here's the link to today's column. Brendan, like Aidan, turns out to be an Irish name which was almost nonexistent for babies for a couple of centuries and then was revived by Irish nationalists in the late 19th century. https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-brendans-popularity-starts-in-its-irish-roots/article_0c079e7e-be04-11ed-b157-cf4d28defc6a.html

British author Christopher Fowler has died of cancer: https://locusmag.com/2023/03/christopher-fowler-1953-2023/

Here is the link to today's column: https://omaha.com/lifestyles/cleveland-evans-like-elvis-costello-asks-has-veronica-gone-to-hide/article_d8c3fdb2-b37e-11ed-9d93-07a50e1eb22b.html I did NOT write the sentence about Elvis Costello's song "propping up" Veronica. That was inserted by an editor. Obviously somebody at the newspaper is a big fan of that song. Though the song is a great example of the use of the name, it did NOT particularly "prop up" the use of the name. If anything, the drop in Veronica between 1989 and 1990 was bigger than average. So I am a little miffed at them introducing a minor inaccuracy into what I wrote.

I know this is late, but thought I should mention the death of Suzy McKee Charnas on this thread. She was one of the first authors to publish strongly feminist science fiction. She won a Tiptree award for her 1999 novel The Conqueror's Child and also won one Nebula and one Hugo each for short stories: https://locusmag.com/2023/01/suzy-mckee-charnas-1939-2023/

Raquel Welch has died at age 82. Raquel Welch, 'Fantastic Voyage' star, has died at age 82 (omaha.com)

You were not reading carefully. That was two different aunts. And the second one was a 17 year old marrying a 21 year old.