The Weekly, November 18, 2024
Hi all,
Apologies for going dark for a few weeks. Various projects are keeping me busy as we ramp up toward the end of year for Mere O. The good news is that since our crisis in April things have really pivoted in a good and needed way for Mere O. With Mark on board as publisher, I’m no longer the only person doing everything for the project and a number of worries, not least financial, are no longer falling solely on me. That makes a huge difference as we now head into the end of the year in our strongest position we’ve ever been in (and almost certainly heading toward our best ever traffic year).
If you’re wondering about my election take, I wrote it up for Mere O.
I have a couple other ideas that are churning around in my head a bit right now and may turn into something in the near future. We’ll see.
Books
I finished the Ashley Lande book. Very good. Definitely would recommend it. I’ll have a review soon at Mere O. Also finished the Lexham baptism book by Leithart. That one is also very good.
On a used bookstore trip last week with my daughter, I picked up a couple that I’m excited about. First, I found the Library of America volume of Niebuhr’s major works. I’ve been intending to read him closely for awhile and was further nudged that direction by this provocative piece from John Shelton at Providence, which actually addressed one of my chief reservations or hesitancies with Niebuhr. Second, an intriguing looking biography on Orestes Brownson, a 19th century American convert to Catholicism. That said, the bulk of my attention at the moment is still going toward the democratic liberalism discourse as well as the tech criticism space—so lots of Barba-Kay, Bowlin, and things of that sort. I’m trying to make room for the Niebuhr though as he is very much bound up in the liberalism discourse.
Articles
Michael Kruse on the Breaking of an American Family
Ross Douthat on the end of an era
Ezra Klein in conversation with Michael Lind
Grant Martsolf on having one more child
Toni Alimi on Augustine and Christian nationalism
Dustin Guastella on the post-Christian American right
Julia Steinberg on AI boyfriends
Freya India on imaginary worlds
Chris Arnade on walking Phnom Penh
Kirsten Sanders on Elisabeth Elliot
Kirsten Sanders on images of Christ
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller on the child Instagram influencer whose fans are mostly adult men
Elsewhere
So the neighborhood grocery store sells these pre-packaged “dessert shells” which are basically a small circular sponge cake with elevated edges so that you can fill them with whatever topping you like and serve. We had a Husker watch party this weekend with our church (I don’t want to talk about it…) and so I went to the store, got the dessert shells and the cheapest berries they had (blackberries) and put a dessert together for the game.
Briefly, I made a simple blackberry compote using 24 oz of blackberries, the juice of one lemon, and sugar to taste—maybe four or five tablespoons? I don’t recall how much I put in. Mix all that together in a saucepan and reduce to desired thickness and you have your compote.
From there, it’s very easy: Once the compote has cooled in the fridge for a few hours, spoon it into the shells, top with a bit of whipped cream, and then put a couple mint leaves on top for garnish. Looks very nice and it’s dead easy to make.
Thanks for reading!
Under the Mercy,
~Jake
PS I know there’s lots of chatter right now about the new social media site—the butterfly site that replaces the bird site by basically being what the bird site was five years ago. I am not planning to make the jump. Organic social media is dead. The future of healthy, worthwhile media is independent, subscription-based media projects plus curated email newsletters. So you can continue to find me right here.