Twittercide is Painless

Hey, don't forget to stop by my caption contest - Pause, Ponder and Pun - and leave a caption. You might win exciting prizes. Well, no prizes really but significant web cred to have been awarded the I Be Hangin' With Dufus citation. Oh yeah, baby!

Meanwhile on with today's post...

The debate on the positive versus negative impacts of social media networking continues, this time around the Catholic Church has waded in.

Me? In addition to having friends in the real world, I find such social media as Twitter, Facebook and my blog an interesting way to interact with new people across all social strata, age groups and geographic locations. Indeed, I think it's the technological equivalent of Walt Disney's philosophy: It's A Small World, After All. (I stress philosophy and not that annoying theme park song)

Couldn't watch it all, could you? But I digress...

I thought the Catholic Church ran out of feet to stand on a long time ago. But apparently it has as many feet as a centipede because it has just stuck another one in it's mouth. Westminster Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the top guy of all Catholics in England and Wales, was quoted last week as saying he "is worried that teenagers are developing "transient" relationships on the internet and he warns the collapse of the friendships could leave young people feeling suicidal".

The Archbishop (Why do they call them that? To my lapsed-Catholic sensibilities it sounds like something not far from arch-villain"!) went on to say: "I think there's a worry that an excessive use, or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we're losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together and building a community."

This from a leader of an outfit that scarred me for life with it's Baltimore Catechism of the 50s that taught me - complete with idiotic "artist renderings" that prayer was a phone call to God.

If you ask me, the Catholic Church, who has turned away more worshippers than it has attracted, should instead of dissing the technology be embracing it. Why not use the technology to their benefit to attract young people to the church.

Of course they may have to change their ideas on birth control, celibate priests and gay marriage first.

My Back Pages - November

I know, I know, I know I should have reported in before now. But sometimes real life just gets in the way. I attempted 5 books in November. I say attempted because I slapped a big DNF (did not finish) on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I just can't seem to get into this guy. It's the second or third of his I've given up on, Not so the other four, starting with a biography of Stephen Stills called Change Partners. This followed by a hilarious biography of the guy responsible for National Lampoon called A Stupid and Futile Gesture - How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. I ended the month reading yet another biography, this one of the man behind Rolling Stone magazine,. It was called Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. A fascinating read. So last month I hit the magic number 50 I'd imagined for myself back in January. If I roll this month into my yearly total I'm at 54 books. And I still hav...

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

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