Likewise with Catholics. The verses used to support the idea of the Rapture are generally taken to refer to the Last Judgment. However Millenarianism has had an interesting history. St. Justin Martyr in the second century addresses it directly in The Dialogue With Trypho, and comes down on the side of "a thousand years in which Jerusalem will be built up, adorned, and enlarged" before the Last Judgment, but also acknowledges that this isn't definitive doctrine: "I and many others are of this opinion ... [but] there are many Christians of pure and pious faith who do not share this belief." St. Irenaeus and Tertullian professed Millenarianism; St. Eusebius Pamphilus in the fourth century blames St. Papias for giving Irenaeus and Tertullian this view and blames it on an overly literalist reading of Scriptures. From there on the view is generally condemned (St. Augustine, St. Theodoret) when it's brought up at all--and the disappearance of Millenarianist discussion suggests the matter was seen as settled. Still, if there's an "official" Catholic view of Millenarianism, it's probably St. Jerome's: "Granted that we cannot accept this, neither, however, do we dare to condemn it, because so many men of the Church and martyrs said the same."

It would embarrass him from beyond the grave to call it love, but I certainly enjoy the novels of Henry James more consistently than those of other writers. In fact I think that my next fiction choice will have to be more James. And I have a strong fondness for J. Frank Dobie that may well shade over into personal affection; like that for an intelligent and endearing great-uncle. I recently picked up more Dobie at the library discard store and will make that my next nonfiction reading. And Chekhov is hot. Though of course dead. ETA: Jane, I say go with your obviously inspired plan.

One and a half mile shamble this morning. Cut short by sudden heavy rain.

You know we would all be totally buying them from a shady book dealer out of the back of a van if the Apocalypse came to that. And Jane would be the one handing them out. Giving kids free copies of A String in the Harp, just to hook them... moving her regulars up to the hard stuff out of Eastern Europe....

Smile when you say that, pardner. :D

Yes. Carml. One-and-a-half syllables at best. Car like the car you drive. In my region, a final L after a vowel isn't pronounced with the tongue touching the front of the palate, as with most English speakers; the tongue stays down. So it's easy to shorten such syllables.

Sorry Laura. Take it easy. It could still be flu.

Welcome! My dh is a huge Wodehouse fan. I gather "silly and ridiculous" covers his entire oeuvre pretty well. Madame Bovary is one of the few classics I've never been able to "get." I've read it twice; no charm either time.

You're surely familiar with the "snow in Central Texas" episode of King of the Hill: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HRa2sFQ3d3k

We don't have an evacuation plan as there's no likelihood of needing to evacuate; but we keep a mag light with fresh batteries and room to cower in the "tornado room" (under-stairs closet). Which came in useful for Great Girl this last summer. Twice. Poor thing.

Can I join in? I'm just recently trying to get fitter, and managed a mile of brisk walk/ shambling "run" this morning and yesterday morning, now that summer has broken and it's possible to be outdoors. Feels pretty good. Dh thinks I should join the nearby gym or Y for the endless summer months when swimming is the only option; but I've never been to a gym and can't even figure out from the classes offered what I'm looking for.

Yeah. I took up Zombie Running this morning instead. :D Enjoying that app! Hard to outrace the zoms in an ankle-length skirt, though.

Oh! Yes, Happy New Year!

Enid Blyton books for this age level are popular here. The Faraway Tree books especially.

Why do I even read other threads on the Chat board. :(

Good to hear some good news. Y'all's fires have been on my mind all day. But so awful to hear of towns, just gone.

Edited: Never mind. Sure, we're just like the Duggars.

Feel free to pm; it's not clear what your question is (or maybe I got here too late and you deleted specifics).

Checking in late as we spent the day in Houston examining the special exhibit of Habsburg bling at the art museum, including the Velasquez painting of the Infanta Maria Teresa which we all knew from our art history curriculum but actually got to see! We were like a bunch of hayseeds, standing there staring at it slackjawed for so long. Look at that, paw, all the way from Aw-stree-ya! Shore is purty, Betty Lou.... Honestly though, sometimes I wish I didn't have to drive three hours through cow country just to get to a half-decent museum. The Habsburg knickknacks were fantastic. What shall we put in the middle of our table this month, Franz-Josef? Ach how about a few gold nereids sitting on a carved walnut elephant, holding up gold-framed gem-carved cameos of our various family members? That will look splendid next to the gold-and-rare-shell triple-tiered sorbet holder from Uncle Karl. I finished A Hero of Our Time and have started Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford, a novel made famous by its opening sentences, which inspired the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest: ----------- It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. Through one of the obscurest quarters of London, and among haunts little loved by the gentlemen of the police, a man, evidently of the lowest orders, was wending his solitary way. ---------- And still enjoying Piers Plowman.

We're in walking distance of a CM, so I send the kids over sometimes for tortillas or fruit or vegetables. But for the sake of our budget (and the need for things like roach bait), I mostly drive to the HEB.

From A Hero of our Time, by Mikhail Lermontov: ---------- Throughout the evening I tried to interrupt their conversation several times on purpose, but she met my remarks rather dryly, and finally, with feigned annoyance, I moved away. The princess was triumphant; Grushnitsky was, too. Triumph, my friends, hurry, because you won't triumph for long! How shall I go about this? I have a presentiment.... Whenever I have met a woman, I have always been able to guess unerringly whether she was going to love me or not. The rest of the evening I spent at Vera's side and spoke to my heart's content about the old days! Why she loves me so--honestly, I don't know! Especially since this is the one woman who has understood me completely, with all my petty weaknesses and wicked passions. Can evil really be so attractive? I walked out with Grushnitsky; on the street he linked arms with me and after a long silence said: "Well, what do you think?" "You're a fool," I was about to reply, but I restrained myself and merely shrugged my shoulders. ------------------ There's a certain resemblance to Fathers and Sons (Turgenev, twenty years later) in the "What's wrong with young people these days and their nihilistic lack of morals?" theme; but since Lermontov was only 25 when he wrote it, it feels more like an exploration of the Romanticism of one's own lost generation. Through Passus 5 in Piers Plowman. Fun bit: the seven deadly sins, allegorically presented as Lenten penitents, make their confessions in this part, and Sloth memorably confesses to not quite having the Paternoster by heart but knowing the Robin Hood songs very well (according to the notes, this is the first vernacular reference to the Robin Hood ballads). Hard to blame him.

It's not clear that the creation of a cake falls under the freedom of speech protection (artistic expression in this case) in the straightforward way that a printer choosing not to print something does. A court certainly could find that the cake is an artistic product and so its creation cannot be compelled; but it's not hard to see a court refusing that argument; certainly it's been refused in the case of wedding photography, which seems to me to be much more clearly artistic expression. It's impossible to see a court agreeing that a printer can be compelled to print speech which it doesn't wish to. That's what freedom of the press is. Personally, I wouldn't want a court to find that antidiscrimination law somehow trumped the First Amendment protection against compelled expression. It's too easy to imagine the shoe on the other foot. Nor does it seem to me that the right thing is to join a boycott and try to get the company to back down, if the refusal was genuinely a matter of conscience. Why would I prefer to do business with someone whose motto is "We'll print anything, no matter how vile, as long as your money is green"? Why should it surprise me that, in a diverse country, there are people with whose views I strongly disagree, or even find repellent? Or that they should think some of my views repellent? If it doesn't surprise me, why would I want to force them to go against their conscience, whether by state mandate or economic pressure? I would rather live in a country where people's consciences aren't burdened by the fear of being put out of business by the howling twittermob.

Dh's job brings us overseas for 9-10 weeks every year, and we bring Wee Girl's (one-sixth size) cello on the flight, in the overhead compartment. We're careful and attentive at security and on the plane, and haven't had any problems. Wee Girl is younger than your girls and has no difficulty carrying her own cello strapped to her back (I take it for escalators and dense crowds). Surely violins couldn't be too hard. There are Youtube videos to help you pack your instrument for travel. Four months seems like a long break in practice. Can they skype Suzuki lessons while abroad? Wee Girl's teacher suggested that and it's worked out.

Maybe so; but that didn't seem to be the question in play. The OP asked, "Should Office Depot have the right to refuse to print the flyer?" The Constitution gives that a clear "yes." Certainly, if Office Depot as a business is happy to print the item, they can easily say "Our employee was confused! We have no problem with printing your document!" But the company spokesperson quoted above didn't seem to be distancing the business from the employee.