Romantic Comedies Bad for You? Who Would Have Guessed?

I recently read a nail-biting, shocking headliner from BBC News entitled: “Rom-coms spoil your love life.” It was the conclusion of a university survey from Edinburgh that Romantic Comedies in fact generally set unrealistic expectations for viewers in their perception of real-life romances. The main problem: “if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.”

My sappy side took a hit as I perused the informant’s report. Who doesn’t like sweet mushy feelings as they dream of the ‘certain someone’? Or hope that their relationship will grow in excitement? But the good educators of Scotland have finally pointed something out that we should be aware of as we prepare for the holi-daze of visual stimulation:

“We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media plays a role in perpetuating these ideas in people’s minds.”

So be alert to renew your mind in truth, goodness, and beauty this holiday, and don’t be too quick to buy in to more than just Christmas sales.

(To read the full BBC article, click the tagged link below.)

Feeling Distinguished?

As I spelunk the dark caverns of further academic study–an exploration in which always carries it the question: “Did I pack properly, can I handle this task?”–I have discovered one potent provision of the academic task: distinctions.

When you say a girl is “smart,” you could mean several things:

She knows lots of data. She may be the veritable “Wikipedia” of information on a certain topic.

She can follow steps of logic to really think something through.

She has an excellent memory: she is a steel trap.

Or you could mean that she can clearly distinguish parts of a big idea in order to better understand the whole. She can make distinctions: much like I am doing now in my definition of “smart.”

You might want to distinguish the nature of something: “That’s not what I meant. I meant this…”

Or you might want to distinguish all the parts of a whole. Sometimes being able to split something up is the best way to figure out the whole thing.

I have found that this is the best way for me to write a paper, write a sermon, or exegete a passage. In fact, I almost stopped in the middle of a ten-page Greek paper to call my 6th grade grammar teacher: “Mrs. B, thank you for teaching me how to diagram a sentence. I realize that because I can identify the ten different verbs in this passage I now have an idea of how to follow what it’s trying to say!”

I guess all those grade-school mornings of diagramming sentences with prepositional phrases or participles really paid off.

So, next time you are staring at your screen wondering where to start on this huge hunk of information you are supposed to discuss, get out the pie server and eat it up one piece at a time.

Twilight has Teens all a’Twitter

Apparently it’s the most watched trailer online. Apparently it’s soundtrack is number one right now. Apparently it has teenage girls lining up around the book. Apparently the books have sold more then 25 million copies worldwide. Apparently the story is also bad for your soul.

Chuck Wilson of the Voice writes of the movie:

“In the 17-million-copy land of Twilight, the calling card isn’t blood and fangs, but the exquisite, shimmering quiver of unconsummated first love.”