Truth be told, Steve , having spent my adolescence sitting in the front row of some flea-bitten revival house pinning my own nose bridge to my face manually as I squinted through another bad work print of Vittorio De Sica’s Miracle in Milan , I’m in no position to tweak anybody about their geekitude, either.
I must also admit to having entertained a brief flirtation with the “ekpyrotic universe” theory, but I was in college and you do stuff like that when you’re young. (I may also have broken the Second Law of Thermodynamics during a New Year’s Eve party, but two weeks’ community service and all trace of the infraction was eradicated from my permanent record.)
Otherwise, I agree with you completely about . . . all that stuff you said, if for no other reason than I have no idea what you’re talking about, so what else can I do? After all, you’re a real-life physicist and I call the Metropolitan Avenue volunteer fire department every evening around 5:40 because someone keeps making the sun go away.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…