Neanderpundit

Richmond mentions nearly being creamed by a truck here, and it reminds me of one of my own brushes with the reaper.

I had just gotten home from my very first day at Purdue. I needed a drafting set to do the homework I had that weekend. The only place I was likely to find a set was in Crown Point, five miles away.
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Today I have to get a new set of shelves put in the pantry, get the damned lawn mowed (neighborhood kids are putting notes in my mailbos “Need halp(sic) mowing your lawn?”) and try to get the last 95 feet of drain pipe buried in the yard. A lazy day for me, really. I just hope to get one Zatoichi movie in before I start.

First of all, let me say I had fun wiht this book, and I’ll probably have fun with the movie. It’s a popcorn-for-your-brain potboiler.

Let me now say this as a Catholic.

I spent six years in the seminary. I understand the dirtyl little secrets. I know where a lot of the bodies are buried. Dan brown manages to string together a couple of out-of context facts, and a few conspiracy theories, to assemble a halfway decent book. Yeah, it’s formuilaic (Dan Brown’s classic formula is “scholarly expert is awakened in the middle of the night to traipse halfway around the world in search of the Real Truth, enduring danger and intrigue in the face of overwhelmiong odds to bring the World out of Darkness and Into the Light”)

Dan desperately wants to be Crichton. He couldn’t carry Crichton’s luggage, never will. He’ll sell books, and has done so, because his stuff is entertaining to many, and catholics are such an easy target of derision- right up there with smokers and obese people as undefended material for comedians everywhere. If Brown opens up people’s eyes and gets them looking for the Truth on their own, and people are diligent enough to FIND the real truth, then that’s god- but unfortunately, the people who are likely to read and enjoy these books, myself included, generally aren’t all that bright.

Don’t take Brown’s word that ANY of this shit is true.