soapbox

It may seem half a shame to get rid of a church tradition, however cruel and antiquated, if it can inspire poetry like “The Inferno” or spooky lines like these from Seamus Heaney: “Fishermen at Ballyshannon/Netted an infant last night/Along with the salmon.”

As discussed a week ago, the theological hypothesis that is limbo seems to have been tossed to the bin. “Unlike purgatory, a sort of waiting room to heaven for those with some venial faults, the theory of limbo consigned children outside of heaven on account of original sin alone.” This Times article is better I think, though you have to login.

Anyway, while the concept seems silly, it’s actually a pretty relevant and interesting discussion item. To a history/so-an nerd, anyway.

i’ve noticed a bit of an increase in spam mail in the past week or so. today alone, from midnight to midnight (ok, so actually it’s yesterday. i mean the 27th.) i had at least 35 spam msgs. i have the spam mail sent to my junk box, so i can keep a count of new msgs. usually i get, at most, 10 a day. i’ve noticed a lot lately are also going to “hashe” or “gshe” and various other letter combinations vaguely resembling my name. then there are the ones that go to other people on campus but for some reason come to me as well (a BCC? CC?). some are even addressed to students i’ve had in lab. could this be a result of stupid (windows-type) people who don’t know what viruses look like, or just a coincidence? it’s the one fault i find in dartmouth’s blitz system. you can send something to some random letter combination, and it’s nearly guaranteed to end up in SOMEONE’S box.