Terry Firma, though born and Journalism-school-educated in Europe, has lived in the U.S. for the past 20-odd years. Stateside, his feature articles have been published in the New York Times, Reason, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Wired. Terry was the founder and Main Mischief Maker of Moral Compass, a now-dormant site that pokes fun at the delusional claim by people of faith that a belief in God equips them with superior moral standards. He was the Editor-in-Chief of two Manhattan-based magazines until he decided to give up commercial publishing for professional photography... with a lot of blogging on the side. These days, he lives in an old seaside farmhouse in Maine with his wife, three kids, and two big dogs.
If you’re a photographer, you could do a hell of a lot worse than to shop at New York’s Adorama and B&H Photo. Both are excellent, ultra-reputable stores at which I’ve happily spent many thousands of dollars over the years. But truthfully, a lot of my photography budget goes to Amazon, Hunt’s, and Beach Camera these days — and to other online stores that do business when it suits me, instead of them. What’s the problem with Adorama and B&H? It’s not that the owners are observant Jews. It’s that in their case, being observant means they effectively freeze their web and retail operations during so many days of the year (for religious reasons) that non-Jewish customers will have to double-check whether these places will actually take/fulfill orders on a particular day. This is the September schedule that I received from Adorama earlier this week. Of the 28 days shown, the store and the printing lab will be closed on half of them. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Police detective Kat Cooper (photo, right) became sort-of-famous in Tennessee earlier this month when she petitioned the city of Collegedale, a suburb of Chattanooga, to extend partner benefits to her wife, Krista (on left), whom she’d married in Maryland in May of this year. “It should be of no importance to my employer if my lifelong commitment is made to a man or a woman — both are equal,” Cooper said [addressing the city commissioners]. “Small ripples can precipitate huge waves. In this case, a great opportunity lies in your hands.” The commissioners voted on the matter on August 5, and the outcome, 4 votes to 1, was yes, fair’s fair, let’s do it. Case closed, right? From the city’s perspective, yes. But for Ken Willis, the minister at Cooper’s family’s church, not so much. [Click headline for more…] Read more
If you were an atheist vandal with a mischievous streak, you couldn’t possibly top what the devout Cecilia Giménez pulled a year ago. The octogenarian wannabe painter took it upon herself to restore a water-damaged Spanish church fresco by renowned painter Elías García Martínez. The work, entitled Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) used to depict Jesus, head cocked coquettishly, wearing a crown of thorns. But by the time Ms. Giménez was done with it, the portrait more closely resembled a hirsute bonobo monkey, no doubt giving ammunition (and laughing cramps) to Darwinists everywhere. The well-intentioned-but-very-botched transformation, horrifying and comical at once, finally brought the rogue restorer a measure of attention that her original works hadn’t. Juan Maria Ojeda, the local city councilor in charge of cultural affairs, initially proposed that “If we can’t fix it, we will probably cover the wall with a photo of the painting.” But even though a fix was indeed impossible, the diocese that owns the painting decided to leave the ruined fresco up, perhaps as a reminder that not everyone is equally capable with a paintbrush. And guess what? Last year’s Internet infamy is this year’s shot at bona fide fame… [Click headline for more…] Read more
“Forced marriages: School holidays prompt warning,” says a current headline on BBC News. The article explains that annually, “more than 5,000 people from the U.K.” are reportedly being forced into arranged marriages: Teachers, doctors and airport staff need to be alert to the problem of forced marriages over the school holidays, the government has warned. Ministers said there were concerns about teenagers being taken abroad thinking they were going on holiday but being forced into marriage instead. Figures suggest cases are particularly common during the summer break. The government’s Forced Marriage Unit received 400 reports between June and August last year. The piece is remarkable mostly for what it doesn’t say. The words religion, Muslim, God, and Islam are all missing. Another feat is that the reporter more or less manages to sweep the misogynistic aspect of the arranged-marriage phenomenon under the rug, the BBC’s favorite phraseology for the victims being “teenagers” and the non-descript “people,” rather than “girls” and “young women” (those words aren’t anywhere in the article, either). [Click headline for more…] Read more
If you’re tired of the Virgin Mary appearing in burnt toast and the Lord Jesus materializing in bird shit, here’s a little variety: a tree that weeps “tears of God.” But ask an arborist or an entomologist and the story is a little more prosaic. The liquid falling from a Crape Myrtle tree in Fresno, CA is louse poop. The plant lice that have infested the tree are known as aphides, explains an expert: [Click headline for more…] Read more
