One of the little voyeuristic pleasures of blogging is that blog-owners can track how readers arrive at their blog. Sometimes they come by way of a link and sometimes by way of a search engine. I have for sometime now found the phrases that people searched for strange and amusing, but its even more amusing to think that these searches led them to our blog. Phrases such as…
What did Romans use before toilet paper?
The comedic potential for this is endless. Just who was this person who needed this information? Was the quest driven by a desperate need for a research paper topic? Perhaps it was the residual curiosity of an office watercooler debate on the history of toilet paper. Or maybe the person was a misguided environmentalist looking to save a few trees by returning to pre-modern hygiene methods. Who knows? You can be sure they didn’t find an answer to their question on our site. Perhaps that’s why we’re so far down the list.
Were Brunner and Barth saved?
What I find funny about this search is that the question assumes that they are both in the same boat. If Brunner is saved then Barth must be too. If Barth is damned so much the worse for Brunner. I know that Google can give you answers to a lot of questions, but I don’t think that search engines cover what’s only in the mind of God. Why would one expect the Internet to have an answer to this question? Perhaps our friend Charlie Ray realized that he didn’t know the destiny of Barth’s soul after all and went in search of the answer from Google.
Fat Luther Vs Skinny Luther
I wasn’t aware that the later calorically-challenged Luther was out to get his earlier, leaner self. But it raises an interesting hypothetical: who would win? On the one hand, overweight Luther has better theology and more defenders to back him up in a brawl, but on the other hand, he was feeble and sluggish. Skinny Luther has the advantage of being spry and quick but is also probably a little emaciated from his meager monkish diet. Add to this his anguish over the wrath of God and I say overweight Luther would win by a tonsure.
lyotard theology
Hopefully this person was in search of the theology of Jean-François Lyotard and not for the theology involved in wearing spandex jumpers during exercise (which usually looks pretty ungodly).
what does “blasted my gourds” mean?
I’m not really sure what this means, but considering how John Newton uses the phrase, it doesn’t appear to be a good thing to have your gourds blasted.
sherlock holmes’s religious beliefs
I’ve blogged on Sherlock Holmes and I’ve blogged on religious beliefs, but I’ve never blogged on Sherlock Holmes’ religious beliefs. That’s a little like blogging on pickles and then blogging on icecream. A pregnant woman searching for “pickles and icecream” would likely find your blog even though its irrelevant. But the search raises an interesting question: can a fictional person have beliefs of any kind? What are the metaphysical implications of this? Would it be acceptable to attribute motive, reason, and telos to these beliefs? If we could attribute beliefs to a fictional person what else might this open door for us to attribute to him? Ok, maybe this particular search isn’t so much funny as it is thought-provoking.
I’m assuming this is the work of Frasier. You’re too funny man, I can’t handle it. The way you’re mind works is astounding to me.
Luke,
Unfortunately most people don’t feel the same way about how my mind works. While at the Dollar Tree the other day (do Massachusettians shop at Dollar Trees?) I began to think that with the inflation of the dollar, the quality of the products must go down over time since the Dollar Tree has set a price ceiling (they can’t call themselves the Two Dollar Tree).
The only way to maintain the price is to reduce labor costs or material costs. Most of the products are made in China, but since the standard of living in China is increasing, the Dollar Tree will not be able to reduce labor costs. With the rising costs of energy and materials such as steel and copper they’ll not likely be able to reduce material costs.
Surely Dollar Tree executives know this. Do they have a program for cycling out the higher cost products and replacing them with cheaper products? Will I walk into Dollar Tree one day and only be able to get one light bulb instead of four for my dollar?
I thought the whole subject was interesting and decided to discuss it with Emily. Not only was she not intrigued by the problem, she was baffled that I was intrigued.
Sherlock Holmes was a quintessential rationalist, like his smarter brother Mycroft. There’s no mention of Holmes’ beliefs in the Watson memoirs, so it’s probably reasonable to say the he was an agnostic. In the absence of evidence, he could not reasonably decide either for or against. We can certainly ask after Conan Doyle’s beliefs – he became an agnostic at age 16.
As to the question about the Romans, it should be obvious that they didn’t need toilet paper. There is no mention whatever in Tacitus, Caesar, Livy, Plutarch and the rest of a Roman ever going to the bathroom.
Mike,
It’s great to come in contact with a fellow Sherlockian. Obviously you’ve read your share of Conan Doyle. I think you’re right that the Holmes character should be assumed to be agnostic. In fact, in Adrian Conan Doyle’s book, The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes states forthrightly that he is an agnostic.
I also enjoyed your interesting bit of deduction regarding Roman bathroom hygiene. I find it entirely convincing! Stop by anytime with your insights.
I think the blasted gourd is a reference to the book of Jonah.