We have just returned form our vacation, having spent most of it this year getting to know the city of Calgary where our daughter will begin university next week (Michael and Denise, I feel your pain!).

A lot can happen while one is on holidays. While I was away we lost one planet and my Beloved Red Sox hit the skids in a big way ... Oh well!

A few weeks ago I opined that I didn’t trust Oliver Stone with the topic of the WTC and 9/11. But everything I have read since then, both here and elsewhere, says that he has done an excellent job with the film. My bad. So it’s on my list…

Speaking of movies I’m psyched about… I love the work of P.D. James. I try to read one of her mysteries each summer on my vacation. This year it was Death of An Expert Witness. Excellent! She writes so well that one feels drawn viscerally into the story. I particularly like how she weaves her Christian faith (of the High-Anglican sort) into her stories. She did this particularly well in her dystopian The Children of Men, which is at once one of the more troubling and hopeful books I’ve read. It is being made into a movie (to be released on Christmas day) and here is the trailer. From that little peek it loks like they have captured the feel of the book. If you have not read The Children of Men I recommend it highly. Read it before the film comes out.