Alan Jacobs

In the pew in which we invariably sat there was a leather-bound Prayer Book with a brass clasp. It was always there and became for me an object of intense desire, which I had to resist the temptation to take home with me. It was my first intimation of the physicality of the book as something beautiful as well as desirable, and my earliest experience of the pleasure and excitement of handling its smooth, rich-smelling cover and turning the pages. I first steeped myself in the history and romance of the Prayer Book when I was about ten years old and would read it to alleviate the *longueurs* of the sermon, which in those days sometimes lasted for 40 minutes…

There were, of course, varieties of practice, and little superficial resemblance between the multi-candled ceremonial, the incense and Stations of the Cross found in the extreme High Church, and the simplicities of an evangelical church which could have been mistaken for a nonconformist chapel. But it was possible to attend different churches — on holiday, for example — and feel immediately at home, finding in the pew not a service sheet with a series number but the familiar and unifying Book of Common Prayer.

Another reason for the upsurge in writing about religion may lie in the failure of a convincing anti-capitalist discourse to emerge after the financial crisis. ‘One of the problems for a post-Christian age is what on earth to do with the figure of Jesus who – ha ha! – just won’t stay buried,’ Spufford says, unsure whether or not to be pleased with his pun. Even after we dispense with the miracles, the figure of Christ remains attractive because, as history has shown, he cannot be reduced to a single narrative account of what a person should be, but can be incorporated into several others. 'Many consider him the last bit of demolition work that needs to be done [to rid Britain of religion], precisely because he is opposed to a utilitarian account of people: the figure of Jesus resists speaking in terms of prudence or cost-benefit analysis about individuals of limitless value.'

[gallery] the Etherington brothers

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[gallery] portrait arabesque, by Roger de La Fresnaye. Via Wood s hole

This year, as Thanksgiving bleeds into the rest of the winter holiday season, as Republicans sharpen their knives for the fight with Obama over his executive action—or ‘executive amnesty,’ whatever you choose to call it—keep this in mind: American immigration law is perhaps one of the most mercurial sets of laws we have. It is not set in stone, nor has it ever been. Historically, it has depended on racism, trade priorities, and geopolitical considerations, just as it does today. And as Senator Ted Cruz, son of a Cuban immigrant, rails against Hondurans and Mexicans for coming to America illegally, keep in mind just how lucky his family is to come from a country that got the kind of special status that allowed, and still allows, Cubans to come to U.S. in ways that would be considered illegal for other populations and to get a green card in a year. Consider that this is not because of a law passed in the U.S. Congress, but because some guy we didn’t like seized power in 1959 and a few American presidents decided to help the Cuban bourgeoisie—and to stick it to Nikita Khrushchev. It’s why I and my 60 relatives are here, too. And it is quite likely that one of your ancestors got in through some giant, executive loophole ages and ages ago. Or got here when there were no loopholes because there were simply no laws pertaining to immigration.

As you celebrate tonight, consider that the lesson here isn’t so much that Cubans or Soviet Jews shouldn’t be there, but that maybe some other people deserve a shot at an American Thanksgiving rather than an ill-informed lecture on the 'law.’

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This is what book covers should look like.

Security researcher GironSec has pulled Uber’s Android app apart and discovered that it’s sending a huge amount of personal data back to base – including your call logs, what apps you’ve got installed, whether your phone is vulnerable to certain malware, whether your phone is rooted, and your SMS and MMS logs, which it explicitly doesn’t have permission to do. It’s the latest in a series of big-time missteps for a company whose core business model is, frankly, illegal in most of its markets as well.

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smithsonianlibraries:

Tips for the fancy [Thanksgiving] table courtesy The dining room and its appointment (1896). They also have some helpful etiquette tips for dinner conversation

Grievous or appalling events should not be mentioned, and mischievous gossip should be carefully avoided, as should also [sic] remarks of a political or religious nature that may be offensive to anyone present.

What, then, does detective fiction say about her? ‘That I am a woman who likes life to be ordered. In a long life, I have never taken a drug or got drunk, and I say that not as a matter of pride: it’s because the idea of being out of control is appalling to me. I think that when one writes detective stories one is imposing order, and a form of imperfect but human justice, on chaos.’ In fact, as with the later work of her hero Dorothy L Sayers, a great deal of the fascination of James’s detective fiction lies in the way chaos flourishes in the midst of the novels’ rigid structure – the internal psychological mess that brings about murder. 'I think there’s been a huge change since the novels of the Golden Age,’ she suggests. 'What was popular then was the puzzle: such qualities as psychological truth or even atmospheric location were secondary to it. For me, characterisation is at the heart of my books. From the start, I felt that what I was doing was examining human beings under the strain of an investigation for murder. And such an investigation tears down all the walls of privacy that we build round ourselves and reveals us for who we are. It’s a fascinating way of dealing with people.’