Backward Mutters

  • The Smell of August

    My grandfather and father made chili sauce each August. I reckon this was a way to deal with the copious tomatoes and peppers which flooded the the counter tops and picnic tables at the end of the growing season. I have distinct memories of the smell. Chili sauce has a…

  • Mountain Miles

    Chum, Big Red, and Good Doctor are working on those mountain miles for a challenge event next month. Here’s a photo story of what was beautiful, quad busting, frustrating, and amazing about this week’s big ride up to the three summits: Pilot, Sauratown, and Hanging Rock. This is the view…

  • Deadly Doing

    This will be coming out in Kernersville News‘ “Words to Live By” column on Thursday I think. I do have a bee in my bonnet. According to a study done by Kansas State geographers, the Southeast is hot bed of sin. Thomas Vought presented the results of a study in…

  • The Seven Deadly Sins in the News

    In the spring Kansas State University released the results (via an info graphic) showing the distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins across the United States. Wired picked up the story from which these graphics come and which was first picked up by Las Vegas Sun. SlothExpenditures on art, entertainment, and…

  • Seven Deadly Sins: Pride

    Of Pride, Dorothy Sayers in her commentary on Dante’s Purgatory writes, “Pride is the head and root of all sin, both original and actual. It is the endeavour to be ‘as God’, making self, instead of God, the centre about which the will and desire revolve. In its narrower and…