My apologies for the late post.  I’ve been weaning myself off of caffeine this weekend, so I basically just woke up. You know that scene in The Great Divorce in which C.S. Lewis described the damned as only vaguely human, “shrunk and shut up in themselves,” alienated from the world by choice? 

…Yeah. Dan’s getting a little picture of that this weekend. 

Anyway, on to superlatives! 

Around the Blogosphere…

Best Video:
Improv Everywhere with “Carousel Horse Race”

Best Insights:
Lisa Bloom with “How To Talk to Little Girls” 
“…One tiny bit of opposition to a culture that sends all the wrong messages to our girls. One tiny nudge towards valuing female brains. One brief moment of intentional role modeling. Will my few minutes with Maya change our multibillion dollar beauty industry, reality shows that demean women, our celebrity-manic culture? No. But I did change Maya's perspective for at least that evening.” 

Most Relatable:
Pete Wilson with “A Perspective Bomb”

Most Inspiring:
Panera Bread CEO Says Pay What You Can
“More than one year into the program, Panera Cares has restaurants in St. Louis, Detroit and Portland, and the shops will serve between 500,000 to 1 million meals this year. Each restaurant must generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining, and so far, all of them are. One out of five customers leaves more than the suggested donation; three in five leave the suggested donation; and one in five customers leaves less or nothing, usually because they have real need.”

Most Controversial: 
Rowan Davies at Guardian with “Blogging from Bangladesh – More Poverty Tourism?”

Best Responses: 
1. Nish Weiseth with “The Currency of Human Contact”

2. Elizabeth Esther with “On Being a ‘Poverty Tourist’”

3. Kristen at Rage Against the Minivan with “Bloggers, Charities, and the Question of Poverty Tourism”

Best Writing Tip:
John Stackhouse with “How To Write Something That is Worse Than Useless”
“So: Say what you mean, fully and lucidly, or drop the whole point. Maybe it’s bad to drop the point, but it’s even worse to keep it but relay it so badly that you actually impede the intellectual progress of your reader.”

 Best Question: 
Alise Wright with “What Are God’s Ways Like?”
“I feel like part of being made in the image of God is that we have an ability to see that which is good. The Scripture tells us that even in our evil ways, we still know how to give our children good gifts. We have the capacity for creation, for generosity, for love. Folks frequently point to our inherent ability to know right from wrong as a proof of God. And yet we all too often simply abandon our gut instinct about the goodness or justice of Anne Frank sharing the same eternity of torture with Adolf Hitler.”

Most Exciting Musical Release:
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings with “The Harrow and the Harvest”

Strangest Trend:
The Kitchn with “Actual Farming Optional: Summer Farm ‘Haycations’"

Funniest Religion News:
Pope Tweets for First Time!

On the Blog…

Most Popular Post:
“25 Things That Shouldn’t Scare Christians”

Most Popular Comment: 
Torcon 1 asked Hemant Mehta in “Ask an Atheist…”
1. What's the single question that you pose, the people of faith have the hardest time answering to your satisfaction?  (e.g. egregious amount of evil in the world...etc.)
2. What single question do atheists in general have the most difficult time addressing? (e.g. explain the basis for morality and values in a "survival of the fittest" worldview...etc.)
Look for Hemant’s response on Tuesday! 

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So what caught your eye online this week? What are your thoughts on "poverty tourism"? What’s happening at your blog?

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