Dear Folks,

I feel unusually grand this morning, no doubt an ample tribute to the manifold elixirs (blueberry- and honey- flavored vinegar in water) of yesterday evening's teaching stints I endured. 

I sense a need to select an appropriate font size.  Currently I am working with "four," but not knowing just how it will be presented in the viewmaster par excellence, I must confess that I cannot proceed with absolute confidence.  Hence, I quaver as I type.

I am enamored of the preacher character in a sitcom I have lately come into the habit of viewing, "Deadwood."  He is perhaps the sole noble figure in this sordid comedy.  And he remembers his Bible verses quite well, which makes me wonder about the quality of recent seminary education. 

I study at a seminary, but they do not make me memorize Bible passages.  If seminary study is not about committing the Bible to heart, what is it, then?  It just goes to show that education is not what it used to be. 

I'm not talking mere grade inflation, either, be apprised.  Yes, grade inflation is a thing of opprobrium and ignominy indeed.  But this is a horse of another color altogether.  I warrant you you may see the young sloughing off the oppressive weight of university gravity and affixing their educational aspirations to more nimble and astute competitors in the private realm of education not affected by the traditional channels of accreditation and whatnot, rubber stamps to the powers that be. 

Love, Padooker