Old Man Talking

What Shutdown? 10 Things You Can Still Do

January 21, 2018 Sunday Sermon

While avoiding the politics of a partial government shutdown, the day-to-day for the majority of us is unaffected. Here we are, the United States government is in partial shutdown mode. Not a full and complete shutdown, mind you. Social Security checks still go out. Medicaid still gets paid. FBI, Secret Service, and Border Patrol agents are still working. Air traffic controllers still keep the sky safe and there are still plenty of security people to make the task of gettingRead More

Old Man Talking

Rachel Held Evans On Sexual Abuse & Patriarchy In The Church

January 11, 2018 Midweek Sermon

Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) went on a Twitter rant in response to the standing ovation a Memphis megachurch pastor received after admitting he had sexually assaulted a teenager. Let’s be very clear from the beginning that I don’t know Rachel Held Evans. I know she has authored three books: Searching For Sunday, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and Faith Unraveled. She’s married, has a baby boy, and her online presence is carefully managed by her publisher. Honestly, she strikes meRead More

Old Man Talking

Exclusive: Expert 2018 Grammy Picks

January 7, 2018 Entertainment, Long Read, Music

Grammy® Award nominees represent the best of the previous year’s music but the Old Man found he recognized few of them. So, experts were called in to help. January is here which means that awards season is upon us. 2017 saw a lot of artistic offerings across all the major forms of media, but when it comes to individually evaluating those choices only one area is really practical: music. Sure, I would love to have the time to watch everyRead More

old man talking

The Fairness Doctrine We Need Now

January 4, 2018 Long Read, Social Observation

We cannot discuss the inequality in society until we address the unfairness ingrained by thousands of years of history. “That’s not fair!” We hear those words almost every day. If one has children, the sentence is likely screamed rather than merely stated. A sense of fairness is instilled in all of us from a very early age. We all want the same things, the same opportunities, the same tilt in our favor, and the same bending of the rules thatRead More

charles i. letbetter

Reading List: Authors Who Died in 2017

December 31, 2017 Long Read

When authors die they leave behind a piece of themselves in each book, making them immortal. This is the time of year when we see the Internet is filled with a lot of lists, most of which are rather useless. Do we really benefit from re-hashing the year’s top ten disappointments or worst makeup trends? No, not in the least. They’re easy page fodder prepared in advance so that editors can take the week off. I don’t really get timeRead More

Navigating Holiday Party

Navigating Holiday Events When You’re Not A Social Person

November 29, 2017 Entertainment, Midweek Friendly, Social Observation

Hopefully, we respect ourselves enough to know that we are dynamic people who can’t be described adequately in one sentence. —Darrah Brustein ,  [email protected] You’ve been in this situation before: Someone you don’t want to disappoint has invited you to a holiday party full of people you don’t know and aren’t totally convinced that you want to know. Sure, you’re going to go but you’re dreading the moment someone walks up to you and asks some inane question such as, “Hey, how’s itRead More

Surviving Holidays

Surviving The Holidays Without Hurting Anyone

November 26, 2017 Long Read, Sunday Sermon

Just as a puppy can be more of a challenge than a gift, so too can the holidays. —John Clayton I strongly dislike Black Friday and holiday sales in general. I find the greed sickening and the false notion that one is helping the economy is grossly ignorant. The economy does better when one spends a fairly even amount each month rather than discount-fueled spikes [source and source]. I have long held a general disdain for those foolish enough toRead More

Why Black Friday Needs To End

Why Black Friday Needs To Not Happen (NSFW)

November 24, 2017 Long Read, Thought For The Day, Video

The days of waiting in line all night for a chance at a bargain need to be over.   [Note: The following article was originally published at Charles I. Letbetter Creative about this time last year, which is why some of the image content is NSFW. They kindly gave us permission to re-publish the entire thing so that the Old Man wouldn’t have to write something all-too-similar this year. We’ll stop complaining when the situation changes, which means we’ll haveRead More

New bill introduced, president to resign

White House Announces Surveillance Program, Resignations

November 21, 2017 Entertainment, Long Read, Midweek Sermon

NOTICE: THIS IS SATIRE, NOT THE NEWS We know the headline grabbed your attention but we want to be extremely clear: what follows is satire, not the news. We want you to share the article, but please make sure everyone knows this is satire, not the news. There is enough of a problem with fake news without anyone adding to it. Nothing that follows is real, at least not when we wrote it. We do not have any control over what mayRead More

How to be single without starving

How To Survive Being Single Without Starving

November 19, 2017 Entertainment, Long Read, Sunday Sermon

Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup. -Henry James My mother started early teaching me how to cook. She was convinced, even when I was a child, that I would likely grow up to be single and alone. Fortunately, at least for the larger portion of my adult life, she was wrong. However, her lessons have been valuable as frequently I have been the one responsible for the family’s meals. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to passRead More