Today I went into my first tobacconist for the last time. When I first started smoking cigars I wandered into Madison Tobacco, and was in love. They did not have the largest humidor in the world, nor the greatest selection. But what they did have was character. I can remember as a kid their cigarContinue reading “Eulogy for a Cigar Shop”
Category Archives: Impromptus
Not Your Best Friend
Editors Note: Having returned from my travels and recovered from the Rona, I now am pleased to post this first article of the year. Thanks to any regular readers for your patience. Because I am not that smart or just bursting with new ideas I am going to return to a few of my hobbyContinue reading “Not Your Best Friend”
Give this Man a Cigar
I probably interact with Samuel James too much (especially since he never interacts back because he has no idea who I am). But his post It’s too Loud in Here left me thinking,* this is a man in serious need of a good cigar; and possibly a scotch. James wrote a wonderful pice vicariously goingContinue reading “Give this Man a Cigar”
The Sin of Pithiness
A couple of times now I have expressed my agreement with Doug Wilson and Joe Rigney on their position of empathy being a sin. There has been a lot of blowback, and as is par for the Wilson course it has been pitched and forked with calls for the monsters to be burned with theseContinue reading “The Sin of Pithiness”
Men’s Prayer Breakfasts
As a young lad I would occasionally be drug out of bed early on a Saturday morning and carted off to a Men’s Prayer Breakfast. And while they had a set of their own cliche’s I have a very fond place in my heart for them. A typical one would be set in a churchContinue reading “Men’s Prayer Breakfasts”
I Need to Listen to Sam More
It was a dark and clear night. Caleb and revived the fire to a proper blaze, and we all sat back with our double scotches satisfied from the feast we had just consumed. And once again Sam, in his slow, teacherly way pointed out what a rare thing it is that we have with ourContinue reading “I Need to Listen to Sam More”
Older, Restless, and Reformed
A few weeks back I was going through my library culling books whose usefulness had expired. Their shelf life was short simply because they were back from the heady days where evangelicalism was grappling with the Emerging/Emergent Church. And as I was doing this it hit me. I kind of miss those days of theContinue reading “Older, Restless, and Reformed”
The Troglodyte Ventures Forth
Today brings no puttering around the TULIP garden, but some housekeeping with three brief announcements. First, in an effort to drag myself further into the world wide web, the Instagram account associated with this blog is being relaunched. Originally it was run by my co-conspirator due to my deep hatred of those meddling kids overContinue reading “The Troglodyte Ventures Forth”
Is Mark Driscoll Leading Your Praise Team?*
One of the charges leveled in The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill was that in preaching the now famous/infamous “Who the Hell do You Think You Are!?” sermon out of 2 Peter everything was planned before hand and replicated at each service. A more honest commentator would have readily conceded that this kind ofContinue reading “Is Mark Driscoll Leading Your Praise Team?*”
Not a New Problem
Introduction Doug Wilson has aptly pointed out that one of the failures of Reformed Protestantism is not reading our histories and biographies. Outside of a few of us nerds old books are not read. More disturbingly it appears that many of our pastors can not be bothered to even read any books, instead relying onContinue reading “Not a New Problem”
Southern Reformed Smoker 