Dogs and Crumbs - R30 Issue #14

I’ve been reading the Gospel of Matthew over the weekend, and there was one particular story that caught my interest: The Faith of a Canaanite Woman. In it, Jesus meets a Gentile woman who wants the Son of David to save her daughter. At first he refuses.

The disciples get antsy, because she keeps screaming and pleading. But Jesus is like, no, I’m only here for the sheep of Israel. She keeps begging, throwing herself in front of him. So he goes, “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” To which she replies, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Jesus realizes the strength of the woman’s faith, and fulfills her wish. Her daughter is instantly healed.

At first I was like, woah, I didn’t know Jesus only cares about his Jewish community. But people more knowledgeable told me that, no, it’s not Jesus who promotes exclusivity here. It’s a lesson for his disciples, to show them that everyone is welcome to join the faith.
So that’s what I read over the weekend. I also dipped my toes into the Old Testament, but that was just a chapter in Nehemiah about the faithful uniting to hold prayer and engage in rituals.

Oh, by the way, I follow the reading plans provided by bible.com. It’s a convenient way to read a couple of paragraphs each day. On your phone, in your browser, wherever. You can easily switch between different bible versions, as well as languages.

Other helpful tools: catenabible.com, which lets you explore how scholars throughout the ages have interpreted each verse. Just click on the verse, boom. In a similar vein, Sefaria gives you rabbinic commentaries on the Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and lots of other Jewish texts. Very cool.

But enough about religion. Oh, wait, there’s a new Crash Course solely dedicated to religion out now. John Green talks about faith in theory and practice, across time and cultural space.

Yes, but what about Anime? Winter season has started, and Mother’s Basement as well as Gigguk have their hot takes on the latest Japanese cartoons. Nothing really strikes my fancy, I guess I could continue Dandadan, but it didn’t blow me away like the rest of the Internet.

Another thing I watched this week, for the first time in my life, was the 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. What a surreal film! I love the hyper-saturated colors and the wit and social commentary. Except the ending seems like a hasty cop-out, I wonder what happened to the script there.

Cars. Not much vroom-vroom the past seven days. Bugatti uploaded a wind tunnel test for their latest Tourbillon. Carmakers re-examine their EV plans. Some models get deleted completely. Tesla less popular across the globe. Everyone still scared of the coming deluge of Chinese EVs.

K-Pop. There were new releases by Lisa and Jennie, but I don’t care too much about either of their songs. Lisa appeared on Hot Ones, I haven’t watched it yet.

In digital entertainment news, I finished the Ultima Underworld Retrospective. Two and a half hours, and I don’t even regret it. Computer graphics have come a long way. Just make your pixels scream.

And that’s it for this week.

Leftovers: Gallantly, Ogre Battle Screenshot, Amiga Covers

Picture of Bugatti Tourbillon by Bugatti

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