My Top 30 Movies of 2016

I posted my original list of top 25 movies of 2016 on January 31st, which sparked an inquiry as to why I did not include three of the films nominated for best picture by the Oscars. I mentioned that even though I liked those three films and enjoyed them very much, I thought they were overrated and probably would only make my list if I did a top 40 movies of 2016. This brought the challenge to include five more films to my original that I thought were better than these three, so I expanded my list, and even made a few adjustments to my original list. Still, I could not bring myself to include those three films, as I found others to be more interesting and engaging. What can I say... it was a great year for film.

1. Manchester By The Sea

2. The Witch

3. Hell or High Water

4. Don't Think Twice

5. Lion

Read the complete article »

Chesterton and Muggeridge on the Weakness and Temptation of Journalism

It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this latter fact is fundamentally more exciting, as indicating that that moving tower of terror and mystery, a man, is still abroad upon the earth. That the man has not fallen off a scaffolding is really more sensational; and it is also some thousand times more common. But journalism cannot reasonably be expected thus to insist upon the permanent miracles. Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, “Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe,” or “Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet.” They cannot announce the happiness of mankind at all. They cannot describe all the forks that are not stolen, or all the marriages that are not judiciously dissolved. Hence the complex picture they give of life is of necessity fallacious; they can only represent what is unusual. However democratic they may be, they are only concerned with the minority.

- G.K. Chesterton, The Ball and the Cross

Read the complete article »

When Archbishop Iakovos Received News of the Murder of Martin Luther King

Archbishop Terrence and Archbishop Iakovos in 1968 at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In New York City, the night of the murder in Memphis, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos was giving a reception in Orthodox headquarters for the newly-installed Roman Catholic Archbishop Terrence J. Cooke of New York, when word of the death of Dr. King was received. The two prelates went to the adjacent chapel and, kneeling side by side, led hierarchs representing several Orthodox jurisdictions in America, and newsmen, in reciting the Lord's Prayer.

Read the complete article »

The Top 10 Most Popular Honey & Hemlock Posts of 2016

1. When St. Nicholas Appeared to a Soviet Actress in 1941

2. An Orthodox Easter Greeting from Tom Hanks (video)

3. Movie: "Cyril and Methodius: The Apostles of the Slavs" (2013)

4. Interview with an Actor Who Possesses the Cap of Saint Paisios the Athonite

Read the complete article »