Blogs

Nihal Arthanayake (2022) Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 09 May 2025

Nihal Arthanayake’s premise in Let’s Talk is we increasingly live in a polarised world (guilty as charged, anything and everything about the moron’s moron, Trump infuriates me) but we need to put aside our differences and reconcile ourselves to change. We need to talk. Technology drives change (discuss)? Nihal Arthanayake believes like many others, including Professor SherryTurkle, our smartphones make us dumber and lonelier (for example https...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 09 May 2025

Posted by airyfairy. Another great week of reading on ABC Tales, and another set of near impossible choices for Picks of the Week!

Intrapersonal Experience

Posted by memphis on Tue, 06 May 2025

INTRAPERSONAL EXPERIENCE YOU’VE ORCHESTRATED A NARROW POINT OF VIEW. IT’S PROJECTILES RICOCHET OFF THAT LIMITED ATTENTION SPAN. CALCULATED, MANIPULATIVE; EVEN THE SHADOWS WHISPER SUSPICION. NO SHAME IN PLAYING THE BLAME GAME. ONLY REINFORCING YOUR TINTED GLASS REALITY. EVIDENCE? DENIED. YOUR CONTRADICTIONS TO IT. DISMISSED. SINCE YOUR OPINION IS ALL THAT MATTER. IT'S ALMOST HERITABLE: IF NOT HILARIOUS, IT'S NOT. LIKE IT’S ETCHED IN YOUR DNA,...

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Mon, 05 May 2025

Our Story and Poem of the Month for April, very kindlty chosen by RJNewlyn Pick of the month April 2025 Well done to everyone who has posted this month and for keeping up the quality so ably. It has been a tough call … For prose, do take a look at Caldwell’s riff on The Raft of the Medusa ( https://www.abctales.com/story/caldwell/th%C3%A9odore-g%C3%A9ricaults-raft-medusa ), K-Burgin’s challenging ‘Killing Caprice’ ( https://www.abctales.com/...

Why Doesn't God Stop Evil?

Posted by mallisle on Fri, 02 May 2025

Why is there so much suffering in the world? If God is a God of love, why is there so much evil? The devil brought evil into the world, not God. Why did God create the devil? I used to think that the devil was like Donald Trump or Nigel Farage. Someone you don't like but it gives people a choice. The universe has to be a democracy. But no. God created the devil to be good. He was a beautiful angel. Ezekiel 28:11-19. He was perfect in wisdom and...

Housebound (2014), BBCiPlayer, written, edited, and directed by Gerard Johnstone

Posted by celticman on Thu, 01 May 2025

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00248vd/housebound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housebound_(2014_film) My dodgy internet usually gets me the big matches. I wanted to watch Arsenal v PSG. I’ve been much impressed by PSG and they’re my tips to win it, but I don’t really care. I don’t watch as much football as I used to. Pissed off at missing this match, I watched Housebound . I’m not sure why I watched it from beginning to end. The...

Hallie Rubenhold (2005 [2012, 2020]) The Covent Garden Ladies.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 28 Apr 2025

Sex sells. It’s older than Adam and Eve. Whisper it, before the internet, people had sex and were even naked together, sometime even at the same time, in the same room, without a phone. Hallie Rubenhold has turned a Ph.D. into an international bestselling book of non-fiction (which we used to call factual) based on a list of prostitutes that sold their bodies around the Covent Garden region of London. Her parameters of study were centred on a...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 25 Apr 2025

Posted by onemorething: Another wonderful week of writing on ABCtales. Our Poem of the Week is a very beautiful poem by Yutka, I am the stillness. https://www.abctales.com/story/yutka/i-am-stillness Our Story of the Week is hudsonmoon's very clever and funny, J.C Jones II The Podcast. https://www.abctales.com/story/hudsonmoon/j-c-jones-ii-podcast Our new Inspiration Point is here: https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Have a good weekend...

Why Is Jesus the Only Way to God?

Posted by mallisle on Fri, 25 Apr 2025

Why do Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to God? In our multicultural society this sounds arrogant. Surely Muslims, Hindus and Jews have a faith. Surely they're good people and God respects them just as much. The question isn't whether somebody is the right or wrong religion. It's a question of whether religion has any value and whether it can actually save anyone at all. What do we need to be saved from? We are sinners. We don't...

Hallie Rubenhold (2019) The Five. The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper.

Posted by celticman on Wed, 23 Apr 2025

Most of us will have heard of Jack the Ripper. Perhaps I should modify that statement and say most of us over forty will have heard of Jack the Ripper. In one film, the premise was Jack the Ripper was a crown prince or some kind of royalty. His killings were quickly covered up by members of the establishment. I couldn’t have told you how many women he killed—five—or where—Whitechapel—other than it being generally a smog filled London. No thought...

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