An Early Advent Discipline

Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch, but Advent begins early next month and I thought I’d get a head start plus borrow from Lent and engage in a spiritual discipline.  This is one I am revisiting from Lent 2008: I am giving up television news for Advent – starting now.

I confess:  I am a news junkie, especially a political news junkie.  And television news captivates me, as I hop back and forth from CNN to MSNBC to FoxNews to C-SPAN to Democracy Now! to Al Jazeera in English to BBC and back again, remote ever at hand ready to switch whenever I get too bored or too frustrated with one or the other.

I will still get the news, but I will read it.  My only exception is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – that is a sacrifice I am not prepared to make.

So to Soledad and Shep, Rachel and Amy and all the rest, I say good-bye for now.  I can’t say it’s been fun.  I’m thinking we just need a break, the chance to ‘see’ other people for awhile.  I’ll be in touch.  Don’t wait up for me.  Jon, see you at 11.

Five Reasons to Have Jon Stewart to Dinner

Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike 2.0 License

There are so many reasons to have Jon Stewart at your dinner table, but here are my top 5 (in ascending order of importance - yes, I’m that kind of gal):

1. Perhaps the greatest facial expressions of disbelief of all time;

2. My favorite newscaster – and unlike Tucker Carlson, I actually know that it’s the pretend news, but I stand by my assessment;

3. A wonderful combination of humor and pathos in the same person is pretty rare in my experience - qualities to be treasured;

4. An ability to fill in conversational lags, a definite plus in a dinner guest;

5. But right now, topping my reasons-to-have-Jon-to-dinner is that he might choose to bring A. J. Jacobs with him.  I just finished reading The Know-It-All and had read some time ago Jacobs’ tome on living the Bible literally for a year.  And I’m hopeful that A. J. would bring Julie, his wife (St. Julie, as she’s known in these parts) along.  You see, it’s really Julie I want to meet -- if you've read his books, you'll understand.  And maybe, just maybe, if I suck up enough to Jon Stewart, I can get to meet her – Stewart did, after all, write the blurb on the cover of Jacob’s soft back edition of The Know-It-All.  I’m guessing he’s got some pull, even if indirect and tenuous, with St. Julie.

So what do you say, Jon?  Is Saturday good for you guys?