News You Can Bruise for 2001 November 17

Sumana pointed to this Socialist-with-a-capital-S web site (actually she pointed to this analysis of the Harry Potter books on that website) which has a very nice domain name which is probably the coolest Biblical reference ever ("The voice of the turtle is heard in our land", Song of Songs 2:12). Unfortunately, it's actually cooler than it deserves to be, because the turtle mentioned in the verse is not really a turtle but a turtle dove.

If you've read The Annotated Alice, you may recall that some clergyman or other thought blasphemous the beginning of the "'Tis the voice of the lobster" poem, due to the presence in the Song of Songs of the voice of the ever-lovin' turtle.

Anyway, the review, and another review which it mentions, does a great deal to prove my point (which I will now retroactively make) that people never tire of seeing their favorite or least favorite political agendas reflected in the trivial details of Big Epic Stories.

One more thing: the Mormon edition of the Bible has, at the beginning of each chapter, a summary of a few sentences' length. The summaries for the Song (not regarded by Mormons as canonical, but included anyway) are pretty funny. "Their song of love and affection continues." "They still sing of love." "Their song of love continues." Yeah, that's pretty much it.