The only thing bad I can say about John Zmirak is that only half his name is strange. As a writer who glories in a name that is doubly strange--and to foreigners must sound as bizarre as Driss Knickerbocker or Duane Tommyknocker--I must praise Zmirak for a fantastically unusual last name, the only person I know whose name is a better Scrabble word than all the Scrabble words. However must he be called 'John'? John is, no doubt, a noble and saintly name. A name that is simple and dignified, but couldn't he at least, for our entertainment, assume the Slovakian equivalent and be called Ivan or maybe throw in something truly American as my fine parents did and be called 'Franklin' or 'Woodrow' or 'Howard'?
Enough of a ramble. I count John Zmirak a friend. I recommend his book because it is not only worth reading, but worth re-reading. It really is crammed with thoughtful and solid stuff, all delivered with zest and humor and a twist of goofy absurdity. Imagine a really excellent meal, and the roast beef is cooked in raspberry sauce, topped with a dollop of oysters a pop of horseradish and served on a bed of firecrackers.
Zmirak wields the sword of the Spirit and not only explains the seven deadly sins in amusing and sobering details, but (like Dante) gives examples from the modern world. He shows us what a monster President Mitterand was. How grotesque people like Margaret Sanger and Lillian Hellmann (not the mayonnaise person) were, and not just content to illustrate the seven deadlies, he also gives us the antidote in the balanced virtues and the holy life.
9 comments:
"you'd really like to get together with the author for a dinner that starts early with nibbles and drinks and ends late with port and cheese and then liqueurs and then some more port"
I'd be having touble pronouncing his name after all that booze haha!
"Mishur Zhimmer zimmerak...."
His book sounds good, if not slightly terrifying. I would need it to be read aloud to me, by him, so that I could interrupt and go to confessions, during scary bits (I'm prone to panic attacks). You are blessed with some fine friends, Father D!
PS. Say a prayer for all my son's salvation, please Father. I have faith in your prayers, so I just need you do the action of saying them and let's watch the mountains move! Praise the Lord!
Father,
I had the pleasure of seeing Zmirak speak (with Peter Kreeft) in Cambridge, Mass., last week.
And what a pleasure! So incisive, so witty, and side-splittingly funny.
He was talking about a new book, Disorientation. I have since ordered it. I see that you have contributed the entry on utilitarianism. Very good thus far!
I've also ordered some of Zmirak's Bad Catholic guides.
Thank you both (and Dr. Kreeft) for showing that orthodoxy can be intelligent, joyful and good-humored at the same time.
'orthodoxy can be intelligent'...
so perhaps our urgent prayers re the sobornost have worked and there will be no more talk of
'mythical creations'
and don't even forget the disgraceful actions of Noah being found drunk...
also remember St Benedict lived alone in a cave until compelled by some aspiring 'brothers' to be their spiritual 'guide'
and then they tried to poison him through the agency of:
wine
The Orthodox read the Book of Proverbs during Lent
'many a slip between the cup and the lip'
- an old trad real Anglican saying
Well, I don't think your name is so funny. My cousin is also named Dwight. And the Longenecker name is known in the Amish country in which my parents currently live, along with all the Millers and Yoders and Troyers and Schrocks. Not as common as those, of course, but in the canon. Thank you and God Bless.
As a guy with a terribly unfunny name, I occasionaly enjoy Dr. Zmirak's writing. I've seen his Bad Catholic's Guide on the rack at my local Catholic gift store ... don't know why I haven't picked it up yet. But I will!
I am getting this, and I am leaving it around my office at the college in which I teach where professors have been known to storm into the photocopy room and announce that Catholics seem to hate just about everyone for some reason or another! It might prove interesting, yes?
Zmirak doesn't sound strange. It sounds Slavic.
He's Croatian and Irish.
It takes a Crowbar (me too) to open tough cases. I learned that usage from Gospodin, my father.
Once visited a gentleman who had seven masks in his office. I asked him "How's your committee?" "They're the seven deadly sins." "It looks like Pride and Greed are in the two top corners. Which is higher?" "They're even."
Salutationes omnibus.
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