The Secret Thread: Literature & Spiritual Life: WELCOME, SON OF MUTT!!!

Friday, June 06, 2008

WELCOME, SON OF MUTT!!!

It gives me great joy (and a considerable amount of pride as an uncle!) to announce the arrival of co-founder Mutt Ploughman's first son!

Mutt's "little man" came into the world on this past Monday, June 2, 2008, which just so happens to be the birth date of his aunt (and our sister), born in 1976. Mutt Jr. weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds, 6 ounces and is, as you can imagine, healthy and strong as can be.

On behalf of the entire Secret Thread community around the globe, I want to take a moment to heartily congratulate Mutt, his wife (who is also doing well, I hear from the proud poppa himself) and Mutt Jr.'s two older sisters on this momentous occasion in their lives. As for (not so) lil' Mutt, welcome to the world buddy!! It's a blessing to have you here and we wish you a happy, healthy and holy life.

Mutt my friend, I know how long you have been anticipating this day with great joy and hope. Let your own father-son journey begin, just as Walter Brogan's has... I know you are going to love having a son of your own! What a glorious gift of the Lord.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam!

2 comments:

Mutt Ploughman said...: THANK YOU!! On behalf of my two girls, my wife and my new son Patrick, I heartily thank the legions of fans who have expressed this sentiment. (???) It is GREAT to have my own son. Hey, maybe Duke was right all along!??? "Son of Mutt" is truckin' right along, eatin' and secretin'. He is a very cute kid. We are loving having him around. His sisters think he's the bee's knees. Thank God for healthy babies, for all babies, for all His great gifts....; 6:32 AM
Duke Altum said...: The only thing I can think to say in response to that is; AMEN!!; 5:36 PM

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Duke Altum's Recommended Films

Monsters (2010) – As many have already said, calling Monsters a movie about an alien occupation of Earth seems to do this fascinating, original film a disservice. Certainly the fact that huge, bioluminescent squid-like extraterrestrials are running amok through the jungles of Central America is an important (and entertaining) element of the plot, but anyone coming into this one looking for non-stop, Aliens-style action or special effects eye candy a la the concurrent alien invasion flick Skyline is going to be sorely disappointed. Instead, what you have with Monsters is an intriguing and meditative hybrid of road movie, post-apocalyptic thriller and surprisingly believable human drama. Director Gareth Edwards wrote, edited and created special effects for the film on his own, which gave him the freedom to make exactly the kind of movie he wanted to make - that is, a love story that just happens to feature alien life forms ominously howling and lurking in the background (this approach, by the way, gives the film its pervasive suspense and intensity, as you are as in the dark as the characters are about when the next encounter with a pissed-off, tentacled alien might occur). The many scenes of unscripted, natural banter between the lead actors as they trek across the "infected zone" and get to know one another help you, crucially, to identify with them enough to care by the final act - which provides an unexpected, subtle twist that gives the entire story added poignancy and irony. I am sure that a great many viewers of this unusual film will come out feeling somewhere between perplexed and downright cheated, and Edwards does provide so little backstory about the aliens and what they might be up to that one may well wonder why they were in the movie at all (and, justifiably, why the film was ever called "Monsters"). But I found that their mysterious, vaguely menacing presence gave the entire story a kind of haunted and other-wordly atmosphere that reminded me a bit of the best bits of James Cameron's The Abyss. I guess you could say that early encounters with new life forms - like those with potential lovers - can be both exhilarating and weirdly disconcerting at the same time.