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Thursday, December 4th, 2008 07:00 pmAm I just being paranoid?
Lately I'm finding more and more references to religion -- especially from the viewpoint of the Abrahamic traditions, and most often from the viewpoint of Protestant Christianity -- in the most peculiar places. Television game shows (which one of my best friends is addicted to, for background noise in an empty house). Crossword puzzles in the New York Times Magazine (my soporific of choice).
I wouldn't mind if they just quoted the Bible. It might seem unfair to quote the Protestant versions, an advantage to everyone from Calvinists to Baptists, and a disadvantage to Jews, Roman Catholics, members of the Dharmic traditions, members of the Pagan traditions, members of the Indigenous Non-Christian trads throughout the world. But I wouldn't necessarily object to that, any more than I object when they include clues about movies I've never seen or disciplines I've never studied.
What I'm having trouble with is when the answers seem not only to cite the Bible (or some other Teaching) but also to assert the truth of what is being cited. "False god," for example, in a recent NYT puzzle, turns out to be "Baal." Now, I recognize that for the Hebrews during the time of Moses the message of their jealous God was that they were not to worship Baal ... but that doesn't, excuse me, mean that even the Hebrews in that century thought that the people who were Baal's chosen should think Him "false."
Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not seeing much in the way of Jewish or Pagan references in the same way.
I was thinking about this the other night as I started a new puzzle. And then I noticed something else: more "plugs." What we used to call "payola" and is now being called "product placement" (at least when it occurs in movies and TV shows) has now arrived at the NYT Xword, methinks. Even answers that didn't need to be proper names get clues that ask you to know a brand-named product. "Old Dodge," for example, is "Astro."
Starting to feel like somebody's trying to hijack my consciousness again. Maybe I'll have to start building double-crostics before sleep, rather than accept somebody else's programming.
Rats.
Lately I'm finding more and more references to religion -- especially from the viewpoint of the Abrahamic traditions, and most often from the viewpoint of Protestant Christianity -- in the most peculiar places. Television game shows (which one of my best friends is addicted to, for background noise in an empty house). Crossword puzzles in the New York Times Magazine (my soporific of choice).
I wouldn't mind if they just quoted the Bible. It might seem unfair to quote the Protestant versions, an advantage to everyone from Calvinists to Baptists, and a disadvantage to Jews, Roman Catholics, members of the Dharmic traditions, members of the Pagan traditions, members of the Indigenous Non-Christian trads throughout the world. But I wouldn't necessarily object to that, any more than I object when they include clues about movies I've never seen or disciplines I've never studied.
What I'm having trouble with is when the answers seem not only to cite the Bible (or some other Teaching) but also to assert the truth of what is being cited. "False god," for example, in a recent NYT puzzle, turns out to be "Baal." Now, I recognize that for the Hebrews during the time of Moses the message of their jealous God was that they were not to worship Baal ... but that doesn't, excuse me, mean that even the Hebrews in that century thought that the people who were Baal's chosen should think Him "false."
Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not seeing much in the way of Jewish or Pagan references in the same way.
I was thinking about this the other night as I started a new puzzle. And then I noticed something else: more "plugs." What we used to call "payola" and is now being called "product placement" (at least when it occurs in movies and TV shows) has now arrived at the NYT Xword, methinks. Even answers that didn't need to be proper names get clues that ask you to know a brand-named product. "Old Dodge," for example, is "Astro."
Starting to feel like somebody's trying to hijack my consciousness again. Maybe I'll have to start building double-crostics before sleep, rather than accept somebody else's programming.
Rats.