deimel.orgLionel Deimel's Farrago (Home)

Miscellaneous [ Home ] Trump 2024 My latest piece of fiction imagines America near the end of President Donald J. Trump’s second term. This was posted 12/18/2016, just before the Electoral College votes. Read it here . My Latest Hymn My most recent hymn is “Holy Eucharist.” It was inspired by Eucharist Prayer C in the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer. You can see and hear the hymn, as well as read about it, here . It is new on the site 11/21/2013. Language Issues My essay “ Six Language Quibbles ” discusses English issues I find troublesome. It was most recently revised 3/12/2019. “Farrago”? Miller brilliantly exposes ID [intelligent design] for what it is: a farrago of theological assertions and discredited scientific claims designed to inveigle a religious view of life into the biology classroom. —“Seeing and Believing” by Jerry A. Coyne, The New Republic , February 4, 2009 Will the vogue use of “It is what it is” become fixed in the farrago of unresponsive responses? —From William Safire's “On Language” column of March 5, 2006 The farrago of pop may make the period setting easier for kids to take, but it’s an experiment dictated by fear of committing yourself to any one sound, to any one composer’s imagination of love. —From a review of Moulin Rouge by David Denby in the May 28, 2001 issue of The New Yorker “Farrago” was also Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day for March 25, 2002 . Collect for a Troubled Nation I’ve written a prayer for protection from the depredations of government. Added 2/8/2017 and available here . A Donald Trump Parody I’ve written words to the U.S. Army’s official song, which I title “ The Donald Goes Rolling Along ” (added 7/31/2018). Opinions may be mistaken; love never is. —Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1922 W elcome to Lionel Deimel’s Farrago, a diverse collection of information, opinion, fiction, poetry, and trivia—what you might expect from a farrago, which, according to the dictionary, is a medley, conglomeration, or mixture. Lionel Deimel’s Farrago reflects most of my passions. I am a computer consultant and former computer science professor, but I have always been a generalist. I am interested in science and mathematics, in technology, history, and politics. I am a musician, photographer, writer, and railfan. (Sadly, there isn’t much railroad material here.) I am a Christian who, attracted by its music, liturgy, and tolerance, discovered The Episcopal Church long past my adolescence. To my astonishment, I have become an activist within my adopted church home. More specifically, I am a trainer, a database and Web site designer, an essayist and poet, a clarinetist and singer, a steam locomotive enthusiast, a cat lover, a liberal Democrat—I began as a conservative Republican—and a liberal Christian. Never having become much of a celebrity, most visitors here really aren’t seeking to discover me. Because of my diverse interests, however, many can at least find something of interest on these pages. Lionel Deimel’s Farrago is organized into sections to help you find items of interest and avoid everything else. The sections are accessible through navigation buttons at the top left of this and other introductory pages. The sections of my Web site are described below: Biography is about me. It contains my résumé and publication list. Should you be considering engaging me to provide training, database or Web site design, or other services, you can also find a description of what I do (or click here to go there directly to that page). Church Resources is a collection of the spiritual, liturgical, and the pragmatic, including commentary on recent Episcopal and Anglican disputes. Cross-listings are provided here to original poetry and hymns in the Poetry section, as well as some material in the Commentary area. Much of this material is of interest to non-Episcopalians. My Web Log also contains a good deal of commentary on The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. Commentary is a collection of personal and political essays. Additional essays, generally shorter ones and ones of more transitory interest, can be found on my Web Log. Computer Science contains a somewhat arbitrary selection of papers and reports I’ve published. Of special interest (because it hasn’t been published elsewhere) is brief paper that attempts to demystify radix conversion. Contact Information tells how to contact me. Farrago Gift Shop offers merchandise sporting some of my designs. Fiction contains stories. I don’t write much fiction, so this section is small. Language Notes is about—in H. L. Mencken’s words—the American language. Other essays on language can be found in my Web Log. Poetry , of course, contains my poetry. I am a down-to-earth, unsentimental poet whose work is quite diverse. This section contains both serious and humorous verse. Recreational Math contains sections on digital invariants and curve stitching. I enjoy recreational math, but I don’t often generate results of interest to anyone else. Search allows visitors to search Lionel Deimel’s Farrago and Lionel Deimel’s Web Log . Site Map lists pages on this site and describes newly added material. It also contains a complete index of posts on my Web Log. Web Log is not your typical blog. It is neither a diary nor a running commentary on some particular topic. Rather, it is a vehicle for posting modest essays that could, in principle, go elsewhere, particularly in Language Notes, Commentary, or Church Resources. A complete table of contents for my Web Log is provided by the Site Map. The Search page can also be used to find something specific, though it may be easier to use the search on blog pages. When I began my blog, it did not support comments. It does now, and comments are very much encouraged. Be sure to notice the navigation links at the top and bottom of most pages. These allow you to do such things as read poems one after another without returning to the introductory poetry page. Lionel Deimel’s Farrago is largely organized hierarchically, and, after moving around the site, navigation should become pretty intuitive. You will notice that pages have wide margins. Although this is, in part, a holdover from the days before higher screen resolutions became common, the narrow format generally allows for pages to be printed on letter-size paper in portrait mode without truncation or scaling. I hope that this will be appreciated by those who like to read from paper or who want to share my work with others. Unfortunately, the format is less convenient for mobile devices, an aspect I hope to fix when I get around to redesigning the site. Comments and suggestions, as well as requests for permission to use anything I have written, are always welcome. Use the Contact page to contact me, or click on my e-mail address, found at the bottom of most pages. Please write to me if you discover any broken links or encounter any other technical problems with the site. Some visitors may know about me through my work with Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, Via Media USA, or the No Anglican Covenant Coalition . You should know that I have resisted the temptation to write much about my work with those organizations here. Much of what I have written on behalf of Episcopal Church unity, some of it anonymously, is available elsewhere and is not to be found here. My involvement with PEP has often left me little time to write much for my own site, but I do try to add material regularly. You may also follow me on Twitter ( @LionelDeimel ) or on Facebook . Anyway, I hope you enjoy your visit to Lionel Deimel’s Farrago . If you like the site, be sure to tell your friends about it. Thanks for dropping by. — LED, 12/31/2016 Send mail to Lionel Deimel with questions or comments about Lionel Deimel’s Farrago . Copyright © 2000-2019 by Lionel Deimel. All rights reserved....