In the World

"There's only diversity in the singular forms. Here we go."

My evangelical grade school tried to instill some big ideas—Creationist
talking points, "worldview formation," a vague yet fierce sense of
cultural oppression. But the main thing that stuck was a handy little
song for remembering the U.S. presidents in order. (It only went through
Reagan, though we added then-president George H.W. Bush and, hopeful
little culture warriors that we were, vice president and dubious heir
apparent Dan Quayle.) It astonishes me how often I return to this song
to confirm, say, who was president right before Lincoln (Buchanan).

Of course, dead presidents aren't the only thing worth knowing about: there's also dead languages. If you, like me, could stand to improve your Koine Greek, you might enjoy the music videos of Danny Zacharias (whose biblioblog I encountered via the indispensable N.T. Wrong). Here's "The First Declension Song":

Steve Thorngate

The Century managing editor is also a church musician and songwriter.

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