A typical southern man of my generation, comfortable with the natural conservativism of middle age but willing to listen and open to change. Suffice it to say that Christ is my model and Sir Thomas More is my hero, A Man for All Seasons.

The creme de la creme: A Man For All Seasons w/Paul Scofield (Brilliant portrayal of Thomas More); The Lion in Winter, w/Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn (Marvelous portrait of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitane); The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson (Dir.)(True to the Gospels): Braveheart, w/Mel Gibson (William Wallace lives!):P The Name of the Rose, w/Sean Connery (From the novel by the Italian historian Umberto Eco); Henry V, w/Kenneth Branagh (We few...we happy few... we band of brothers!)

My musical tastes are eclectic and run from Stephen Foster to early jazz and swing to skat to early Elvis to the Beatles and on to Lynrd Skynrd and Pavarotti. By all means let's hear the very best of it all. Music is God's gift to our ears, and musicians are magicians on God's glorious stage. Some favorite artists: Bob Wills; Merle Haggard; Delbert McClinton; Little Milton; Robert Shaw Chorale; Oscar Peterson; Duke Ellington; Early Elvis (pre-Army); The Beatles; Reba McIntyre; Jimmy Reed; James Cotton; Hank Jr.; Hank Sr.; Asleep at the Wheel; Jimmie Rodgers; I could go on and on and on....

I prefer the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, but you and I know that any version will do!... These works you must Read if you are to consider yourself an educated person: Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters; Paradise Lost, John Milton; The Book of Virtues, William Bennett; The Canon of William Shakespeare; The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer; The Classics of Mark Twain (ALL of them); All of C. S Lewis (Screwtape to begin, Mere Christianity to end); Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton; How The Irish Saved Civilization (I forget the author; brilliant work); My Brain Candy: Fun, but certainly NOT essential: The Poirot Mysteries; John Sandford's PREY series; Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series; Almost anything by Michael Crichton (except AIRFRAME! Gad.); Et Alia

Very little, very rarely. (A few sports, major news events.) Read a book, McDuff!~ Television numbs the mind, and sometimes you may need that. But your kids do not.