Articles 
Deer pressure is all around you
From the Tangzine.com archives. This piece originally ran in December 2004. By Matthew Ralph As a musician, Michael Miller excels in subtle territory, spinning tender laid-back tunes on his guitar as a touring and recording solo artist. But music isn’t the only artistic endeavor at which this California surfer excels. For more than a […]
Places to ‘good gift’
Good gifting, a term used to describe the practice of donating money to charitable organizations in lieu of buying friends and family holiday gifts, has become something of a buzz word of late. For a good reason. If you are looking to really make a difference this holiday season by “good gifting,” why not give […]
A soul-searching journey
By Matthew Ralph Forty years ago today,a celebrated writer, poet, social activist and Trappist monk was electrocuted after stepping out of a bathtub in Bangkok and touching a short-circuited electric fan. The 53-year-old resident of the Abby of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky was Thomas Merton. Best known for his autobiographical best-seller “The Seven Storey Mountain,” […]
Article: The miracle of charity
By Matthew Ralph There’s a scene in the 2004 film “Millions,” where a young boy named Damian (Alex Etel) who routinely sees visions of saints is talking to St. Peter about Jesus feeding the 5,000. You know the story. It’s a Sunday School staple. A boy, presumably the same age as the kids in the […]
‘Christian’ Worldviews
About a year ago, e-mails started coming to my inbox just about every week from a place called Worldview Weekend. When I first started reading them, I thought maybe they were some kind of joke. Each e-mail is filled mostly with links to articles and audio commentaries by a guy named Brandon Howse and various […]
Article: Holiday giving guide
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Channakuh, Kwanza, Festivus, all four or none of the above, the holiday shopping season is here. And with it comes the always stressful decision-making of what to buy, make, re-gift or not give at all. We asked some of our astute readers and contributors to share their gift-giving ideas and advice for […]
What’s so funny about a governor, a turkey and slaughtering?
By Matthew Ralph Since you have an Internet connection, you’ve probably seen the YouTube video where a turkey is being slaughtered in the background of an interview Gov. Sarah Palin gave after pardoning one of the unfortunate turkey’s kin. It’s a PR mishap for sure, considering Palin’s appearance at the turkey farm was supposed to be a light and […]
Heavy meal parking lot
By Matthew Ralph There are probably few sights in my mind more symbolic of problems with the American diet than watching a teenager with a baggy white shirt and crew cut folding a cheese-oozing quesadilla in half and shoving it long-ways into his mouth on the way to a minivan where the rest of his […]