Last of the Ninjas: FvF photo contest

I was immensely pleased with the response to our “Photograph Faith versus Fact in an incongruous place” contest, which closed on August 20. We’ve wound up with six groups of entries (links below), with the prize being an autographed (and cat-drawing-illustrated) copy of the book. This is the fifth group of entries, and thanks to Grania for collating them all and making several of the pots. Here is the latest and last compilation. The winner will be declared next week. The flush-left notes below are Grania’s, while the indented bits are the readers’ explanations:

Jonathan Harvey sent us a cleverly constructed shot:

Here is the contest entry. It may win more points for imagination than idiosyncracy, and may require too much explanation. The place is already incongruous in and of itself. The shot of me reading the book there simply highlights the already existing incongruity.

I am reading FvF standing against a lamppost situated right between the very modern architectured “Contemporary Jewish Museum” and the very old world architectured St. Patrick Catholic church, both on the same block in San Francisco on the northwest side of Mission Street, between 3rd and 4th street. The camera is midblock facing East.

In the bottom right, I have placed two thumbnails. (One may or may not be able to tell from the right thumbnail that “Contemporary Jewish Museum” is currently running an exhibit on the life of Amy Winehouse.) One is of the museum and church together with the camera facing about 180 degrees in the opposite direction 100 feet or so to the East, and also Google’s aerial view of the two buildings together. My own two pictures, the big picture and the right thumbnail are taken from the top and the bottom of the Google shot respectively. (This technically involves photoshopping, but not in the sense of falsifying the contents of the picture.)

Wikipedia has articles on each of the two structures are here. Wikipedia’s shot of the Jewish Museum also shows a bit of the church in the left.

Compo’s human Sara sent us this one:

London, England. St Alban’s wiki says that Germanus brought St Alban to more prominence when on a visit to England, St Alban came to him in a dream revealing his story. This included his executioner’s eyes popping out of his head so he couldn’t rejoice over the death. Faith or fact? I wonder. . .

Drew Wright sent this in;

Although their website calls him Brother Java, the roastmaster for Mystic Monk Coffee is actually Father Michael Mary. To support themselves and their ministry, the monks offer a wide selection of caffeinated and decaf coffees as well as mugs, brewing equipment, brown hoodies and even a CD — “Mystical Chants of Carmel.”

 John T. sent us one from holiday.

Last month I was in Poland on a business trip, and I took the opportunity to finally read Faith vs. Fact (I bought it when it came out, but these days there’s just too much work!). Anyway, I took some time and had a very pleasant afternoon finishing your latest at a sidewalk cafe in Kazimierz, the old Jewish Quarter in Krakow. Cognac, coffee, and a helping of Jewish Double Chocolate Cake aided my concentration.

 AnneMarie C. shows us a niche market Sacred Place.

Though late here is my entry for Toronto..

too risky for selfie.. 🙂

Me and FvF in front of the 60-foot-tall “Praying Hands” sculpture on the campus of Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The sculpture is said to have been based on a cast of the hands of televangelist Oral Roberts (1918-2009), the school’s founder. Roberts was (in)famous as a practitioner of “faith healing” and a proponent of the principle of “seed faith.” The full inscription on the sculpture is:ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY – Educating the whole man – “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” Luke 2:52