The letter from Sandra Garrison of Fayetteville, N.C., was simple enough: "I enjoy your magazine, and appreciate the Christian viewpoint. I am an elementary schoolteacher. I'm writing to request a list of names of the most important world leaders and photographs of each if possible. Many thanks, in advance, from the young scholars who will benefit from your efforts."

Cold weather swept into Boston on Sept. 20, as it always does around this time of year. Sometimes it's earlier, and in good years the chill does not come until mid-October or even later, but it always comes.

Last week's cover story about the federal government's war on the Memphis Union Mission showed that a Christian poverty fighter who thinks he can easily work with Washington is like the preacher who realized he was out of ammo as a ferocious bear charged at him. The preacher prayed, "Lord, please forgive me and grant me just one wish. Please make a Christian out of that bear that's coming at me." That very instant, the bear skidded to a halt, fell to its knees, clasped its paws together, and began to pray aloud: "Dear God, bless this food I am about to receive."

Which great friend of working men said in 1872 England, "No important step can be gained unless you can effect some reduction of their hours of labour and humanise their toil"? You might suggest Karl Marx, who at that time sat in the British Museum scribbling his magnum opus, Das Kapital, but it was actually Benjamin Disraeli, the British prime minister and leader of his country's Conservative Party-and therein hangs a tale.

The emergence of religion as an issue in this presidential campaign reminds me of a story about a camping trip taken by fictional characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. They go to sleep and wake up soon after dawn. Holmes asks, "Dr. Watson, what do you see?" Watson replies, "I see the sun rising in the east and mountains off to the west. What a wonderful day to be alive!" Holmes responds, "You fool, while we were sleeping someone stole our tent."