From the Archives

July 17, 2012 By 27 Comments

For some reason, since I’ve moved this blog over to Patheos my alter egos seem to have left me. I don’t know why but Caitlin O’Rourke, Duane Mandible, Mrs Brady, Todd Unctuous and Mantilla the Hon–even the Vicar don’t seem to be haunting my imagination any longer. Alas! What are we to do? Is it the curse of the Patheos? Is my mind too busy and concerned about other matters that it has no time to play? Am I perhaps being healed of my mental illness–my multiple personality disorder?

Anyway, I have resolved to see if I can find where I left them. If you read this blog regularly and wish them to come back, then I ask you to say so in the comment box. Perhaps like an audience at Peter Pan clapping your hands to make Tinkerbell live, you will be able to summon up again for me these various amusing and entertaining and sometimes enlightening characters.

In the meantime, for those of you who miss Caitlin O’Rourke, here is the post where she went to summer Bible camp. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Caitlin O'Rourke Tagged With: , 27 Comments
About Fr. Dwight Longenecker
  • http://www.thomryng.com/amateurmonk/ Thom

    Please! You simply must find them.
    I imagine the vicar should be easiest… he’s just nipped ’round the pub.

  • Paul H

    I don’t particularly miss Mrs. Brady, Duane Mandible, Todd Unctuous, or Caitlin O’Rourke, but I do miss Mantilla the Hon and especially the Vicar. I hope we haven’t seen the last of those two! :-)

  • David N

    Mantilla the Hon please – if I wasn’t already married …… (and if she didn’t have a bull-fighter for a boyfriend)……. ;-)

  • Ajda

    I love Caitlin O’Rourke and Mrs Brady, they are like the Catholic little sister and grandmother I never had (I’m a 23-year-old Slovenian convert from atheism, baptised at the Easter Vigil 2011 and getting married this Saturday! Please pray for me :) ).

  • Fred Otto

    I like Todd Unctuous!! (and his community college degree in media studies)

  • Steve

    I guess I haven’t been following you long enough, but if the link to Caitlin is any indication of the other faces of Fr. Longenecker, I look forward to meeting them.

  • Charlotte

    Mrs. Brady is my hero!

  • Ben

    The Vicar and Caitlin! More please!!

  • Christine

    The Vicar would be welcome now…. But Mrs. Brady and Caitlin O’Rourke are my favorites. It would be great if they’d come back!

  • John

    Caitlin is my favourite.

  • Chris

    Oddly enough I was thinking only yesterday that the overall tone of your blog had changed since you moved “home”.

    I’d be delighted to see all your alter egos back.

    Thank you for all the effort you put into the blog

  • Jim

    I like them all. I especially enjoy replying to Todd in his own style and watching people who don’t get it responding.
    Perhaps the Vicar might have something to say about the Anglican General Synod voting not to have a vote about lady bishops.
    ‘That the debate be now adjourned to enable the new clause 5(1)(c) inserted by the House of Bishops into the draft Measure entitled “Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure” to be reconsidered by the House of Bishops.’
    Or maybe Mantilla has noticed that a lot of her friends are taking their Euros out of the bank and buying property in London?

  • Michael

    How about the bald, middle aged, married Priest with the goatee that drives the flaming motorcycle with the truck driving, Prius owning riding buddy, that carries a big stick , worries about having the doe to put his kids through school, that secretly yearns to be a hermit, guy?

    Wait a minute, WHO writes this blog. I’m confused.

    Oh well, I enjoy the blog, and it brings me a chuckle ever now and again.

  • flyingvic

    I definitely think that the Vicar should return because I had always assumed – quite naturally, of course – that he was a self-portrait of the author back in his Anglican days . . .

  • Paul Arkison

    I enjoy the Vicar the most, but other members of my family are very interested in Caitly and Mantilla the Hon as well.

  • Robert

    I miss Mantilla the Hon.

  • Silvia

    I like your blog and I like your alter egos very much, I can’t say which one most – Caithlin, Mantilla, Mrs Brady and the Vicar jostle et the top.

  • shanaofs

    I do very much enjoy the thoughts of Caitlin, Mantilla and the Vicar the most, but the others are fun and interesting, too. It was the first time that I read Mantilla’s opinions (and I don’t even remember now exactly which topic had riled her Spanish blood) that I decided I would try to regularly visit your blog.

  • Andrew

    Mantilla the Hon.
    The Vicar.

    Both have given me much amusement.

  • Cairistiona

    Definately The Vicar and Mantilla. Both are a “hoot”!!! The others are fun as well, but I really like those two best.
    Hopefully you can “find” them again!

  • slimsdotter

    Caitlin and Mrs Brady are my favorites, and Mantilla is always fun, too. I hope they come back!

  • Natasa

    I miss Caitlin and Mantilla most. Please bring them back!

  • Alex

    Oh, the alter egos must return! We can’t be left wondering whether or not The Vicar will eventually swim the Tiber, after all!

  • asshur

    I miss all of them; they were a real defining point of your blog. I do have my favorites (the VIcar, of course), my adversarials (Mantilla, I’m spaniard too, and she bring in me our ‘cainite’ nature to the fore ;-) , and the outrageous reality of Tod Unctuous.

    Alex, re the Vicar; please don’t let him come Home till in “articulo mortis”, would spoil the fun and I very much doubt that to take such a bold decision is in not his character (his wife is clearly a diferent beast) …

  • Zwetschgenkrampus

    Now, please, please, pwetty please with sugar on it: Bring back the Vicar and Todd Unctuous. I find the Vicar so lovable and T.O. so abominable … I miss them both. How about the following? The Vicar goes to London during the Olympics, and Todd Unctuous is reporting about the Games …

  • http://deusnobiscum.com Norm

    We just must get Caitlin back

    • Fr. Dwight Longenecker

      I think Caitlin has had some experiences during the school Christmas play she will soon be sharing.