I have a friend who will be sitting the bar exam on Ash Wednesday. She’s young and healthy, but still: What a high-pressure situation! She needs to be as mentally sharp as possible, and she has to have the stamina to make it though the day’s exam without flagging. A poor performance means, at best, another round of studying and exams; in a worst case it could completely derail her legal career. It is not the kind of day when... Read more
My writing friend and I have started identifying a particularly painful genre of Catholic literature: Blarbage. If you write, you’ve probably been guilty of it at one time or another. If you read widely from Catholic priests, bishops, and lay opinion-leaders, sooner or later you’ll stumble on it. Let’s talk about what it is, how to identify it, and what to do when you encounter it. Blarbage is: Verbose.* Not just lots of wordcount (guilty), but often a truckload of... Read more
You may be one of the many Catholic couples finding yourselves in a difficult position this evening: You are using Natural Family Planning to avoid pregnancy, and Valentine’s Day has fallen during your fertile time. At best it’s exasperating; at worst it might feel like God is trying to wreck your marriage. What do you do? It’s Not Your Imagination! Let’s be honest here: If you are doing it right, sex should be something you and your spouse look forward... Read more
For a while during my misspent youth, I was a regular viewer of The Addams Family – not so much because I especially loved the program, but because it was on. That’s more or less the same reason I watched Wednesday on Netflix on the other day: I was curious, I was laid up with a cold (all better now, thanks for asking), and there it was. It was entertaining and I don’t recommend it.* What follows is not an... Read more
The Pillar has a detailed story on the accusations of sexual misconduct against Fr. Frank Pavone in the years prior to his laicization, and it’s worth a read for reasons which require no opinion on whether the allegations are true or false. [Update 2/8/23: There’s now a second report of a different woman’s allegations, with details once again relevant to what follows here.] What you’ll find in the article is a detailed description of inappropriate boundary-violations that carefully skirted flagrant... Read more
I have a friend born and raised in Orangeburg, SC. She speaks with a strong local accent. She teaches in a rural school near where she grew up. As we would say in the South, she is from there. We’re going to come back to her, specifically, down at the bottom when we finally get to our title topic, now trending on Twitter. I am not from here in South Carolina the same way as my friend is. I’m only 1/4... Read more
I want to comment on an essay from a distressed air-traveling parent, but without picking on that parent. The concept underpinning this parent’s torment is that somehow the other people on the airplane are paying for a “peaceful” (read: “adults-only”) voyage, and thus the presence of children on board infringes on the experience the adult passengers have supposedly purchased. My comment is this: Commercial airlines are public transportation. I understand all too well that they are expensive public transportation. This gives... Read more
I want to make a few brief comments on the news about Fr. Frank Pavone being dismissed from the clerical state. First: Regardless of where you stand on the topic (if anywhere), The Pillar has a detailed, non-sensational, fact-checked rundown of what has happened, including a review of the technicalities of the judicial process involved. If all these details of canon law are new to you, take it slowly. But please do read it, because it is not just annoying (for all... Read more
From an article at Stat on physician burnout: Physicians have among the highest rates of suicide of any profession, and almost half of them develop depression by the end of training. As physician and writer Elisabeth Poorman persuasively argues, depression and suicide are occupational hazards of practicing medicine. Sometimes you go to the doctor with worrisome symptoms, and the doctor decides it’s just anxiety or depression. For example: Revenge of the gaslit patients: Now, as scientists, they’re tackling Ehlers-Danlos syndromes How Unconscious Bias Almost Killed My Friend... Read more
Sometimes The Atlantic runs thoughtfully-researched articles from varying points of view, so I was curious to see what “Why the Far Right is Fixated on Drag Queens” had to say. What I was hoping to find was a thesis along the lines of, “Those sexually-obsessed conservatives are backwards and wrong, but here are some of the reasons that transgender issues are particularly important to them . . . ” and an exploration (from a left-leaning point of view) of conservative priorities.... Read more
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