The Ironic Catholic is close to completing the adoption of Alex, an Eastern European little boy with special needs.  They used Reece’s Rainbow, an agency which facilitates international adoption of special needs kids.  These children often live in horrifying conditions in orphanages, and are often in danger of being sent to adult mental institutions if they aren’t adopted.  As the IC explains, [T]he problem is not really how to afford to care for the kids once home: decent medical insurance... Read more

Still don’t like Madeleine L’Engle.  I did try to re-read Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia after our conversation last time, but I only read a few chapters and then lost the book.  So, that’s on my list, along with “get life in order.”  Blah. Read more

Hi, I’m The Jerk. You might remember me from that time you read one of my jokes, and you thought it was funny, but you didn’t really get it, then you found yourself telling it to your sister at your Steubenville Almnui 12-step meeting, and as you were getting to the end of the joke but after it was too late to stop telling it, it suddenly occurs to you, “Hey, I think this is a dick joke.” Thanks, Sean.... Read more

My mother says that my first word was “Amen.”  Was I an especially devout child?  No, I just thought it meant, “Let’s eat.”  You can judge if I’ve made any progress in 37 years. Read more

Here is the list of poems I was talking about the other day.  Happy Friday! Read more

Go ahead and talk about NFP!  What’s the worst that could possibly happen? (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!) Read more

So, I spent  probably six hours yesterday on a post wherein I discovered a counterintuitive but illuminating link between ideas in two articles I had read that morning.  By the time the sun went down and it still wasn’t done, I was ready to admit that the link was as follows:  they were both interesting.  And that was it. So here instead is an old one about Robins. Read more

Even though I know the poem is not really about sand (or is it?), this [more macro photography of gorgeous grains of sand here] made me think of this: Mock On, Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau William Blake Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau; Mock on, mock on; ’tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back again. And every sand becomes a gem Reflected in the beams divine; Blown back they blind... Read more

I listened to the whole clip, and yeah, it was a dumb, insulting thing for Hilary Rosen to say about stay-at-home-moms; but it’s pretty obvious that she was class-baiting, not SAHM-baiting.  I’m quite sure it’s true that a wealthy SAHM lives a different life from a SAHM who’s made some financial sacrifices to be at home.  Still, if Ann Romney is going around TALKING TO WOMEN, clearly she’s trying to learn and be less out of touch. Anyway, the thing... Read more