I’ll be back on in about an hour with a real blog post; this post is your periodic reminder that Steel Magnificat, and the Pezzulo family, are almost entirely run on gratuities. I work from home as a writer due to my chronic illness, churning out three to seven literary art projects per week here, and my husband is the homemaker who takes care of Rosie since I’m so often down for the count. I get a very small monthly... Read more
I took Rose to her annual doctors’ appointment. It was in the old medical building, the first hospital they built in Steubenville, and where they still keep the hospice and certain other things. Behind it is the old nursing school. I used to live there. The year I came to Steubenville was the last year Franciscan University rented the nursing school’s dorms for their graduate students. I lived on the third floor for nine months. That was twelve years ago,... Read more
My people came from West Virginia. They had a farm in Greenbriar County. That won’t help anyone who doesn’t know West Virginia well. If you flipped someone off with your left hand, but with your thumb and half your pointer as well as your middle finger extended, you’d have made a good map of West Virginia. My friend Ryan uses this method to show people where he lives; I’ve seen it online as well. The state got its funny,... Read more
Many of you are no doubt aware that Donald Trump gave a speech that was more or less an hour-long stream of consciousness in Montana yesterday, at a rally for Republican Senatorial candidate Matt Rosendale. The speech featured jokes at the expense of rape survivors in the “Me Too” movement, jokes at the expense of minorities, and paranoid defenses of his “zero tolerance” immigration policy that the United States’ Catholic bishops have condemned. Perhaps many of you have also seen... Read more
(Lilian Vogl is a friend of mine who recently posted this note on her Facebook page. With her permission, I am sharing it here. –Mary Pezzulo.) I resigned from office in the Republican Party over irreconcilable differences. Less than two years later, I am resigning and renouncing the American Solidarity Party because it has been an abusive relationship. Pretty ironic for a group that names itself after the noble concept of solidarity, but it turns out the acronym ASP was much... Read more
I received some news today which has me shaking with anger. Besides being a strong and generous woman, my friend Jessica Mesman Griffith is a talented writer. Her book of meditations, Love and Salt, is a fine break from the standard fare marketed to Catholic women. Jessica is not a lightweight; she knows how to write challenging prose with edge and life. I would have supposed that any publisher would have been glad to publish Jessica’s manuscript about her... Read more
I don’t really like talking about the infamous Frank Pavone. I don’t really like being known as That Woman Who Talks About Frank Pavone. I want to write poems and stories and talk about life in the Ohio Valley. Sometimes, though, the disgraced priest says something so reprehensible that every gear in my imagination grinds to a halt until I’ve addressed it. Yesterday, Pavone decided to take a few moments off of his busy schedule making cheap cell phone... Read more
I’m known as a bit of a pest in the blogging world, and that’s not an unfair characterization. Today, in particular, I’m going to be positively insufferable. I am going to say three things that ought not to be controversial, but they are, and they make many people angry. First of all, it is entirely possible to love your country, while still admitting your country has made a grave mistake. You can do that. It’s not a contradiction. You... Read more
I don’t like Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This should come as no surprise to people familiar with my work. Let me be clear that I don’t wish evil on her. She seems like a miserable person in the first place and I think that what she does for a living, as far as defending the torture of those poor migrant children at the border, is deeply wrong. I pray for her repentance. I don’t want anyone to do anything violent... Read more
We used to vacation in Pocahontas County. My family had reunions in the old CCC cabins at a at a state park there, the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, the place where nature taught me everything I know about Divine Mercy. I learned plenty walking in the woods alone, and plenty more with all my cousins. Granny and Grandpa had seven children, who gave then 35 grandchildren. We were quite the crowd. I was surprised, when I grew up... Read more
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