On Friday night, we saw the fireworks. The City of Steubenville put off the official Christmas tree lighting Tuesday, due to rain. That meant that on Black Friday, the whole population of Steubenville went downtown to cram themselves into tiny Fort Steuben park to try and catch a glimpse of an artificial tree sticking out of the municipal fountain. We all craned our necks and stood on our toes. A local music group sang “O Holy Night.” We counted... Read more
I didn’t die last week. Thank you to the people who were so kind to me when I was sick with another bad cough. I’m on the mend now. That’s why I didn’t write very much last week. The sudden sickness cleared out, a little slower than it plowed in, with nothing in its wake but sniffles and a messy house. On Thursday we tidied up the house, watched the parade and baked pies. I had to keep stopping to... Read more
I got sick again. If you’ve never had a chronic illness, you cannot know how terrifying it is to be sick. If you’ve not known what it is to be often homebound and sometimes bedbound, unable to accomplish anything, for more than a decade, and then to have a better diagnosis and a treatment plan and begin to get your life back when it’s too late to live normally, I can’t describe for you the panic that wells up... Read more
If you follow Catholic news, you might have already heard that Michael Voris, the founder of the Catholic tabloid Church Militant and of Saint Michael’s Media, has abruptly resigned from his position. At the time I’m writing this, no one is entirely sure why he has resigned. This sudden resignation has come as shock to many. Church Militant has announced that he was asked to resign due to his violation of their “morality clause.” They posted the following statement... Read more
There was a bit of a kerfuffle on Twitter, which I refuse to call by its tacky new name of “X.” The kerfuffle was about Christmas, of course, because it’s the week before Thanksgiving. But it was also about ballet, queer nutcrackers, and performative masculinity. It all stared when the Reverend John Kalchik, a Catholic priest with whom I wasn’t familiar before this weekend, posted a link to an article about a rainbow nutcracker holding a Pride flag which was... Read more
The season of Advent is coming. There was a package of purple and pink Advent candles at the craft store the other day, when I was rummaging the clearance rack. I bought them. I like candles. And I didn’t think about Advent again that day. Adrienne and I were on one of our drives recently, and we drove through downtown. There were the red and green wooden chalets set up for the annual Advent Market, a part of the beautiful... Read more
Hi, kids! This is your weird old Aunt Mary you can say anything to. I’m an elder Millennial– I was born all the way back in 1984. I have something to say about a recent TikTok trend. I know I’m not the kind of person you’d usually listen to about things that happen on TikTok and and Snapchat and Teddy Graham Gram and whatever other social media you’re using these days. But the topic involves something that deeply affected... Read more
We’ve been going for drives. Adrienne sits in the front seat so she can chat with me, and I drive up and down the back country roads, admiring nature. Fall is the loveliest season in Northern Appalachia. I can’t imagine anything more beautiful than a twisting road around a shale cliff, splashed with every shade of warm color under a piercing blue sky. But the fall is almost spent now, and most of the color is gone. There are leaves... Read more
Hey folks, I really, really hate posting the tip jar boilerplate, even more than you hate reading it. I cringe so hard when writing it that it takes longer than any other posts I write. try to write one only every three months or so and then post it on social media every day or so without thinking too much about it. It’s just that we’re in an awful jam so I have to write out a special one.... Read more
I have something to say that ought to be obvious. It’s so obvious it’s hard to put into words. It’s something that ought not to be controversial, but lately it is. When I was a sixteen-year-old homeschooler, the very conservative devout Catholics in our homeschool group would have ben surprised I even brought it up, but nowadays it’s fashionable to believe the opposite and pretend this has always been the good wholesome Catholic position. You’re going to see those people... Read more
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