This is a bad girl… I don’t know what’s going on with my dog, but as Auntie Lillie used to say of–ahem–some bad little kids in the family, “she’s the devil’s own one, lately.” If I get on the phone and forget to lock her out of the office, she preens, huffs and dances around demanding my attention. If I do lock her out, she launches herself at the door. The kennel is the only place for her when I... Read more
On this cold rainy day: Start here, with Pat Gohn’s How To Grow a Priest. That’s a must-read. Swinging Catholics: and their effect on the election An insightful piece on Mad Men: The Fall of Don Draper Greatest Title Ever: How the Gray Lady became Margaret Dumont; and of course, a good piece, too! The Tea Party Must Learn to “Reagan” the Press: my own piece today at PJM. The Tea Party is off to a good start, but it... Read more
My husband had a dental appointment early this morning, and I went with him because the dentist is an amusing, chatty fellow and it’s fun to talk to him while my husband’s mouth is loaded with instrumentation and all he can do is make that funny “ah-oh” noise, in conversation. Two years ago, I had a wisdom tooth extracted and the dentist and my husband were so busy talking that I felt ignored. I grunted and pointed at my husband:... Read more
“for the times, they are a-changing!” David Mills writes a particularly good piece that I meant to link to hours ago, and I don’t want you to miss: Countercultural stores popped up all over town when I was young, stores where the revolution in manners and morals was thought inevitable and making a profit and relying on the law were dismissed as relics of the old uptight acquisitive materialistic square world. People congratulated themselves on doing business in a new... Read more
Chapel & Tomb of St. Philip Neri, Chiesa Nuova, Rome Podcast of the Readings for All Saints Day via the USCCB Late yesterday, word began to come of a “bloodbath” during Mass at Baghdad’s Syrian-Catholic cathedral. Details are still emerging; it portends nothing good: The terrorists, some wearing suicide vests, had taken over 120 faithful hostage at the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation, one of Baghdad’s largest, during Sunday mass and demanded the release of al Qaeda... Read more
A friend who teaches high school Social Studies recently lamented to me that her students come up from middle school with such a vague idea of what has made America unique among nations since its founding–or what its character has meant to the rest of the world–that she is forced to almost play Devil’s Advocate against the nation’s own history, in order to entice them toward its defense. It’s kind of a backwards way of teaching, she admits. Over the... Read more
The third entry in the Habit of Witness series over at Patheos is a tiny miracle of a story that gave me goosebumps, but the warm kind, and so it seems particularly well suited to this weekend, when we think about the people who have gone before, and the people who are with us now, and how our smallest reaching out toward one another may be precisely the movement by which the Holy Spirit wishes to travel. Sr. Lisa M.... Read more
Girlfriend needs to take a day off; I need to pray, play, rest and regroup – pull it together if I am going to be of any use at all for next week’s elections and its aftermath or the ongoing shenanigans all around us, so today is a good day to read and consider signing this letter to politicians, and then veg-out and consider all things Halloween-y. I love Halloween for the fun of it, and also for the shivery... Read more
Philip Kamrass / Times Union Writer Fran Rossi Szypylczyn emailed a great story that is a perfect spirit-warmer on a cold, dank day, and a great reminder the pro-life month of October comes to a close, of the dignity of every human life. Shaker High School’s freshman girls’ soccer team says it has 11 players, 22 feet and one heartbeat. Gianna MacPhee isn’t the best player, or the fastest on her feet, but she clearly illustrates the team’s big heart.... Read more
As John Lennon’s birthday recently passed, a few articles have floated my way via email. Chuck Colson’s piece wondering if Lennon was an unwitting prophet, while including Beatles titles within his text was a fun read. Mark Shea, who dislikes the song “Imagine” published a lengthy response to an “Imagine” lover was also interesting and fun. My own thoughts on “Imagine” are currently up at Patheos, and while I don’t know if they’re fun, I hope you’ll find them interesting... Read more
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