I’ve said more often than I care to remember that our culture and our media are being controlled by perpetual adolescents who act and think like eternal 14 year olds, but after reading David Mills’ essay on the home page today, I’m thinking I have to adjust the age downward. Watching a VH-1 roast, Mills observes: It is hard to exaggerate the crudity of the performance: not so much the crudity of the language and subjects, but its intellectual crudity.... Read more
It’s that time of year. Do it; make this. Bring it to work or school and people will love you and want to be nice to you! Pianogirl sent this recipe to me a few years ago. I used it for one of Buster’s Eagle fund raisers, and people went berserk for it, with good reason; it is incredibly delicious. I made it a few months ago, because we really love pumpkin around here, and one of my husband’s friends... Read more
Last Sunday afternoon, in honor of St Francis (and if you don’t know much about him, you should avail yourself of this excellent piece), many Catholic parishes held a “blessing of the animals” outside their rectories or in parish courtyards. I understand that long before I was born, my parents had a rather raucous parrot who would respond to these occasions with a loud “hello” and “thank you!” This picture looks like an altogether sweeter and more solemn encounter: Isn’t... Read more
Since the movie trailer, I haven’t been able to get this one out of my head. The Peasall sisters have a haunting, paradoxically lovely and lonely harmony. Once I stood in the night with my head bowed low In the darkness as black as the sea And my heart was afraid and I cried, Oh Lord, don’t hide your face from me. Hold my hand all the way, every hour, every day From here to the great unknown Take my... Read more
My email box is full; my deadlines are pressing and I just found a jury summons in my mailbox! I’m not having any fun, so let’s go shopping! Yes, I know, no one actually has any money for shopping, but let’s at least pretend. In fact, let’s have a virtual cup of espresso (courtesy of Mystic Monk Coffee, whose espresso blend we’ve been slurping up almost nightly since returning from Rome) while we plot our spending. They finally have permission... Read more
I admit, when I heard True Grit was going to be remade, I was uninterested. Then I heard Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges, and got curious. Then I watched this: Read about it here. This trailer is good too, and the music is haunting. Is that the Peasall Sisters, singing? Seems it is. Why do I get the feeling that T. Bone Burnett is producing the soundtrack, and that it’s going to be freaking awesome? And of course, now we... Read more
A couple of weeks ago my On the Square piece took at look at the visual witness of the religious habit, and wondered whether it might not be worth it for some communities to take a second look at the wearing of them. Happily, that piece has inspired the Nunspeak blogger, Sr. Lisa–a Canossian Sister (like St. Josephine Bakhita) to begin a blog-series chronicling encounters she and other sisters have had that occurred because of the habit. She calls the... Read more
My Tuesday Column is up, wherein I wonder about whether an adult and fully-formed faith should rest upon reason or loyalty, and decide that, well…it requires both: Reasonable Catholicism is reasoned loyalty, or sometimes even loyalty with gritted teeth; it is loyalty that insists upon the application of reason lest its value be questioned. By the same token, intellectualism that is not tempered with loyalty ends up pickling itself in its own ego. Either one, by itself, is incomplete. Both... Read more
Allahpundit is happy with Christine O’ Donnell’s new campaign ad: Writes Allah: Not a syllable is breathed here about policy, party affiliation, or conservatism; it’s a straightforward “everyman versus the establishment” appeal which, thanks to O’Donnell’s poise and the direct, soft-spoken conversational appeal to the camera, ends up being quite arresting. Well, I like the playful “I’m not a witch.” and the “I’m nothing you’ve heard.” After that, I wanted to hear what she IS, and “I’m you” didn’t tell... Read more
Due to appointments and a deadline, things will be quiet until this afternoon, here. Enjoy: Read more
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