Weekend Joke: Periodic Table 450 B.C.

An old cartoon but this joke never gets old to me. 
Again, thanks to Doug Savage for this cartoon. Which completely cracks me up.

Well Said: Advice

I always advise people never to give advice.

P.G. Wodehouse

Worth a Thousand Words: The Young Eastern Woman

Friedrich von Amerling, The Young Eastern Woman

Alabama BBQ Chicken (with White BBQ Sauce)

I wondered what a mayonnaise-based sauce could possibly add to chicken and now I know. A really delicious twist! I could see making chicken salad with the leftovers, I really could. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

What I've Been Reading: Cool & Lam, Rogues & Villains, Dorothy Day, Lewis Devotional

Double or Quits by A.A. Fair

While tracking down jewels stolen from a prominent doctor's safe, Donald Lam and Bertha Cool encounter a suspicious death, lies, a custody battle and blackmail, and conflict with an insurance company over a double indemnity clause in an insurance policy.

Where have Cool & Lam been all my life? What an inspired combination for a detective agency and a great mystery with which to meet them!

I read four short stories in a row by Earle Stanley Gardner (A.A. Fair's real name) in the Big Book of Rogues and Villains. I'd never taken a cotton to Perry Mason but these featured rogues that sent me looking for more such characters. Luckily I came across Cool & Lam with big, bad tempered Bertha Cool and half-pint, clever, attractive Donald Lam. I will be reading all I can find, which won't be many as I'll have to scour used book stores for them. Not many are in reprint.

They are a sheer pleasure to read, trust me on this.

The Big Book of Rogues and Villains by Otto Penzler

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, ruthless, and brilliant criminals in mystery fiction, for the biggest compendium of bad guys (and girls) ever assembled.

I love these sorts of stories which for me were greatly enhanced by the fact that most of the stories are about rogues or about villains who are being foiled. I also really appreciate Otto Penzler's skill in selecting and organizing this sort of collection, especially when enhanced by his brief biographies of the author before each tale. Highly recommended, though for late night reading one might want the Kindle version as it is indeed a very big book for reading in bed.


The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist by Dorothy Day

This inspiring and fascinating memoir, subtitled, “The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist,” The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day’s compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage.

I felt about this very much as I felt about St. Therese of Lisieux's Story of a Soul — I liked half of it a lot. In Therese's case I liked the last half, in Dorothy Day's case I liked the first half. It told a lot about her life and the conditions of the time in which she grew up, which were really interesting and put her into a lot of context. She seems to have had an inborn desire to seek God, which I relate to, which she couldn't escape no matter what her living conditions. In the last half she spent a lot of time on personalities's stories which I didn't care about which accounts for my disinterest in that section. I much prefer On Pilgrimage for a look at daily life with Dorothy Day, especially since it is a journal account going over about a year.

However, it was definitely worth reading once and I'm glad I did.


The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis’s famous devil derides the Christian year as “The Same Old Thing.” To combat this, Walter Hooper has drawn from Lewis’s vast bibliography, accumulating short meditations that correspond to each day of the Christian calendar. Hooper has chosen passages that emphasize Lewis’ illuminatingly matter-of-fact approach to religion. In addition to providing food for thought, these bite-sized excerpts facilitate a yearlong journey towards achieving the joy that Lewis wrote is “the serious business of heaven.”

This is a really excellent devotional. Carefully selected excerpts of C.S. Lewis's work are organized around the liturgical year. A little C.S. Lewis every day is a great way to stay focused on the realities of Christian life.

Worth a Thousand Words: At the Seaside

At the Seaside, Edward B. Gordon

Well Said: Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too.

We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.

Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

Weekend Joke: Too Darn Hot

As George got out of the shower he said to his wife, “Honey, it’s too darned hot to wear clothes today, what do you think the neighbors will say if I mow the lawn naked?”

“That I married you for your money.”

Worth a Thousand Words: Artist's Studio

Artist's Studio, Belinda DelPesco

Well Said: Having faith in the Christ in others without being able to see Him

Peter [Maurin] made you feel a sense of his mission as soon as you met him. He did not begin by tearing down, or by painting so intense a picture of misery and injustice that you burned to change the world. Instead, he aroused in you a sense of your own capacities for work, for accomplishment. He made you feel that you and all men had great and generous hearts with which to love God. If you once recognized this fact in yourself you would expect and find it in others. "The art of human contacts," Peter called it happily. But it was seeing Christ in others, loving the Christ you saw in others. Greater than this, it was having faith in the Christ in others without being able to see Him. Blessed is he that believes without seeing.

Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

More is More: Hannah & Rose discuss the German paper industry ...

Hannah & Rose discuss the German paper industry, the hidden dangers of diabetes, and why dentists are witches’ natural enemy as they watch Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013).

My favorite funny podcast. The movie is bad but Hannah and Rose are so good!

Pope phones woman planning abortion and convinces her to choose life

Before going through with it, though, she decided to write a letter to a special person. She wrote her story down and slipped it in an envelope; the address was simple: “Holy Father Pope Francis, Vatican City, Rome.” She sent the letter without thinking too much about it. Then, a few days later, the phone began to ring.

“I read your letter.”

The number on the screen was unfamiliar, with the prefix of Rome. She answered, and was struck dumb: “Hello Anna, this is Pope Francis. I read your letter. We Christians must never lose our hope. A child is a gift of God, a sign of Providence.”

Read the whole story.

You know, I get frustrated by the news I see surrounding the Pope sometimes. This is the sort of pastoral action that helps me keep proper perspective.

Also this. It helps me to remember that news stories often don't give the whole picture and actions speak louder than words.

Well Said: The Intimacy of Books

Books give delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.

Petrarch

Worth a Thousand Words: Thrush Nightingale

Thrush Nightingale, Remo Savisaar

Well Said: Why are the wicked joyous?

Perhaps you say, Why are the wicked joyous? Why do they live in luxury? Why do they not toil with me? It is because they who have not put down their names to strive for the crown are not bound to undergo the labors of the contest. They who have not gone down into the race-course do not anoint themselves with oil nor get covered with dust. For those whom glory awaits trouble is at hand. The perfumed spectators are wont to look on, not to join in the struggle, nor to endure the heat, the dust, and the showers ...

St. Ambrose of Milan

Worth a Thousand Words: Alamo Lit Up

Alamo Lit Up, via Traces of Texas
Photo source: UT digitized photos, San Antonio's Special Collections

The Bible in Couplets

I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. I shared it here before way back in '05 and once more since then. High time to read it again!

Read aloud for full impact.

The Bible in Couplets
by Christopher Howse

God makes the heavens and the earth
And finds them very nice.

When Adam eats forbidden fruit
He forfeits Paradise.

Mankind grows worse, but Noah's ark
Keeps eight souls in the dry.

There's much begetting; Abraham
Is chosen by and by.

His progeny are Egypt's slaves
Till Moses leads them out;

The Ten Commandments tell them what
Morality's about.

The Israelites gain Canaan, and
Surrounding peoples smite.

King David takes Bathsheba from
Uriah the Hittite,

He then repents, writes psalms, but sins
By numbering Israel,

Repents again, is told by God
His house shall never fail.

A golden temple of the Lord
Is built by Solomon.

The exiled Israelites hang harps
In fluvial Babylon.

Lions don't eat Daniel; Job gets boils;
The prophets prophesy;

Jonah meets fish; the Preacher says
That all is vanity.

Jesus is born in Bethlehem
And is baptised by John

In Jordan, and the Spirit dove
Then him descends upon.

He heals the sick, walks on the sea
And multiplies the bread,

Shares supper with apostles, then
Is crucified, and dead.

He rises from the dead, is seen
By many, then ascends

To heaven, from which he'll return
It says, when this world ends.

Saul (later Paul) falls off his horse,
Turns Christian, hits the trail,

Writes letters to the churches and
Ends life locked up in jail.

Four horsemen, beasts and trumpets fill
The Book of Revelation,

Whose meaning has been subject to
Much vexed interpretation.

Worth a Thousand Words: Le Loup d'Aggubio

Luc-Olivier Merson - Le Loup d'Aggubio

I just love the level of detail in this painting and the foreign feel, both of faraway lands and of faraway times. Also, the wolf (le loup) has a halo over his head ... which is a nice touch since Gubbio (Aggubio) is the town in Italy where Francis "converted" the wolf. So we are seeing the wolf's and villagers' "happy ever after" ending.

Worth a Thousand Words: Morning Bathing

Morning Bathing, Remo Savisaar

The Journey Home — My Interview

I had the rare privilege and pleasure of speaking with Marcus Grodi about my conversion story. It airs on The Journey Home show today.

• Mon. May. 21 at 7:00 PM
• Tue. May. 22 at 12:00 AM
• Thu. May. 24 at 1:00 PM

You can also catch it here on YouTube and as a podcast.

After recording, everyone in the office gets together for lunch ... with lots of great stories, of course!

Scott produces and directs the show. He also makes sure you get picked up at the airport and have a delicious meal when you arrive. His hospitality and conversation were really wonderful and meeting him (and his wife!) was one of the great pleasures of the trip.

Ryan Dellacrosse (Fuzati, in Houston) was the other guest being taped that day. I loved hearing his story and getting to meet this energetic guy who has devoted his considerable business knowledge to helping Catholic companies market themselves better.

First thing Monday morning, before recording, you get it started right. With Mass, of course, just as you'd expect!

On the way into the church. 

Surprises abound on the way to Zanesville! Guess what this company did?