I had to run out to the Walmart to buy ketchup, and was arrested by a strange new product on the shelves:  It’s called Wrecking Balm– “a unique, devastatingly effective tattoo fade-removal system.” I don’t even want to know how it works, but a stroll down Main Street, Anytown, USA will show you why … Read more
As a highly-if-not-quite-exclusively visual person, this story from the University of Villanova really caught my attention: A team from Villanova University has made touring the Sistine Chapel a reality with just the simple click of a mouse. For the last two years, students and faculty from Villanova have been granted rare clearance to photograph some … Read more
There is much to catch up on for your summer listening pleasure. Faithful readers will recall how often I choose the Classical period for musical refreshment. And so it is again with the Symphonies Op. 3, Nos. 1-4 of Franz Ignaz Beck (1734-1809) on a new budget Naxos release (8.570799). I seemed to recall an … Read more
Words of encouragement for Steve and all parents juggling family and writing (or any other creative pursuit): Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of Millions and father of seven, says that, in spite of the number of people who reproach him with Cyril Connolly’s aphorism that “There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the … Read more
A particular kind of market-driven capitalism is at the root of America’s success as a world economy and it was shaped and promoted by Puritans in Boston, according to church historian, Mark Valeri. Valeri’s new book, Heavenly Merchandize is an attempt to answer the question of how a people “who loathed market principles birthed a … Read more
Passages in Scripture tell us that, when the Lord comes again, few believers will remain. Looking around the world, it is not hard to believe. Of the strict essence of the Christian teaching and practice, believers are a distinct minority. Both the Old and the New Testaments paint a dark picture of the number of … Read more
Sorry, that’s a silly title. I was blown away by this drawing by Daniel Mitsui featured on Korrektiv: The artist says: Here is something unlike anything I’ve drawn previously. This ink drawing (with gold leaf details) of St. Michael fighting the devil was commissioned by a priest of the Maryknoll Missionaries, an order with a … Read more
You are cordially invited to join the board, staff, writers and friends of InsideCatholic in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, September 16, for our 15th Annual Partnership Dinner & Dance. This year, we’ll be honoring Bishop Robert F. Vasa, D.D., of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon. In an era of lukewarm, go-along-to-get-along prelates, Bishop Vasa … Read more
The right to bear firearms is not one of the causes I’ve ever been deeply passionate about, but an article in Marie Claire about an apparently growing trend among women to openly carry weapons caught my attention. It’s hard to know how much of a trend it actually is, since the neither the article nor one … Read more
I’m heading to the Holy Land for eight days. This will be my fifth trip since 2004, and I hope to post daily reports on InsideCatholic. (“Holy Land” refers to the area lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, encompassing both Israel and Occupied Palestine and parts of Lebanon and Jordan.) Not all of … Read more
Friday is a good day for a fish report. GOOD ran a short but interesting interview with author Paul Greenberg of the new book, Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. Greenberg believes wild-caught fish should be treated like game, with specific places of origin. Here’s a short excerpt from the interview: GOOD: When it comes … Read more
As I sit down to write this, I imagine a dramatically lit hourglass perched on the desk in front of me, the slipping sand warning me that shortly they will awaken — ravenous, pulling books off shelves, turning electronic devices on and off at random, climbing everything in sight, and tearing open any package of … Read more
Perhaps I have a skewed vision of Distributism. But when I try to envision a Distributist society, I see a town in the Wild West. The federal government is so distant as to be 90% irrelevant. There’s a general store, a bar, an inn, a post office, a sheriff’s office, and a blacksmith. Maybe a … Read more
The Associated Press reported yesterday that only two weeks after BP finally put an end to what seemed like an impossible oil gusher, most of the oil seems to have…disappeared. So where did the oil go? “Some of the oil evaporates,” explains Edward Bouwer, professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s especially true … Read more
Time for some Friday-morning link action. Somehow all the links today ended up being reading/writing/storytelling related, so get ready: Novelist Anne Rice, who had a very public reversion to the Faith in the 1990s, is now just as publicly breaking it off again: “I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, … Read more
Just as Catholic parishes and schools sigh with relief that the sex-abuse crisis appears to be under control, a new sexual predator is emerging, preying on Catholic teenage boys in schools across the country. This new predator is younger, gentler in appearance, nearer in size and age to the young male victims, and enjoys an … Read more
Every day while I’m at home with the kids, they bug me to do “actibuhdees” with them. I’m not great on the activities front: I’m artsy but not craftsy. I can put crayons and paper in front of them, have them help me cook something – I’ve even enlisted their assistance in the making of … Read more
I crave the indulgence of IC readers everywhere for what I am about to do, but I’ve been reading too much about the dangers of suppressing one’s anger to keep this bottled up any longer… As a fairly recent Wyomingite attracted to the state in no small part through the hope that “The Man” would be kept … Read more
It’s an interesting question. Did Leonardo wear a cilice or use a discipline? Though not mentioned in Dan Brown’s popular fantasy novel, The Da Vinci Code — with its bizarre and misleading description of corporal mortification — and granting Leonardo a certain religious fervor, it’s possible. The cilice, a sharp chain worn around the leg, … Read more
Church on the Move does it again (only click if you like “Queen”): Mommy Rhapsody from Church on the Move on Vimeo. I can’t see any Catholic church I know doing this, but if they did, I’m betting those 3 leads could be sung by Simcha, Danielle and a friend of mine here in MI.