George Babbitt Lives! And He'll Again Vote for President Obama, Support Abortion, and Gay Marriage

Yet Babbitt was again dreaming of the fairy child, a dream more romantic than scarlet pagodas by a silver sea.
For years the fairy child had come to him. Where others saw but Georgie Babbitt, she discerned gallant youth. She waited for him, in the darkness beyond mysterious groves. When at last he could slip away from the crowded house he darted to her. His wife, his clamoring friends, sought to follow, but he escaped, the girl fleet beside him, and they crouched together on a shadowy hillside. She was so slim, so white, so eager! She cried that he was gay and valiant, that she would wait for him, that they would sail—
Rumble and bang of the milk-truck.

In 1922, Sinclair Lewis had his comic novel Babbitt published. Warren G. Harding placed the first radio in the White House; construction began on Yankee Stadium in the Bronx; The Red Army captured Vladivostok; Sergei Diaghilev, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust and Igor Stravinsky dine together in Paris, at the Majestic hotel;The Mandate of Palestine is approved by the Council of the League of Nations; Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and George Babbitt became an America metaphor against conformity.

George Babbitt conformed and fought his dreams. Babbitt embraced the American Secular religion of Boosterism. Boosterism helped anything and everything that kept things moving. Boosters were the shoulder punchers who wanted everyone to know the worth and value of their towns, affiliations, congregations and associations. Today, boosterism is called grassroots. It is based upon 'stay-on-message' group think.

When I read Babbitt for the first time in Father James Sheridan, OSA's American literature class in 1967, Babbitt was viewed as a two-dimensional hypocrite, a conservative, and a square, by many of us junior year close readers. Father Sheridan helped us read deeper. The guy was sincerely trying to do right by his family. Doing right by his family required that George Babbitt think like everyone else.

In Sinclair Lewis' presentation George Babbitt belongs to everything in his mythical town of Zenith, in the mythical Tri-State formation he calls Winnemac forged of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Today, George Babbitt would belong to Planned Parenthood, Better government Association, Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, Move On.org and contribute to Public Broadcasting and Television, as well as serve on several bank boards, United Methodist boards.

Babbitt would be a 46 year old, suburban, well-schooled, affluent Progressive. Babbitt would be a cash-cow bundler for the DNC.

If he lived anywhere near Chicago, George F. Babbitt he'd be in the thick of every reform panel, anti-police study group and the Make Chicago Safe for NATO Committee. George F. Babbitt would have ridden aboard one of the Pride Floats that he made sure were not stored at 48th & Halsted and he'd be helping build a memorial to police torture victims. George Babbitt is a booster - in 1922 and 2011.

"Sarah Palin Is America," Michael Moriarty Calls It Correctly

Any people who agree that the killing of a child is choice, will also agree that two gentleman can procreate, that America can only win by losing, that up is down and round is square have been educated pretty badly.

When Washington sent Cornwallis and his redcoats out of the trenches at Yorktown, the Crown forces bandsmen played a song -"The World Turned Upside Down." The Monarchy was sent packing. The colonists fought to become Americans. The Americans fought the British again, as well as Napoleon's Navy and the Barbary Pirates to maintain a flawed but free democratic republic that eventually ironed out the slavery issues with the blood of Americans.

After two World Wars, a catastrophic economic and climate disaster in the 1930's, the America meant to be was built in the 1950's - a revolution in life style. That lifestyle brought ease and comfort to the Nation. Wars were no longer declared, but remained horrific. Korean and Vietnam war veterans returned to comments from neighbors and even family members, "Where have you been?" Bleeding.

"No matter, we have a new two-car garage, color TV, and free college tuition. Only dummies go in the Service."

Perhaps that ease gave us too much time to worry about ourselves. I know that I am about self-absorbed as one can get - well, maybe not always.

We allowed Roe v. Wade. To me that is akin to question asked of returning servicemen -"Where have you been? Out of sight; out of mind." Out of mind can mean madness.

Actor, musician, journalist and defender of the innocent unborn Michael Moriarty wrote a powerful endorsement of Sarah Palin in Big Hollywood. I agree with Mr. Moriarty.

Lincoln predicted that America would not be destroyed by a foreign power. If she dies, it will be by suicide.
Sarah is the only life raft America has right now. Any other candidate for the Republican Party, Romney in particular, will eventually be in the back room cutting deals with a virulently Progressive Democratic Party, a radically Leftist’s poison that has, with Obama, proven its own promise: “the fundamental transformation of the United States of America.”
After four years of Obama, the Dr. Jeckyll of America has already become Mr. Hyde. This radical experiment with a known Marxist in the Presidency?
Suicide.
Ms. Palin has said she will announce in the near future.
Should she even announce her withdrawal, I trust these words and those of others might help her to reconsider.
Sarah Palin is America.
America at her most beautiful, her most honest, her most simply eloquent and her most resilient.
Resilience is what America needs now.
Without Sarah Palin as President, America cannot bounce back.
Many might call a President Palin “bold medicine”.
With America on the edge of suicide, Sarah Palin is the “shock treatment” needed by the entirely moribund, self-defeated and suicidally depressed world.
The human race must either be pro-life or pro-death. Those “enlightened despots” who think otherwise and are certain we can “split hairs” into whole crops of Progressive New World Order Thinking?

Sarah Palin reminds me of the women that I admire. She is a happy person. She is happy because she is honest and unafraid. I always thought that Barack Obama was a pretty good politician, until he ran for President. He was elected to be sure. You can't take that from the man. Why he was elected will be the subject of history.


Well stated, Mr. Moriarty. I do not believe that Michael Moriarty is too much concerned about criticism. We still have the vote.

Miss Terry Sullivan Sings Real Jazz at Chicago's Serbian Village - June 27th

Miss Terry Sullivan will be the featured vocalist at the Serbian Village on Irving Park Rd. with some of the greatest jazz musicians in Chicago - Rich Armandi on bass, Tom Muellner pianist, and the great Rusty Jones on drums to name a very few.

I received this lovely note from Miss Sullivan and had to send my regrets due to Leo High School affairs.

Friends,

I will be singing JAZZ for one hour this Monday (June 27), 9 to 10 p.m, at the Serbian Village , 3144 W. Irving Park Road —the first set of what will continue in to the wee hours.

If you received this note, you are invited. If you know any jazz-lovers, please share.

The place is what jazz people refer to as a “fun hang.” It is decidedly un-yuppie and vaguely reminiscent of a low-end supper club. The owner is a genuine jazz lover and the food, if you want it, is terrific. The street parking is easy.

If you are free, come and toast the beginning of summer. No reply necessary.

All the best!

Terry

Chicago Entertainment Czar Nick Novich, of Nick's Biergarden, Nick's in Uptown, The Flat-Iron & etc., likens the stylings of Miss Sullivan's alto voce to the legendary Blossom Deary. See for yourselves.

This Canary can sing!

The Feast of Corpus Christi - The Body of Christ

I had a perfectly lovely day with Miss Terry Sullivan. Together, we searched for hardware to fix her blinds and picked up another useful household item at Sears on 111th Street in Worth. One of the parts needed could only be found at Mount Greenwood True Value and so we hooked around back east.

After, finding the requiste blind fitting, we light- lunched at a new restaurant Joseph's* on 111th Street, The soup, salad and red pepper Italian sausage with garlic flecked bread was just the ticket.

I took a long stroll through Mount Olivet Cemetery** with the lady I love yesterday afternoon. Mount Olivet is a history lesson on the south side. It is one of the oldest Catholic burial sites in Chicago.

Mount Olivet brings together families and history. It contains the tombs of Chicago giants, like Monsignor Maurice Dorney, the King of the Chicago Stockyards; Michael Cassius McDonald, the founder of not only Chicago organized crime, but as historian Richard Lindberg reminds us, the Cook County Democratic Organization; the victims of the Chicago Fire and numerous Lake Michigan sailing wrecks, the bodies of strikers who fought for the eight hour day in Pullman and the Stockyard Strikes of 1904, 1912 and 1919; Captain Francis O'Neill, the Chicago Police Superintendent who meticulously preserved centuries of Irish music. There are gangsters and Carmelites buried close to one another, but the striking feature for me is the litany of familiar south side Chicago family names - Stanton, Parker, Sheehan, O'Donnell, Bransfield, Enright, Blakey, McAullife, McGrath, Dowling, Brackin, Nash, Burke, Cullen, Ahern, Capriotti, McNamara, Capangna, Casto, Gurgone, Pilon, Gately, Foster, Arneberg, Jennings, Donahue, Moriarty, Testa, Angone, Antonelli, Morganelli, . . . at one time Capone.

They are all brought together - living and the buried - at Mount Olivet,on sacred ground and our precious history. There are rolling hills and trees. Mount Olivet is a great meditation.

Today, is the Feast of Corpus Christi - The Body of Christ. We celebrate the union of God and Man in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary and especially in the transformation, consecration and communion of His Body and Blood in the Mass.
John 6: 51 - 58

I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."

There is much to remind us of others. I generally need a whack with a two by four between the eyes to snap me out of my contemplation of my navel. A stroll with one I love through Mount Olivet had a much more salubrious effect.

*

Joseph's Restaurant and Bar
3123 W. 111th Street, Chicago, IL 60655
Google Map
(773) 445-5637

Phone : (773) 445-5637
Email : josephsrestaurantchicago@gmail.com

We are located on 111th street just east of Kedzie Avenue in Chicago - Mount Greenwood, IL

**

Mount Olivet Cemetery, 2901 West 111th Street
Opened 1885

Mount Olivet Cemetery was the first Catholic diocesan cemetery to serve Chicago’s southland. Established in 1885, the burial ground is one of the city’s most picturesque and was once located outside of the city limits. Catholics in Chicago were immigrants, and not surprisingly, city cemeteries reflect ethnicity. While there were German and Polish National cemeteries, the Irish tended to be buried in diocesan cemeteries. Mount Olivet Cemetery buried mainly Irish, reflected in its family plots and monuments of Celtic crosses and Irish names. Not surprisingly, a statue of St. Patrick is found amongst the graves.

Irish Nationalists of Chicago Obelisk at Mount Olivet Cemetery

Dedicated September 30, 1888

Rising 81 feet above Mount Olivet Cemetery is the first monument in America erected by the Irish Nationalists Society. In 1888, this Egyptian obelisk of Barry gray granite features a seven foot pedestal. At each angle are four Corinthian columns. The obelisk was erected in honor of those Irish patriot heroes who died in Chicago, yet had no family in their new country.

The face of the monument reads:

“Erected August 20, 1888 to the memory of departed brethren. God Save Ireland.”

Rascal Flats? Girls, I Like Flat Rascals

The Real Rascals!
The guys that hired them for a show at Orchestra Hall in the late 1960's -Peter Max and the Swami.

My daughter Clare and the Entourage of St. Cajetan's ( Now Mother McAuley, Marist, & St. Ignatius Prep Debs) are going to see Rascal Flats at the Music venue in Tinley Park, Illinois that changes its name every other week ( Tweeter, World Music, Eddie Carroll's Roofing Palace of Stax o' Wax e.g.) this evening. They have saved up a considerable amount of cabbage from baby-sitting local breeder clans, digging and potting plants at Olivia's Garden on Western, hostessing at The Great Beverly Pancake Haus, or waitressing at Ridge Country Club.

Rascal Flats is some kind of cleaned-up hillbilly band -"Life is a Highway."

I am a Rascal Fan! The Original Rascals Eddie Brigatti, Felix Cavaleri, Dino Danelli and the Irish guy on guit-box Gene Cornish and etc. These guys were very much like our Italian buddies from north of the tracks - the 69th Street Loafers.

These Rascals are New Jersey Soul guys -urban rangers. I was blessed to witness these guys and get paid for it at Chicago Symphony Center -it was Orchestra Hall back then.

Peter Max the psychedelic artiste and the bearded Yogi -Swami Satchidananda who was on Mike Douglas Show and Dick Cavett every other day, wanted to put on the concert of Flowers and Love! They did. Orchestra Hall smelled like Sheehy's Funeral Home after the promoters trucked in more flowers than a gangster's funeral. Peter Max had the place looking like a glue sniffer's nightmare.

The one thing that was cool- the promoters hired a bunch of Jersey tough guys to play.


The Young Rascals! They were good guys as I recall - drank beers - and we were as weird-ed out by the goofy set-up and theme as everyone else. Hell, a job is a job. I cleaned ashtrays and the Rascals rocked! Ticket sales were . . .modest - the show went over like a turd in a punchbowl. The Hall was emptier than MSNBC.

However, the Rascals were pros! They put on a great show.

John Murtagh - A Bombing Victim of Bill Ayers is Running for Mayor of Yonkers

One of the good guys is running for Mayor. Chicago elected Rahm Emanuel last April, by a huge majority. Yonkers, NY has an opportunity to elect one of the good guys -John Murtagh.

Like my Alderman here in the 19th Ward of Chicago, Matt O'Shea, John Murtagh is a young guy who has served his community out of a genuine sense of public service. In America these days we too often go for the packaged product - people of whom other people say are 'really great,' These yolks tend to make careers of public service via the back-door - they get appointed to positions of power, because they are endorsed by PACS, or come from politically approved families - Brahmins, like Chris Kennedy, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, Forrest Claypool & etc.

Good people learn public service from the sidewalks up to the porches and eventually are welcomed into the homes of real people. Grassroots, for politically naive, is made up of concrete and flagstones.

John Murtagh and I have maintained a respectful dialog for the last three years - he still cannot understand my loyalty to the Democratic ticket. My loyalties are tribal. I vote for good people, like Matt O'Shea, because I see the results of their labors and know their stories.

John Murtagh's family was targeted by retired distinguished professor of education and terrorist Bill Ayers. The Murtagh family home was fire-bombed, while I was a student at Loyola University.

Though no one was ever caught or tried for the attempt on my family’s life, there was never any doubt who was behind it. Only a few weeks after the attack, the New York contingent of the Weathermen blew themselves up making more bombs in a Greenwich Village townhouse. The same cell had bombed my house, writes Ron Jacobs in The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground. And in late November that year, a letter to the Associated Press signed by Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife, promised more bombings.

As the association between Obama and Ayers came to light, it would have helped the senator a little if his friend had at least shown some remorse. But listen to Ayers interviewed in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, of all days: “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Translation: “We meant to kill that judge and his family, not just damage the porch.” When asked by the Times if he would do it all again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.”

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html

Since that time, John Murtagh studied, married and entered public service. Now, his neighbors have tapped John Murtagh to run for Mayor, like we used to do here in Chicago.

Mayor Phil Amicone and former Republican gubernatorial candidate John Faso will join Westchester Republican County Chairman Doug Colety and Yonkers Republican City Chairman John Jacono as Honorary Co-Chairs of a “Unity for Yonkers” Reception for John Murtagh.

Former Yonkers City Councilwoman Dee Barbato, Councilman John Larkin, and Councilman Dennis Shepherd will serve as the Co-Chairs of the Reception.

The Reception Committee includes Republican Ward Leaders Henry Sershen, Helen Calabrese, Mike Ramondelli, Justin Tubiolo, Rich Barbato, Stan Alexander, Mike Breen, Pat Dickerson, and Geri Esposito.

The “Unity for Yonkers” event will be held on Thursday, June 23 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Byrne & Hanrahan’s, located at 640 McLean Avenue in Yonkers. Ticket prices are $150, $250, $500 and $1,000. You may purchase tickets using a credit card online right here or at the door on June 23.

We in the Murtagh campaign are delighted to have such a broad-based coalition of Republican leaders and activists coming together to support John Murtagh’s candidacy.


Meet John Murtagh

John Murtagh has been the voice of civic reform and transparent government in Yonkers for nearly two decades.

He co-chaired the Committee for Term Limits in 1994, leading the successful fight to make Yonkers one of the first municipalities in New York State to impose term limits on elected officials.

As a first-term Councilman in 2004, Mr. Murtagh refused to accept a “free” city car, making it clear from his first day in office that he would not participate in the go-along-to-get-along politics that has marred Yonkers government and overburdened Yonkers taxpayers for decades. Over the past seven years, he has fought to cut spending and end overtime abuse, and has been the leading conservative voice in local government.

Getting Results

Councilman Murtagh is the author of the tough new Ethics Code for the City of Yonkers and the Board of Education, and he successfully amended the Rules and Procedures of the City Council to increase public participation.
As co-chair of the Real Estate and Economic Development Committee from 2004 through 2005, Councilman Murtagh represented the community’s interests in a number of major development projects. Since winning re-election, he has introduced cutting edge “Green Building” legislation; legislation to protect property owners from eminent domain abuse, and to reform unethical lobbying practices in Yonkers.

Councilman Murtagh was elected Republican Minority Leader of the Yonkers City Council in 2010, and serves as Chairman of the Municipal Operations and Environmental Sustainability Committees. He is a member of the Real Estate and Economic Development, Budget and Rules committees.

Serving the Community

Mr. Murtagh is a former Chairman of the Four Rivers District Boy Scouts of America, and currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Westchester Putnam Council Boy Scouts of America. He is a former Chairman of the Board of Pregnancy Care Center, a counseling and residence program for expectant Westchester mothers.

Mr. Murtagh, an attorney with Gaines, Gruner, Ponzini & Novick LLP, is a graduate of Fordham College (B.A. 1982) and Fordham Law School (J.D. 1986). He served as an Adjunct Professor at the Fordham College of Liberal Studies, where he taught courses on urban policy and government. He is a frequent lecturer on open government and the Freedom of Information Law. His political and legal commentary has been featured in The New York Times, The Journal News, City Journal, National Public Radio, WVOX Radio, The Westchester County Business Journal and NY Habitat Magazine. Mr. Murtagh has been a featured guest on Hannity & Colmes, Fox & Friends, Inside Edition, and the Greta Van Sustren Show.

He has been married for twenty-four years to Margaret Murtagh, a nursery school director. The Murtaghs have two sons – John, 23 and James, 19.

BTW - I made a drop to the John Murtagh Unity Campaign. My widower's mites helped Matt O'Shea, perhaps the lucky nickels will help John Murtagh.

Click my post title for more on a fine young man!

What's Next for Whitey? I See Him on the History Channel -WHITEY BULGER"S TRAVEL TIPS

James "Whitey" Bulger was captured by the F.B.I. this week. Way to go, G-Persons! The fugitive gangster went on the lamb in the Land of Free three days after my daughter Clare was born. In that time, Whitey traveled more than the late Charles Kuralt, inspired a great movie with a boffo soundtrack, morphed from being a working class hero bandit to the most dangerous man alive and gave the FBI the miseries. Whitey outlasted Osama bin Laden on the trail and seems to have had a much better quality of life on the road than the Saudi cement heir.

At 81 years of age, Mr. Bulger surrendered to G-Persons without a struggle, much less unnecessary carnage. What now?

News poseurs in Chicago, like the consistently wrong Chuck Goudie of ABC 7 News, act like they were hot on Whitey's trail,

Chicago has a rich history of Irish gangsters from the time they faced off with Al Capone's Italian mob for control of the city's bootlegging business.

There was so much suspicion that Bulger was hiding in Chicago that the leaders of a historically Irish-run union were questioned.

The FBI Bulger task force descended twice on Chicago, Labor Day in 1999 and June of 2006, when agents questioned top officials of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union about whether they were helping to hide Bulger, delivering subpoenas and seizing a handheld computer.

And???? Bupkis, Chuckie! But why should that stop Goudie?

This ninny couldn't find an ugly girl at an IVI-IPO convention.

I think that Whitey Bulger's sunset years will feature another wonderful series on the History Channel, not unlike Larry the Cable Guy's America, Miley Cyrus' Dad Talkin HillBilly, Swamp Diversity, Pawn Shop Pros, or the Flea Market Cupcakes - the two gentlemen, as sweet as bear meat, who find DARLING collectibles around this great country of ours.

In this cash-strapped and privacy bankrupt culture of ours, Whitey Bulger's American Travel Tips will be more boffo than Donald Trump firing Charlie Sheen!

Whitey Bulgers Travel Tips:

Take a Friend: Travel requires companionship. If you can not enjoy the splendors of the Grand Canyon, the whimsy of Disneyland, or the breath-tacking beauty of the Kankakee River with one you love, why not rent travel DVD's and sit in the basement with Orville Reddenbacher?

Go where You Want to Go - Don't fall prey to Orbitz, or the Travel Gnome. Make your own plans,

Plan Ahead -make sure that you have unmarked, untraceable cabbage salted away in better cities.

Be Public to Stay Private - Avoid the press, if you must; or, better yet, tell Chuck Goudie exactly where you are.

Tacitus on History and Economy of Truth

Last night I watched the White Sox save grace from the hands of the Cubs. A.J.
Pierzynski's triple was the touchstone. Man, is that kid a tough hombre. Following the 2-1 Crosstown Series win, I returned to the Annals of Tacitus.

The Annals focus upon the Roman world following the death of Ocatvian-Augustus Caesar. Their were two powerful families -dynasties not unlike the Kennedys or the Bush Family. Families were joined to consolidate power. The two most powerful families at the time of the death of Augustus were the Julians ( The line of Gaius Julius Caesar) and the Claudians: The Romans passed the family name down from the father, but if a family was with a son an adoption could take place. Julius Caesar had no male heir so he adopted his nephew Ocatavian - a Julian. Ocatavian became Caesar's heir; thus, locking in the power for the Julian Family. Octavian married Julia, as foul an old bitch as ever drew on a skirt. She had previously been married to a Claudian and had a son Tiberius, who in turn was adopted by Octavian, Now Augustus Caesar and so Tiberius - Julio/Claudian - is Caesar.

Tiberius was a mope, but a good soldier and an able administrator who wanted only to swim naked with little boys and murder anyone he perceived to be a threat to him. His mom Julia encouraged Tiberius to be all he could be, while being what he wanted to be - a sexual and moral deviant.

This was the time of the Pax Romana - the Peace of Rome. There were plenty of slaughters and genocide going on in Germania (Nato), Armenia (Turkey), Judea (Gaza/Israel), and Parthia (Iraq), but Tiberius was more than happy not to extend the borders of Rome any more. He wanted to "focus on nation-building here at home," They had five wars going on and were putting down Arab Springs all over the Mideast. The professional army had suffered many setbacks - competent generals were removed and replaced by yes-men. The wars were fought politically in order to maintain power at Rome (home).

Nation building to Tiberius and those who succeeded him meant having his Chief Law Dog - Sejanus and later Macro under Nero - the attorneys general, if you will, get and keep folks in line. Taxes were killing the economy, but thepowerful maintained a velvet rope lifestyle. Books were burned and history carefully maintained by those in power. Tacitus knew how dangerous it was to present the truth.

Here is a wonderful passage:

33. For every nation or city is governed by the people, or by the nobility, or by individuals: a constitution selected and blended from these types is easier to commend than to create; or, if created, its tenure of life is brief. Accordingly, as in the period of alternate plebeian dominance and patrician ascendancy it was imperative, in one case, to study the character of the masses and the methods of controlling them; while, in the other, those who had acquired the most exact knowledge of the temper of the senate and the aristocracy were accounted shrewd in their generation and wise; so to‑day, when the situation has been transformed and the Roman world is little else than a monarchy, the collection and the chronicling of these details may yet serve an end: for few men distinguish right and wrong, the expedient and the disastrous, by native intelligence; the majority are schooled by the experience of others. But while my themes have their utility, they offer the minimum of pleasure. Descriptions of countries, the vicissitudes of battles, commanders dying on the field of honour, such are the episodes that arrest and renew the interest of the reader: for myself, I present a series of savage mandates, of perpetual accusations, of traitorous friendships, of ruined innocents, of various causes and identical results — everywhere monotony of subject, and satiety. Again, the ancient author has few detractors, and it matters to none whether you praise the Carthaginian or the Roman arms with the livelier enthusiasm. But of many, who underwent either the legal penalty or a form of degradation in the principate of Tiberius, the descendants remain; and, assuming the actual families to be now extinct, you will still find those who, from a likeness of character, read the ill deeds of others as an innuendo against themselves. Even glory and virtue create their enemies — they arraign their opposites by too close a contrast. But I return to my subject.

( emphases my own)

You gotta love the classics and not just the Cross-town Classics.

Leo Advisory Board Member Named to Top 30 Hottest ( Most Fetching -God I hate the term Hottest unless you are a 7th Grade Male) Political Women in USA

Leo High School added a wonderful young woman to its Advisory Board last school year - Attorney Tamara Holder, a Fox Television Legal Analyst, journalist and activist.

Prior to her arrival, the Leo Advisory Board consisted of African American and Irish American middle aged males - think of a collection of Cedric the Entertainer/John C. Reilly stand-ins.

Ms. Holder has worked for Operation Push and specializes in expungement/criminal law. More importantly Tamara Holder invests the few hours of her free time making sure that the young guys here on 79th Street get a great education.

Click my post title for the Washington Times's celebration of beautiful women with political impact.

Hottest, is just so . . .what's the word . . . rhymes with dip-stick. It'll come to me. Click my post title for the full story.

Tamara Holder is a beautiful woman and would be so even if she looked like Mike Holmes, Mike Joyce, Rich Finn, Bob Sheehy, Ken Mason, Curtis Cooper, John Linehan, Bill Holland, much less Jack Fitzgerald- beauty is in what you do for others -Facta Non Verba!

Bishop Sample's Example - Limit Homilies by Deacons! Now, About Them Liturgical Impressarios. . .

They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues - Steely Dan

Marquette, Mich., Jun 21, 2011 / 05:54 am (CNA).- Permanent deacons should not preach at Mass often. Rather, they should preach at other services and serve the Church in the course of their daily witness to Christ, Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Mich. has said in a new pastoral letter on the deacon’s role in the Catholic Church.

Bishop Sample’s 19-page letter, titled “The Deacon: Icon of Jesus Christ the Servant,” cited the principle that the one who presides at a liturgical service or who is the principal celebrant at Mass should also give the homily.

“This should be the ordinary practice,” he said.

Deacons should preach the homily at Mass “for some identifiable advantage for the faithful in the congregation, but not on a regular basis,” the bishop wrote.

My kids all played parish sports for the Catholic grammar schools that they attended. Very often, we would need to hit Mass before a game. My neighbors and their kids in Blue/White for St. Mary's or Gold/Black of St. Cajetan's would crowd the pews. The Order of the Catholic Mass is this:
Entrance procession The Catholic Mass begins with the entrance procession. Father in full liturgical vestments follows the altar servers, lectors, possibly a Deacon - often in a get-up that would make a Coptic Bishop seems like an LL Bean Summer Poster Boy. One of the servers ( usually the top miscreant in his class -God Bless him!) is the Cross bearer. The cross must be present at or near the altar of the Sacrifice. The cross depicts the sacrifice of the cross and made present in the altar. There is an entrance hymn sung by the parish liturgical clique.Often we were very late and kept other teams waiting, due to the excesses of Liturgists and Deacons. Liturgy should elevate and not enervate.

Greetings

After the hymn, with us standing, the priest and the faithful make the sign of the cross and the priest greets the faithful, usually with the traditional, "The Lord be with you." Chorus: En Also Wit Chew. The lector might announce which day of the liturgical year it happens to be, or announce for whom the Mass may be celebrated.


The Penitential Rite or Rite of Blessing and Sprinkling Holy Water:

Here is where, my kids look at me. Yes, I know, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy."
Kyrie: the Greek Orthodox Church and of the Roman Catholic Church.
GloriaGloria in Excelsis is Latin meaning, Glory to God in the Highest

The Collect, the priest now invites us to pray in silence,

Liturgy of the Word

The Lectionary - we all sit.
Here the lector, or reader ( usually Bruno at Sacred Heart Church who looks like he could tear a New York Phone Directory in Half) reads from Scripture -Old Testament Psalms, Prophet, or Wisdom readings and then the Epistles, or Acts of the Apostles.

Then, Bruno reads
The Responsorial Psalms usually the first verse gets read followed by an Alleluia sung with great force and majesty by Terry McEldowney's baritone (AL -LAY- LOO-YA X Three)at the 8:30 Scared Heart Mass, or a full operetic production that can last five to ten minutes at too many Parishes dominated by Liturgical Impressarios. Remember the kids in the uniforms and the Moms and Dads that need to drive to Tinley Park, or Flossmoor for a sound beating from the kids at St. George or Infant Jesus of Prague?

Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John)

Everybody up! We stand for the Gospel read by the priest.

Everyone takes a seat. Here it's a crap-shoot;especially, if Deacon Elmer was in the procession make book he's going to Billy Sunday It Up!


HomilyIn the Homily, or the Sermon, Priests are professionals - ten minutes tops for the Homily. They get paid and well they should. Homiletics can be brutal. A bum priest will phone-it-in or talk down at the ignorant pests in the pews. A good priest will recap the three readings from Old and New Testament. A great priest will succinctly present the message of Christ's love for his neighbors and friends with wit and humility.

Then there is the Deacon. Deacon's are ecclesiastical substitute teachers. We go to Mass expecting Father Tony, or even better Father Gallagher; but are not too put off by visiting Oblate Father Jonathan Ugalandoora from Uganda who offers a strict warning to be Goot Poisin Squirrels . . . EACH Dey, Nut Joost SahnDay.

The wheels can come off when Deacon Elmer majestically mounts the Oratory - that's the old time concrete mini-cathedral in older Churches that are rarely used for Homilies, unless a Deacon is present.

Deacon Elmer lays into it with a will and Testament! You hear about his childhood desire to be a priest and how it was his special task each Christmas to sprinkle the Lux laundry flakes over his sister Gwen's vanity mirror that the family placed in the the pillows of cotton under the Christmas Tree's Nativity Scene that young Elmer and Gwen turned into that great scene from It's a Wonderful Life with tiny painted metal ice-skaters placed on the mirror pond that Elmer showered with those Lux laundry flakes . . . leading up to Easter when they used Popsicle sticks to make three Crosses of Calvary and placed army men on each with the Lt. as Jesus . . .in the 3rd Grade Elmer was asked by Sister Dolorosa to monitor the cloak room and MONITOR he did! . . .( next 15 minutes -The Years of Triumph!!!) . . .Elmer became an altar boy in 1967 and continued to serve through high school at Quigley and all of the louses on Wood Street from Leo, Little Flower, and St. Lawrence would arch pop bottles from Hite's Candy Store when he got off the bus . . .in College . . . William Faulkner would blow his brains out, if he had to finish Elmer's homily.

By the time one and all reach the conclusion of WhateverThe#$%^ElmerWasTalkingAbout and the . . .

Profession of Faith - The Credo- "We Believe in One God the Father the Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth and please give this windy SOB a grabber!"

General Intercessions and Prayer of the Faithful - Generally are silent prayers for storms of righteous misery upon Deacon Elmer and all of his kin. What follows is a blurr:

Liturgy of the Eucharist
Preparation of the Gifts The Offertory LavaboThe Rite of Hand Washing, or Lavabo, Father is really cleaning his mitts, more in anguish and penitence over his numbness caused by Deacon Elmer

Prayer Over the Gifts"Pray, Brethren that my sacrifice andyours may be pleasing . . ." sacrifice? Absolutely!

Mass has been going for a good forty-five minutes now;thus in a somewhat quick succession"

Eucharistic Prayer/Sabctus
The Consecration

Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ! This is what Mass should be all about the TransubstantiationDuring the epiclesis or invocation, God is called upon to send the Holy Spirit and transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. "This is my Body!" The Bread/Christ/Faithful/Church are One!

Remembrance Death, Resurrection Ascension & etc. We have all of that going for us!

Offering With the priest we offer our lives up to Christ.

IntercessionsThe priest intercedes with the Father. We pray for those who have departed and we pray "for us sinners."

Final Doxology Father lifts the Host and the Chalice proclaiming the doxology, the words of praise linking the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
Communion Rite

The Lord's Prayer The absolute best prayer of any religion.

The Communion Rites continue and you look at your watch because you are supposed to be at St. George in twenty minutes. Gonna be late.

Agnus Dei
"Lamb of God." Qui tollis peccata Mundi! Who takes away the sins of the world? God, the burglar of sins! Pay attention.

Communion

We file up and take the Body of Christ from Father, Deacon Elmer, and the Eucharistic Mininsters on tongue or in palm. Some of us "pull a Murphy" and hot-foot it out of Church once Communion has been received. Most of us return to our pews in silnce and kneel in prayer until after Father has taken his chair for reflection.

Concluding Rite that used to be called the Last Gospel.

Announcements: "There's a benefit for the Santorini Family at Bourbon Street on July 25th. There will be a special collection after Mass for the next three weeks for those of you goin' on vacation and can't make on july 25th. See, Mike Thomas and Jimmy Finn . . .don't make them come and see you. Some of you could stand to part with some of your 1st Communion money. Oh, there's donuts after Mass next week."

Greeting and Blessing Father blesses us and might offer a commentary on our attendence or lack thereof, but after Deacon Elmer . . .maybe not.

Dismissal:Exeunt Omnes! One hour and twenty minutes and change with Deacon Elmer taking up the lion's share of the Ordinary. Without, a devout and fulfilling 40-45 minute Liturgy or weeks seem empty, but we are not Greek Orthodox or Two-A-Day Baptist and our kids are representing the parish a long way away. Father shakes hands and Deacon Elmer does his Pope Pius XII to one and all. The common-most-of-us avoid direct eye contact and the very best of us will ask Elmer, " All that Testor's glue you sniffed as kid really seems to have paid off, ther Elm."

Bishop Sample of UP Michigan has done us pew birds a real solid. Click my post title for the whole story.






http://www.mycatholictradition.com/catholic-mass.html

Fishing Saugany Lake, Indiana with Fareed Zakaria

One thing I have learned in the last few years is there is nothing Fareed Zakaria does not know. The guy is everywhere, like a kind of unblinking and soul-less William Shatner.

Fareed Zakaria can tell you how he advises President Obama and how to pull in a string full of Smallies, Largemouth, Crappies, and Catfish from the Great Saugany Lake in La Porte County, Indiana.

Hop into Fareed's BBC - Bass Boat Central!

Hello, I am Fareed Zakaria. Today, is the first day of summer at 12:31 PM Central Standard Time and that means it's time to wet your line and drown the old nightcrawlers, if they don't come up with keepers, in Saugany Lake. First I'd like a good old Hoosier Shout out for Owen F. Smith, of Fairfield who hooked a record Smallmouth weighing in at 10 lbs. 8 oz. at Wheeler Dam on a shiny tailwate! May the draw-down in the Iraq and Afghanistan be as fruitful.

Speaking of fruitful, have you been to the Heston Bar lately? Located on 1000 North at Fail Road this Northwest Indiana icon is a never-fail stop for a Man's Fill of the finest steaks, chops and cuts of fish. I always grab a huge handful of the complimentary licorice SNAPS in the big brass bowl, because they help me back-out the meal that blocks my colon like Netanyahu and the Zionists block Mideast Peace. Believe me a Prime Rib with all the trimmings gives a four chapter session in the thunder-box. Knowledge is Power and a fine feed is the path to knowledge. Be sure to grab a handful of licorice SNAPS- two handfuls - yourself after a few toddies, a feed beyond dreams and the post-prandial red, green, white, and orange sugar coated tubes of joy.

Well I recently filled the spare bait-well in my Ranger with fresh water beauties from Saugany Lake: Follow my instructions! Now, here's my take:


Smallmouth Bass Tips for Current Conditions:Smallmouth bass are generally their most active at 69 degrees F. Baitfish are much more active in this water temperature and the smallmouth bass will be feeding aggressively throughout the day, But as the arms-control scholar Thomas Schelling once noted, two things are very expensive in international life: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail”


Largemouth Bass Tips for Current Conditions:69 degrees F. in the largemouth bass prime water temperature range and fishing should be good right now. Baitfish are much more active in this water temperature and the largemouth bass will be feeding aggressively throughout the day. This is a great time of year to be on the water. Some of these forces have gained strength because of a lack of other alternatives. For decades the Middle East has been a political desert. . . . In much of the Muslim world Islam became the language of political opposition because it was the only language that could not be censored. This pattern, of dictators using religious groups to destroy the secular opposition, has played out in virtually every Arab country.”


Crappie Tips for Current Conditions:Crappie prefer this water temperature and will be actively feeding and staying in solid patterns. which is not to pick sides but to explain what I think is happening on the ground. I can't say, 'This is my team and I'm going to root for them no matter what they do. Baitfish are more active and schooling in all parts of the lake in this water temperature.

Walleye Tips for Current Conditions:This is the water temperature of choice for walleye. They are feeding well and moving in patterns that should be fairly easy to pick up and capitalize on today. Baitfish are not at the peak of activity but they will be in good supply in the deeper water. Like I told Politico,“Occasionally, I have had the honor to talk to the president, My gut is that those conversations should be private, and they should be off the record, you know, because it helps me enormously with my work. … It’s mostly the policymaker trying to tell me how they are thinking about the world and giving me an insight into how they think.”The lake is really turning on this time of year and the fish should be biting well.


Catfish Tips for Current Conditions:“I occasionally find myself reluctant to be pulled into a world that's not mine, in the sense that I'm not a religious guy. That said, the entire catfish family is very active and actively feeding in this water temperature. All catfish including blue catfish, flathead and channel catfish will be looking for their next meal. It’s perfect time to get on the water and fill the freezer. Good luck out there. Now, hook 'em in the mouth and string 'em through the gills! Time for dozen ice-cold Old Styles with Doo-Dah at Nowhere Bar and Grill! Doo-Dah! It's payback time for Ship/Cap'n/Crew! Here Comes a real Post American World Butt Thumping Doo-Dah!

Catch my syndicated column in Newsweek and my wonderful cable show on CNN!

Fareed Zakaria is host of CNN’s flagship international affairs program—Fareed Zakaria GPS, Editor at Large of TIME, a Washington Post columnist, and a New York Times bestselling author. He was described in 1999 by Esquire Magazine as “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.” In 2010, Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 global thinkers.

Since 2008, he has hosted Fareed Zakaria GPS, which airs Sundays worldwide on CNN. Dr. Zakaria’s in-depth interviews with the Dalai Lama, heads of state including Barack Obama, Manmohan Singh, King Abdullah II, Dmitry Medvedev, Moammar Gadhafi and Lula da Silva, as well as countless intellectuals, business leaders, politicians and journalists have been broadcast in more than 200 million homes in over 210 countries. Within its first year, GPS garnered an Emmy nomination for an interview with Premier Wen Jaibao.

Dr. Zakaria was introduced as TIME Editor at Large in October 2010 after spending 10 years overseeing all of Newsweek’s editions abroad. His cover stories and columns—on subjects from globalization and emerging markets to the Middle East and America’s role in the world—reach more than 25 million readers weekly. While his columns have received many awards including a 2010 National Magazine Award, his October 2001 Newsweek cover story, “Why They Hate Us,” remains the most decorated. Before joining Newsweek in October 2000, he spent eight years as managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a post he was appointed to at only 28 years old.

The Post-American World, which is Dr. Zakaria’s most recent book, was heralded in the New York Times book review as "...a relentlessly intelligent book" and The Economist called it “…a powerful guide” to facing global challenges. Like The Post-American World, his previous book, The Future of Freedom, was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into over 20 languages.

Born in India on January 20, 1964, Dr. Zakaria went on to receive a B.A. from Yale College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has received honorary degrees from numerous universities including Brown, the University of Miami, and Oberlin College. He currently serves as a Trustee of Yale University. He lives in New York City with his wife, son and two daughters.

Catholic Worship - "not a syllogism, but a poem" H.L. Mencken - The Faithful Skeptic

"Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it." H.L. Mencken - Holy Writ

Last night, I read H.L. Mencken's article Holy Writ.

This morning, I checked my sump pump. Everything is A-Ok! Thanks be to God and Zoeller Cast Iron Quality!

I know what packing a pump is, but I can not pack a pump. I know who the Achaeans are in Homer's Odyssey, but knowing that they were the Greave Wearing Greeks pitted agin the Sons of Troy does not get a pump packed.

First of all who would pack a pump? Anyone who might need a fluid sealing pump in a building or industry. A pump that conveys water, oil, or anti-freeze needs to be packed in order that the seal be tight and thus fluid flow like a river.

A great number of my family know how to pack a pump ( male and female; many of their spouses, or immediate family members have heard the term. As children, it was an accepted part of the mystery of labor, just as the Transfiguration, Consecration, and Pentecost ring recognition in the soul of the collective Catholic Faith of the family. The Faith is practiced in ritual - we participate in Mass. The priest officiates - he transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and we all consume at the hands of the priest and his Deacons and Eucharistic Ministers. A skilled tradesman understands that fluids must be conducted to essential moving parts and reservoirs in order to heat,cool and transfer fluids as required. The arcana of the packing of the pump is understood by me and accepted on faith, having participated in its rituals. I am no pump priest. I screw things up, by not paying attention, taking short cuts, or not having the proper set of tools.

Likewise, Vatican II turned the pumps over to screw-ups. By that I mean - liturgy since 1966 has been erased: The Word of God and Worship is amateur hour. Priests are preachers and social engineers. Really. The Mystery of Faith? What Mystery? All can and should be known - ask any Kennedy Clan member, or cradle Catholic suburban columnist. Faith is fashion.

What has fashioned faith has been skepticism -"Who's to Say?" The Who's To Sayers are the High Priests of Dialog. We must dialog. Always?

What I know could be fit into a gnats-ass. I know that I can not pack a pump. I my Zoeller Sump Pump looses its seal and goes out - I replace the pump with a spare and take the Cast-Iron Zoeller to be re-packed.

I attend Mass officiated by a priest who understands liturgy is mystery and prayer and ritual must match the sublime nature of Transubstantiation - "that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood ."

For Centuries, the Transubstatiation was celebrated by the greatest music and poetry Mankind was capable of producing. Vatican II cashed that in for "Sons of God/Hear His Holy Word . . . gather round the table of the Lord" and other Sesame Street ditties. Oh, Hell, Yeah! Kick up stool, Cuz! Jesus is pourin'! That Man from Gal-A-Lee!

Prior to that a Ugandan could go to the universal Mass in County Kerry, Stausbourg, Gooli-Barranga, Queensland, and the Solomon Islands. Latin was debunked. I still find myself transported from the gangways and alleys of Chicago to a much better place than a liturgical Fred's Dance Barn, with a Latin Missa Papae Marcelli.

Funny, so did HL Mencken, a Baltimore born and baptized German Catholic who became the icon of American Skepticism. Mencken wrote this -

The Latin Church, which I constantly find myself admiring, despite its frequent astounding imbecilities, has always kept clearly before it the fact that religion is not a syllogism, but a poem. It is accused by Protestant dervishes of withholding the Bible from the people. To some extent this is true; to the same extent the church is wise; again to the same extent it is prosperous. Its toying with ideas, in the main, have been confined to its clergy, and they have commonly reduced the business to a harmless play of technicalities—the awful concepts of Heaven and Hell brought down to the level of a dispute of doctors in long gowns, eager only to dazzle other doctors. Its greatest theologians remain unknown to 99% of its adherents. Rome, indeed, has not only preserved the original poetry in Christianity; it has also made capital additions to that poetry—for example, the poetry of the saints, of Mary, and of the liturgy itself. A solemn high mass must be a thousand times as impressive, to a man with any genuine religious sense in him, as the most powerful sermon ever roared under the big-top by a Presbyterian auctioneer of God. In the face of such overwhelming beauty it is not necessary to belabor the faithful with logic; they are better convinced by letting them alone.

Preaching is not an essential part of the Latin ceremonial. It was very little employed in the early church, and I am convinced that good effects would flow from abandoning it today, or, at all events, reducing it to a few sentences, more or less formal. In the United States the Latin brethren have been seduced by the example of the Protestants, who commonly transform an act of worship into a puerile intellectual exercise; instead of approaching God in fear and wonder these Protestants settle back in their pews, cross their legs, and listen to an ignoramus try to prove that he is a better theologian than the Pope. This folly the Romans now slide into. Their clergy begin to grow argumentative, doctrinaire, ridiculous. It is a pity. A bishop in his robes, playing his part in the solemn ceremonial of the mass, is a dignified spectacle, even though he may sweat freely; the same bishop, bawling against Darwin half an hour later, is seen to be simply an elderly Irishman with a bald head, the son of a respectable saloon-keeper in South Bend, Ind. Let the reverend fathers go back to Bach. If they keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it.

Mencken knew that Everyperson is no pump packer. Why pretend.


Pump packing prevents leakages. There are four main factors that affect its functionality: quality, packing material, mechanical condition and installation and lubrication. Poor quality materials may damage equipment. Packing material should correspond to working conditions. Good mechanical condition of equipment ensures packing's longevity. Proper installation and lubrication ensure efficient operation of the pump. Basic packing types are: flax (low-quality), non-asbestos (medium quality, common in irrigation pumps), Ameri-lon (high quality), GFO (for industrial pumps), chemical resistant (high quality) and high-temperature (high quality).


InstructionsThings You'll Need:
Protective gloves
Packing hooks
Emery cloth
Meter
Pencil and paper
Mandrel
Lubricant
Cloth
Follower - N.B.

Get what you need for every
project at HomeDepot.com
1
Use packing hooks to remove the old packing. Do it carefully to prevent damage to the shaft.

2
Clean the shaft and stuffing box with Emery cloth.

3
Inspect the shaft for damage. If there is any damage, replace the parts in accordance with manufacturer's directions.

4
Measure the shaft and the stuffing box bore diameters with a meter, and write down the dimensions.

5
Subtract the shaft diameter from the bore diameter, and divide the result by two to get cross-section size. Write the size down. Consult the measures when choosing packing materials.

6
Cut the packing into rings with a mandrel. The mandrel should have same dimensions as the shaft.

7
Lubricate the rings. Use a clean cloth and a lubricant to do this.

8
Insert the first ring into the stuffing box using the mandrel. Repeat the procedure for all rings.

9
Install the follower with your hands. The follower is an oval metal component with a hole in the middle. The hole accepts the shaft. Follower's purpose is to transmit shaft motions to valve motions.

10
Start the pump and watch for leakages. Tighten the bolts to decrease leakages to a minimum, but do not stop them completely. That may damage the package. Pump package prevents leaking, and keeps waste out of water.

11
Reduce the leakages gradually during the first hour or two after installation of the packing material.

Mike Houlihan Celebrates 35 Years of Boz O'Brien's Reilly's Daughter Pub -Oak Lawn and Midway Airport

The Great Boz O'Brien and son Brendan

I was not a fast bartender' nor, was I a slow bartender; Boz O'Brien said that I was a "Half Fast Bartender." At least that was how I recall James "Boz" O'Brien's assessment. I was part of the early crews ( 1975-77) pouring, uncapping and mixing wholesome beverages to fine folks at Reilly's Daughter Pub.

Irish American News presents Chicago Renaissance Man and Brasseuse on the Loose, Mike Houlihan's penning of a poignant paen to one of the great Captains of the Counter - Boz O'Brien on the 35th Anniversary of the Birth of Reilly's Daughter

Here's a shot -

It was June 16, Bloomsday, 1976 when Boz O’Brien opened his saloon, Reilly’s Daughter, in Oak Lawn at 111th and Pulaski. A shopping mall seems a strange place for a tavern but it had plenty of parking and it became the most popular watering hole in Chicagoland for anybody coming of age in the final three decades of the last century.

If ever there was a place where everybody knew your name, this was the place.

Boz tells me the secret of his success has always been the people who work at Reilly’s, but his talents as the PT Barnum of bar owners never hurt.

Boz once booked a pair of CTA cars for a 3 hour pre-St. Paddy’s train ride all over Chicago on the EL It was 1977 and on Feb. 7th of that year four cars had derailed and fallen off the track at Lake and Wabash. Somebody at the CTA figured that having these Irish kids party on the EL only a month after the crash might show Chicago that there was nothing to fear. It was a public relations stroke of genius and Reilly’s Daughter sold out all 200 tickets for the ride.

Click my title for a full swallow!

Chicago's "King of Canaryville and the Stockyards" -Father Maurice Dorney

Illinois Progressive History chose to ignore Col. James Mulligan, Senator for three States James Shields, the only Union general to defeat Stonewall Jackson in the field, and the most energetic, brilliant and courageous activist of the 19th century, Father Maurice Dorney founder of St. Gabriel's Parish in Canaryville and the King of the Stockyards when labor first got its legs.

Catholics are given scrutiny only when causing scandal or smearing people as racists, bigots, and deviants. Read Huffington Post and the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times for a daily litany of priest scandals, or loggerheads with Gay bullies and Planned Parenthood.

Mother Cabrini is being ignored and soon will be about as memorable as the man for whom Shields Ave. and Shields Elementary is named.

The St. Vincent DePaul Society, Misericordia, Mercy Home for Boys, Little Brothers of the Poor, and Poor Clares, have no homosexually rooted or abortion friendly parallels. Only when a nun gushes for abortion, or a priest preaches for the ordination of women will a media profile make nice with the nomenclature of Catholic. There are some Catholics who make a Progressive smile and they are generally elected officials.

Justice icons tend to be lesbian activists of the 19th Century like Jane Addams and Frances Willard, which is nice but much too exclusive. Don't you think? No?

Well, let's take a look at the life of Fr. Maurice Dorney, shall we?

Maurice Dorney was born in 1851 at Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, John, left his home at Longhur near Limerick, Ireland, in 1846 as the plight of the Irish was about to worsen. Taking work in Troy, New York, John met Mary Toomey there and made her his wife. From Troy to Springfield to Chicago, John Dorney's work as a lumber inspector landed him a job with the Illinois Central railroad. The family moved into a home along Cottage Grove Avenue and 25th Street on Chicago's Southside. His elementary school days were spent at Mosely School and St. Patrick's Academy, the Christian Brothers academy near Adams and Des Plaines. His university education took place at the University of St. Mary of the Lake under the tutelage of Father James J. McGovern. Maurice enrolled in Our Lady of Angels Seminary at Suspension Bridge (Niagara), New York, in 1867. He concluded his seminary studies in 1870 at the Catholic Theological Seminary (St. Mary's) in Baltimore, Maryland. Bishop Foley conferred the priesthood upon him at St. James Church on Prairie Avenue in Chicago, January 27, 1874. In his youth Maurice had knelt before the tabernacle in this very church as an altar server.

The first parish to receive Father Dorney's ministrations was St. John the Evangelist in Chicago. He served as assistant to Reverend John Waldron, a venerated veteran of the chaotic, early formative years of the diocese.

At this time Chicago was rebuilding from the Great Conflagration of '71. St. John's parish, having been effected by the fire, as was most of the city, was home to many of the rebuilders of the city. Father Dorney's dynamic presence proved inspirational to these survivors to maintain the "I Will" spirit born of the great fire.

Bishop Foley knew full well the measure of man he had assigned to the church at Lockport. Father Eustace's departure to St. Louis was probably directly or indirectly related to the aftermath surrounding Bishop Duggan's mental illness. St. Dennis needed a strong, progress-minded pastor: "The importance of this charge [St. Dennis] can best be understood by the realization of the fact that at the time the scope of this 'parish' embraced the territory extending from the city limits of Chicago to those of Joliet." [Charles Ffrench. Biographical History of the American Irish in Chicago. Chicago. p.799] Laboring at St. Dennis and the Illinois and Michigan Canal missions provided Father Dorney with a contrasting outlook to the one he developed while growing up within the city.


His most definitive call was to occur next. On the 11th of April 1880, by appointment of Vicar-General John McMullen, Father Dorney established living quarters at the Transit House, a lodging building. Hiecome St. Gabriel parish. From these quarters Father Dorney charted the construction of a temporary wooden church to be built on part of twenty lots purchased on Sherman Street. From this landmark point Father Maurice Dorney would build the legends new home was near the bustling Union Stockyards in the town of Lake, just outside the Chicago limits. The yards, which would soon become synonymous with Chicago, were located in an area known as 'Canaryville'. Wild pigs that roamed the area as scavengers were referred to as 'canaries' - hence the affectionate nickname. At the Transit House, a rented room served as a chapel for the growing congregation that would b he became associated with. He was to become "The King of the Stockyards".

His interest in the temporal well being of his fellows led to a crusade for temperance and against the proliferation of saloons throughout the residential areas of St. Gabriel parish. By skillfully presenting his impassioned plea, Father Dorney inspired others across the Archdiocese to adopt the cause of sensibility in relation to alcohol. Over forty saloons filled the area between 40th Street and 45th Street along Halsted Street. Father Dorney's persuasive powers can be gauged by the reaction of tavern owners in his parish. When Father Dorney proposed that all saloons be closed during hours that a weeklong mission for men was taking place, local saloon keepers 'Gambler' Jim O'Leary and R.M. Donkin were in concert. Said Donkin: "You can say for me that whatever Father Dorney wants he can have." 'Gambler' Jim O'Leary concurred: "We always do what Father Dorney wants us to do down here." His lectures on temperance such as one that took place in 1896 at Annunciation Church were in the spirit of Father Matthew and were a precursor to the larger Prohibition Movement that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century.

Father Dorney's excellence in elocution won the admiration of employers and employees at the burgeoning meat packing houses. He was able to act as a broker for jobs at the yards. Immigrants and people out of work petitioned Father Dorney for assistance in securing work in the packing plants and meat industry. In days before organized labor at the yards, he would mediate strikes and disagreements, going down to the 'killing floor' if need be.


Father Dorney's influence was felt as much at city hall and corporate board rooms as it was within the church walls. In fact, at one time his influence had an impact on houses of parliament across the sea. The politics surrounding agitation for Irish home rule brought Father Maurice Dorney into the international spotlight. Father Dorney met with Charles Parnell, organizer of the Irish Home Rule Party, in the British House of Commons at a time in 1889 when Parnell was under fire on many fronts. Richard Pigott, publisher of the newspaper, "The Irishman", and not sympathetic to the Home Rule Party, submitted a forged letter to the London Times slandering Parnell. In the letter, Pigott had insinuated that Parnell was a co-conspirator in the 1882 murder at Dublin's Phoenix Park of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Irish Secretary appointed by England, and Thomas Henry Burke, the Undersecretary. This assassination had been carried out by a secret society referred to as the "Invincibles". Through papers received from the president of the Irish National league of America, Alexander Sullivan, and its onetime treasurer, Patrick Egan, Father Dorney aided in the exoneration of charges of terrorist activity brought against Parnell by Pigott.

Father Dorney had a long association with an Irish-American organization called the Clan Na Gael, also known as the" United Brotherhood". "In age it dated back to 1869, its cardinal objections being to establish in Ireland an Irish republic, to bring about fraternal feelings among Irishmen in the United States, and generally assist in the elevation of the Irish race."[Henry M. Hunt. The Crime of the Century. 1889. Chicago] His association with the quasi-secret organization was quite controversial for in many parts of the country clergy were discouraging their flock from joining the group. He was considered an insider in the highest levels of the organization having attended the 1881 Chicago convention as a delegate. His close association with Alexander Sullivan, one-third of an inner realm known as the "Triangle", would lead to friction with the church hierarchy, the press and the judicial system. Alexander Sullivan, a lawyer and a journalist, was the head of the American division of Clan Na Gael. He founded the Irish National League of America, an umbrella organization which united the majority of Irish fraternal and self-help organizations in America. During what was termed by the press as the " Trial of the Century" Father Dorney was subpoenaed to give testimony relating to Doctor Patrick Cronin's [another Clan Na Gael insider] murder and the suspected plot involved in the murder. Father Dorney received criticism in the press due to Sullivan's alleged role in the murder. Dr. Cronin had opposed Sullivan within and without the organization on various issues. A Tribune article in June of 1889 suggested that Archbishop Feehan "send Father Dorney to a quiet country parish where he could give no further scandal."

By actively venturing into the political area Father Dorney was a harbinger of the activism that the Church in the later 20th century has become associated with. His strong sense of ethnic pride and commitment to civic progress brought accolades to him from some and criticism from others.

The value of knowledge and education did not escape Father Dorney. Parents were encouraged by him to send their children to complete their education. From his experience, the road to success led away from the 'towpath' of the canal and the 'killing floor' of the stockyards. He concentrated large amounts of energy and money into schools at St. Gabriel. By his own example he provided inspiration to his flock by returning to school at fifty years of age receiving a degree in law. In addition, he was afrequent contributor to the Chicago Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Home.

He also provided guidance to the Archdiocese in evaluating students for the priesthood. Along with former St. Dennis pastor John Mackin and a few others, Father Dorney participated on a panel in charge of reviewing candidates for ordination. The St. Dennis 'stamp of approval' was on many of the priests chosen for the Archdiocese in the late 1800's.

On March 15, 1914, after a short illness, Father Maurice J. Dorney departed this life at 63 years of age. Archbishop James E. Quigley celebrated the final Mass attended by Father Dorney.


The silver-tongued orator was rightfully eulogized by the Bishop of Rockford, the Right Reverend P.J. Muldoon, at what was described in the 'New World', the diocesan paper, as "one of the most impressive funeral services ever witnessed by Chicago..." Every funeral limosine within the city of Chicago was utilized in the procession. In attendance were the families of the captains of the packinghouse industry - the Armour's, the Swift's and the Morris's, Chicago's politicians led by Chicago's Mayor Harrison and legions of parishioners, citizens of the city and Father Dorney's two sisters. "From the announcement of his death to the funeral on Wednesday, flags flew at half-staff over the International Amphitheater and the big plants of the yards. In tribute to Father Dorney, on the day of the funeral the stockyard companies suspended business for five minutes." [St. Gabriel: 1880-1980 (parish centennial publication).

Jane Addams has a nice stretch of highway and more pedestals than the Pantheon for serving bologna sandwiches and presenting Aristophanes to starving Italian, Greek and Jewish kids for only a penny, while Alderman Johnny Power put their Dad's to work.

Let's try and remember that Diversity should include breeders and folks who think its wrong to kill a baby.

James "Bro" Farrell and Leo High School 1941 National Basketball Champions

I got a call from Iggy Richards one of the all-time great Chicago Cathoic League Basketball heroes. He let me know that fellow Leo Hall of Famer James William "Bro" Farrell is residing at the Meadows of Glen Ellyn a senior retirement center. Bro Farrell played on both the Leo Lights and Heavies in his four years and Captained the last National Catholic Championship Team in 1941. After WWII, the Loyola University National Title ended forever, due to the costs of travel. These pages from the Oriole - The Leo High School Newspaper from 1941 tell the tale of Bro, the Lions and their great coaches Heavies Vince Dowd and Lights Brother Rupert Francis Finch, Irish Christian Brother.


Click on the pages for a closer and easier read.


The Leo Alumni behind the sweat equity of Tom Lynch preserved Leo's Yearbooks and many of the best pages of Oriole. Click my post title for a genuine history lesson.

Happy Fathers Day Gents!

Here are two versions of the Catholic hymn Faith of Our Fathers, by Father Frederick William Faber*. The first is the Irish/English version sung by Frank Patterson




Here is the more familar American Catholic version sung to the air St. Catherine by the Great Bing.

Faith of our fathers, living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whenever we hear that glorious Word!

Refrain

Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.

Faith of our fathers, we will strive
To win all nations unto Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
We all shall then be truly free.

Refrain

Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife;
And preach Thee, too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.

Refrain

NOTE: Re­flect­ing Fa­ber’s Ca­tho­lic roots, the orig­in­al third stan­za was:

Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
Shall win our country back to Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
England shall then indeed be free.

Thanks Dad!

* Faber attended the grammar school of Bishop Auckland for a short time, but a large portion of his boyhood was spent in Westmorland. He afterwards went to Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1835, he obtained a scholarship at University College. In 1836, he won the Newdigate Prize for a poem on "The Knights of St John," which elicited special praise from John Keble. Among his college friends were Dean Stanley and Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne.
In January 1837, he was elected fellow of National Scholars Foundation. Meanwhile, he had given up the Calvinistic views of his youth, and had become an enthusiastic follower of John Henry Newman. In 1841, a travelling tutorship took him to the continent; on his return, he published a book called Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peoples (London, 1842), with a dedication to his friend the poet Wordsworth.
In 1843, Faber accepted the rectory of Elton in Huntingdonshire. However, there was a strong Methodist presence in the parish and the Dissidents packed his church each Sunday in an attempt to ridicule his Catholic leanings. Many of his parishioners were reputed to be living in sin and the village was notorious for its double standards.[1] Few people were surprised when, after a long, drawn out mental struggle, he left Elton to follow his hero Newman and join the Roman Catholic Church in November 1845. He translated Saint Louis de Montfort's classic Marian book True Devotion to Mary into English and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1847.[2]
He founded a religious community at Cotton Hall, also known as St Wilfrid's, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, called Wilfridians[3] (which ultimately merged in the Oratory of St Philip Neri, with John Henry Newman as Superior). In 1849, a branch of the oratory—subsequently independent—was established in London, first in King William Street, and afterwards at Brompton (Brompton Oratory), over which Faber presided until his death. In spite of his weak health, an almost incredible amount of work was crowded into those years. He published a number of theological works, and edited the Oratorian Lives of the Saints. [4]
Even as a Roman Catholic, Faber was a firm supporter of using the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. He wrote: "It lives on in the ear like music that can never be forgotton, like the sound of churchbells, which the convert hardly knows he can forget."[5]
He is the great-uncle of Geoffrey Faber, co-founder of the publishing house "Faber and Gwyer" which later became "Faber and Faber".[

Mark Helprin's Novel "Freddy and Fredericka"-Homunculi/ae,Read This Book

Last winter I read a wildly comic, touching and savage novel by Mark Helprin - Freddy and Fredericka. This novel takes a Royal Couple, imagine if Prince Charles loved Lady Di, and parachutes them into the United States without passport, cash or a heads up to the American government on a mission to re-capture the Colonies for the Crown.

The novel reminded me of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman . Sterne was an early 18th Century Church of Ireland parson from Clonmel, County Tipperary. As with any man of talent, Sterne was removed from Ireland and established in a vicarage in Yorkshire and later moved among the great and politically important people during late reign of Queen Anne and the ascendancy of the German family that now occupies the throne of England.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman pretends to be a memoir. This memoir is a howl. Tristram can never get to the point of anything, without narrative 'roads less taken.' His story meanders, winds, hops fences, swims and dances around every topic, in fact the details of his birth do not take place until the Third Book. That in itself is a wet-your-Haines and Dockers Moment. At the instance of shall we say 'conception' - that magic moment as it were, Mrs. Shandy asks her lover "Did you remember to wind the clock?" And President Obama calls Weiner a distraction.

Shandy life begins and continues as a series of delicious interruptions. Tristram is so named by Old Dad because of 'interruption' at conception caused a displacement of humours. The little human, or as Sterne calls his character Tristram from the Latin Tristis meaning sorrowful, continued with a parade of physical and psychological mishaps: His long and manly nose is mashed by the Doctor's forceps, later Tristram is inadvertently 'circumcised' while urinating out a window that is closed with great force.

Great force, wanted or unexpected, is what gives us "homunculi," or literally 'little Homos' the push and pull of living. That is why Mark Helprin's great novel Freddy and Fredericka so reminds me of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.

I gave my copy of Marl Helprin's Freddy and Fredericka to my neighbor Molly some weeks ago. I therefore must turn to others for help in presenting some synopsis and of course my favorite passage: This first os from Mr. Mark Flanagan:

Freddy and Fredericka is just such a book. It is a modern day tale of the Prince of Wales and his princess, a royal couple known for their generosity with the media, each in their own manner. Prince Freddy, though he resembles no one so much as Alfred E. Newman, is nobody's fool. He is an erudite and honorable prince devoted unswervingly to the kingly ideal. Unfortunately, he often finds himself bumbling squarely into the embarrassing end of a misunderstanding, and the media is never far off when this happens.

In a particularly scandalous incident, Freddy is sent off in the night by his wife to chase down her dog, a pit bull with the unfortunate name of Pha-Kew (The dog was named after his former master, Fredericka's deceased Chinese nutritionist, who died of malnutrition). As usual, it is precisely when Freddy is chasing the dog through the British countryside yelling "Pha-Kew! Pha-Kew!" that he happens upon a wedding party and their concurrent video cameras.
Fredericka's contributions to the media are of a more appealing sort. It is with her golden tresses, sapphire-blue eyes, and unparalleled beauty, that Fredericka captures the nation, indeed the world. And perhaps England's Queen, Freddy's mother, wouldn't find this so disagreeable, if she didn't then hold the world rapt with her amply displayed cleavage. ( here follows the passage taken from At a Hen's Pace Blog spot)

“A bosom?”


“Yes, a bosom.”


“But Freddy, why do you say that? You know I’ve got two.”


This shut Freddy up like a stun grenade. “Two what?” he finally said.


“Two bosoms.”


“No, you don’t. You’ve got one bosom. One, only one.”


“No, I don’t. I’ve got two,” she said proudly…”One here, and one here.”


…”Sorry, Fredericka, but the fact is, and I know it for sure, and would stake my life on it, that you have only one.”


“The h*ll I do!”


“Yes, you’ve got one bosom, two teats (spelled t-e-a-t-s and pronounced tits), and two breasts. And that’s a fact.”


“Oh! So now I’ve got five!”


“Five what?”


“Five bosoms.”


“No, you’ve got only one.” Freddy and Fredricka


The novel, like Sterne's Tristram Shandy is one wild ride that includes Republican Candidates, Bikers, Mobbed up Burglars, Medieval Times Ne'er-Do-Wells, Forest Firefighters, and a nasty little prick of a Scottish kid who becomes a member of the House of Lords.


Any novel that is willing to descant upon the nature and nomenclature of a Babe's Knockers is aces with me.


http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/fredyFredericka.htm