Frat Boys at Yale, Hollywood Producers, TV Pilot Jockies, Clothing Industry Need to Meet Dad.

" I'm not a Yale Man, but I can Tell Time, Me Old Son. Midnight. Later is no option. Am I right, Son? Say, I'm right! That's a Good Boy! Have fun."

Dad is the guy, that I met on many occasions. He was the guy who allowed me to escort his daughter to the Beverly Theatre, Chuck Cavellini's Buffet in Midlothian, The Four Top with Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band at the Auditorium Theatre, various proms Longwood Academy of our Lady, Queen of Peace in Burbank, and my own at the Blackstone Hotel for Little Flower.

Dad was always politely appraising with eyes, and probing with nose to determine signs of sexual intent, or after odors of the great taste of Schlitz. " Be home by midnight or before, I gotta big tomorrow working the lock-up of Gresham - did Peggy tell you I was a cop?"

Once, I picked up a gorgeous Italian girl from River Forest, Illinois, with whom I shared a science lab bench at Loyola. Her dad was cleaning a Smith & Wesson of large caliber it appeared. " What's the Clancy Bothers? Why not catch a good show at the London House? Forget about it. Carla says you are from the south side. I got alotta cousins down there around 1755 W. 75th Place: phone number Stewart 3-1570, where Pat, Ginny, Kevin and sweet little Joanie live with you . . . and that great red bearded dog of your's Leroy. Have a great time, kids! See you soon." Now, that's a Dad what am a Dad!

I never had car trouble. Respect does not begin with Dad, but it should in the best of all possible worlds end with Dad, if decency, morality, common sense and fundamental honesty can not prevail. Respect begins with the human being who fundamently resembles your mother, sister, and aunts, but also signals a chemical and emotional reaction in males that filters sounds, words, images and impulses in an elemental and wonderful way. That is why sappy songs get sold.

Women are not at all like us thanks be to God. They are better. They are magnificent!

There have always been creeps and louses of my gender who abused and misused and frightened and threatened and deployed charm in order to have one's wicked way with a young lady.

Dad, my Dad, taught respect for women by displaying genuine affection for my mother with words, gestures, and by taking on the cooking, cleaning, diaper changing, laundry, as well as the plumbing, carpentry and furnace maintenance. Moreso, I caught the two of them 'making out' on any number of occasion, returning earlier than expected from my date.

I hate the sight of clothing ads that present young girls and boys as sexual predators, sexually ambiguous. I am no fan of TV sitcoms written by morons for imbeciles that make light of love. I am appalled by the news of the Yale Frat Boys: "No Means Yes, Yes Means Anal." that is the least objectionable chant by these privileged punks.



Sorry sweetheart, me and your Dad agree that Calvin needs a face-to-face with Dad. The ads are stupid and make perfect sense to stupid people.

Yale is getting close scrutiny by the Nanny Press and now the Nation of Cowards Justice Department. Yale is a great school that is the Alma Mater for several of my dearest friends - Vigorous and intelligent Dads themselves.

Boys are dogs, if they wish to be and the tolerant eyes of a society that bases all of its Hegalian assumptions upon " Who's to Say" as the 1st Commandment. The same society that valorizes Tupac as the new Andrew Marvell and places his idiotic utterances in the canon of literature at Yale, Brown, Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, because some loud mouth with an alphabet after his name plays the race card, is now huffing and puffing that Yale Men are sexists?

Many of those poor louts have been raised without Dads, or at best weekend Dads, I venture to say. Marriage is so . . .sexist and patriarchal and hard work.

I am blessed to live in a neighborhood that for a widower like me is a dating desert. Everyone is married and stays married - for better or worse, in sickness and in health, and until death do they part. The women are often tougher than the men, though they look like movie stars. They were Daddy's Girls and had brothers with hands like meat-hooks who started for Mt. Carmel, St. Rita, Leo and St. Lawrence. These women respected themselves and demanded the same from us knuckle-draggers. Several of those knuckle-draggers hold degrees from Yale, BTW. They sit next to their brides at Mass. At the kiss of Peace, after the Pater Noster, these men gently kiss the women who are their lives. These gentle men are Dads and not above giving a lout who speaks disrespectfully, much less lays hands on a daughter a thorough and pious tune-up.

Many of those poor Yale louts Tweet for Obama and about the MILF Sarah Palin in the most vile and unworthy ways possible. The same clown opera that is MSNBC and CNN and the networks is hand-wringing about the Yale boys, but calling Mrs. Palin and other women out of their political circles in the same manner as the Yale Men.

Louts are louts. Louts need clouts. Yet, the smarm merchants chant against violence. The Yale Men and Hollywood and the Music Industry and Calvin Klein and Snoop Yo'Dog Gangstah Sex Pimp and Abercrombie and Fitch need a good session with a Dad.

A gentle man similar in inclination to Carla's Pop . . .the huge knuckled second generation Italian-American with the comfortable home in River Forest, IL would be just the ticket.

Palm Sunday and Wallace Stevens Welcomes the Catholic Faith

I remember a graduate school class in modern American poetry that I took at Loyola. We studied Pound,Masters,Cummings, Dickens, Eliot, Moore, Cullen, Frost, Hughes, Jarrell, Ferlinghetti, The Lowells ( Bob and Amy), Macleish, Ginsberg and I especially liked Wallace Stevens - our Hartford Insurance Man!

Get this - obituary:

Poet and insurance lawyer. New York Tribune, New York City, reporter, 1900-01; law clerk for W. G. Peckham in New York City, 1903-04; admitted to the Bar in New York State, 1904; law partner with Lyman Ward, c. 1904; worked in various law firms in New York City, 1904-08; American Bonding Co. (became Fidelity and Deposit Co.), New York City, lawyer, 1908-13; Equitable Surety Co. (became New England Equitable Insurance Co.), New York City, resident vice-president, 1914-16; Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co., Hartford, CT, 1916-55, became vice-president, 1934. Lecturer.

The grey man had an ear. Stevens was also a most traditionally innovative craftsman of internal rhyme. Though most celebrated for his lyrical feast The Idea of Order at Key West, or the clever Peter Quince at the Clavier and The Emperor of Ice Cream, Wallace Stevens had a deep theology that was the foundation of his poetic sensibility. Wallace Stevens, to eye and mind of most folks, was the very model of Sinclair Lewis 'Square' - A Genuine Babbit - member of the Lodge, Country Club Republican Insurance salesman. In his personal and professional and civic life Wallace Stevens was all those things and more -

In The High Toned Christian Woman we get a glimpse of the Thomas Aquinas Catholic theologian talking like a carnival barker - Wallace Stevens quietly and secretly was baptized into the Catholic Faith.

Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.
Take the moral law and make a nave of it
And from the nave build haunted heaven.Thus,
The conscience is converted into palms,
Like windy citherns hankering for hymns.

Yes, indeedy! Puns and Fun! Nave for Knave. Kidding on the square!


I always liked this one:

The Sense Of The Sleight-Of-Hand Man

One's grand flights, one's Sunday baths,
One's tootings at the weddings of the soul
Occur as they occur. So bluish clouds
Occurred above the empty house and the leaves
Of the rhododendrons rattled their gold,
As if someone lived there. Such floods of white
Came bursting from the clouds. So the wind
Threw its contorted strength around the sky.

Could you have said the bluejay suddenly
Would swoop to earth? It is a wheel, the rays
Around the sun. The wheel survives the myths.
The fire eye in the clouds survives the gods.
To think of a dove with an eye of grenadine
And pines that are cornets, so it occurs,
And a little island full of geese and stars:
It may be the ignorant man, alone,
Has any chance to mate his life with life
That is the sensual, pearly spuse, the life
That is fluent in even the wintriest bronze.

The man is a master of imagery -fluent in even the wintriest bronze. Yet, the Wallace Stevens Foundation website ignores Stevens' embrace of the Catholic Faith. The Catholic Faith stands anathema to Progressive intellectual sensibilities. It stands opposed to the Dewey/Hegelian three-card-monte theory that begs any and all questions to suit its purpose, Phi Betta Kappa was not allowed in Catholics universities until individual colleges bowed at its altar - cloaked as academic freedom - go along to get along.

The poet Wallace Stevens found solace and certitude in Catholicism. That moral and ethical foundation found expression in his bold imagery and rolling rhyme. Here is a letter from Wallace Stevens' confessor Father Hanley concerning the poets conversion.

Dear Janet:

I-The First time he came to the hospital, he expressed
a certain emptiness in his life.
His stay then was two weeks.

Two weeks later, he was in, and he asked the sister to send for me.
We sat and talked a long time.
During his visit this time, I saw him 9 or 10 times.
He was fascinated by the life of Pope Pius X,.
He spoke about a poem for this pope whose family name
was Sartori--- ( Meaning tailor)
At least 3 times, he talked about getting into the fold--
meaning the Catholic Church.
The doctrine of hell was an objection which we later
got thru that alright.

He often remarked about the peace and tranquility that
he experienced in going into a Catholic Church and
spending some time. He spoke about St. Patrick's Cathedral
in N.Y..
I can't give you the date of his baptism.
I think it might be recorded at the hospital.
He said he had never been baptized.
He was baptized absolutely.

Wallace and his wife had not been on speaking terms for
several years.
So we thought it better not to tell her.
She might cause a scene in the hospital.

Archbishop at the time told me not to make his (Wallace's)
conversion public, but the sister and the nurses on the
floor were all aware of it and were praying for him.

At the time--I did get a copy of his poems and also
a record that he did of some of his poems.
We talked about some of the poems.
I quoted some of the lines of one of them and he was
pleased.
He said if he got well, we would talk a lot more and
if not--he would see me in heaven.

That's about all I can give you now.

[Signed] God's Blessing
Father Hanley

That is plenty Padre. Today, at Sacred Heart Church in Morgan Park of Chicago, the devout and tough piety that graces the people in pews will stand long as the crucible of Christ's love for Man will be dramaticall read by Father Gallagher and the two lectors. The palms and hosannas that we hypocrites lay at the Savior on the Donkey remind us that they will be burnt offerings after this year's cycle. We will burn the palms of last year and begin again to understand what Wallace Stevens understood - the palms are prelude to the Passion.

Mexico is Our Continental Indiana - $ 2.89 Gas at the Pump - How Much Are Smokes?

Mexico is now offering gas at $ 2.80 a gallon.

Such a deal! How would you like to be able to fill up at $2.80 a gallon? . . .Why is gasoline so much cheaper across the Rio Grande? Two main reasons. First of all, Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, controls prices with the assistance of the Mexican government, which is not keen to see the price of gasoline go up too high for fear of public unrest. Also, Mexican environmental laws are not as strict as laws in the U.S., and gasoline sold in Mexico is not required to have many of the special blends designed to hold down air pollution, which jack up U.S. prices.

Foster says he will organize his day so he can buy gasoline in Mexico.

“The other day, I was going to Zaragoza to show a ranch, and I needed gas, and I have no issue buying Mexican gas,” he said.

Traveling into Mexico to buy gasoline is not considered smuggling and is not against the law. The gasoline in the tank does not have be ‘reported’ to U.S. Customs officers at the border, and customs duties do not have to be paid on it.

“A lot of our community goes to Piedras Negras to buy drugs, and for doctor visits, and will incorporate a visit to the gas pump,” Foster says.

I just topped off my tank at Rollie Kean Gas on 111th and Talman at $ 4.19 a galoon.

For years, south side folks would take a run over to Hammond, Indiana and tank-up and grab a carton or two of smokes.

Really earnest pop-eyed geniuses like Chris Matthews, Rep. Jan Shakowsky, and the balance of the news media harp that Americans have great capacity for more taxes - damn those rich plutocrats.

Though it be a bargain, I don't think I'll be taking a run to the boarder to top off the 15 gallon capacity on the Malibu. Not unless, the smokes down Mexico way are a real value. It will probably be 2012 before the pump prices drop . . .no, 2013 around the end of January.

The Magic of Dianne Reeves at Chicago Symphony Center

Grammy Award winner Dianne Reeves* has a vocal range with global reach. Backed by a quartet of musicians(bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Terreon Gully, pianist Peter Martin and guitarist Romero Lubambo) who complement this dignified and funny woman's soulful renderings of jazz standards and pop surprises, the upper balcony of Orchestra Hall - my Comiskey to its Cellular tag: apologies -Symphony Center - was on its feet. She is not Sarah Vaughan - She is Dianne Reeves.

The blond Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo was a show in himself - he is seen playing above with Ms. Reeves.

* Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a well known piano and keyboard player and producer. Dianne and her sister Sharon were raised by their mother in Denver, Colorado. As a child Dianne took piano lessons and sang at every opportunity. When she was 11 years old her interest in music was enhanced by an inspiring teacher who thought that music was the best way to bring students together. Dianne discovered a love of music and that she wanted to be a singer.
Her uncle, Charles Burrell, a bass player with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, introduced her to the music of jazz singers, from Ella Fitzgerald to Billie Holiday. She was especially impressed by Sarah Vaughan.

Obama's Billion Bucko 'Just Folks' Tour Opens in Chicago!

Regular Guys Barry and Rahma-Lama- Dang- Dong bust a move with a Turkish çiftetelli last night with other 'ordinary folks' popping down a Hundo and Change at Navy Pier!

"Ordinary folks can do extraordinary things. That's what this campaign is ab
out," Obama said at the event, which also featured Bulls all-star point guard and South Side native Derrick Rose, forward Joakim Noah and a former star from the team's championship years, B.J. Armstrong. The president later donned a Bulls cap.

President Barack Obama is coming back to his hometown today to raise funds for his re-election campaign. He will land at O'Hare International Airport late this afternoon, then attend two private fundraisers--at the N9NE and MK Chicago restaurants--before heading to the main event at Navy Pier at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $100 to the legal maximum of $35,800. Part of the money will go to the president's 2012 re-election campaign and part to the Democratic National Committee.

One day after giving just a corker of a stem-winder ( Hey wake Old Joe!), Plain Ol' Barack hit the runway at O'Hare and just choppered his way over the city of Rahm Emanuel. Two regular guys got toegther with the hoi poloi of this burg, snatched plates of hash, gagged down some brews, swapped lies and jigged up a storm at Navy Pier.

Yep, folks as common as Pritskers bumped bellies and sniffed armpits with Jane Doe, Joe Blow, Joe Doakes, Joe Sixpack, John Q. Public, John Smith, Mr Brown, Mr. Nobody, Richard Roe, average Joe , Average Person, Common Man, Man in the Street, and good old Ordinary Joe at the ballroom with the First Guy. Joe Biden was absent but there in spirit for all the backchat, banter, chaff, chaffing, exchange, fooling, fooling around, give-and-take, good-natured banter, harmless teasing, jape, jest, jive, joke, josh, joshing, kidding, kidding around, persiflage, pleasantry, raillery, rallying, repartee, ridicule, sport, twits ordinary folks vent in an altogether extraordinary manner.

Boy, there is no Bull$hit getting tossed by these homespun tatterdemalions.

Leo Boxing Night Will Support Leo High School Officer Eric D.Lee Memorial Scholarship

Boxing legend Emanuel Steward gives life lessons to Leo Men in October 2010.


Today at noon, Baltimore Ravens Safety and Heavyweight Boxing Pro Tommy Z - Tom Zbikowski will hold a workout in the Leo High School Boxing Gym. Leo Boxing coach Mike Joyce has guided Tommy since the Pro NFL Star and Boxer was nine (9) years old. This workout will be filmed by the NFL Network for an upcoming broadcast. Attending this event will be Leo Boxers, local press, and most importantly Mark Lee and his mother, Mrs. Anna Lee.


Mark Lee is a Leo Alumnus. In 2001, Mark's brother Officer Eric D. Lee was killed in the line of duty. Mark established a Memorial Scholarship in the name of Eric D. Lee to benefit families in need of help meeting the costs of tuition.

Tommy Zbikowski has boxed with the Leo Boxing Club, while a high student and athlete, through his great career as an All-American at Notre Dame and trained for his first professional fight at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2006, right here in the gym on the second floor of Leo High School. Tommy Z has supported both the Leo Boxing and Leo football programs.

The school is literally alive with ongoing academic, mentoring, college placement and career counselling programs. This Catholic high school for boys has been serving young men like Officer Eric D. Lee, CPD, who was a member of the Leo Track Team and Class Valedictorian. Eric Lee gave his life defending his community.

Mark Lee and the Lee family are pumping more energy into this 86 year old young school. The Lee Family lives by the Leo Motto of Facta Non Verba - Deeds Not Words.

Get active and come and support the Eric D. Lee Memorial Scholarship for Leo High School and take in some great boxing on May 10th at 115 Bourbon Street - Chicago's Charity Venue!

Leo Boxing Night at Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park on May 10th which will benefit a Scholarship in the Memory of Fallen Chicago Police Hero - Officer Eric Lee (Killed in the Line of Duty).

Leo Boxing Night 115 Bourbon Street 3359 West 115th Street Merrionette Park, IL 60803 (708) 398-8881

Donations $ 20 at the door Contact Leo Boxing Coach Mike Joyce ( 708) 227- 8425 for more information or to pre-order reserved seats.

Name: Lee, Eric D.
Star: 16947
Rank: Police Officer
District / Unit: 007 District (Englewood)
End of Watch: 19-Aug-2001
Incident Details: Officer Eric D. Lee was shot and killed as he and two other tactical officers attempted to aid a citizen.

Officer Lee and his partners were on a special patrol in the Englewood neighborhood when they spotted a man being beaten in an alley. They rushed to assist the victim and announced they were police. One of the fleeing assailants unexpectedly fired, striking Officer Lee in the head.

Several suspects were apprehended and held for questioning. The shooter was charged with the murder of a police officer. On January 23, 2004, Officer Lee's killer was found guilty of first-degree murder. On September 17, 2004, he was sentenced to life in prison. On November 22, 2005, following many continuances, the Cook County Criminal Court judge balanced the scales of justice and denied Officer Lee's killer both motions for a new trial.

Officer Lee was a 9-year veteran officer, a former Marine with a magna cum laude university degree, whose personnel file spoke to his nine years of good judgment on the job. He had volunteered to be a tactical officer, an especially dangerous line of police work. He had passed up his once-every-month options to “bid out” of Englewood for easier duty in a less stressful district. Friends said he liked the people of Englewood, enjoyed the uphill struggle to make their lives safer. Eric Lee became the 4th tactical officer to be shot to death in Chicago in 2 years.

His wife, 6-year-old daughter, parents, two brothers, and a sister survive Eric Lee.


http://www.cpdmemorial.org/fallen_hero/po-eric-lee-16947

As Game as Christy Ring - Pure Athleticism

Last night, at dinner before the Leo Alumni meeting, I ran into an old friend Joanie Brennan. Joanie is now Mrs. Kevin Sullivan. Joanie and her many sisters were the best athletes in Little Flower Parish ( the parishses along 79th Street were thick with Cork, Kerry and Clare natives). We hated to see their approach as these pretty girls could fire a football spiral, or chuck a Clincher more accurately and with more power than any male within the vast parish limits. Their father is great Kerry footballer named Danny Brennan. County Kerry won the most All Ireland football ( caid in Irish) - 55 Titles in all.

Danny Brennan was a neighborhood legend having come to America preceded by stories of his athelticism on the football pitches of Ireland in the editions of the Kerryman Newspaper delivered to Kerrymen or picked up by the Salt-water Irish at the tobacco store on southwest corner of 79th & Ashland. My grandfather was a huge fan of Danny Brennan - who now resides in Smith Village in Morgan Park. Danny Brennan was football equivalent of the great hurler* Christy Ring.

My grandfather and his pals had an expression that stuck with most of us. If someone were considered to be a great athlete or even a skilled person at some small level that person was " As Game as Christy Ring, so!"

E.g. So, in Kerryman is an intensifier - You ( twenty -thirty grandchildren shouting at once) are a shower of bastards, so!" or " The collective lot of you are the nails in Chrit's hands and feet, so!" - indicated a heightened level displeasure in Grandpa Hickey.

As game as Christy Ring* refers to the great Cork Hurler Christy Ring. So great were this man's feats and feets that a song was inspired to be sung to the air of The Bold Tady Quill Here is the great Christy Ring





*

Christy Ring was born less than a mile from the small village of Cloyne in County Cork,in 1920.
As a fourteen-year old he played in goal for Cloyne's junior team, however, due to the absence of a minor team in Cloyne he joined a team in nearby Midleton. As a player with the St. Enda's club Ring was spotted by the Cork minor selectors and quickly made the inter-county team. Subsequently, Ring won his first All-Ireland medal in 1938. After moving to Cork city he joined the local Glen Rovers hurling club in 1941, winning a County Cork Championship medal in that year.
Ring's record at all levels of the game speaks for itself. During his career he won 8 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship medals (1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1952, 1953, 1954) and 4 National Hurling League medals (1940, 1941, 1948 and 1953) with Cork. He won 18 Railway Cup medals with Munster, appearing in 22 finals between 1942 and 1963. At club level Ring won 14 county championship medals with Glen Rovers.The incomparable Christy Ring 1938-1961


Christy has won
minor all-Ireland 1938
Junior county 1939
11 senior counties 41, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54, 58, 59 & 60
Senior county football 1954
Senior all Ireland 41, 42, 43 & 44
Munster senior championship 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52, 53, 54, & 56
Railway cup 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, & 61
National league 39-40 40-41 47-48 52-53
Senior all-Ireland 46, 52, 53, & 54

Heaven bless our greatest hurler,
for his is the glory none can claim,
skippers came, but never greater,
in the annals of the game,
Golden records, cork had many,
But for these we cherished thee,
You won eight all-Ireland medals, for the city by the Lee.

*Hurling - Athletic Manslaughter

The Bottled Voyage of Morgan Keaty, CPA (ret.)

But at the corner I stopped to take my last look at the crew of the Narcissus. They were swaying irresolute and noisy on the broad flagstones before the Mint. They were bound for the Black Horse, where men, in fur caps with brutal faces and in shirt sleeves, dispense out of varnished barrels the illusions of strength, mirth, happiness; the illusion of splendour and poetry of life, to the paid-off crews of southern-going ships. From afar I saw them discoursing, with jovial eyes and clumsy gestures, while the sea of life thundered into their ears ceaseless and unheeded. And swaying about there on the white stones, surrounded by the hurry and clamour of men, they appeared to be creatures of another kind—lost, alone, forgetful, and doomed; they were like castaways, like reckless and joyous castaways, like mad castaways making merry in the storm and upon an insecure ledge of a treacherous rock.

Joseph Conrad


Morgan Keaty retired as an accountant in 1999, after thirty five years with the City of Chicago. Morgan spent his days puttering around the classic Chicago bungalow at 106th & Claremont in Beverly that he purchased in 1965 for $35,000. Morgan and the beautiful Grace Keaty (nee Walsh) raised four daughters in that warm and lovely home.
The nest had been empty for some time, save the monthly family feasts following a Sunday Mass at St.Barnabas. Morgan and Grace delighted in their grandchildren and lavished love on the little ones.

Morgan also built ships in a bottle. He had a collection of over forty frigates, corvettes, galleons,clippers, timarans, barquentines, dhows and dinghys of all sizes and shapes on the mantles, tables, sideboards and in cases, curios and even the buffet. Grace boxed away many of the nautical themed ewers, at first with bridal good humor and eventually the direct and commanding efficiency of a Xanthippe.

The dignified accountant's virtues became grayed and dusty with his active manipulation of sails, mizzens, booms, gunwales, and poop decks. " Why don't you give the shipyard a rest, Morgie, there's no more space! For the love of God walk up to Keegans and have a beer with the Murphy Brothers like a retired gent had ought."

With as much dignity as he could muster the septuagenarian shipwright, put down his tweezers and cleared the hobby desk of tools and turned out the magnified light. He put on a windbreaker, grabbed six twenties from the top dresser drawer, kissed Grace on both cheeks and wandered west of 60643 to 60655 and at 6:37 PM into Keegan's Pub at 10618 S. Western.

In the warmth and welcome of this neighborhood watering hole Morgan reacquainted with friends of his youth and young manhood. He quaffed cool pints of Smithwick's and learned of grandchildren, games and God Awful villainies.

At 1:45 AM, the young bartender Joe announced last call and Morgan accepted. It was time to go and Morgan's sails were full!

Young Joe walked Morgan Keaty to the corner traffic light on 107th at Western and pointed the saturated gentlemen eastward. " Make a left on Claremont, Mr. Keaty, safe home!"

With careful gait, the shipman numbers cruncher, father of four, Catholic Forester, KC 3rd Degree, and pensioner navigated the stormy sidewalks and gamely grabbed the the nearest arboreal capstan to keep him aboard his concrete deck and out of a pitching sea of grass. The decks awash with briny foam? Well, yes they were. In this passage from hobbyist to aleman, Morgan Keaty had swallowed the brewers bounty and clung to the parkway trees as his ship of state seemed destined for Davy Jones' Locker.

A pattern of Blue and White light signalled the arrival of rescue.

" Hey, Dad, you have a load on," said the handsome African American blue-coat who appeared before the the befogged eyes of Morgan like James Wait aboard the goodship Narcissus of Conrad's novel The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle, now bowdlerized for political correctness.

Human concern is Conrad's theme and Officer Newell helped the aging hobbyist to unburden himself of the tree. Officer George Newell of the 22nd District ( Morgan Park) asked of the besotted sailor, " Hey, where he are you going at this time of night?"

Morgan Keaty cleared his cobwebs and replied,"“I am going to a lecture about alcohol
abuse and the effects it has on the human body”.

Officer Newell then asked,“Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?”

Morgan replied, “My wife Grace and it will be a dandy.”

Rescued from the storms on the sidewalk Officer Newell piloted Morgan Keaty in the safe harbor of Hurricane Grace.

Morgan Keaty is in drydock.


Huge Hat tip to Mike McQuade of California!

Light - The Paradox in Verse and Inverse Verse: The Foundation for Light Verse

Poetry is hard work. I am lazy. It is not something that one tosses against the Frigidaire to see if it sticks, unless of course you are a fatuous and self-absorbed ninnie with a microphone in front of you at some Slam, or other.

The best poetry seems easily done. True ease in writing comes from Art not chance/ as those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

Too many poets dance varese like the fits, wiggles and epilepsy of t'weenage south side Irish males at an 8th grade graduation basement party. . . too ugly to imagine, let alone describe. Like WWII Pacific combat . . .you had to be there.

I recently was gifted with a volume of poesy that honors the form made famous by Ogden Nash here in America. I am now a subscriber to Light

Light is a volume of the very best light verse by great American poets like these folks Dan Campion, Timothy Murphy, Philip Appleman, William J. Middleton,Melissa Balmain, Henry Harlan, Bruce Berger, Gail White, J. Patrick Lewis . . .and X. J. Kennedy.
Here's a sampling -

COCKTAILS FOR TWO?


John Ciardi
liked Bacardi
but drank Chianti
with his Auntie.
— E.M. SCHORB

WEDNESDAY MATINEE

The scent of old lady;
A gal 85.
Sherry and mothballs;
Chanel No. 5.

—Terrence M. Bennett

In Praise of Bachelorhood

Of kisses and captivity, of flings
and flight I know one thing:

It's only once the fly has settled
that the Venus flytrap springs.
— AMIT MAJMUDAR

These jewels are cut by masters - simple and satisfying.

They are tight, witty, rhythmic, rhyme-postive, balanced and exact. Get on the same page, Kids!

Foundation for Light Verse is a Non-profit corporation created

In February, 2008, the IRS granted Light Quarterly tax-exempt status. All donations to Light Quarterly are now exempt from Federal tax. Contributions are needed to continue publishing this magazine, and to ensure its growth.

Please send your checks, made out to The Foundation for Light Verse, to

Light
PO Box 7500
Chicago, IL 60680

Light Quarterly is also urgently in need of volunteers. As we grow, the work-load has grown beyond what our staff can handle. If you have any open time in your schedule, and you live in the Chicago or near west suburban area, consider donating your skills to getting this magazine out. You’ll be listed on the Masthead, and you’ll learn publishing and printing in an ideal environment, where it actually happens. Call or e-mail with your contact information. Ours are 1-708-488-1388, and info@foundationforlightverse.org.

BarMoochian Economics - "We Ain't Broke! Gimme a Jackson."

With his back to the wall -Dr. Short-arms Lanigan explains that there is plenty of wealth to be tapped. Not his, of course, ours.

World Class Economics Solons like Journolista Ezra Klein of the Washington Post crack me up. The current mantra coming from leaning lefty columnists, commentators and , of course, celebrities is the call for more taxes! Ball of Confusion!!! The Tempting Ts - the Temptations warned all of us tail-end Charlie Baby Boomers of this pattern of thought.

Air pollution, revolution, gun control,
Sound of soul
Shootin' rockets to the moon
Kids growin' up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will
Solve everything
And the band played on

Pay your fair-share! YOUR - possesive pronoun - meaning YOU possessing that share. YOU is ME too. You never hear our bloated bolshevik Michael Moore demand that the Federal Government dig into his gelt. Moore, like every Progressive that I have encountered in this Vale of Tears, is tighter than the pockets on a fat man's pants.

Imagine coming up with a Hollywood Tax? An 80 percent tax of every Celebrity Super Star, Rock Star, Rap Star, Writer, Movie Star, Producer, Agent, Lawyer and Mogul earning over $ Million a year would shut the mopes up.

Robert Reich, Michael Moore, and David Plouffe must have all studied at the feet of
"Short-arms" Lanigan - Dr. of Redistribution of Your Wealth Economist at the University of the Bar Stool Near You. Dr. Lanigan studied the Wimpy School of Economics from the old Popeye cartoons - 'I will gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today' and took things to the next level.

The eminent Dr. Short-arms has his First Communion money, to paraphrase Mike Houlihan. His dictum - Let the Other pay - works in taverns and in many other situations that require immediate payment for product and services: lawncare, plumbing, and meeting tuition - 'I'm a little short at the moment. Tough economy ain't it?'

Short-arms has deep, deep pockets and very short arms. Why spend his money, when you have your's already on the bar. The trick is knowing that one must take advantage of the fact that most people are intrinsically generous, hospitable, and welcoming and that timing and positioning is everything.

If there are twelve people at the bar engaged in conversation and beefy goodfellowship, Short-arms immediately engages the most popular and conversive of the group and compliments him/her on the latest achievement by the individual or his spawn - "That is one beautiful Hostis row along the south end of your home, Burlington, Old Man!" or " Your kid made a great catch in the 9th up a Kennedy to win the game, too bad you were here sucking back Old Styles . . .I just came from the Park; helping Brian Tansey with the T-Ball kids."

Gee That's great. Moira, get everyone from the street to the shithouse! Have one, Short Arms!

Accept! Each man and woman will shoulder the tariff of drink. In theory. Follow Dr. Short-arms Lanigan's dicta -

1. Determine the direction that the liquid assets of largesse will take in, rolling credit, to one and all - save one.

2. Do not stay immediately next ( sinister et dextra) to the boon chum, but, immediately move to the end of the line - in the direction of the rolling largesse n'cest pas.

3. Once someone has called to pay, interject an offer to toss coin into the hazard and await the sanctions and protestations - 'First caller buys.' wait your turn.

4. Wait indeed. Once satisfied. Make a strategic exit - have a cell phone and pretend that it is on BUZZ. 'They're towing my car! Can you believe them bastards?' or, 'The Cat's on fire! Emergency Hemlick call at Olde Country Buffet on Ridgeland, I'm a volunteer EMT - you all knew that; didn't you? gotta bustle! Next Time!'

5. Come back in three days and repeat.

There is enough wealth! Short-arms and deep pockets will diminish that.

Hope and Change and more than a few rolls of folding money.

Victor Parra - Mambo Maestro

After a very long gospel and short homily on Lazurus, a sultry 85 Degrees, a long trip to Food For Less on Pulaski, Leo correspondence with Alumni heroes, and sound sweeping of the garage floor, I took a trip north on Harlem to River Forest. I was treated to the voices of two of my favorite Chicagoans - Victor and Connie Parra.

They are the hosts of each Sunday's Mambo Express and leaders of the like named orchestra. I wanted to lose twenty pounds, buy a white linen suit, get a coup going down south somewhere, drink a lime based beverage and dance like I knew what I was doing.

Alas, I grooved on the steering wheel. Good enough by far!

When I was teaching at La Lumiere School, we hired Victor and Connie for an Alumni event in the Marsch Gym ( designed by Helmut Jahn) and it was fantastico!

Catch Mambo Express on The great College of Du Page FM station - 90.9 on your FM dialon Sundays between 3-5PM.

Better yet! For your next event hire Victor and Connie Parra and the Mambo Express.



CONGO MULENCE @ KENYA - MACHITO

Victor Parra grew up the youngest of 15 children on Chicago's Westside. His father was a barber and musician who played at weddings, baptisms, and whatever neighborhood functions called for traditional Mexican music. While Victor acknowledges Mexican music as his background, he eventually discovered the drums and rhythms of Cuban music. After being stationed in Panama during a brief stint in the Army, he bought himself a conga drum. Thereafter he devoted himself to collecting and playing Afro Cuban music. Some of his favorite performers include Benny More, Tito Puente, Machito, and the Orquesta Aragon.

Victor leads the Mambo Express Afro Cuban band, specializing in the sounds that came from Cuba, he fell in love with the rhythm. With skilled instrumentals and rich vocals, they bring the history back in their performances. In addition to leading the band, Parra hosted a Radio Show on WBEZ 91.5 FM's weekly for over 15 years."The Mambo Express."

Parra explains his favorite music as follows, "Mambo came out the Danzon, the slow-paced Cuban music of the middle 40s. Danzon was a rhythm that kept repeating itself while staying in one place. Innovative musicians changed the bass line in the middle of songs and gave it more syncopation. Then someone came along and put some swing into it. Once you got into the swing, that was called the Mambo. Blackness came into the music with the conga drum." The Mambo Express, has performed at The Jazz Fest, Taste of Chicago, Summer Dance, to mention a few.
With The Mambo Express, you will be greeted by the rich and original sounds of Afro Cuban music. Close your eyes as the ever-changing rhythms play in your ears. Nothing quite soothes the soul like music rich in origin and timeless style.

The Mambo Express not only plays a wide selection of favorite jazz music but includes the knowledge and experience of Victor Parra's commentary. Combined with his favorite collections, he discusses the historical importance of Afro Cuban music, the similarities in the sounds of today's Afro Cuban music as compared to the rhythms of the past. Parra also compares Charanga and Conjunto music. His intimate familiarity of the music provides for three hours of passionate music and knowledge, not found on any other station. Hop aboard "The Mambo Express" for sweet sounds, and great history! THE ONLY MAMBO IN TOWN!

Joseph Epstein - America's Montaigne Sheds Cranial Cellulite and Shreds Susan Sontag

A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
Michel de Montaigne (1533 -1592)

Sontag was an aesthete and held that "the wisdom that becomes available over a deep, lifelong engagement with the aesthetic cannot, I venture to say, be duplicated by any other kind of seriousness." Some might argue, though, that she gave aestheticism a bad name and that hers fed nicely into her political foolishness. Joseph Epstein April 1, 2011 - Wall Street Journal Book Review

Enough ain't near a feast, Hickey - Larry "Tri-State" Monahan ( dec.) N.B. the late Mr. Monahan was 5'6" in height and weighed 294 lbs.

Michel de Montaigne was a Renaissance statesman, skeptic, and introduced the genre of the essay a unified consideration of a thought, concept or topic. Montaigne influenced Sir Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, and Mark Twain who showered humanity with keen insights within graceful sentences. Sadly, faux thinkers and loudmouths like Rousseau, Emerson, Thoreau and Nietzsche aped Montaigne and are much more widely read, canonized in schools texts, and dropped from the tongues of dimwits.

America is yet blessed with Montaigne's spiritual and technical son - Joseph Epstein.

I read anything by Joe Epstein with equal gusto in the same manner that I can blindly point to any item on Gene & Georgetti's menu - it is always the best selection and most satisfying. I can not choose better - each item is uniquely mouthwatering.

Joseph Epstein lives in Evanston and is completely immune from that locale's penchant for political, ideological, environmental, moral, legal and critical snobbery. Mr. Epstein is as immune from cant, as I am prone to slinging the horseshit.

I try to shed the skin of my prejudices, but not real hard. I am not about to get a massive grabber doing the work that that exercise would entail. I embrace my baggage - more pity me.

Joseph Epstein on the other hand works 24/7 at Montaigne's dictum - Que sais-je?' -What the Hell do I know?

Jospeh Epstein is an intellectual, moral, and cultural athlete. I am a fat-head. Perhaps morbidly obese.

I am not alone. Most of us have rolling, waves of lard between our ears because we swallow Super-sized bags of junk-thought. We dine at Oprah's buffet and nod with conviction to NPR, Glen Beck, or Jason Biggs. We accept what the New York Times, The Atlantic, Salon, or any editorial offers and toss it whole into our precious spiritual and intellectual bloodstreams.

During the Renaissance, Montaigne labeled the packages for consumption and today Joseph Epstein does the same for us.

The other day, Joseph Epstein wrote about the celebrated lesbian, essayist, Ho Chi Minh apologist, feminist and exhibitionist Susan Sontag.

Susan Sontag, like Steve Sondheim, are names that register with all of us, but most of us really do not know why. At a cocktail party, someone usually bullies us into a corner by dropping the Sontag bomb - "Of course, you know, Susan Sontag said, wrote, filmed and dismissed your very position on the existence of concrete. Just because you stand on a sidewalk, does prove anything; the will to accept the outre point of view is what frees you from being a racist and a sexist. Don't you think?"

Uh, huh. Hey, is there anymore of those toast points with fois gras? I gotta try some more of those, excuse me.

Joseph Epstein can not always be physically available to bail us cranial lard-asses out, but we can fend off those empty calories heaped on our plates. Try this serving of Joe Epstein:

Rounding her political career off nicely, when the Twin Towers were destroyed and nearly 3,000 people murdered, Sontag, in the New Yorker, wrote that the attack was "on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions"—and so America, in other words, had it coming. "Some ideas are so stupid," Orwell said, "that only an intellectual could believe them," and Susan Sontag seems, at one time or another, to have believed them all.

Sontag was an aesthete and held that "the wisdom that becomes available over a deep, lifelong engagement with the aesthetic cannot, I venture to say, be duplicated by any other kind of seriousness." Some might argue, though, that she gave aestheticism a bad name and that hers fed nicely into her political foolishness. Apropos of Sontag, Hilton Kramer remarked: "Aestheticism is not, after all, primarily a philosophy of art. It is a philosophy of life." This woman who eschewed morality and judgment in art never had the least doubt about her own moral superiority and the righteousness of her views.

In literature Ms. Sontag's taste in ideas ran to the dark, the oblique and the violent. As Camille Paglia put it, she "made fetishes of depressive European writers." One is reminded here of the Romanian writer E.M. Cioran, who, when young, felt a special partiality to writers who had committed suicide. Antonin Artaud, Roland Barthes, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, Elias Canetti and Cioran himself were among the writers about whom Sontag wrote most enthusiastically.

Enthusiastically but not convincingly. Walter Benjamin, one of her enthusiasms, must surely be among the 20th century's most overrated writers. Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Karl Kraus—Benjamin could render the juiciest of subjects arid. In her essay on Elias Canetti, Sontag notes his admiration for the novelist Hermann Broch and "those great patient novels 'The Death of Virgil' and 'The Sleepwalkers.' " Anyone who has read Broch's books will know that the burden of patience chiefly falls on the reader, for Broch's heavily longueur-laden novels are proof yet again of Santayana's discovery that the Germans are utterly devoid of the emotion of boredom.

Mighty Tasty and good for you!

Cleanse your palate and burn off some lard, Kids! Click my post title for Jospeh Epstein's brilliant dismissal of the Big Mac 'N Cheese that was Susan Sontag, God rest her.

Northwestern Professor Protess , Our Tweedy Fagin of Medill

Fagin: Clever dogs, clever dogs. Never blowed on old Fagin.

David Protess:

Maybe the Chicago Innocence Project will be going great and I won't want to go back (to Northwestern) because of the hassle ... Maybe it won't succeed and I will want to go back. Or maybe I'll want to go somewhere else, go to some other university. All of my options are on the table.

Chicago Tribune Editorial April 9, 2011:

If Protess misled administrators and attorneys in this case—and it appears he did—what does that say about all those cases he has worked on with students? That question will linger at least until prosecutors and McKinney's lawyers resolve what happened in his case.

That day can't come soon enough.

Had Anita Alvarez caved to the limitless media enabling of Professor David Protess, the Fagin of Medill, all would be just dandy and it ain't. I have long suspected that David Protess was a later-day "kidsman." A Kidsman was a 19th Century recruiter of children for training and guiding pickpockets and cut-throats. The vicious Bill Sykes was one of Fagin's students. The Artful Dodger, who befriends the naive orphaned child of privilege Oliver Twist, is on his way to the next level of crime. Fagin beats and threatens his "children" with warnings of dire consequences for "peaching," or "blowing" on Fagin's activities.

The "children" are rewarded for doing Fagin's bidding.

When Anita Alvarez initially petitioned for Fagin Protess's student e-mails, notes and records pertinent to the McKinney case, the academic, journalistic and legal communities marshaled a formidable army of protest and calumnies leveled at Anita Alvarez.

CNN, Huffington Post, Salon, The New York Times, MSNBC, joined the Chicago Tribune editorial board in terming Cook County States Attorney Alvarez a Gestapo bully. A former Federal Judge, of dubious record and achievement, wrote frequent attacks on Alvarez and defences of Fagin Protess. Click my post title and view a few.

Most telling were the star Protess pupils, now rewarded with CNN, AP, and other blue-chip journalistic postings. The kids did alright by Medill, The Innocence Project and old Fagin himself -Professor Dave Protess.

The Innocence Project and Northwestern University have been besmeared by the very advocacy they demand - outcomes be damned. That is as old as John Dewey, the bespectacled avuncular father of generations of Progressive Fagins.

Fagin was the leader of gangs of children, in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, patterned on the historical 19th Century criminal Ickey Solomon of London.

What does American philosopher and granddad of American public education have to do with David Protess's Procrustean pedagogy? Plenty.

John Dewey holds that Inquiry is Truth - play, if you will, the root of the Laboratory Method in education that established the Lab School of University of Chicago - play long enough and arrive at the original point of inquiry.

The start of an inquiry is an indeterminate situation, usually coming from some practical matter ( convicted felon we want out of jail to raise a the larger issue of systemic failure of American Justice). The first step is to getting a clearer and more specific picture of the problem; the indeterminate situation becomes a “problematic situation”. The inquiry then proceeds by coming up with possible solutions to the problem That is, hypothesis that might help to act upon in the problematic situation. Evaluation then takes place; possible consequences of different solutions are considered, and by doing this the relative value of the solutions are estimated. The final test is when a solution actually is tried as a guide to action. The question of truth and falsehood come into play at this last stage of inquiry, and it is dependent on whether the consequences of acting upon the hypothesis under test are such that they resolve the problem and settle the indeterminate situation. Here, it is important to keep in mind the fundamental that role that Dewey ascribes to the indeterminate situation. It is our conceptions of this situation that guide the rest of the inquiry, and that determines how to evaluate and praise ideas and hypotheses. The indeterminate situation is the beginning of an inquiry, but also controls it throughout [p.207]. Coming back to the correspondence relation, it could be said to hold between the between the first and last stage of inquiry.

The opposite of John Dewey was the mathematician and philosophical historian Bertrand Russell whose rigorous methodologies eschewed "play" for study. Russell takes apart Dewey's playful assertions that begin and end in the very same place. Dewey, and his child Fagin Professor Protess "look" into the assertion that the American Justice System is flawed, because it is sytemnically and intrinsically racist, brutal, dishonest, lazy and corrupt - "What do you think, kids?"

Here is Bertarnd Russell's deconstruction of Dewey in summary by Swedish student of philosophy Björn Östbring:

His (Russell) version of the ( Dewey) correspondence theory is the classical one: the relation is between statements, propositions or beliefs to an independent reality, to empirical facts. A statement is true if what is referred to also posses the properties that the statement asserts. Dewey’s theory is obviously radically different from this, and in Russell’s view it does not even deserve to be called a correspondence theory. Russell’s description of Dewey’s whole theory of inquiry and truth is as follows (2): individuals engage in inquiry with the purpose of better interacting with their environment. In an inquiry, “assertions” are tools, and these assertions can be “warranted” to different degrees. The degree to which an assertion is warranted is determined by their ability to produce the desired results. During inquiry assertions can come to be replaced by better assertions, and sometimes they are the very means that lead to better assertions. The term “better” simply means that it produces more of the desirable results, lets us cope better with our environment, and hence “better” could basically be substituted with “more warranted”. An inquiry does not end; no assertion is the best for all times. The important point in this summary is that an assertion is warranted if it produces the desired results, and that the idea of truth thus loses its static and privileged nature.

Dewey and Protess begin inquiry with the conclusion and all the rest in between is just "play." What student would not rather play than work? Bertrand Russell's logical positivism is damned hard work.

Deweyesque inquiry is tailor made for a Fagin and advocacy journalism and education provides the charming "Master" with high moral ground and an embracing protective laissez faire attitude

Unlike the probity of Russell, the Dewey trained journalists, scholars, and academics will apply no further "inquiry" to other Fagins. Protess, now in disgrace with Fortune and Men's eyes will be an anomaly. A freak.

While the Medill engine will trot out more Heater cases and our Justice System will be further deconstructed in the advocacy playland that is John Dewey's Progressive America, David Protess will disappear into the shadows. Nothing to see here, folks! Inquiry? We don't need no stinkin' Inquiry! Right, Judge Stinky Sarokin?

Police, prosecutors, judges and juries will be villainized and criminals will always have much more benefits than doubts and greater Fagins than David Protess will threaten and reward more students - so long as they don't "peach," or "blow" to the cops.

Americans are fair-minded, but not really all that stupid. No one wants an innocent man punished, but no one wants any and all faith in our justice system destroyed by Fagins and an equally culpable media. We can thank States Attornney Alvarez for sticking to her guns during this entire shabby inquiry.

*

Fagin is described as "disgusting" to look at. He is the leader of a group of children, the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates among them, whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities in exchange for a roof over their heads. At the time of the novel, he is said by another character, Monks, to have already made criminals out of "scores" of children who grow up to live—or die—committing the same crimes as adults. Bill Sikes, one of the major villains of the novel, is hinted to be one of Fagin's old pupils, and Nancy, Sikes' girlfriend and sex worker clearly was.
Whilst portrayed as relatively humorous, he is nonetheless a self-confessed miser who, despite the amount he has acquired over the years from the work of others, does very little to improve the squalid lives of the children he takes in, allowing them to smoke pipes and drink gin "with the air of middle-aged men". In the second chapter of his appearance, it is shown, albeit when talking to himself, that he cares less about those children who are eventually hanged for their crimes and more about the fact that they do not "peach" on him and the other children

http://bjornostbring.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/dewey-vs-russell-on-truth/

American Hero Tim McCarthy Would Be A Great Chicago Police Leader

The Chicago Tribune thinks that Jody Weis was 'right man at the right time' for Chicago Police Department.

Like its choice of Dewey over Truman, the editorial board at the Trib couldn't find a boxcar at 59th & Kostner, or a trucking outfit between Ashland and Halsted.

I live among many police officer ( CPD, County and Federal) and universally they thought the Weis Years were unqualified disasters.

Interim Superintendent Terry Hillard,CPD (ret.) is as universally admired as Jogy Weis is scorned.

Mayor Emanuel would do well to appoint an unclouted hero - Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy would be ideal.

He comes from a Chicago police family and respects the culture. Tim McCarthy runs to the gunfire and has the wounds to attest that fact.




McCarthy is credited with saving the life of President Ronald Reagan. McCarthy has executive experience and political finesse.

If Rahm Emanuel is anywhere near as smart as the media attest him to be, he will appoint an American hero as his Superintendent of Chicago Police.

Mount Carmel Names Rev. Tony Mazurkiewicz, OCarm. President - A Brilliant Choice!

Mount Carmel of Chicago, one of the greatest schools in America, named Father Tony Mazurkiewicz to be its President.

This remarkable young priest is a brilliant homilist and helps out at St. Cajetan Parish from time to time. Father Tony is a Carmel Man himself and is a graduate of Yale.

As only the weakest voice in the Leo High School extended family, I am confident that Leo Men roundly applaud the Mount Carmel's choice of leader!

The Caravan will be in high gear with Father Tony's hand at the wheel!

A Southlander who started on two Mount Carmel state champion football teams, graduated from Yale University and later became a Carmelite is set to lead the school.

On June 15, the Rev. Tony Mazurkiewicz will take over as the president of Mount Carmel High School, 6410 S. Dante Ave., Chicago.

Mazurkiewicz, a Glenwood native, will succeed fellow Carmelite the Rev. Carl J. Markelz on June 15. In his new job, he will be responsible for overseeing marketing, fundraising and finances at the school

“The Carmelites have been serving Mount Carmel High School school for 111 years,” Mazurkiewicz said. “It’s good to be a part of that tradition of educating men for a lifetime.”

Markelz served as the school’s president and principal from 1996 to last year when John Stimler took over as principal.

Mazurkiewicz teaches junior moral theology and works in the school’s enrollment and admissions office.

At Mount Carmel, Mazurkiewicz was a starting defensive back for the 1989 and 1990 state championship football teams. School officials said he recorded 115 tackles and eight interceptions during his varsity career.

He graduated from Mount Carmel in 1991 and was third in his class. He played football at Yale, where he was later named captain of the Bulldogs.

Mazurkiewicz graduated from Yale in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in history. He returned to Mount Carmel in 1997 before leaving for Boston, Mass. He worked there for three years in schools set up by Edison Project, a for-profit education firm run by a former Yale president.

In 2000, he once again returned to Mount Carmel and then left to join the Carmelite order. In 2009, he earned his master’s of divinity degree from Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C. and was also ordained in that year.

He served the associate pastor at Saint Raphael Parish in Los Angeles before coming back to Mount Carmel at the beginning of this year to work at the school and continue his studies.

“I discerned for awhile and said ‘there’s some great stuff going on at Mount Carmel and this would be a good ministry I could serve in,’” Mazurkiewicz said. “I put my name in and that’s what happened.”

Edward J. "Spike" O'Donnell Talks Crime and Politicians Go All PC - October 1933

Jack, that Cat was Clean!

Edward J. "Spike" O'Donnell* was the only gangster from the Capone era to retire from the rackets, make money as a coal/oil executive, pioneer the Chicago paving of streets, maintain his political clout and die of natural causes.

Spike O'Donnell was an elder statesman of the sidewalks on 79th Street at Loomis, where he held court with White Sox great Buck Weaver and other worthies.

He never used 'salty' language, was courtly to women, kind to children and maintained life-long frendships with actors Spencer Tracy, Frank McHugh, George Raft and Jimmy Cagney. Spencer Tracy attended his funeral mass at Little Flower Church in 1962.

* from Mario Gomes great site -click my post title for more on Chicago's Gangsters

James Edward O'Donnell, known as "Spike" was the eldest son of Patrick J. O'Donnell and Ann Mahoney. He was born on Novemeber 29,1889, and died on August 26,1962, from a massive coronary thrombosis. He had eight brothers and two sisters as follows;

Ellen 11-7-1891. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
John Joseph 7-1-1894. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Thomas Francis 1-24-1896. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Stephen 8-5-1898. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Walter Anthony 3-21-1900. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Patrick Henry aka Percy 10-2-1902. Baptized at St Rose of Lima
Charles Basil aka Chauncey 7-6-1904. Baptized at St Basil
Raymond P 3-10-1906. Baptized at St Basil
Annabelle Joy 7-22-1909. Baptized at St Basil
Philip Leo 12-28-1911. Baptized at St Basil - The only brother without an arrest record. Spike forbade his youngest brother from hanging around gangs.

Manifesto of Conscious for the UnEvolved - Us . You and me. Them Guys over by there, too,

I was beset with appeals. Following my mid morning post of Conscious Men lisping their Manifesto and feminist mea culpa.

'Hickey! WTF? Translate, you string words.'

Here is the Manifesto and I will translate it in a pithy succinct vernacular familiar to us aboriginally unevolved, albeit good hearted gents.

Avec traduction anglaise! The Manifesto of Conscious Men - by two metrosexuals.

Dear Woman:

• As a man, I feel sorrow that women and feminine energy have been suppressed for so many thousands of years on our planet. Everywhere we look, women have been disenfranchised. Throughout history, we have raped and abused you, burned you at the stake, bought and sold your bodies for sexual pleasure, barred you from religious and political office, relegated you to subservient chores, forced you to hide your faces and even cut off your organs of sexual pleasure.

Although I may not have done these things personally, I am aware of the forces in the masculine psyche that are responsible for dishonoring the feminine. I take responsibility for those forces and choose no longer to be run by them. I do this on behalf of all men, in order to usher in a new era of co-creation.


I commit to treat your heart as the sacred temple it is, and I commit tocelebrating the feminine in my intimate relationships as well as in myrelationship to all life.


• As a man, I acknowledge that the religions of the past several thousand years have been mainly founded by and propagated by men. As men, we have often acted as if we have the last word on God and the spiritual life, when all we have really known is the masculine expression of those things. I honor your pathways of spiritual awakening. I commit to the celebration of feminine spirituality.


• As a man, I honor your deep connection to the earth. As men, our relationship to our planet, its resources, its weather, its oceans and its forests has for too long been motivated by acquisition and dominion. I commit to listening to the intuitive sense you have of how to heal our planet and make it thrive.


• As a man, I honor your intuition and your ability to feel. As men, we have often devalued feeling and intuition in favor of a view dominated by data and logic. I commit to respecting the arts of feeling, intuition and wisdom of the feminine heart, so that together we can integrate them into a balanced view of life.

•As a man, I love the beauty of your body. I feel sorrow that we men have used your beauty as a form of commerce: in prostitution, pornography and the sale of products through advertising. I take a stand against any form of commercialization of woman’s beauty, and I respect that your body belongs to you.


•I honor your capacity for peaceful resolution of conflicts. We men have waged endless wars over our disagreements; by contrast, it is rare to find an invasion or war instigated by a woman. We welcome your wisdom in creatinga world that can get along.


•I honor your capacity to listen to your body and its needs for food, rest and playtime. As men, our preoccupation with goals and results has often driven us into a burn-out mentality. I know we have often drawn you into that as well. I welcome your reminders to maintain balance in our bodies.



•I honor your sense of compassionate justice. In our justice system,, men have dominated as judges and police, built prisons, and set punishment as a higher value than restitution. I welcome you to bring the return of the heartto our system of justice.



•I honor your capacity to enjoy and pay attention to what is here, right now. As men, we often get overly-focused on reaching the next milestone. We place so much emphasis on progress — what is new and better and faster — that we often forget to enjoy what we already have. I know that together we can co-create in bringing forth the wisdom of sufficiency.


I know that in joining hands, and leaving the past behind we can create asynergy of our strengths. I know, and I know that you know, that then there is nothing then we cannot do together.


NOTE from LoveCoach: This ties in with the Quest I am passionate about at the moment. Join these guys if you feel inspired!

Okee Dokey! Let's take a randon pargraph - Pluck! Here 'Tis.

I honor your capacity to listen to your body and its needs for food, rest and playtime. As men, our preoccupation with goals and results has often driven us into a burn-out mentality. I know we have often drawn you into that as well. I welcome your reminders to maintain balance in our bodies.

That would be an estrogen packed-play on the time-honored and hoary 4F's - Find 'em, Feed 'em, F#$% 'em, Forget 'em.

Let's try another -

• As a man, I honor your intuition and your ability to feel. As men, we have often devalued feeling and intuition in favor of a view dominated by data and logic. I commit to respecting the arts of feeling, intuition and wisdom of the feminine heart, so that together we can integrate them into a balanced view of life.

This senstive mewing might be construed as our nocturnal interogation -'Hey! You 'Wake?' Okay. I think we got it rolling, gents - One more . . .a toughie -

•I honor your capacity to enjoy and pay attention to what is here, right now. As men, we often get overly-focused on reaching the next milestone. We place so much emphasis on progress — what is new and better and faster — that we often forget to enjoy what we already have. I know that together we can co-create in bringing forth the wisdom of sufficiency

Once you stop laughing . . .I mean it. There okay this one would translate to:

'Quit your grinnin' and drop that linen! Come on, baby! Who's up for a punch in the trunks?'

I think that we can live with the Manifesto.

For All of My Hound Neighbors, Friends, Colleagues - "Dear Woman!"

I was whacking down a bowl of Leo HS cafeteria chili, liberal portions at conservative prices, I was treated to this video mea culpa to Women!



The next time I see a great set of knockers with gams up to there and a firm back porch that won't quit, I will think of the pilgrim soul within.

Really. Where did they find these worthies?

Now, a trip home to change my shorts.

A Hearty Hat Tip t Miss Caroline May of The Daily Caller

Planned Parenthood's President Obama Will Veto Budget Bill

No, Mr. President, they're not there. As you have just proven to one and all.

President Obama will shut down the government, because he has pledged himself to Planned Parenthood and the American Dowager Class.

President Obama is threatening to veto a temporary Republican budget measure that would ensure the troops are paid through September and and keep the government running for another week, but would not resolve the bitter standoff between Democrats and Republicans.

Obama 2012 Slogan - " You Might Want To Think About a Trade-in!"

When asked about the sorry state at the pump, President Obama remembered the pump.

Then things went south -

“Gas prices? They’re going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes, and that’s going to take a couple of years to have serious effect,” Obama said.

Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.

“If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know,” Obama said laughingly. “You might want to think about a trade-in.”

Bet that guy love that response. Well, context is everything - ain't it?

Cambridge, MA Cops Act Stupidly = A Teaching Moment



Here's some more from the the man that Politico's Roger Simon called 'The Greatest Orator of Modern Times" -


1. I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go.
Barack Obama
At US presidential campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon.

2. Why can't I just eat my waffle?
Barack Obama
Asked a foreign policy question by reporter while visiting a diner in Pennsylvania during 2008 US presidential campaign .

3. It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Barack Obama
Explaining his troubles winning over some working-class voters during 2008 US presidential campaign.

My own personal Fave!!!!!!! Coming Up!

4. Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.
Barack Obama
Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008.

Aldermanic Scorecard - Joe Moore Hold's The Template : Gobble The Fois Gras

In Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel's political war room, there's an aldermanic scorecard to determine who's with him, who isn't and who falls between. . . ." and YADDA YADDA YADDA YADDA - Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, one of the council's leading independents, lauded Emanuel for seeking out the views of individual aldermen.

"The mayor and City Council leaders will have to spend a lot more time cajoling and convincing the aldermen to join them on policy initiatives," he said. "And I think the new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, understands that."

from the fine Kristen Mack and Hal Dardick, Tribune report this AM.

I redacted it - a summation if you will and what the Rahm Emanuel Term of Office portends. Policy, Kids! No Politics! Policy 24/7! Meet Your City Council Floor Leader - Joe "Goose Guts" Moore! Policy is the Emanuel Template.

Policy is what really lazy and dumb people turn to when they find themselves elected to public service. Policy means Tasks Forces, Blue Ribbon Study Groups, Tax Paid Consultants, Hearings, Andy Shaw. All the stuff that dweebs are made of! Chicago's Shoulders will go from a hirsute and manly 48" to the smart, shaved and metro-sexually ambiguous 28" in the next four years.

Policy works for 'Ain't She Great?' dimbulbs like Congressman Jan Schakowsky. Policy is Politics for Dummies and it is very effective - in getting revenue streams to disappear, taxes to soar, crime to spike, property values to plummet, public education to vanish, and the population to shift to greener pastures.

All one needs is The Joe Moore Template. Progressive Policy - more money for public education via raised taxes; a gelded police force; more free T-Shirts; reform that targets individual City workers only; Green Scams; Diversity Proclamations; Gay Marriage Fast:

Here's some of Joe Moore's Template:

•INCREASING THE POWERS AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE
•CREATION OF AN OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
•CTA SERVICE BREAKDOWNS
•BIG BOX LIVING WAGE
•SOURCE-SEPARATED RECYCLING (Replace the Blue Bag Program)
•UNIVERSAL SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM

Okay let's bread and butter the Old Policy Template - Progressive's Policy to Get the CTA Buses too Run - VIOLA!

This resolution was introduced by Alderman Joe Moore (49) and Alderman Ricardo Munoz (22) and calls for CTA President Frank Kruesi, CTA Board Chairman Carole Brown, and other appropriate CTA management officials to appear before the Chicago City Council to address the increasing number of derailments, mechanical breakdowns and service interruptions

CTA Service Breakdowns will vanish because Joe and Ricky Munoz will whereas the CTA appointees for a nano second spot on NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Here's how it looks kids. Mayor Rahm will have Joe Moore, Mike Quigley, and other sad-sack opportunists kick much stuff out of the City Council Sandbox and tell the media that it is Fois Gras. They will gobble it up, until after the ONE BILLION Dollar Re-Election Campaign ends.

Fois Gras - the real kind - will be revisited; we will agree that Jon Burge is a really, really, really bad guy, increased taxes are the only way to improve public education, Planned Parenthood helps eliminate Food Deserts, One Man's Gangster Disciple is amnother Man's Urban Translator, Unions are SEIU, Ceasefire does more to make people happy than the Chicago Police Department, fires are caused by Systemic Racism, Crime Ends when G. Flint Taylor and Jon Loevy take the very last nickel out of Chicago, the CTA buses do not run because George W. Bush went into Iraq, and if you have anything to say about anything, please Twitter.

President Obama's Tweet To Me - We Me's Our Us's

For years, I would send my widower's mite in support of the Democratic National Conference. I was weened in Democratic Party principles and history at home and in the 18th Ward. We were the Party of the Working Man, of Al Smith, FDR, Harry Truman,JFK and LBJ.

As a baby teacher in Kankakee, I was asked to run for City Clerk by Milton "Mimi" Shapiro, brother of Governor Sam Shapiro. We lost to the Kankakee GOP of my father-in-law and Ed McBroom. It was fun and educational. The GOP in Kankakee had wonderful people running for office including my City Clerk opponent Gene Glenzinski, the father of one of my Bishop Mac wrestlers. We got along famously. I stayed loyal to emerging Saturday Night Live Democratic Party which used ridicule of President Ford as its intellectual and moral fulcrum in lifting a Democrat up to the White House -Jimmy Carter. Subsequently, I voted for Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, President Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry. The Saturday Night Live Democratic Party had gotten humorless and top-heavy with strident Leftists.

When John Kerry wind-surfed into Boston Harbor to the palms and hosannas of America's Dowager Class bedecked in pink 'I Had and Abortion' T-Shirts. That was it. I sent in one last contribution and was treated to Howard Dean and Attic Ascendancy of the executive director of the Woods Fund, which turned down Leo High School's request for $ 5,000 to support the African American kids attending the school under the signature of Barack Obama, in 1996. '97. '98 . . .& etc./ Barack Obama became an Illinois State Senator. I thought that he might try being governor of Illinois, but he had audacious dreams.

I supported John McCain. John McCain, it seemed to me, laid down in September 2008 when the American economy tanked.

President Obama won.

On Monday, I received this note.

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 11:43:51 -0400 [04/04/2011 10:43:51 AM CDT]
From: Barack Obama
To: Patrick hickey
Reply-To: democraticparty@democrats.org
Subject: 2012
Patrick --

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.

We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.

So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.

We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made -- and make more -- we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.

As we take this step, I'd like to share a video that features some folks like you who are helping to lead the way on this journey. Please take a moment to watch:

http://my.barackobama.com/2012d

In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we'll build together in cities and towns across the country. And I'll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that's farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we've built before.

We'll start by doing something unprecedented: coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year's fight.

This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.

There will be much more to come as the race unfolds. Today, simply let us know you're in to help us begin, and then spread the word:

http://my.barackobama.com/2012d

Thank you,

Barack


Please donate: https://donate.barackobama.com/launch-donate3

Thank you, Mr. President, but we are not interested again. We still do not care for abortion, government health, government auto industry, government radio/TV, the Muslim apology tour, and teaching moments.

All the Best, Sir! But no dough and no vote.