Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 15)

ONE:

On the one hand, I appreciate the opportunity to work and make money again.  On the other, I miss having all day available to write.

TWO:

Jehovah's Witnesses to the left of me!  Jehovah's Witnesses to the right of me!  It's chaos!  How did they all end up working for the same *@#&$ company!?

THREE:

This company is expanding so rapidly that they're still installing security and offices with windows in the building they just leased before I interviewed.  Right now my job consists of re-reading the training materials while waiting for my computer to arrive so I can actually earn my paycheck.

Angel Coulby and Adetomiwa Edun from Merlin

FOUR:

Okay, I understand that English television is the epitome of British secular rationality.  This explains why Angel Coulby and Adetomiwa Edun were cast in a television show set in England  sometime between the fifth and eleventh centuries, when you were as likely to see a person of African descent as you were to see an armadillo walking across the Roman road.

 FIVE:

Ate lunch at Razoo's today ... fortunately, there are plenty of places near my office I can have fish or seafood for lunch on Fridays.  The hurricane shrimp lunch special was reasonably priced, and was exquisitely spicy.  Nevertheless, I can't shake the feeling that Razoo's is bidding to become a Cajun Outback Steakhouse.  Meaning that you pay a little extra for decor and atmosphere that tries a little too hard to convince you it authentically represents the culture.

SIX:

I've been trying to do some writing at a library about a mile and a half from my office.  On Wednesday, I finished my Ash Wednesday post for The Other Blog at 11:45 am, and drove like a madman through North Dallas traffic, making one wrong turn, to get to the only church within reasonable distance — Prince of Peace Catholic Community [say what?] in Plano.  Got there at the stroke of noon ... and there wasn't a place to park within half a mile of the joint.  While the Catholic blogger and apologist part of me was pleased to see such a turnout, the rest of me swore furiously — I blew through a friggin' red arrow to get there, dammit!  Ah, well ... it wasn't a holy day of obligation, at least.

SEVEN:

Belated recognition to my friend Lisa Graas, for whom Ash Wednesday marked the twenty-first year since she was received into Mother Church!

*     *     *

Have a great weekend!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 14)

This week hosted at Betty Beguiles!

ONE:

One bit of "culture shock" I've yet to get used to, even after 5½ years in the Lone Star State, is mowing the lawn in February.  Nevertheless, it's gotta be done ... I've got weeds coming up to my knees here!

TWO:

Part of being on Twitter is knowing whom to block.  Got a message today that "NOM Tweets Hate (@nomtweetshate) is now following you on Twitter!"  *sigh* Nobody cares about subtlety or subterfuge anymore.  I have no use for people who want to cram my opinions into their agenda-driven delusions, so he's been booted off my feed.

THREE:

My buddy Subvet from Blowing San #1 nominated The Other Blog for a Liebster Blog award.  This is actually a pretty cool thing, because it helps link us bloggers with smaller audiences to one another; you can follow the nominations forward or backward and come up with some good reading.  Go check it out!

FOUR:

As of this writing (5:27 pm CST), the White House.gov petition started by Frank Weathers is at 29,099 signatures!  And the St. Gianna's Physician's Guild petition is at 21,955!  While the White House is busy making "accommodations" that are really advances in their position, we're gaining more and more support every day!

FIVE:

Next week, as I announced last week, I start my new job processing loan modification documents.  The main difficulty is that, after a week of training from 8 to 5, my work schedule will be 7-10 am and 3-8 pm.  How will I find time to write?  We'll see!

SIX:

I love this sign that's reportedly on Associate Justice Clarence Thomas' desk: “Thou shalt not emanate from the penumbra.”

SEVEN:

Last night, I was discussing the Susan G. Komen debacle with some brother Knights.  One of them suggested, half-fun and full earnest, that the Knights or the Church offer mammograms.  From there, it built into a serious idea:  incorporate breast screenings, mammograms and other women's health services into the pregnancy shelters that Catholic charities run, as a full-on pro-life competitor to Planned Barrenhood!  This is an idea that needs to be followed up!

*     *     *

And that's all for this week.  Have a safe and pleasant weekend, and remember: Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent is Feb. 22, so now is a good time to start thinking of your Lenten sacrifice!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 12)

ONE:

First, a big, loud shout-out to everyone who sent their prayers and condolences to me and my family on the passing of my brother, Bob. Thank you so much, everyone, for your kindness and consideration!

TWO:

So okay, three years of high-school debate and theater plus a semester college speech course don't a homilist make. But I found out last weekend that I can be pretty good at extemporaneous speaking with enough lead time. My nephew Aidan, though, promises to be better. But then, he's being trained as an actor and dancer!

THREE:

It was a packed weekend. First, the rosary and visitation on Friday. Then the Mass of the Resurrection on Saturday (and enough sandwiches to feed three times the people who showed up). Then Sunday, remembering 9/11, seeing some friends and relatives off and feasting once again. Finally, Monday, more people leaving and a final feast to celebrate Ted's 52nd birthday. Diet? What diet?

FOUR:

My brother-in-law, Mike, is a wonderful guy.

Over the last few months, the lawn has suffered from lackadaisical attention, with weeds overtaking the front plant beds and grasses growing high where once a vegetable garden thrived. Having nothing else to do on Sunday, Mike took it upon himself to rectify as much as he could, later getting help from my uncle Paul. (I joined in at the very end after my buddy Larry left for home ... at least long enough to trim some overgrowth and hoist a few bags of mulch.) There's still quite a bit to do, especially in the vegetable garden area, but the front looks much nicer than it did Saturday. And all because Mike hates inactivity.

FIVE:

Family get-togethers are great media for reminding oneself of how certain family expressions come into being.

One night, many years ago when Ted was stationed at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas, we were gathered at his house for Christmas. As often happened, we dragged out Trivial Pursuit^®, one of many games at which we Laynes take no prisoners and show no mercy. My mother had gone caffeine-free some time before; while we played, Ted made a pot of caffeine-laden java. Later, when he'd gotten a question that earned him a pie slice and put him in the lead, Mom, wired with the coffee, threatened to remove something important from his body with a rusty spoon.

I looked at Ted and put on my best Oxbridge accent: "I suggest a new strategy, Artoo: Let the Wookiee win."

Since my mother possesses a formidable temper, the tag stuck. And now, every once in a while, we can forestall her explosions and even get her to laugh if one of us looks at the other and says, "Let the Wookiee win!" Otherwise, we mentally grab our oh-God handles and duck for cover.

SIX:

Is there a way you can lay claim to a dead loved one's possession and not feel ghoulish about it? I now have Bob's flat-screen TV and Blu-Ray player in my room, and I still feel like the charwoman in A Christmas Carol who made off with Future Scrooge's bedcurtains even before his body grew cold. Granted, leaving the room just the way it was when we took him to Denton Regional just three weeks ago, right down to the half-full container of popcorn, would have been just as creepy, but still ....

SEVEN:

I've applied to GEICO for a job a couple of times in the past. Not even so much as a thank-you-but-we're-looking-at-other-applications e-mail ... not a bloody sausage. 

Well, now that I'm no longer needed as an in-home caregiver, I'm needed as a breadwinner. Tuesday I tried applying with GEICO again. Wednesday, I got an e-mail inviting me to test and interview for the job! Well, I got to HR on time despite a crammed parking lot that forced me to come in from the back forty, passed the test and had a great interview. So maybe Little Bro is helping me out from his corner of heaven ... thanks, Bob!

*     *     *

So that's all the news that's fit to print. Next week I hope to have a contribution for the Bright Maidens, and be back to my normal blogging patterns. Have a great weekend, and God bless!

No quick takes this Friday ...

This has been a fairly disturbing week.

If you read The Other Blog, you know my younger brother, Bob, is bedridden due to a host of maladies stemming from type-1 diabetes. Taking care of him is a challenge not only physically but spiritually, since I'm lazy and a bit self-centered.

Because Bob's circulation is poor and his mobility highly limited, his legs often swell up. About every year or so, the edema leads to infection; his blood sugar starts to climb even as he eats less (and when he's well he eats barely enough to keep a decent-sized hamster in the pink), and he starts to lose coherence.

This cycle started again Sunday, with a new twist: brief periods of lucidity interchanged with extreme sleepiness. Even when he was speaking clearly and coherently, he had a tendency to swap words around, leading me at one point to wonder why he wanted me to put soup cans in the refrigerator. When his legs are swollen, Bob has occasional panic attacks; now the attacks were coming every three to five hours or so.

One such attack woke me up at 5:30 am Wednesday. Sleepy and disgruntled, I stared at him as he explained, "I don't know what time it is; I don't know what time it was. I don't know. I don't know." His blood sugar was 246 mg/dl — an absurdly high number, as he'd had maybe six bites of food in the last twenty-four hours. That was it ... time to get him over to Denton Regional Medical Center.

(Ironically, Bob had a visit scheduled with an opthalmologist that afternoon, and one of his home health-care therapists, Robin, was scheduled to come over when it was time to leave and show me how to get him in our car using the new transfer board. Mom and I got him in with little problem and without Robin's presence.)

Since his admission to DRMC, Bob's periods of sleep seem to have changed into a pattern of withdrawal from the rest of the world. Because he's not eating, he's being fed intravenously; last night, he refused his medication. When we went to see him yesterday afternoon, we had the great good fortune to meet Fr. Tim Thompson, our former pastor, as he was leaving; with his characteristic gentleness, he gave Bob the Sacrament of the Sick. (Note: Priests like it when you ask them for a parting blessing.)

It isn't my habit or desire to use this blog to talk about such things. However, I felt I owe you, my readers, an explanation for my sporadic posting. Please keep us in your prayers; while I've got some extra time available, I'll try to make up for lost time.

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 11)

Not my picture ... or Bob's new bed.

ONE:

Under certain circumstances, Medicare and Medicaid will pay for a hospital bed in your home. My invalid brother Bob now has one ... which makes me a little envious. Hospital beds are a wonderful combination of chaise lounge and La-Z-Boy with sheets and pillows thrown into the bargain. And they're pretty comfortable to sleep on, too!

TWO:

So just how many people come to visit Bob during the week? Well, there's the nurse/coordinator, Ann, a lovely, no-nonsense woman who is Bob's best cheer-leader; Robin, the occupational therapist, an older, slightly pushy woman with a heart of gold; Mara, the physical therapist, a young woman who only seems retiring; and there's Rachel, who gives Bob his sponge baths (until we get done converting the shower in the main bath). Plus, this week we had an X-ray tech come in to take pictures of his chest. Taken all things together, it's good incentive to keep my room and office clean.

THREE:

Central Market in Southlake: foodie heaven. If you can't find it at Albertson's, Tom Thumb or World Market, look there. 

This next weekend and for the next couple of weeks it's the annual Hatch Chile Festival at Central Market. I was born in Albuquerque, and lived for a year there as an adult ... just long enough to understand the State Question: "Red or Green?" Putting jalapeños on your burger just isn't the same as putting on fire-roasted poblanos ... yes, yes, New Mexicans put chiles on just about anything (I can't swear to gefilte fish). Hopefully, my other brother Ted and I can get down there to stock up.

FOUR:

Speaking of New Mexican food: One item I can't get in my immediate area is carne adovada ... in fact, the only place I know of is in Lewisville. Carne adovada is pork marinated in a chile sauce then slow-roasted until it's fork-tender. It's a great filler for tacos, burritos, enchiladas and things. Two concepts Ted and I want to try are putting it on a kaiser bun, perhaps with cole slaw, like a pulled pork sandwich, or baking it in the middle of a baguette like a Runza sandwich (if you don't know what a Runza is, you're not from Nebraska).

FIVE:

Okay, here's your Friday morning rock-out tune: Elton John live with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1986, performing "Have Mercy on the Criminal"!

SIX:

Last year, I replaced my old Ensoniq VFX-SD sequencer-synthesizer with a new Korg M50 Music Workstation ... about five times the voices, a longer keyboard (76 as opposed to 60), and it hooks up to my computer via USB so I can use it in tandem with Sibelius 5, a heavy-duty professional writing and arranging application. However, with tending to Bob and trying to produce material for two blogs, it occurs to me that I haven't just sat and banged away at the keys for several months. So this weekend I'm going to try to make time to remember that I'm a piano player.

Yessir, that's my baby!

SEVEN:

When you get fairly busy on the home front, some things get neglected. The last few days, I've had very little presence on Twitter and Facebook ... in some ways, I'm just not mentally "plugged in" to the whole social media thing. In fact, I still think of "retweet" as the opposite of "charge" to Elmer Fudd.

However, I've been able to pop in here and there. In fact, my friend Julie Robison over at The Corner With A View posted a rollicking little romp on dresses you should read: "Dresses Rule, Pants Drool and Other Facts of Life". Trista at Not A Minx A Moron Or A Parasite also had a piece on dresses, "Dresses & the Apostolate of Beauty", which is quicker and comes at it from Abp. Fulton Sheen's angle while still being light-hearted. And Elizabeth at Startling the Day has a scene from a mechanics office in "Month of the Dress" that will have you grinning ruefully. Plus, I've been to visit The Crescat, Fr. Dwight, Father Z, Randy and a few other places. So just because I haven't been tweeting all that much doesn't mean I've gone away!

*     *     *

And that's all for this week's installment. Have a great weekend!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 10)

Here it is, the dog days of August (and the dogs probably aren't happy that we call such bloody hot days theirs). That reminds me of Kipling's description of India's heat: "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun." The less I go out, of course, the fewer items I have for 7QT. But let's give it the old college try, shall we?

ONE:

Let's start off by going over to Catholic and Enjoying It! and wishing Mark Shea a very happy birthday! He'll be out of town this weekend ... which means he'll only have time to write one book.

TWO:

Speaking of birthdays, I found an option on Facebook that allows you to import your friends' birthdays into Microsoft Outlook. ("O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy.) Now, I've been working with Outlook for several years; it definitely comes in handy for keeping track of my brother Bob's various medical appointments. But only now do I find that you can have more than one calendar going, and that appointments on sub-calendars will show up on your main. Time to grab me a cane, put a Beltone in my ear and start cursing all this new-fangled gadgetry.

THREE:

 Okay: If you haven't figured it out, the line is from "Jabberwocky", by Lewis Carroll. And as Sir Nicol Williamson said, "The mome rath isn't born yet that could outgrabe me."

Yeah, yeah ... big deal chef!

FOUR:

In one of my few attempts at culinary adventurism, I made a peach cobbler the other day. But instead of using the recipe from the trusty old standby, The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (we have three editions, one of which is over fifty years old), I decided to try one posted on the Food Network website by Paula Deen. Result? The filling is great, and I'd definitely use it with some thickening as the basis for a peach pie. The crust, however, was disappointing ... which makes me question whether all-purpose flour really can be substituted for self-rising flour, as the package claims.

No, I'm not saying the crust was disappointing just to keep you from showing up wanting a piece. Besides, we still ate the darn thing up.

The greatest cookbook evah!

FIVE:

Why three editions of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook? Well, the first was a gift to my mother on her wedding day ... yes, despite claims to the contrary, I was conceived and born within the bounds of lawful wedlock. (Besides, bastardy only matters when it comes to primogeniture; in the Catholic Church there are no illegitimate children.) The second one I bought when I brieflt lived by myself in Omaha. The third Bob purchased for Mom when we thought the old one had disappeared and we hadn't combined households yet.

If you don't have it, go out and buy it, or follow the link and order it from Amazon. And don't get the Kindle version, either; get the three-ring-binder kind that'll stand up to anything that can happen in a kitchen. You'll not only thank me for this, you may even name one of your children after me.

SIX:

Speaking of cooking: If you do a lot of grilling — and I do — here's a handy recipe for a light, tangy marinade or basting sauce you can use with chicken: Mix together 1/4 cup Kikkoman soy sauce, 1/4 cup lemon juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 1 teaspoon each of ginger, minced garlic and onion powder. It's especially good if you let the chicken marinate in it overnight, as is pretty much true with all marinades. I also use a lot of Grill Mates marinade mixes, especially if (as is usual) I'm grilling on short notice. (No, this is not turning into a product-endorsement blog, though the money would come in handy ....)

SEVEN:

Another way society hates on obese people: 

I recently had to replace most of my underwear. (Tommy Hilfiger briefs do something I've never seen happen with other skivvies: the waistband separates from the cloth panels. So much for big-name clothing.) So on two separate trips I bought bags of Hane's on sale at Wally World (aka Wal-Mart). O the joy of buying bags of four, five and even seven pairs for a mere $9.47!

Except that, when I got to the register, they rang up at $11.46 a bag. When I disputed the register, the check-out person took one look, and smiled sheepishly. "Ah. Large size." The $11.46 included a $1.99 "fat-ass tax" ... the price differential we larger people pay because manufacturers and merchants apparently can't distribute the cost of the extra material over the rest of the sizing bell curve. (More thoughts follow on this on The Other Blog.)

*     *     *

And that's all the news that's fit to print. Have a great weekend, and God bless!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 9)

ONE:

Last Friday, my little bro Bob was feeling weak, and had been having high blood sugar readings all day (highest was 394 mg/dl). The nurse suggested we take him to the emergency room, as she thought he was dehydrated from an infection. It's a good thing we did: tests showed a blood clot in his right leg! So now he's back home, with yet one more pill to add to his regimen.

TWO:

 With all the megillah of getting Bob to the hospital, I thought that I would miss meeting my buddy Steve at WinStar Casino for a concert featuring Yes and Styx. However, my older brother Ted stepped in and made sure my mother got home from the hospital after Bob was admitted (her car was not road-worthy). So with only a minor qualm, I hied me off to Thackerville, Okla., to rock out to the music of my youth.

THREE:

WinStar has to be the oddest casino I've ever seen. The exterior has façades from several different cultures and time periods, from the Circus Maximus in Rome to a tower of pagodas from China. Inside, the walk is extremely long; Steve and I joked about needing people-movers and trams to get around. And while I'm quite sure there are table games there, I saw nary a one: massive room after massive room stuffed to the rafters with slot machines. It's just as well, as I didn't have any extra change for a round of craps or blackjack.

I don't own the rights.

FOUR:

The last time I saw Styx in concert, they were on the Kilroy Was Here tour in 1983 ("Domo arigato Mister Roboto /Mata au hi made /Domo arigato Mister Roboto /Himitsu-wo shiri tai" apparently means: "Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto /Until we meet again /Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto /I want to know your secret"). Since then, there have been changes in the lineup. Instead of Dennis DeYoung on keys, Chuck Panozzo on bass and John Panozzo on drums (he died in 1996), we saw Lawrence Gowan, Ricky Phillips and Todd Sucherman, with James (JY) Young and Tommy Shaw providing guitars and continuity. However, if I shut my eyes, I could never tell; their vocal harmony is just as tight as it was when "Come Sail Away" hit the airwaves in 1975.

I don't own the rights.

FIVE:

I've caught Yes live a couple of times (the last on the Big Generator tour in 1987), and seen a couple of other televised and taped concerts, the most interesting of which was Symphonic Yes. Yes is practically known for their lineup changes, with only master bassist Chris Squire present in every incarnation. Their new lead singer, Benoît David, is a Canadian Squire and guitarist Steve Howe discovered on YouTube with a Yes tribute band, and who sounds like the signature voice of the band, Jon Anderson. Once again Alan White was at the drums as he has been since about 1974; Geoff Downes, who briefly appeared with Yes in the very early '80s, played keys.

Yes has always been more of a band whose music one wants to sit down and absorb rather than get up and dance to; along with Jethro Tull and Genesis, they're more of my idea of progressive rock than Styx. Stylistically, it's hard to find two bands in the same genre more different in style. However, since I like both bands, the transition from one to the other was very easy. Besides, you can dance to "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart".

*sigh* No, I don't own the rights.

SIX:

Yesterday, while helping Bob with some things, I briefly caught a bit of Everyday Italian on Food Network. And for the first time, I actually paid attention to what Giada De Laurentiis was making: a raspberry pound cake with Vin Santo cream. Oh, sounds heavenly: a dash of cinnamon, a little orange zest, a touch of vanilla extract and whole raspberries folded into the batter. Instead of the Vin Santo cream, I suppose you could put ice cream or even just plain ol' Cool Whip ... the pound cake itself would be divine!

SEVEN:

While Steve was in town — he lives in Omaha, and his wife and daughters had gone to the water park in Kansas City — he and I decided to attend Mass at the Cistercian monastery of Our Lady of Dallas in Irving. Although the Mass was the Novus Ordo, the monks accompanied it with Gregorian chant, which gave a much greater depth to the mystery of the Eucharistic sacrament.

I say "the Eucharistic sacrament" for a specific reason ... I could swear the Mass schedule said it began at 9:30! As it was, Steve and I hove into the doors just as the priest was intoning, "Pray, my brothers and sisters, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to the Lord our Father." I still feel sheepish ... and not a little mortified.

*     *     *

And that's it for this week. With the summer doldrums, it may be harder for me to come up with seven items of not-mind-croggling-dullness the next four or five weekends. But, as John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." Have a great weekend, and God bless!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 8)

ONE:

My nephews, Colin and Aidan Toth, managed to get a bit packed in over the last week: A couple of days' worth of swimming, as well as a day at a water park; shopping at Grapevine Mills with Aunt Annette; watching DC United play FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco and getting to meet their cousin, DC goalie Steve Cronin (whom I hadn't seen for a couple of years); and driving go-carts with Uncle Ted. I especially had fun grilling up hot dogs and brats for them.

TWO:

While they were here, my niece Charlene Dill (Ted and Annette's oldest) came into town with her two girls, Tori and Gracie; I got to see them a couple of times. Tori is looking to turn out to be a red-headed Irish mischief-maker (you'd think the Irish strain would be a bit diluted by now), while Gracie is a bit sweeter and not so much a scamp. They had plenty of fun tormenting their old great-uncle.

THREE:

My buddy Steve Thelen, whom I've known since first grade (forty-one years ... good Lord, where does the time go), is coming into town this weekend while his wife and daughter go off on a trip. We're going to meet up at the WinStar Casino in Thayerville, Okla., to hopefully catch Yes and Styx in concert. And perhaps this Sunday we'll catch Mass at the Cistercian Abbey at Our Lady of Dallas (complete with Gregorian chant!).

FOUR:

With some trepidation, I stepped into the wider world of Twitter. I've found that it does make getting my blogs posted to my Facebook page that much easier, and I do have a number of people that are now following on Twitter that aren't doing it through Google, Networked Blogs or FB. On the down side, it's easier to fall behind on Twitter than on FB. You can follow me by clicking the button on the sidebar, or by looking up @AnthonySLayne.

FIVE:

Devin Rose at St. Joseph's Vanguard has mentioned both Impractical Catholic and Outside the Asylum, putting me in such stellar company as Patrick Coffin and Francis J. Beckwith. That's on top of the relationships I've already begun to form with Frank Weathers, Lisa Graas and Stacy Trasancos, who have been in the apologetics game longer than I. I'm quite humbled ... and actually a little scared; next to these folks, I'm a newbie and a punter. Oh, well ... to slightly paraphrase Edna St. Vincent Millay, a person who writes a blog appears willfully in public with his pants down.

SIX:

After five years in North Central Texas, you'd think I'd be used to the summers here. And I know there are many places across the US (and Canada!) where the temperature is going over the 100° mark. Still, the high here is supposed to be 102°, and that's the coolest it's supposed to be for the next five flippin' days!  Holy cow! Life comes to a standstill when you don't even want to run to the store for food because that takes you away from central air conditioning. Who even wants to eat anyway, when it's this bloody hot?

SEVEN:

I haven't seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 yet; if Steve and I do a movie (in lieu of golf), it'll be a toss-up between that and Captain America. Yes, me and my educated, highbrow tastes ....

*     *     *

That's it for this week's installment. I don't know if I'm going to be able to post anything in the next couple of days, but certainly come Monday I'll be back on the job. Have a great weekend, and God bless!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 7)

ONE:

I'm now on Twitter! You can follow me: @AnthonySLayne. Also, dlvr.it is sending feed from both blogs to the Outside the Asylum Facebook page. And I'm currently working on a deal where, when you close your eyes at night, I appear on the inside of your eyelids. (Sorry, recycled Bob Hope joke.)

TWO:

Two of my sister's boys, Colin and Aidan Toth, are in town, spending a week with us while Peggy and her DH Michael (one of the most stand-up guys I've ever met ... a great person to have as a BIL) take a cruise courtesy of Michael's employers. This gives me the perfect excuse to see HP&DH2 in the theater. Not that I'm concerned about being a grown adult seeing Harry Potter movies on my own ... I just can't justify the expense of going to a movie by myself. The boys seem cool with the idea, although Aidan has this bit of frustration with the movies: apparently, they take too long to cut to the action at Hogwarts. (How do I tell him that all but the last few chapters of DH take place everywhere BUT Hogwarts?)

THREE:

In preparation for the boys' advent, I cleaned and dusted my office and bedroom, which I normally keep in states of Dickensian clutter ... books on every flat surface, some opened face-down with cracked spines, some closed and dog-eared, all showing the signs of one who actually reads the books he owns (several times). Much to my surprise and embarassment, I found I already own a copy of Pope Benedict's The Spirit of the Liturgy! So now I'm reading it in what spare time I have. I love reading Papa Ratzinger's work; it's a perfect blend of rational theological scholar and mystic poet you find few other places.

FOUR

Speaking of organization, I still need to take a crack at the shelf in my office where all my reference books reside. In 2002, when I first started researching for the only book I actually finished writing (and then lost in a hard drive crash ... back up your work, Layne), I started buying books by other Catholic writers. Nine years later, I haven't taken full inventory yet, but it should comprise something like forty-five to fifty different soft-back books representing over $600, from Hilaire Belloc to Pope Benedict, from G. K. Chesterton to Karl Keating, including writings by St. Thomas More and Thomas Merton (Seven-Storey Mountain, not one of his later Eastern strayings). All piled up on one shelf in the office closet ....

FIVE:

Great Value has a chocolate raspberry creamer that is just AWESOME! Of course, it would be great if I had some Mystic Monk to put it in ... though I'm almost morally certain Father Z would consider it a venial sin to spoil MM Coffee like that ....

SIX:

I request your prayers for my uncle, Joe Cronin, who had a fall July 3rd and broke his arm. Because of a condition with his carotid artery, the doctors aren't going to pin the fragments together; they'd rather hold off surgery unless it's absolutely, life-saving necessary. So it's going to be a long, slow heal for a man who's had a hard-luck life, a man I love and respect tremendously.

SEVEN:

Had a great exchange with Devin Rose and Brandon Vogt on Facebook on the inerrancy of Wikipedia, especially on the ongoing battles with "sola Wiki" and how it contrasts with "solo Wiki" (which admits that other Internet sources have their use, although they're not as authoritative). Between manning the pro-life barricades with Stacy Trasancos, tweeting with Lisa Graas and (of course) exchanging posts with my friends the Bright Maidens, I'm meeting so many people I admire as Catholic writers ... and finding out they're pretty fun people as well!

Wherever the Catholic sun does shine,

There's laughter and music and good red wine.

At least I've found it so.

Benedicamus Domino!

— Hilaire Belloc

And that wraps it up for this week! Next week, I promise to have the installment out on time. Have a great weekend, and God bless!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 6)

ONE:

The funny thing is, I didn't feel any worse at 1:40 am Thursday morning than I did when I woke up ... or for Lord knows how long before that. So when I started coughing up blood, it kind of piqued my interest.

Turns out I've had a touch of pneumonia for some time; what coughing I've had I'd written off as part of my usual smoker's hack. I just got out of the hospital a couple of hours ago, with a couple of prescriptions, a couple of Band-Aids from the sticks, and a throat made a little raw from breathing treatments and O₂ stuck in my nose. However, looks like my ongoing sinusitis is clearing up!

TWO:

While I was laying on my back, trying to tune out my frustration at not being hooked up to the blogosphere and aching for a cigarette, one of the talking heads was grumbling how Congress could come to such an easy agreement over switching the hats of Gen. David Petraeus and Leon Panetta but no one could come to grips with the spiralling national debt, a major driver of which is the cost of US intervention in foreign lands.

"Well," says I to myself, "that'll make an interesting commentary for The Other Blog." I'll have to work on it. But the short answer is: The DoD is a major driver of the budget because the DoD is a major driver of our economy! The money we send to Washington every year doesn't just sit there or go into congressperson's pockets, folks! A lot of it gets spent on stuff that 1) costs a lot of money and 2) puts a lot of people to work at 3) quite a bit more than minimum wage. Do you really want to put thousands of servicepersons, government workers and government-contractor employees on the dole right when we're trying to get out of the doldrums? (And that's part of the reason I think we're nailed.)

THREE:

You should never go to a hospital for a rest. Nurses, techs, specialists and other folks are scheduled to interrupt sleep at two to three hour intervals.

FOUR:

On the other blog, a person commented that the idea of women fertilizing women, laughable in 1992, is being worked on even now. She reminded me of something my family and I — all major Star Trek: The Original Series fans — have talked about before.

Tablets and Kindles = PADDs. Your cell phone is rapidly becoming a cross between the communicator and the tricorder. Although the tech is still a little gimpy for my tastes, you can talk to a computer that talks back to you. (Just think of Jimmy Doohan — God rest his soul! — in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: "A keyboard ... how quaint.") On deck, a lab in Australia is working on transporter technology; over here, we have a race on for commercial shuttles, as well as burgeoning applications for adult stem cells in re-growing skin, bones and organs.

On the downside, though, we have genetic manipulators working on creating Homo sapiens 2.0. Just think of Khan Noonien Singh, and wonder how far we are from the Eugenics Wars ....

FIVE:

My nephews Colin and Aidan are coming to Texas in a couple of weeks. Both of them are really good kids with sly senses of humor; Aidan is the one that's going to be in the movie I mentioned a month ago, Life Fine Tuned. Then, a week after that, my buddy Steve is coming down from Omaha to kill some time while his wife and kids are out of town; we may go to WinStar to see Styx and Yes in concert ... or we may just spend the weekend swimming, playing penny-ante poker and drinking beer over at my brother's house. So this month's had a rough start, but it looks to be good from here on out!

SIX:

Got another email requesting a book review. The author introduced himself as Thomas Peters, and I was thinking, "Cool! American Papist himself!"  But then I read a little of his bio, and he's a bit older than I am, let alone Ed Peters' boy. Nevertheless, after I get some contact issues settled, I'll hopefully have something else I can recommend to fellow readers. I still don't think Steven Greydanus has anything to fear from me ....

SEVEN: 

Julie at The Corner With A View is looking to devote some posts in August on the Catholic Church and sex — not sexuality, sex. I enjoy her writing style; moreover, she's one of the Bright Maidens, whom I've written about as "what feminism should have produced but didn't". I'll probably contribute posts to a couple of the topics, but do go check hers out first!

*     *     *

On Monday, I will probably post a couple of quick blips noting the Declaration's 235th anniversary, and pick up steam again on Tuesday. Of course, look for Random Political Observations on Sunday. As always, have a blessed weekend!

Seven Quick Takes Friday! (Vol. 5)

ONE:

Actually, Frank Weathers accepted me into RandBusters™ before I wrote the preceding entry. He did it on the strength of a couple of blog posts I'd done earlier: "If I could tell a story" (this blog) and "Of robber barons and moral codes" (The Other Blog). Thanks, Frank!

TWO:

Pat Archbold has printed a list of names of his favorite bloggers on his National Catholic Register blog. Many of them are also my favorites, but he also left off a few. I tried to make up for it in my comment there; alas, I don't think I've mentioned everybody. Get on over there and mention each other, for cryin' out loud!

THREE:

Wednesday was the anniversary of the falling asleep of one whom we might one day call Saint Gilbert of Battersea. I celebrated it by reading his epic poem, The Ballad of the White Horse, and by downloading and reading his autobiography. (It was only available in HTML and text formats. If you'd like to read it, I've reformatted it and put it in a PDF file; drop me an email and I'll send it to you.)

Knight of the Holy Ghost, he goes his way,
Wisdom his motley, Truth his loving jest;
The mills of Satan keep his lance in play,
Pity and innocence his heart at rest.

—Walter de la Mare

FOUR:

Slowly but surely, the list of summer cleaning chores is getting done. The fastest was the gutters: there were no leaves in them, but the one in back had a clog just beyond the first bend in the drainpipe as it descends from the gutter. Less than ten minutes all told. Today, we swept out the garage ... lots of leaves, gravel and dandelion fluff! Not to mention various receipts, candy wrappers and bits of packing popcorn—whose bright idea was that, anyway?

FIVE:

 You know what an earworm is, right? (I like that term better than "humsickness", "repetunitis" or "ear wedgy".) This is what's been going through my head all #*$!& week! Guys: minimize the window to practice custody of the eyes ... and also to keep from busting a gut at the absolutely ridiculous pompadours; the lead singer looks like a cross between Billy Joel and a French poodle.

SIX:

I have two clear competitors for Best Line I've Read All Week. One is from Chesterton's Autobiography: "My brother, Cecil Edward Chesterton, was born when I was about five years old; and, after a brief pause, began to argue." The other comes from Simcha Fisher's NCRegister blog entry, "Espressivo": "Once, when he was striving to explain sonata form, I coolly answered that I’d rather let the music just wash over me, instead of wrecking the mood by overthinking it.  By the look he gave me, I think he heard me say something like,  'I prefer to let small children be mutilated by elephants, rather than harsh my buzz.'" Which do you think is better?

SEVEN:

For me, summer is only tangentially connected to apohelion (yes, folks, when it's summer in the northern hemisphere, the earth is actually at its furthest from the sun). In Omaha when I was a kid, summer always began Memorial Day (when the pools opened) and ended Labor Day (the last day of school vacation). Even down here in north-central Texas, where summer weather begins around May Day and ends just before Halloween, that's still how I block off summer mentally and emotionally. However, since it is warmer down here, we can grill on Martin Luther King Day if we so choose .... When does summer begin and end for you?

Once again, tune in on Sunday for Random Political Observations! Keep me in your prayers!