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There is a classic Mel Brooks scene in the History of the World movie where Brooks plays Moses coming down from the mountain. He went to a lot of trouble to capture the “Charlton Heston” Moses look, right down to the lighting, the garb, the mountain backdrop, and the long flowing beard. And he is holding three tablets instead of two. As he appears to the Chosen People, he announces to all that…

I sat in my lawn chair and listened to a free concert of Lerner and Loewe music performed by the Millennium Park Orchestra and Chorus. A beautiful summer night in one of the most luminous spots in one of the world’s great cities. This is about as “First World” as it gets with wine, gourmet foods, good friends and not even an entry fee to get in. Millennium Park is a triumph, a “must see” when…

Catholic Born, Part Deux

When I posted a recent article called “Catholic Born,” I got a few responses from readers. Some indicated they felt much the same way as I did, and I suspect those who remained silent disagreed either a little or maybe a lot with what I wrote, but that’s OK.   It was one comment made by my daughter Julie that kind of hit home. She told me “Thanks for not being a priest, dad. Even with all its…

“Dear Mr. Lapierre,”

February 15, 2018   Mr. Wayne Lapierre President National Rifle Association of America 11250 Waples Mill Road Fairfax, VA 22030   Dear Mr. Lapierre:   Yesterday in America we celebrated Valentine’s Day and Catholics around the world also marked the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday. We also watched the unfolding nightmare in Florida with 17 dead, brought about by a deeply disturbed young man…

You know that part of the scripture they read at Christmas where they recite the lineage from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, and then about thirty five others who were all “begot’ until they finally get down to Joseph, the father of Jesus? I once asked a priest that if Jesus was really the result of the ”Virgin Birth,” as I was taught, then aren’t all of those guys on that lengthy list just his…

Tumbler gear (noun, Machinery) A gear in a train of gears, mounted on a pivot arm so that it can be swung into and out of engagement with an adjacent gear. ———— Tumbler gears are remarkable things, even though being on the inside of things, they are seldom seen.  Picture the inside workings of a bank safe, with tumbler gears so precisely in tune that only when five or six are perfectly aligned,…

Comedian Chris Rock once quipped, “The way to stop the killing is to make bullets cost $5,000 each” I think he was on to something. As I’m writing this, some 26 church-going people in Texas have been gunned down by a madman using a weapon that used 5.56 millimeter (also known as .223 caliber) military style ammunition. Last month, another madman in Las Vegas used the same ammunition, plus 7.62…

The Art of the Deal

  A young Ray Kroc, played by Michael Keaton in the movie The Founder, is striking out time after time as he tries to sell his milkshake machines to fast food owners in the 1950’s. He has a snappy pitch and he has a good product and no one is buying. Time after time he lugs his product back to the trunk of his car, growing more and more dejected. And immediately I understood the reason for his…

The Doorway to the Storm

How many doors do we pass through in life? A thousand? Ten thousand, maybe a million? Most often, it’s a familiar door, where there are no surprises awaiting you on the other side. Your front door, your bedroom door, your office door. Sometimes, though, the unknown or even the dreaded awaits on the other side of that door. A job interview, for example, or a doctor’s visit to hear a diagnosis, or…

Twenty Things I know about Women

Having been carried for nine months by a woman, having been raised with sisters, schooled by women for eight years, supervised the work of women, worked for women, been a father to women, and married to a woman for almost 46 years, I feel I have the academic equivalent of an earned PhD in “Insights into Women.” I hear you laughing, ladies. The following is not meant to be a guide to what women…

The little 8 inch square red brick stone at my feet had etched into it the words: “2nd Deputy Fire Marshal Paul H. Conners October 8th, 1954”   The red brick stone was one of a few hundred in a seldom visited memorial to fallen Chicago firefighters and paramedics just south of McCormick Place, and really only accessible by bike or footpath along the lakefront. The stones are loosely arranged by…

My Year Among the Savages

My Indian name was Running Horse. My son’s name was Straight Arrow. We were both members of the Blackhawk Tribe. My son being about ten years of age, someone had suggested that we join the local chapter of something called the Y Guides, a program loosely overseen by the YMCA. It was a father/son thing and we knew a few other families with boys that age and so I thought we would give it a go.…

The Best of Old Men

“How I long for to muse on the days of my boyhood Though four score and three years have fled by since then Still it gives sweet reflections, as every young joy should That merry-hearted boys make the best of old men” -from the Bard of Armagh, as recorded by the Clancy Brothers.   The three small boys awakened on one of the best days of the year for small boys, and that would be in the woods of…

Not my Best Moments

  Yes, I can be like Homer Simpson. Sometimes all of us can. We can all think, say, and do some pretty dumb things in our lives; make bad decisions, suffer from gullibility, open our mouths at the wrong time, and all that. Kind of like those suddenly lonely Trump voters I know who’d really rather we didn’t bring it up again, if you don’t mind. OK, I feel for you. You’re not bad people, you just…

“My first husband bombed Osaka,” and other stories of the late, great Rita Wogan

  The young Japanese girl was living in my sister Therese’s home in the beautiful Partry Mountains in the west of Ireland. She had been sent there to learn English, although the notion of sending the Japanese to Ireland to learn English always struck me as kind of curious. The Irish have put their own twist on the language centuries ago and it’s not mainstream Oxford English or American English,…

“A soldier of the legion lay dying in Algiers, There was lack of woman’s nursing, there was a dearth of woman’s tears” -from the poem “BINGEN ON THE RHINE” By Caroline E. Norton (1808 – 1877)   We stood at attention in our platoon formations, four or five abreast, ten ranks deep, all in uniform, on a crisp September morning. Our platoon leader stood in front of our formation, back to us. Other…