I’ve previously written about attending the lecture that Isaac Asimov gave at the Schwab Auditorium at Penn State, but all I could do was say that it was sometime in April 1970. Now I’ve come across not only the Centre Daily Times archives, but also the archives of the campus newspaper, The Daily Collegian. So … Continue reading Of Kites and Chlorine
Religion
Say Nothing
Once again I’m recommending the Scriptnotes podcast, this time the episode entitled “Say Nothing with Joshua Zetumer”, where Craig Mazin goes solo and interviews none other than Joshua Zetumer about his recent mini-series Say Nothing. Craig welcomes writer and showrunner Joshua Zetumer, creator of the limited series Say Nothing, to explore the process of dramatizing real … Continue reading Say Nothing
Wishing Doesn’t Make It So
In 1951 when I was two years old, there was no vaccine for the measles, and I came down with a very severe case of it. Of course, I have no memory of it, but my aunts Joan and Jane used to tell me about it and how they’d help my mother take care of … Continue reading Wishing Doesn’t Make It So
Too Little, Too Late
From the National Catholic Reporter: Pope Francis has written a sweeping letter to the U.S. bishops decrying the "major crisis" triggered by President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans and explicitly rejecting Vice President JD Vance's attempts to use Catholic theology to justify the administration's immigration crackdown. "The act of deporting people who in many cases … Continue reading Too Little, Too Late
Parking Rage
It was 11:00 AM and I decided to take a quick walk around the neighborhood. Just to clear the cobwebs from my mind and loosen me up a bit. As I walked down Seventh Street and passed Montrose Street, I saw that church services from Saint Mary Magdalen de Pazzi Roman Catholic Church had just … Continue reading Parking Rage
Roundup
Here’s a roundup of a few news stories you may have missed. According to AM New York: Police are on the hunt for a Tesla Cybertruck driver who threatened another motorist and their passengers in a Midtown road rage incident early on Monday morning, authorities said. According to police sources, the incident unfolded at … Continue reading Roundup
Two Podcasts
First up is the latest TWiV: TWiV 1156: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin. Seemingly every week Daniel has another horror story of a patient who ends up in ICU (or worse) because a doctor didn’t prescribe Paxlovid: I've got a woman in her 80s, she’s in the ICU, and the story was, she goes … Continue reading Two Podcasts
Who Cares What the Pope Says?
Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming U.S. elections. “Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one … Continue reading Who Cares What the Pope Says?
Jim Mason
One of the first people I met when I moved to Philadelphia in 1980 was Jim Mason. By that I mean I met him within the first couple of months that I was living here, at least as best as I can recall. He and I hit it off pretty quickly, though in retrospect I’m … Continue reading Jim Mason
Naaman
In 2 Kings 5 we find the story of Naaman (NAY-uh-muhn), a Syrian general who was suffering from leprosy. In the Hebrew Bible leprosy is used for various diseases affecting the skin, so there’s no way to know for sure just what his ailment was. He heard from an Israelite maidservant that there was a … Continue reading Naaman