Visitors from England

When we were in England last summer, we stayed with Mick Paine, Jan, and their two daughters, Heidi and Zoey. Heidi is the young lady in the very middle of the picture next to Joe. Mick was our good friend when we lived in Jamaica – we both taught at the same school.  And despite his communist, atheist, … Read more

A sad story about a good priest

From the Washington Post a couple of days ago. Fr. Kelly, taken by a bizarre accident. An interesting man with an interesting background before becoming a priest. Excerpt below, hit the link for the whole feature. Grief for 'the Flying Priest' | LoudounExtra.com | The Washington Post Michael C. Kelly, the pastor at St. Francis … Read more

Health update

As I posted here My second annual New Year's interview with myself, I got a good report on Wednesday when I saw my lymphoma physician, Andrew Zelenetz, at Sloan. Bloodwork and CAT scan were normal, which I did expect, but was still nice to hear. He also is doing an immunoglobulin study, to see if weakened or … Read more

A philanthropy lesson

A week ago the Wall Street Journal had a column/interview with Bill Simon, the son of William Simon, the investment banker and philanthropist who was treasury secretary under Nixon and Ford. William Simon was very successful and a big supporter of charities. his son Bill is co-chair of the Foundation his father established. Interview: Bill Simon, … Read more

Latest Read: Quick Study

OK! This is the new "Murder 101 Mystery", the third following the career of Alison Bergeron. Alison is a wisecracking English Professor at a small Catholic college in the Bronx, with a view of the Hudson. Sounds suspiciously like Mt. St. Vincent's. That in fact is where the author Maggie Barbieri, who goes to my Church, and who I commiserate with, went … Read more

More on the President’s reading list

As is inevitable, pundits have started to criticize the column Karl Rove wrote a few days ago, about George Bush's wide-ranging reading habits. The reading habits of President Bush Here's one from the Washington Post's Richard Cohen. And it's awfully odd. Richard Cohen – George W. Bush as an Avid Reader – washingtonpost.com In what … Read more

The reading habits of President Bush

The past couple of weeks I've been reflecting on the fact that I've gotten away from reading enough good books, instead reading lots and lots of newspaper articles, magazine articles, features posted on blogs, that sort of thing.  And in my head I've been saying I'll do a better job of reading books of substance next … Read more

Chinchilla “wilding”

As posted here a few days ago Newcomer to Farandaville, we now have a second Chinchilla. Brigid and Joe and Tim decided to introduce the two year old Gloria, to the newcomer, whose name now seems to be Dusty Snowball (Tim insists on the Snowball part) by putting Gloria in the cage with Dusty. This is … Read more