Many years ago, in junior high school and high school, I studied Latin. My reasoning at the time was water-tight, to me. It was my hope to become the world’s leading herpetologist. The most daunting obstacle, I thought, was the memorization of scientific names. But if I knew Latin, I’d just translate the common names of snakes, turtles, and lizards into that language and I wouldn’t have to memorize anything. It is funny the things that make sense when you’re 13.
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, popularly known as Vatican II, sought to confront a hidebound clericalism, and a modern world that no longer takes as its starting points basic natural law and Christian dogmatic commitments. It is unfortunately known in some circles for the opportunity it provided for poorly catechized Catholics and progressive innovators to make changes (liturgical abuses) under the guise of the Council’s authority.
A close friend of mine — we’ve never met nor heard each other’s voices, but hey, this is the twenty-first century — is devoted to cats. She has spent hundreds and hundreds of hours over the last seven years seeking the availability of a drug that would save millions of her feline friends from painful almost-certain death. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Meta has launched another social network, “Threads.” I signed up but already knew when I did that I wouldn’t be an active user. I hope many others will join me in not using it. I also hope it succeeds for the good of the Internet.
It’s beginning to crumble. Everything that was peddled as official fact about the “miracle” messenger RNA vaccines administered with such wild abandon all across the world, in some cases made mandatory, is being proved false.
No, you don’t understand. I love him. Results don’t matter to me, at this point. OK, they do, but the point is that he’s my favorite pitcher, no matter what. He’s absolutely earned the right to pitch poorly in his final season, and the only thing any halfway decent Cardinals fan should say is, “Oh, well, I guess Waino didn’t have it today.”
As I write this, there is no news about the missing miniature submarine that was launched Sunday in hope of visiting the wreckage of HMS Titanic without itself adding to the rubble.
A tragic, fatal accident with a water and land tour by “Duck” killed the long time attraction in Branson and brought outrage across the state for safety violations. Where is that outrage when it comes to marijuana?
New technology and discoveries have improved our lives in many ways, but I wonder if we’ve paid for them in the things we’ve lost. The question was raised through a bit of study disguised as entertainment — how it should be — I’ve undertaken lately. The issue is why it is that when I think of New York City, my first mental image entirely contradicts my years of living and working there.
Last week, I grumbled about Apple’s “vision” which is visionless at worst and horribly dystopian at best. What could have been different? I found myself imagining what WWDC23’s big announcement might have been if Steve Jobs were still living.