The Thursday Eudemon
Today is the feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran! What's that? It's "the oldest, and ranks first among the four great 'patriarchal' basilicas of Rome."
You ever run across something only once a year and could swear you run across it about four times a year (didn't your Aunt Gertie come just two months ago? Really, it's been three years?)? That's me and this feast. For starters, for a long time I had no idea what it was. As a non-Catholic I'd heard of saint feast days (Patrick, if nothing else), and I knew about Catholics's holy days of obligation. But a feast day dedicated to wood and stone? That struck me as nearly animistic. I got over that, but now it seems like this feast day comes up a couple of times a year. I realize that's not the case, but when I opened the breviary last night and thought, "What? Lateran again? Wasn't that just two months ago?" I'll get over it, but I really prefer saintly celebrations (speaking of which, there's a good batch coming up in the next seven days: Leo the Great, Martin of Tours, Cabrini, Albert the Great).
The recent issue of Rolling Stone arrived last night. I looked at it for fifteen minutes. To save you the degradation, let me summarize the interesting stuff:
**The Who has put out their first album since 1982 and their current tour is getting great reviews (which is good, since I'm going to see them next month--a decision made at the drinking club that has my wife shaking her head).
**Freddy Fender died; I knew that, but in the obituary they mentioned that he first hit the charts with Wasted Days and Wasted Nights in 1960 and that his 1975 chart hit was a mere re-make. I always figured the 1975 was an original.
**The rock group Grizzy Bear is the favorite of the gay underground (useful information; if your son's friend shows up with a Grizzly Bear CD, you'll know it's time to vomit then clean the house out with a night stick).
**Meat Loaf was known as "Meat Loaf" while growing up. It's not his official name, but it's not a stage name, either. His Dad used to call him "Meat" and his high school friends called him "Meat Loaf."
**The top five targets of Jack Thompson, crusader against violent video games: Halo, Doom, Bully, Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt.
The 49ers are moving to Santa Clara (not to be confused with "Santa Carla, from the movie Lost Boys). They're going to keep the name "San Fransisco 49ers," even SC is 30 miles from SF and far closer to San Jose.
It'll be ignored, but someone has to stand on the tracks and yell "halt": The Holy See has called for the cancellation of a "gay pride" march scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on November 10. I just wish the USCCB would do things like that, but I suspect that wouldn't sit right with certain folks at the USCCB offices.
Of related interest: Bill Maher has made an interesting assertion: "A lot of the chiefs of staff, the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican Party, are gay." Well, that explains it. The party heads were out bath-housin' when they shoulda been strategizin'.
Speakin' of which: Does anyone else smell amnesty for illegal aliens? Rush does, and I suspect he's right. Bush is a hawkish leftist with a good social conscience. I suspect that middle characteristic is going to get a lot of playing time during the next 24 months. Don't expect gridlock. Be afraid.
And finally, I gotta see this movie: The Borat movie has been banned in Russia because the film pokes fun at Kazakhstan.
