Author: S&P
Why a toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today…
My colleague Tom once introduced you to a modern toaster with two seemingly ingenious buttons: one to briefly lift your bread to check its progress, and another to toast it “a bit more.” I respectfully submit you shouldn’t need a button at all. That’s because in 1948, Sunbeam engineer Ludvik J. Koci invented the perfect toaster, one where the simple act of placing a slice into one of its two slots...
Victor Sweeney, made famous by Wired Magazine’s YouTube videos, ‘Mortician Answers Dead Body Questions From Twitter,’ is a faithful and fervent Catholic…
“You must be called to do the job,” says Victor Sweeney. “I haven’t found the pay to be commensurate with the hours” — (these he describes as “long, odd and unpredictable”) — “nor with the emotional toll that comes from dealing with grieving families, to say nothing of witnessing grievous injury or the death of children.” Yet, looking back over his life, he can see how he was being prepared ...
The Pope’s Italian crackdown suggests he’s more irked by sloth than ideology…
ROME – Early on Pope Francis may have played down most of the traditional epithets of his office, such as “Primate of Italy,” by instructing the Vatican to print them on a separate page of its annual yearbook. The fact he avoids the title, however, clearly doesn’t mean he dislikes the gig. On the contrary, few popes in recent memory have been quite as aggressive in seeking to reshape the Italian c...
A martyr preaches: “Banish the fear of death”…
1st Sunday of Advent This Sunday’s celebration comes in a moment of two overlapping times. This is a Sunday in November, the month in which we particularly remember, celebrate, and pray for the dead. This Sunday is also the beginning of Advent, a season in which we prepare for the coming of Christ. Through Advent we prepare not only for Christmas, the first coming of Christ, but also for Jesus’ Se...
Pope’s Sunday Angelus: ‘Be Awake — the Secret to Being Watchful Is Prayer’…
On the first Sunday of Advent, Pope Francis reminded Christians that an essential ingredient for living an alert and joyful life is prayer. “Be awake, guard your heart,” the Pope said in his message before the Angelus Nov. 28. “And let’s add an essential ingredient: the secret to being watchful is prayer.” “In fact, Jesus says: ‘Keep awake at all times praying’ (Luke 21:36). It is prayer that keep...
Tamara Durand, the wife of Catholic author and Relevant Radio host Dave Durand, was among those killed in the Waukesha parade attack…
And on Tuesday, 8-year-old Jackson Sparks succumbed to his injuries and became the youngest fatality of the Wisconsin attack. Tributes have continued to pour in in the wake of the SUV attack at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisonsin, as the death toll continues to rise, with the wife of a Catholic radio host among the victims. On Tuesday, 8-year-old Jackson Sparks succumbed to his injuries and b...
Why does a woman customarily take the name of her husband at marriage?
Last time, I spoke about the importance of names. Specifically, the names we give our children. Today, I would like to speak about the importance of the names we give and receive within marriage. For, these names have become like so much of the wisdom we have received from our forefathers: we merely remember that we do it, but we have forgotten why. It seems to be a near universal practice that we...
Even though the world is crumbling in front of our eyes, there is hope…..
At the end of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, a group of young boys grieves over the death of their friend. They feel sad and abandoned. Alyosha Karamazov encourages them: You must know that there is nothing higher, or stronger, or sounder, or more useful afterwards in life, than some good memory, especially a memory from childhood, from the parental home. You hear a lot said about your educa...
Josephus is a trustworthy and extremely valuable historical source…
The Jewish historian Josephus was a first-century spin doctor who can be counted upon to put himself and his people in a favorable light, even if it means fudging the facts at times. But how accurate is Josephus when neither his nor the Jewish people’s reputation is on the line? After all, the majority of the historical statements he makes in his writings don’t have a direct bearing on making some...
Our moral edifice has fallen. Here’s how to tell the difference between a healthy culture and a sick culture…..
In a recent article at The Pillar, the estimable J.D. Flynn interviews a family in the Cleveland archdiocese whose son was preyed upon—through two years of utterly demonic enticement, spiritual blackmail, and cruelty—by a priest now serving a life sentence in prison. It is an agony to read, as it should be. The young man deserves our sympathy and needs our prayers. He did not create the horrors of...
Pope Francis Names Vatican Diplomat Next Papal Envoy to Medjugorje…
The purported apparitions originally began June 24, 1981, when six children in Medjugorje began to experience phenomena which they have claimed to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday appointed a longtime Vatican diplomat to be his papal envoy to Medjugorje, following the death of Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser in August. Archbishop Hoser had overseen ...
It’s time to pay attention to debates about girls, Instagram and mental-health woes…
If you have followed GetReligion for a decade or so, you know that our religion-beat patriarch Richard Ostling writes a “Memo” post every week in which he focuses on religion trends and future events to which journalists should be paying attention. This week’s Memo focused on why religious and secular debates about Death with Dignity laws will not be fading away anytime soon. As always, Ostling’s ...
