Saturday

The last Saturday in July at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and I am sitting here in the office messing about with the pc.

"So?" I hear you ask.

So, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the last Saturday in July it should be, as my grandfather was wont to say, hotter than the hinges of hell.  But it isn't.  As of last Wednesday I now, for the first time in my life, live in a home that is air-conditioned.  It is wonderfully pleasant in here.  The only downside I can find is that I may now have to come up with another excuse for abandoning The Inn for days and weeks on end.  (The energy bill?  Pfui.  That's no downside.  I'll just give up eating.)

I may not leave the house again until winter.  Except, um, now.  Herself wants to go out to lunch.  But after that. . . .

And while I've been messing about on the pc, I think I have discovered The "Conservative" Roman Curia Members Marching Song, circa 2017.  See what you think:



You all know who I'm speakin'  of
When I mention you-know-who.
For if you-know-who should hear ya,
You know what he'd do.
So if you don't see me again,
You'll know why I'm away,
And if anyone asks you where I've gone,
Here's what you must say. . . .

Heh.

Found While Looking for Something Else

A group of Seaforth Highlanders from the WWI era.  Apparently one-size-fits-all is not a new thing.  The Seaforth's kilt provider seems to have been a firm believer.

As (almost) always, you can click on the picture to make it way too big.)

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (and of the Carmelite scapular) -- 16 July

O Flower of Carmel,
Tall vine blossom laden;
Splendor of heaven,
Childbearing yet maiden.
None equals thee. 

Mother so tender,
Who no man didst know,
On Carmel’s children
Thy favors bestow,
Star of the Sea. 

Strong stem of Jesse,
Who bore one bright flower,
Be ever near us
And guard us each hour,
who serve thee here. 

Purest of lilies,
That flowers among thorns,
Bring help to the true heart
That in weakness turns
and trusts in thee. 

Strongest of armor,
We trust in thy might:
Under thy mantle,
Hard press’d in the fight,
we call to thee. 

Our way uncertain,
Surrounded by foes,
Unfailing counsel
Thou givest to those
who turn to thee. 

O gentle Mother
Who in Carmel reigns,
Share with thy children
That gladness thou gained'st
and now enjoy. 

Hail, Gate of Heaven,
With glory now crowned,
Bring us to safety
Where thy Son is found,
true joy to see.

The Flos Carmeli, composed by St Simon Stock

More on Our Lady, the brown Carmelite scapular, and the Order of Carmel here.

Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel - Day 9

Well, we made it to Day 9 with only two posting lapses.  Probably -- alas -- about average for me.

And now to actually pray the prayer and honour the feast tomorrow.

Bastille Day - Government Sponsored Terror Begins

Tuesday, July 14 probably passes without much fanfare in your home, but the date, Bastille Day, marks the beginning of the greatest organized persecution of Christians since the Emperor Diocletian. This day, the beginning of the French Revolution, also planted the seeds for the murderous ideologies of socialism and nationalism that would poison the next two centuries, murdering millions of believers and other innocent civilians.

The rest is here. 

Feet, Don't Fail Me Now

The title of this piece from the Beeb is "What Not To Do In A Disaster" which sounds like it's going to be helpful.  But it isn't.

According to sciency types who study that sort of thing what's really  going to happen is neither fight nor flight.  It's freeze up.  Apparently most of us homo sapiens when faced with the on-coming locomotive or the giant tsunami wave or the person of no particular religion shouting Allahu Akbar and firing off his AK47 just stand there and gawp for an inordinately long, and occasionally fatal, period of time.  It seems the only solution is to spend a large portion of our lives training for each sort of disaster so that the proper reaction becomes second nature.

So, no, not terribly helpful.  But I found it really interesting, if a bit of a downer.  In the event you want to be slightly depressed also, you can find it here.

How Not To Get Caught Forging Documents

In a nutshell:  if your document is supposed to be from, say, 2001 don't type it up using a font that wasn't invented until 2009.

There's more here but, really, I've already handed it to you.

Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel - Day 8

Here is the text for day 8 of the Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

And, yes, day 7 never quite made it into The Inn.  We weren't at the pc yesterday and, although the text is available on the terrifyingly talented smart phone, without the password for the blogspot dashboard it wasn't of much use for posting purposes.

You can access day 8 and scroll up to find day 7 but that isn't very satisfactory on day 8 is it.

We will try to do better tomorrow for Day 9.

(Sunday is the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, although unless you attend a Carmelite parish, you'll never know it.  Those who decide such things long ago decided random days after Pentecost or Trinity or days in common-or-garden variety time should supersede almost everything else.)

Novena to Our Lady of Mt Carmel - Day 6

Day 6 of the novena can be found here.  More than half way there today.

Novena Day 5

Oh, dear.  Day 4 of the novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel never made it to the pages of The Inn.  In fact, if you go to any of the individual day links you can scroll up or down to find the entire novena.  But I still meant to do each day.  Gabh mo leithscéal.

But, in any event, here's Day 5.

St Columba's Cell Found on Iona

Archaeologists say they have identified the remains of the cell of St Columba on the Scottish island of Iona.
They have used radiocarbon dating to place samples of burned wood in the middle of Columba's time there almost 1,500 years ago.
The charred remains of a hut were excavated in 1957, but it has taken until now for science to accurately date them.
The cell, or scriptorium, is where he worked, prayed and spent his last day.

More here.

Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Day 3

Novena Day 3

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Novena - Day 2

Novena Day 2

Why a Record Number of University Places Might Not be a Good Thing

So sayeth The Spectator in an article here.

This results in a number of angry, aggrieved graduates unable to find the positions they feel their education warrants, as well as not being able to afford the housing and financial stability necessary for family formation. They become like a sort of gender-neutral ‘bare branches’ of the 21st century. 

In the west today there are two sections of society driving political polarisation: a working-class opposed to multiculturalism who are moving from the left to the radical right; and middle-class graduates enraged at being left behind by the super-rich, and attracted to Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and others on the radical left. As long as huge numbers attend university courses that provide few material rewards there will be an inexhaustible supply of the latter.

More at the link.

Cheers

Did you know there is a General George Patton pilsner?

Well, there is.  There's a bare mention and a picture here but not a lot of other information, like is it available in this corner of the Benighted States.

Thanks to Scott Richert, who first mentioned it in my hearing  (well, reading) I shall now have to go wandering about Trader Joe's or BevMo to see what I can find.

St Maria Goretti and Our Lady of Ipswich

They share a shrine in Italy.  Fr Finigan will explain it to you here. An interesting story with some good links interspersed.

Mancunians, Bajans, and Haligonians

Those, believe it or not,  are demonyms, i.e., "the category of words describing either a person from a certain place, or a property of that place, like New Yorker or Italian".  Mancunians, for example,  are folks from Manchester.

It seems there is no way to logically deduce what any particular demonym is. You just have to know.  Although once you do know, there is a logical reason for the demonym.  Usually.  But really, you just have to know.

And this essay will let you in on a few of them.

Like Haligonian.

Novena Day 1

Today is the first day of the traditional novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  There are several printed and on-line.  Not unexpectedly, I like this one.