So this explains it:
Ugh.
I have less in the way of visible signs of having a cold today, but I'm dead tired and dragging myself through work.
I drug myself through the day yesterday. The day before, I went elk hunting as the last day was coming up, even though I should not have. That was a struggle, although one I put in miles for anyhow.
Which was oddly a Thursday. I think of most weddings being on Saturday.
At least they are now.
The wedding was in Denver, where they had met and where my grandfather was working. They'd live there until 1937, when they'd move to Scottsbluff. In that time they had all of their children save for one, who would be born in Scottsbluff, the first one being born in 1926 and my father being born in 1929.
They were both 23 years old. He had been on his own since age 13. She was living with her parents in Denver, where they had moved after her father had closed his store in Leadville. Her parents were of 100% Irish extraction, with her mother being from Cork. His parents were of 100% Westphalian extraction. They were both Catholic, although I don't know what church they were married in. Likey one of the Catholic churches downtown.
The American Automobile Association of State Highway Officials approved a resolution recommending that states agree to a consistent system of numbered highways.
Last edition:
1. Today's day:
August 26th – National Toilet Paper Day
2. For the first time in fifty years, more people are leaving Sweden than entering it.
3. Wyoming was trending this morning on Twitter for no apparent reason. Well, two reasons. One was the recent grass fires, which seem to be getting a lot of attention, and the other were complaints about the electoral college.
Last edition:
I really wonder what percentage it is now, just a little over a year later, but this is an amazing trend. That Israel stands at 25% is notable, for example, as tattoos are banned by the Torah.
You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:28.
Indeed, some Christians take the position that tattoos are likewise accordingly banned for everyone, but generally this is regarded as one of the Jewish laws, like ritual cleaning of pots and pans, clothing fiber restrictions, and circumcision that is regarded by most Christians as having been lifted by Christ.* Indeed, in some Christian cultures at one time, tattooing was common to mark yourself as a Christian. As already noted, Christians being tattooed in Jerusalem for having made the pilgrimage there is an ancient custom.
Those pilgrimage tattoos set a person apart because they've been on the pilgrimage, which is an important clue, I think, to the popularity of tattoos in our current era. Tattoos have always set a person apart, while at the same, quite often, saying that you belong to some sort of special group. Marine Corps tattoos meant that you'd been part, or were part, of a hardcore group of soldiers of the sea, tough men. Bluebird tattoos on the chest likewise meant that a man had been part of the pre World War Two 25th Infantry Division, which was stationed in Hawaii. Biker gang tattoos served the same purpose.
When tattoos starting emerging in recent times in the wider population, this was still true. It might mean, for example, that athe person was a member of a sports team. Now, however, what they seem to be trying to do is to either express a deep belief of some sort, something important to the person, or to set the person apart, sometimes both.
And hence the purpose. They're a reflection on the fake nature of modern life.
In prior eras, people lived so much closer to authenticity that tattoos for the masses were basically unnecessary. Tattoos expressed something unusual, but most of society experienced a wider authentic life. Not necessarily a pleasant one, but an authentic one.
Now a lot of life just isn't authentic.
The culture has been stripped of its authenticity and much of the most fundamental aspects of it are now reduced to "lifestyles". In the wider American culture, nothing has much of a value, including people and existential beliefs.
Tattoos are a strike against that in a valueless society. Not always effectively, and not always entirely.
An office worker may spend his days in a cubicle, but his arm sleeve of the forest says where his heart is, and where he wants to be. A mother may spend all day in front of a computer, but the names of her children say where her heart his and where she wants to be. A bold religious tattoos says the wearer can't get to Mass daily, but that's where her heart his.
Nobody gets a tattoo of a cubicle.
Footnotes
*Generally, most Christian denominations don't hold anything against tattoos per se today, although some "fundamentalist" Christians do, and some of those can be found in any denomination.
It Catholicism, there's no set rules on tattoos, which is true of most other Christian denominations, maybe all of them. The only time they're regarded as definitely sinful is if they're in the nature of something sinful, i.e., the classic naked lady type tattoo.
Still, some must feel uncomfortable about them as it was recently notice that one of the chapel veil girls at our local parish applies make up to a tattoo of a turtle on her forearm while at Mass. There's really no reason she would need to do so.
Related posts
It was my father's 15th birthday.
Because everyone who would know is now dead, I'm not entirely sure of the timeline, so his birthday may have been observed in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, or Casper, Wyoming. I think Casper is more likely.
A major Japanese offensive was launched in China against American airbases in the southeast of the country. Around 620,000 Japanese troops were involved in the action.
The British 10th Corps captured Roccasecca; the Canadian 1st Corps captured San Giovanni and reached the Liri River; the US 2nd Corps reached Priverno.
The U-541 stopped the Portuguese liner Serpa Pinto, which was carrying Jewish refugees to Canada. 387 passengers were removed from the boat, but nine hours later allowed back on board, all but two spending that time in lifeboats. Three died in the event, including a 16-month-old baby.
German submariners have been glorified in the West, but in reality they were often ardent Nazis.
While establishing it with certainty has not been done, William H. Calbreath, age 93, died. The coal dealer was reputedly the model for the Cream of Wheat cook that was its marketing logo for many years.
Last prior edition:
The Nazis offered Hungarian rescue worker Joel Brand an offer which has been termed the "Blood for Goods" deal. It was an offer to free 1,000,000 Hungarian Jews, releasing them to an Allied country, save for Palestine (oddly) for goods. The offer was extended through Adolf Eichmann to Brand, who was a pre-war Hungarian Zionist.
Brand carried the message to the Allies, making his way through Turkey to Egypt, where he was arrested by the British. The British did not take the offer seriously and believed it was a trick. The US was cautious about the offer but less hostile to it. British opposition to exploring it ended the matter, and the British press leaked it and termed it blackmail by the fall.
At this point in the war, members of the SS were not completely loyal to Hitler and there is some reason to believe that this was a camouflaged effort to open up communications with the Western Allies in order to advance a separate peace, a delusional prospect of that is what they were thinking.
Brand moved to Israel after the war and was haunted the rest of his life by the failure of the proposal. He died visiting Germany in 1964, at age 58.
A Royal Air Force variant of the B-24, a Liberator B Mark VI crashed into the Griffintown neighborhood of Montreal after taking off from Dorval Airport. The crew and ten civilians were killed.
My mother, then 19 years of age, would have been working in the city at this time, so was likely on the Griffentown side of the river when the accident occured.
The first combat helicopter evacuation completed in the CBI:
The Luftwaffe raided shipping at Portsmouth and Plymouth-Devonport in a nighttime raid. The same night, the HMS Black Prince and three Canadian destroyers engaged German warships in the English Channel, sinking the T-29 and damaging the T-24 and T-27.
The T-39 series of German ships were torpedo "boats", but due to their size they were more in the nature of corvettes.
Allied forces landed at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea.
The British government announced that it had a £2.76 billion deficit, £89 million smaller than anticipated.
The United Negro College Fund was established.
George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, died at age 63.
Herriman was creole and born in New Orleans, although he speant much of his adult life in Los Angeles. The Creole are their own distinct ethnicity, with some noting that means by default that they are of "mixed race", something that a lot of non Louisianians don't realize as they confuse creole with Cajun, the two not being the same. Under the bizarre rules of American culture, Herriman would have been regarded as "black" in some regions of the United States, although legally, and equally bizarrely, he could at the time choose to self identify as white or black, neither of which really describes his ethnic heritage. He self identified as white, which makes sense, as to do otherwise would have hindered his career.
Herriman was a shy and gentlemanly man. A Catholic, he married his childhood sweetheart and had two children, as well as a lot of pets, of which he wsa very fond.
Last prior edition:An item by a German expatriate living in the UK on what Germans call what most Americans call "hot dogs"
Note the presentation.
I'm surprised that in Frankfurt, Wieners are regarded as a delicacy. When I was a kid, we had them all the time, and I liked them. I particularly liked "hot lunches" at school, which we rarely got, when we were served steamed hot dogs.
I still like the recollection of how those tasted.
Now days, I only eat hot dogs if I'm at a baseball game. That's about it. Otherwise, I never do. I probably had too many fried hot dogs as a kid.
Yes, my mother fried them. But she was an awful cook.
Anyhow, my grandfather was a meat packer and this article caused me to think of what we called these sausages. We called them "hot dogs" the American standard word, but my father would call them Wieners. His father was of 100% Westphalian extraction and had grown up speaking German. My father could speak it too, but sort of kept that to himself, like many other things in his very quiet personality. Anyhow, maybe that's why my father used that term for the little mild sausages.
The packing house did make them. Apparently they made a lot of them during World War Two, as the Army ordered them. When the war ended the contract for them was suddenly canceled and it turned out to be a big problem for the packing house, as the Army wouldn't order them with the added red dye that is what actually causes them to be that color. That was an unnecessary added expense, in the Army's view.
But not for civilians. The hot dogs turned out to be hard to sell to grocery stores as they weren't the expected pink. Without it, they're white.
I love sausages, FWIW. It's probably one of the things that will get me in the end, but then I don't have the American expectation of living perfectly fit until I'm 120 years old. But I'm not keen on Wieners. Brots, yes, other sausages, you bet. But these aren't my favorite.
Maybe they would be in Frankfurt.
The United States and Canada are Protestant nations. They don't really notice it as a rule, and quite a few cultural Protestants like to deny it, but if you are an adherent member of an Apostolic Christian religion, or for that matter probably if you are Jewish or Muslim, you'll definitely notice it.
One of the ways that it oddly comes up is the annual "it doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that you can't eat meat on Fridays" discussion that Protestants in particular, and some very weakly evangelized lapsed Catholics, like to have. It's ironic as some of the same people will insist that grape juice was served at The Last Supper (nope, definitely wine) or that the Bible says once you accept Jesus into your heart you can go back to sinning (nope, St. Paul in particular warns you can do that and still go to Hell).
Of course, it doesn't say that you must abstain from meat on Fridays. It's a law of the Church, not biblically imposed. The Bible discusses fasting and gives lots of examples, and it left the office of Bishops to bind and loose. This is a rule of the Church, which has been bound.
It only applies to members of individual Churches. I.e, Catholics are bound, not Lutherans, or members of make it up as you go Christian churches. Moral laws bind everyone. Church laws bind the members of the church.
Also, FWIW, fasting and abstention from meat go way back in Church history and used to be much stricter as a practice than it is now. It's still much stricter in the Eastern churches. In the East, fasting involves abstention from alcohol, eggs, dairy, fish, meat, and olive oil for the 40 days of Great Lent and Holy Week. So the Orthodox, for example, are really down to a very bland menu at this point.
That group of people who like to claim that the Latin Rite practice was made up to support the fishing industry are really out to lunch on this one, particularly as the claim is based on a grossly misconstrued concept of what the food economy was like in the ancient world. If you lived, for example, in a Sardinian fishing town in the Middle Ages, fish is what was for dinner every night. The fishing industry didn't really need anyone's help to be economically viable. And at one time the Latin Rite fast more closely resembled the Eastern one. Claims like that are generally myths of the Reformation, created in jolly old England to justify carrying on with the Reformation when they couldn't come up with any actual good reasons to do so.
For most non-Catholics and non-Orthodox, however, this isn't in the forefront of people's minds. Restaurants get it, as there are a lot of us, which is why fish based fare shows up this time of year darned near everywhere. But rank and file Protestants, particularly of the Christmas/Easter variety, really don't ponder this much. If you live in a state like Wyoming, that's really obvious, as we have very low religious observation here anyhow. There are a lot of Catholics, but we're a minority. Protestants who don't go to church often are no doubt the majority, followed by Protestants who go to the new "non-denominational" churches, which is to say the quasi Baptist, churches (there are no "non-denominational" churches). They can't be expected to know Canon Law.
When you go to a function of any kind during Lent, this becomes pretty obvious. "Here's your entrée". . will say the server, serving the beef sandwich between two slabs of beef served with beef fries. "Would you like gravy with that?"
Oh, well.
That you can't suspend this and just go to meatless on Saturday is something people don't grasp. "You can skip it this time". No, you can't. Violation of the rule is a mortal sin. That seems extreme to non-Catholics, and probably has for a long time, but by the same token we live in an era when a host of other mortal sins, the sexual and marital ones in particular, are ignored by even devout church going Protestants. If you can convince yourself, getting married for the third or fourth time doesn't mean that you are an adulterer, you can pretty easily convince yourself that eating a hamburger on Fridays in Lent is okay this one time. Indeed, in some odd ways, the logic isn't that much different. They both involve appetites and excuses.
This does make Catholics stick out, and the Orthodox even more, maybe. In some ways, as the Catholic Church has suspended so many of these rules, the fact that there are some remaining makes Catholics stick out all the more and, in turn, the few remaining rules offend people all the more. And that is in a way part of the point in the modern world. It sets us apart, and it should. Like those who appear with ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, it's going to mark you.
This came to mind as when I got home last night, Long Suffering Spouse announced, "my mother proposed to have Easter Dinner this Friday. . ."
Eh?
Now, by way of an obvious point, we're clearly a "mixed" family. My side of the family is all Catholic. LSS's is all non-Catholic.
I don't know where the dinner suggestion stands right now, as LSS isn't saying, which means it must be in the air. She protested this as we have "town jobs" which means that a Friday gathering really isn't a viable option anyhow. And one of the things about being married to a Catholic means is that the Catholicism will start to be picked up by the non-Catholic party, no matter what.
Beyond that, however, under the current rules for Latin Rite Catholics, (and I'm sure for Eastern Rite Christians as well) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the fasting rules allow Catholics to eat only one full meal and two smaller meals which, combined, would not equal a single normal meal. We've already seen that the Eastern Rite is fasting by this point every day. Catholics may not eat meat on these two days, or on any Friday during Lent.
Now, I'm over 60 years old, which means the fasting rules no longer apply to me. As it is, however, that's my normal daily routine anyhow. I never eat big breakfasts or lunch. I used to often skip both, but thanks to my thyroid medication, I'm hungrier than I used to be. Be that as it may, I'm not comfortable with a feast on Good Friday. That's weird, from an Apostolic Christian prospective. "This is the day our savior was murdered. . . let's just skip ahead to the day he was raised".
You can't really do that.
Of course, in Cromwellian influenced Protestant America, you probably can. He wouldn't, as he didn't approve of observing things anyhow, but he so messed stuff up it's never recovered in the English speaking, non-Catholic, world. Another reason that they've had to hide his head.
Anyhow, I love my in-laws, who are great, but this is pretty much something I'm not going to be able to do. I can't go to a big Easter dinner on Good Friday and do something like, "wow, that ham looks great. . . I'll just have the mashed potatoes. . . thanks". The meatless rule still applies to me, and there's probably not going to be a giant cod for an "early" Easter dinner.
That would be weird.
Also weird is that on Good Friday, I have people trying to make appointments. Most law offices are closed on Good Friday. I guess there were enough old Irish and German Catholic lawyers, even here, to make that impact. But most Americans work as Oliver Cromwell was a theologically deficient fun sucker and our Puritan heritage is ruining everything. Working to the grave is one thing that our Protestant founders in this country really gave to us, and it's one of the things that's really wrong with the culture. Now, I usually do work, but I've long looked forward to most of the office being out, and only working a partial day. And it gives me a chance to take Holy Saturday off.
I'm going to have to handle this today. In prior years I think I would have just said yes, to somebody wanting in, or "the office is closed". But instead I'm going to just say, the "office is closed for Good Friday".
I'll let the Puritans ponder it.
Lex Anteinternet: St. Patrick's Day: A Celtic cross in a local cemetery, marking the grave of a very Irish, and Irish Catholic, figure. Recently I ran this item: Lex Anteintern...
So, after the crabby entry, what did I do for St. Patrick's Day?
Well, my St. Patrick's Day really started on the prior day, March 16, as my daughter was in town. We always have corned beef and I hadn't secured one, so after work (lawyers, you should be aware, often work six days a week. . . at least I do) I went to get one.
Usually, this isn't a problem, but it was on Saturday and I ended up getting one at a specialty butcher shop after going to three of them, which is a nice thing to think of in a way. Distributism saved the holiday.
I now also have a corned pork butt, or corned pork roast, I'll have to look at the label, from the second one I visited, that visit being due to the recommendation of the first. They were really friendly at all of them, and at that one they insisted I try the corned pork, which they had just cooked one of for themselves.
It was quite good, much like pastrami.
Long-suffering spouse informed me that while she doesn't like corned beef (her DNA, I'd note, is almost as Irish as mine, but not quite) she hates pastrami.
Anyhow, I also went to the liquor store to buy stout and Irish whiskey. I got the last six-pack of Guinness and some Irish ale I'd never heard of.
Which made me wonder what on earth was going on. To see the shelves cleared that way was downright weird. And all the parking lots all over town were full.
I chose the liquor store as it was near one of the churches in town, and it gave me the opportunity to go to confession. They informed me in the store, which was new, that the parking lot was full as their bar had just opened, and it was packed. That surprised me as it was about 1:00 p.m. which strikes me as really early to hit the bars.
I went to confession, as noted, and was right behind my next store neighbors. I avail myself of the sacrament frequently, so I was comfortable speaking to my neighbor while in line. I know what my sins and many failings are. The very traditionally dressed women behind me in line, however, was clearly not happy with us chatting. Anyhow, it's odd as we live right next store, but we don't actually chat all that much.
Long suffering spouse is a better chatter than I am.
I went home and I fixed the St. Patrick's Day meal, which is my chore. It was good, but the corned beef was uniquely not very fatty. Long suffering spouse and daughter liked it better than the usual, grocery store bought, one. I like the fatty one better.
We'll see what opinions are on the pork.
On St. Patrick of Ireland's day itself, the first thing I did was go to Mass. The Gospel reading was as follows:
Gospel
Jn 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
It struck me because of this section:
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
The reason is that I've been going through a lot that's been forced up on me recently, together with others upon whom it's been forced, but I'm finding myself unique making decisions for everyone, and not for what I want to do, but for others. The stress of it has been gigantic and when I stop to think about it, it's depressing.
I went home and made a breakfast out of a bagel and left over corned beef.
In the afternoon, I went out fishing and took the dog. On the way, I was listening to a podcast, like I'll tend to do. It was a Catholic Answers Focus interview of Carrie Gress and it was profound. I'll post on that elsewhere.
We didn't catch any fish. Nothing was biting, so we came home.
By that time, I'd finished the short Gress podcast and listened to This Week. I've later listed to Meet The Press. Both featured Republicans try to tell people that when Donald Trump promised a bloodbath if he isn't elected, he didn't really mean that, but was speaking instead about cars coming in from Mexico from Chinese factories. The full text of his speech stated:
We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected, now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.
It's interesting that Republicans feel compelled to continually tell you that Trump didn't mean what he said. It's also interesting that a person with such a strange pattern of speech is listened to. He rambles and repeats.
The other thing that the shows all dealt with was Chuck Schumer calling for an Israeli election as he's upset with the current Israeli government. A lot of people are upset with the current Israeli government, including a lot of Israelis, but an American elected official calling for a new government in another democracy is really beyond the Pale.
St. Patrick's Day's meal was left over corned beef and Brussels Sprouts, and cheese lasagna from the prior Friday.
No big blowout, no "Craic". Just an observation that probably more closely resembles that of centuries of Irish people, in Ireland and the diaspora. A small family gathering, a small feast, a little regional alcohol. Reconciliation and Mass, and knowing that today the grim problems of the last two weeks, on this Monday, return.
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Lex Anteinternet?
Well, in reality, that broadened out pretty rapidly to taking into account looking at everything in this era in trying to get a grasp on it. Since then, it's certainly broadened out enormously, probably much too much.
Anyhow, some recent items help illuminate some of the things of this era, and the one immediately after it. Indeed, as we'll discuss, one of them helps actually define, maybe, how to property define certain eras.
The items we looked at which brings this to mind are the story of Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, that of Dick Proenekke, and also Lee Marvin, and the work of the Southern Agrarians, and that of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
Quite a varied set, I'll admit.
Let's start with Dr. Gale Cleven, which is how most people who knew him, knew him as, the latter part of his life.
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Another thing, and one that cuts a bit against something I've noted here in the past.
