Showing posts with label Podcast Mirror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Podcast Mirror. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

A Mid Week At Work Blog Mirror: Catholic Stuff You Should Know. Sunday Best.

Bar scene from The Best Years Of Our Lives.  Yes, they are supposed to be at a bar, and at sort of a blue collar bar at that.

This is an interesting podcast, by two priests, on dress at Mass on Sunday:

SUNDAY BEST

We've covered this topic before, and in other context, we note.  Consider:

Declined Sartorial Standards. Have we gone too informal?


A Nation of Slobs


Let alone the plethora of related posts below:

So what of this?

Let me start off by noting that this is't the first time I've heard Catholic clerics address this (I've never heard Protestant ones address this, but as we've noted many times before, Protestants tend to dress up for Church, at least by way of my limited observation.  Catholics, well, it's mixed.

And let me say that I"m one who is pretty bad about not doing so.

For years and years, I tend not to shave on the weekends.  I probably ought to just grow a beard, as I don't like shaving, but at this point, it'd be too much of a shock and I'd look like a short, not too fat, Santa Claus.  When I was young, my beard was a bunch of different colors, brown, blond, red, etc., reflecting no doubt my wild Hibernian heritage.  People don't think of humans having hair coloration like a Calico cat, but I used to.


I've had a heavy mustache since my 20s.  It was brown with red and blond streaks, but not enough to notice unless you looked really close up.  

Now it's gray.

That is no doubt what my beard would also be.  The hair on my head isn't yet.

Anyhow, when I was a college student, I'd rarely shave every day.  In retrospect, I probably should have as looking like Yassir Arafat, in the pre stubble as fashionable days, isn't a cool look.  I had to start shaving at age 13, and I've just never cared for it much.

I've started to shave on most Sundays, however, recently. And before listening to this podcast.

The one time I've heard a priest orally reference this before was at Mass, during the summer.  A visiting Priest made a pointed comment about people showing up in shorts, and indeed, people did, and do.  One extremely devout young man down at the downtown parish seems to only own shorts, and a large collection of religiously themed t-shirts.  I'm sure that his dress should not be of concern.

And in a slight way, I think this topic may have a jump the shark aspect to it.  It was really in the 80s when dress went too far, and you'd see t-shirts with rude comments and the like.  There was a popular "Big Johnson" line of t-shirts that I can distinctly recall somebody showing up to Mass at.

I don't see that anymore.  Indeed, the younger people at Mass are almost never dressed t-shirt fashion.  They are often dressed informally, but pretty nicely.

In fact, they dress nicer than I do.

I started really noticing that the Sunday before last, which was also before I heard this podcast.  I wasn't feeling great, quite frankly, and didn't shave.  I don't recall what shirt I was wearing, but I've been getting a bit self-conscious about my dress at Mass in general and so took note, at some point, of what I was wearing.  I'm not sure why I took note, but in part it's because the men I see sitting at the back of the Church are all dressed better than me, save for one guy who is retired and who shared my profession, whose always super casually dressed, and a few genuine quite old men who are probably well past the point where they care much about dress in general.  One of those guys wears a BDU M65 Field Jacket to every Mass in the winter, which now really stands out.

I've worn M64s to Mass lots of time, when I was younger, as that was the coat I had.  When I was a National Guardsman and living in Laramie, it was often my go-to coat.  I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be, but it was.

Anyhow, soon after Mass started I noticed that my Carhartt coat, which I was wearing, is really a mess.  The sleeves are fraying, and it has a blood stain on the front I hadn't previously noticed.  It's so bad, in general, that I really need to replace it or retire it exclusively to working cows or hunting. For that matter, even if I do restrict its use, I need a new one.

The clerical podcasters in this podcast urge people to basically up their game at Mass on the basis that clothing matters.  And indeed, as I've noted before, it does.  They urge people to dress one step up from what they do at work.

They're centered in Denver, which has retained a higher dress standard than Central Wyoming.  It always had one.  Even now, when I go into Denver for work, I'll walk up 16th Street and notice men headed to their offices in suits and ties, or sports coats and ties, with overcoats and occasionally the odd Fedora.  In Houston, recently, I noticed that male lawyers really turn out.

Oddly, however, I've also noticed that on Teams/Zoom, even at official functions, this is less so.  I was in an administrative hearing the other day where I was the only one in jacket and tie.  And I've been in court proceedings, on Teams, where I'm the only one with a tie. 

Frankly, if I were the judge, which I will never be, I'd make a point of that to a lawyer without a tie.  As in "Mr. X, before you address the court, it appears that you failed to finish dressing. Do you want me to pause for a couple of minutes while you put on your tie?".  If the answer came back that he didn't have one with him, the next line would be; "Well, rules of courtroom decorum apply even here.  We'll note your failure and decline to accept any statement to the Court. Please pay the Court $50.00 for being in contempt and make sure you are properly dressed next time."

Anyhow, advice of the clerical gentlemen notwithstanding, I'm not going to up my game from work.  I am going to up my game at work, however, as recently I've been really lazy about it unless I know I have an official function to go to.  I've been back in my office with Levi 501s.

Slacking pretty heavily there.

And I do need to up my game a bit on Sunday, while remembering where I live.

The podcast mentions that a bit, but only a bit.  You do have to remember where you are.

As I've noted quite a few times, in my region of the Rocky Mountain West, really dressing up for Mass was always a Protestant thing.  It's probably because there were so many Irish Catholic Sheep Ranchers, Mexican Sheep Herders, and oilfield workers that this was the reason.  People came clean, but as they were, consistent with their status, and that's continued.

And that's why in part I disagree a bit with the pod's advice.  We are the publicans and the sinners, and we're there.  I don't think a person should dress in appropriately, but they can come as they are, in my view.

In terms of coming as they are, there have been some interesting trends.  One is the rise of the Trads and the Rad Trads, which I've mentioned quite a few times before.  The Mantila Girls have a certain look to them, and its very conservative.  It's charming also, and I'm not criticizing them.  I'm glad their doing that.

Some jacket and ties, or at least ties, are appearing, and in some cases I don't know what to make of that, in part because I've long known some of the so clad, and their dress has really evolved.  Most of them are Trads,and that explains it, but they were pretty Trady 20 years ago.  Their dress has evolved to more conservative as the young Church itself has become more conservative.  They're not young, however, and taking up that sort of dress, if you didn't naturally affect it earlier, looks a bit odd.  They don't really look like they know where they are, or what their station is.

So I guess there's a middle ground.

At any rate, the pod is correct for certain that clothes do matter. They do send a message.  I've been dressing outside of my vocation for months and need to address it.  Why a person would do that is a topic for some other time.

Related Threads:






































Thursday, July 6, 2023

Dead & Gone in Wyoming: Indigenous.

 Interesting and horrifying to listen to.

    Dead & Gone in Wyoming: Indigenous

    Dead & Gone in Wyoming: Indigenous

    This month’s episode focuses on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Native women are killed at a rate up to 10 times higher than the national average, and 84% will experience violence in their lifetime. Cases from this episode come from Wyoming’s only Indian Reservation, one of the largest in the country, along with some hopeful commentary that this issue might be resolved. Dead & Gone in Wyoming is written, produced, and narrated by Scott Fuller. Fuller is also the host of the Frozen Truth Podcast. Dead & Gone in Wyoming is made possible by the Hampton Inn and Suites in Riverton, Wyoming. For more Wyoming podcasts, follow 10Cast. To support Dead & Gone in Wyoming on Patreon, click here.
    • 34 min
    Dead & Gone in Wyoming: Indigenous

    Dead & Gone in Wyoming: Indigenous

    This month’s episode focuses on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Native women are killed at a rate up to 10 times higher than the national average, and 84% will experience violence in their lifetime. Cases from this episode come from Wyoming’s only Indian Reservation, one of the largest in the country, along with some hopeful commentary that this issue might be resolved. Dead & Gone in Wyoming is written, produced, and narrated by Scott Fuller. Fuller is also the host of the Frozen Truth Podcast. Dead & Gone in Wyoming is made possible by the Hampton Inn and Suites in Riverton, Wyoming. For more Wyoming podcasts, follow 10Cast. To support Dead & Gone in Wyoming on Patreon, click here.
    • 34 min

Friday, February 17, 2023

Today In Wyoming's History: Buckle your seatbelts Laramie, it's going to be a bumpy ride. The Coldest Case In Laramie.

Today In Wyoming's History: Buckle your seatbelts Laramie, it's going to be a ...:

Buckle your seatbelts Laramie, it's going to be a bumpy ride. The Coldest Case In Laramie.

Laramie, Spring 1986.

Kim Barker, a journalist who is best known for her book on Afghanistan, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, is coming out with a podcast on a 1985 unsolved murder in Laramie.  Moreover, Barker was apparently a high school student at the time.

And she doesn't like the city of her alma mater at all.  Of it, in the promotions for this podcast, she's stated:

"I've always remembered it as a mean town. Uncommonly mean. A place of jagged edges and cold people. Where the wind blew so hard it actually whipped pebbles at you." 

Wow.

And there's more:

I don't like crime books, but oddly I do like some crime/mystery podcasts.  I'm not sure why the difference, and as I'm a Wyomingite and a former resident of Laramie, I'll listen to the podcast.

But frankly, I’m already jaded, and it's due to statements like this:

It was an emblem of her time in Laramie, a town that stood out as the meanest place she’d ever lived in. 

Really, you've been to Afghanistan, and Laramie is the meanest place you've lived in?

Hmmm. . . .  This is, shall we say, uncommonly crappy.  And frankly, this discredits this writer.

I've lived in Laramie twice.

All together, I guess, I've lived in Casper, Laramie, and Lawton (Ft. Sill) Oklahoma.  I've been to nearly every town and city in Wyoming, and I've ranged as far as Port Arthur, Texas to Central Alaska, Seoul, South Korea to Montreal.

The author may recall it that way, but if she does, it says more about her life at the time than Laramie.

And indeed, I suspect that's it.

If you listen to the trailer, you hear a string. . . dare I say it, of teenage girl complaints, preserved for decades, probably because she exited the state soon after high school, like so many Wyomingites do.  I can't verify that, as her biography is hard to find.  Her biography on her website starts with her being a reporter, as if she was born into the South East Asian news bureau she first worked for.  A little digging brings up a source from Central Asia, which her reporting is associated with, and it notes that its very difficult to find information on her.  It does say, however, that she grew up in Billings, Montana and grew up with her father.  Nothing seems to be known about her mother.  She's a graduate of Norwestern University, which supports that she probably graduated from high school in Laramie and then took off, never to look back.  How long did she live there is an open question, and what brought her father there is another.  Having said all of that, teenage girls being relocated isn't something they're generally keen on, and Billings is a bigger city than Laramie.  I have yet to meet anyone who didn't like Billings.

Now, I didn't go to high school in Laramie, but I was in Laramie at the time that Barker was, and these events occurred.  1985 is apparently the critical date, and I was at UW at the time.  I very vaguely recall this event occurring, and didn't at first.  I vaguely recall one of the things about Laramie that Barker mentions in her introduction, which was the male athlete branding.  What I recall is that there was a local scandal regarding that, and it certainly wasn't approved by anyone.

A lot of her miscellaneous complaints, however, are really petty and any high school anywhere in the United States, save perhaps for private ones, might be able to have similar stories said about it.  Boys being sent out to fight if they engaged in fighting within the school wasn't that uncommon in the 80s.  I don't recall it happening at my high school, outside of the C Club Fights, but I do recall it from junior high, in the 1970s, and experienced it myself.  I don't regard it as an act of barbarism, although I woudln't approve of it.  As noted, I recall this branding story, which was a scandal and not approved of, but today an equally appalling thing goes on all over the United States with the tattooing of children for various reasons, including minors, in spite of its illegality.  Certainly college sports teams feature this frequently, and I'd wager many high school athletes experience a similar example of tribalism.

What's really upsetting, however, is the assertion that Laramie was, and is, "mean".

When I went to Laramie in 1983 for the first time, I didn't look forward to it.  I found the town alien at first and strange.  I probably would have found any place I went to under those circumstances to be like that.  I was from Central Wyoming and had lived there my entire life, save for a short stint at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.  But by the time I graduated in 1986, I had acclimated to it and there were parts of living in Albany County I really liked.  I was back down there a year later, this time not dreading it, and as a graduate student I was pretty comfortable in the town.

I also wasn't a teenager being dislocated from the place I grew up in.

In my last couple of years of undergraduate studies, and in all of my graduate years, I was pretty comfortable with the city.  I knew the places and things there, and had friends there.  In the summers, and I spent a couple there, it was a really nice place in particular to live.

And let's be honest.  Just as the land of high school angst might seem awful, the land you are in when you are young usually isn't.

If I had any complaints, at that time, it was about housing and prices.  Housing was always a crisis for a student, and a lot of the places I lived were not very nice.  Some were pretty bad.  And prices locally were really high, it seemed to us.  Local merchants complained about students shopping in Ft. Collins, but we did that as it was cheaper than shopping in Laramie.

The weather in Laramie is another thing.  It's 7,000 feet high, in the Rockies, and therefore it can be cold and snowy. The highway closes a lot.  In the early 1980s, it was really cold and snowy, with temperatures down below 0 quite regular.  Interestingly, by the late 1980s this was less the case.  And it does have wind, but ten everyplace from El Paso to the Arctic Circle is pretty windy.  Wyoming weather can be a trial for some people, particularly those who are not from here.

Which gets, I guess, to this.  A Colorado colleague notes that you have to be tougher just to live in the state.  You do.  Being from here makes you that way.  As the line in the film Wind River puts it, in an exchange between the characters:

Jane Banner: Shouldn't we wait for back up?

Ben: This isn't the land of waiting for back up. This is the land of you're on your own.

And that can be true.  If you aren't at least somewhat self-reliant, this may not be the place for you.

The further you get away from Laramie, the more this can be true.  Laramie is the most "liberal" city in regular Wyoming, surpassed in that regard only by Jackson.  Albany County nearly always sends at least one Democrat to the legislature.  If there's left wing social legislation pending, there's a good chance it comes out of Albany County.  Albany County is the only county in the state, outside of Teton, where all the things that drive the social right nuts are openly exhibited, due to the University of Wyoming.  In real terms, about 1/3d of the city's population are students at any one time, and a lot of those who are not students are employed by the University of Wyoming.

When I graduated from law school, I noted that a lot of students who passed through the College of Law stayed there if they could.  That says something about the town. Several good friends of mine over the years who are lawyers stayed there, including ones that had come there from other Wyoming locations.  Even a few of my non law school friends worked and lived there for a time, although none of them do any longer.

And in the years since I lived there the influence of Ft. Collins has come in, with downtown establishments mimicking those that are fifty miles to the south.  I've known people who retired and left the town, but I also have known people who retired to it.

It's not mean.

But the whole world is mean to some teenagers, with their limited experience and exaggerated sensibilities.  Some people keep that perception for the rest of their lives.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Blog Mirror: OLOBEDIENCE, and thoughts on sacrifice.

Catholic Stuff You Should Know ran this episode back in August:

OLOBEDIENCE*


The topic is the departure of Father Michael O'Laughlin, then of Holy Protection Byzantine Catholic Church in Denver, for a new parish in California, to which he'd been assigned by his Bishop.

The discussion is the radical nature of obedience which Priests are heir to, and quite frankly, while in the modern world they seem not to realize it, to which Catholics in general are also heir to.  In the podcast, and in our minds in general, Priests are necessarily the topic of this to a greater degree, as they give up so much for their vocations.

But then, in pondering it, it struck me.  This may be a real difference between those who retain fealty to their faiths in general and the modern secular world, and it may moreover be a marked difference between the world today and the way the world once was, not all that long ago.  And in that, as scriptures note, we gained in what we lost, in former days, and in the modern world, through our secular concepts of gain, we're massively losing a lot.

_________________________________________________________________________________

*That's not a typo, it's sort of pun.  Father O'Laughlin is called "Olo" by his companions.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Panel Show | Catholic Answers. November 23, 2018

Panel Show | Catholic Answers

Usually on these Sunday morning posts I include a post from one of our blogs on Churches.  I do occasionally depart from that, of course, but that's what I generally do

Here I'm departing as this was such an interesting panel discussion, featuring Fr. Hugh Barbour among others.  This discusses the "crisis" (or crises as the host describe it) that's been in the news regarding the Catholic Church and it features some really interesting commentary on how to address it.  Worth listening to.

Friday, December 21, 2018

Panel Show | Catholic Answers

Panel Show | Catholic Answers

This is the second of two panel shows that aired on November 23, 2018. This one also features Fr. Hugh Barbour as one of the panelist.  I have that one teed up to run on Sunday.

The discussion in this one is so wide ranging that it's difficult to define in English.  Indeed, frankly, it'd be better categorized under that collection of topics addressed by the German phrase mehr Mensch sein, which sort of translates as "be more human", or "become more human". 

To a degree, this podcast also brings up something I've noted in a prior post entitled The Secular left's perpetual surprise at arriving at the Catholic Past, although not in an area that I brought it up.   That post addressed fasting and meatless days, a feature of Catholic religious life.  This one brings up very strong relationships between men and women, and more bluntly, sex, but in a way that makes it hard not to recall that title.  Interesting listening.


Saturday, May 19, 2018

Podcast Mirror: The Fragility of Order

Really interesting discussion on the Great War:

#148 The Fragility of Order - George Weigel
Posted: Thu, 26 Apr 2018 14:20:00 -0400
Play NowGeorge Weigel's newest book, The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times, offers a diagnosis of how the world, and the Church, got into the situation of disorder we face today. Join us, as Weigel discusses the book, the world, and his chats with Pope Francis.

As well it would seem on other matters.  I'll have to pick this one up.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Being Consumed - Catholic Stuff You Should Know

Being Consumed - Catholic Stuff You Should Know

In one of the occasional examples of synchronicity that pops up, the other day I posted on National Small Business Saturday and mentioned Distributism, the economic theory applying the principal of subsidiarity in my post. Then I ran across this podcast entry on Consumerism.

This is posted on Catholic Stuff You Should Know, and therefore it does address some religious themes, but only barely really, mostly focusing on Consumerism through a Distributist lens.  To a slightly aggravating degree, early in the podcast the speakers excuse of their comments by noting Communism when in fact those comments that they feel might be controversial aren't Communist or Socialist at all, but rather purely Distributist.  That they'd discuss Distributism isn't too surprising on one hand, as the economic philosophy was developed by Catholic thinkers, but to hear it discussed is fairly surprising as so few people know what it is.

Anyhow, for a really Distributist discussion of Consumerism, here's one.