Month: March 2011

Ex-Fenwick student in mob book

Al Capone. Mugshot information from Science an...
Chicago godfather

The indispensable Newsalert urges us to:

Check out page 123 of Frank Calabrese Jr.’s new book on the Chicago Mob [where] AFL-CIO leader and Chicago Mob associate Ed Hanley gets a mention.

Yes. Resurrection or Thomas Aquinas, ’45, not sure which; Fenwick ’49, except he lasted only a year, if that.

Stood in the boys’ room at a St. Catherine or St. Edmund dance, coolly showing how to smoke a cigarette, and I mean without half trying. Had a picture of a lovely St. Catherine’s girl we knew, he said; it was a blond Valkyrie maiden, unclothed, sitting at a picnic site, arms overhead, hands clasped behind her head. (His brother had taken it while a G.I. in Germany.)

Another report: he saved a St. Catherine of Siena and Fenwick alum (or student) from a drubbing by bully boys on one occasion, stopping them with a word. Years later, the wife was still grateful.

That was kid stuff. Much later he pretty much hosted or at least prominently attended a birthday party for a Fenwick classmate, maybe at the Como Inn, at which an equally lovely, though only partially unclothed, young woman rose from a cake. Ed’s surprise. I was not there, but got details from some who were. A classmate recalled driving home from the event, that is, he remembers arriving in Melrose Park. Luckily.

Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth

Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI.
He makes things clear.

The pope is a highly unusual CEO:

One keen irony about the papacy of Benedict XVI is that while the Vatican regime over which he presides has sometimes come off as ham-fisted in terms of public relations, the pope himself is almost universally acknowledged as a gifted communicator.

Robert Townsend said it decades ago in his Up the Organization! Your execs have to be able to say what’s going on.

John Allen explains:

In the old days, a pope would say or do something controversial, and then his aides would smooth things over. More recently, its actually been the pope who gets the Vatican back on message after someone else has put his foot in his mouth. (This, by the way, should not be taken as a criticism of Benedicts official spokesperson, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, who does a heroic job under the circumstances.)

That’s our pope. Read the whole review article.

Getting bucks without bangs

Luxury Tax!!

Eleven ways to get $ out of citizens:

“If a government were trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of a population, what would it do? [It would
employ:]

1. The use of indirect rather than direct taxes, so that the tax is hidden in the price of goods.
2. Inflation, by which the state reduces the value of everyone else’s currency.
3. Borrowing, so as to postpone the necessary taxation.
4. Gift and luxury taxes, where the tax accompanies the receipt or purchase of something special, lessening the annoyance of the tax. [Soak rich]
5. Temporary taxes, which somehow never get repealed when the emergency passes. . . . .

Etc. Aren’t we glad none of that can happen here?

Going an extra mile or two

Blue Tilapia
This fellow is tasty.

Holy tilapia!

And let me put in a good word for fasting, and I don’t mean the minimal requirements of the church.

For years, I did longer fasts of five to seven days and it was easier to do than imagined because a little button in my brain related to food just clicked off. I was usually hungry the first day, but not after that. The energy usually given to the digestive process was channeled into a higher state of spiritual awareness. And fasting brought up emotional issues big time, causing psychological as well as physical cleansing.

Fasting is a powerful spiritual tool I urge you to consider. And youre not going to starve or ruin your health in a few days, as some would have you believe. Fasting is great for your health and is recommended many times in the Bible.

Tilapia because it’s the fish we had for dinner that set off the smoke alarm because we left the kitchen door open and set off neither stove nor ceiling fan.

If this be penance, make the most of making fun of us holy people.

This NCReporter lady has obviously given the matter some thought:

Results are what we should be looking for this Lent, lifelong habits and virtues nurtured through our chosen disciplines.

We live in challenging times just as Jesus did, and to be a disciple of Christ requires much spiritual maturity and strength. Following Jesus example, lets go the extra mile and really expose ourselves to the sometimes scary influence of the living God, which just might turn out to be unconditional acceptance and love.

She’s on to something.

P.S. Lady of house did the tilapia, FYI.

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Scripture for dummies

Title page of The Holy Bible, King James versi...
It's got poetry.

Deacon Tom preached from Isaiah 58 this noon, at the mid-day ashes service:

5
Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;
7
Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.

 

Thus New American Bible.

I followed along with my King James Version:

5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

NAB pedestrianizes it, to reach a new, I say lower, common denominator.

It gives up on the rhetorical questioning after verse 5, for one thing, and that lessens the impact.

Some phrases have the same effect:

5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul?

becomes

5
Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance . . . ?

Another:

to loose the bands of wickedness

becomes

releasing those bound unjustly

A third:

that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

becomes

not turning your back on your own

Not good trade-offs, undue emphasis on the literal, the everyday.

It’s only money, so???

Sample ballot
Not the whole story here?

Oak Park’s elementary school district understates on the April 5 referendum ballot how much its passage would cost taxpayers, leaving out state equalizer info that ups the ante.

We didn’t have to put it in, say the district’s lawyers.

The law firm that helped draft District 97’s ballot question . . . said it followed state law that dictates how such ballot measures should be written. The law, the firm says, does not specify using the equalizer.

So referendum ballots throughout Illinois routinely do not tell voters the whole story?

Note: Campaign information has been accurate in this case; only the ballot is in question.

On the other hand, what the hell difference does it make?  How many people read the fine print on a referendum ballot anyway?  Tsk.

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