Writer Silence squelched in Novus Ordo mass . . . 🔥 Save unlimited web pages along with a full PDF snapshot of each page. Unlock Premium → A few weeks back, I attended a Novus Ordo (New Order, or “ordinary”) mass after weeks of (Extraordinary Form, old order) Latin masses. I had to start jotting just as the sermon began. Only a six-minuter and something acceptable, in any case not unusually good or bad. Feeling dreaded ennui coming on, I reached for the little black pad and pen, and there I was again, jotting. In the few recent weeks when I made Extraordinary (Latin) my mass of choice, I had not done this once! Why now? Because the service was losing my attention, and I had to wrench it back into place by recording my reflections. It’s a ploy I learned decades ago, in my exclusively N.O. days. This was my first trial of attention, of cooperation, collaboration, indeed participation in what we Catholics used to call the holy sacrifice. Most preachers fall short (for me, I’m picky) and thereby constitute a distraction. On this occasion Father urged us on sincerely. (Sincerity is not usually the problem.) But sincerely or not, the weekday homily, short as it is, constitutes a distraction at this point. It becomes an interruption to the worship experience. At least there were no petitions — prayers of the faithful — name-dropping of a dozen or so issues demanding our attention, many of them ripped from the day’s headlines. Many the time when this worshiper thought we might as well put in a good word for the White Sox while we’re at it. (I’m sure it’s been done somewhere.) With the sermon done, the head trip began, and the sounds of silence went missing. Father is miked, of course, and he is in the minds if not hearts of us all, reading the ordinary (every day) parts so that we do not miss a syllable. He kills the silence. He puts his imprint on the service. He’s supposed to. It’s the post-Vatican 2 norm. Let there be light, the Creator said at the Beginning. Let there be noise, said Vatican 2, or at least its alleged spirit. And the priest, being chief, or only, noisemaker, performing according the script given him, unwittingly makes it all about him. His performance matters. All, or so very much, depends on him. Or is made to look that way.

The good kid Caleb Reed had a friend who shoots at passing cars.

Caleb Reed is dead, shot in the head.

Big boost.

Black lives matter. Tell that to the ubiquitous shooters.

Trevaughn Roberson, a relative of one of the women who was shot, said shootings are commonplace in the area.

“I won’t lie to you, it’s kinda normal for me. But it, for it to hit home, you know, it’s always that much worse. Of course I’m affected by it, yeah,” Roberson said. “This goes on all day, everyday. Everybody knows it. I just hope for better days.”

No one is in custody. Area Two detectives are investigating.

Will Lori Lightweight show up and berate citizens for not naming the shooters?

Things moving along in the Mideast:

President Trump’s top Mideast negotiator, Jared Kushner, and top Israeli and American officials are scheduled to board an El Al plane tomorrow to make the first direct commercial flight between Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi. The historic trip will vindicate the outside-in approach to peacemaking, long championed by Mr. Kushner.

Monday’s two-and-a-half-hour flight comes after the United Arab Emirates announced earlier in August its intention to fully normalize relations with Israel. On board, in addition to Mr. Kushner, will be President Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, and an Israeli delegation headed by Mr. O’Brien’s counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat.

Anticipating their arrival — and despite background noises about a possible deal-breaking dispute involving an American sale of F35 fighter planes to the Emirates — the UAE officially scrapped a 1972 law that banned doing business with Israeli firms.

more more more about this deal by our dealmaker POTUS.

Did not die from police treatment?

Cringeworthy indeed. She looked sleepy and unengaged. “Thank you,” and she was outa there.

We have heard from Day One about underlying health condition as heightening risk, but 94%?

According to the report, only 6% of the COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. list COVID-19 as the only cause of death. 94% of COVID-19 deaths involved at least one other underlying health condition, and on average involved “2.6 additional conditions or causes of death.”

Specifics:

According to the CDC, 9,683 people have died in the United States having only COVID-19 listed on their death certificate as cause of death. At the time the CDC report was released, 161,392 deaths had been attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S.

The top underlying conditions:

• Influenza and pneumonia
• Respiratory failure
• Hypertensive disease
• Diabetes
• Vascular and unspecified dementia
• Cardiac Arrest
• Heart failure
• Renal failure
• Intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning and other adverse events

So “stay healthy” means do what you can to counter the above risks with a view to avoid or lessen candidacy for the new Big C.

What. Do. You. Know.

In a trend that began in July, the once-slumping odds that President Trump will win reelection have risen from 36% to an average of 50-50, with some gambling sites giving him a better than even chance of winning.

Oddschecker’s Pete Watt said Friday that Trump???s odds haven’t been this positive since May 28, 92 days ago, and come on the morning after the president accepted the Republican Party’s nomination to run for a second term.

Joe Biden still has a slight edge with the gamblers, at 52%. He had a 63% chance of winning in mid-July.

“This election has ebbed and flowed in favor of Trump, with plenty of observers beginning to write him off in the past few weeks,” said the spokesman for the British betting comparison site.

“However, with Election Day now very much of the horizon and Trump officially confirmed as the Republican nominee, his campaign will be delighted at the timely comeback that is being reflected in the betting markets,” he added.

Watt said that some betting sites have Trump beating Biden. “Some oddsmakers have even cut Trump”s odds to -110, demonstrative of a 52.38% likelihood of securing a second term,” said his analysis.

Seems voters giving up on the guy in the basement.