witter

I have lately taken to walking out of an area when the energy turns dark or oppressive. Today I walked a half mile to a local independent coffeehouse hoping to read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and stood in line when someone came in and dumped his backpack on the seat I wanted. It's a small coffeehouse: three people were at the south area, talking, so I wanted to be far away from them as possible. I guess he did too. This left me with a large wooden table with the Sunday paper on it, and a kiddie table I am obviously too large for. So I left. I saved about $1.50, maybe $2.60.

Took the son to his first Mass today. I expected him to be bored, so I gave him a Mass activity book and he brought pencils, asked him to be quiet and to sit in the pew while I got a blessing. Boy, did I set my expectations low. He took an offertory envelope, filled it out, put in a dollar, attempted some hymns, and walked up for a blessing. "I didn't get any wine. I should have told them I was twenty-two," he quipped after Communion.

The one place where the vibes have almost always been great is closed today.

Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal Feud on the Dick Cavett Show

I'm reminded to subscribe to the Bat Segundo program podcast. Great literature and culture podcast.

I need to read some Janet Flanner, Gore Vidal, Daniel Berrigan, Richard Rohr, Cornel West. I'm interested right now in theologians the Vatican brands heretics: Edward Schillebeeckx, Matthew Fox (now Episcopalian). I could read Rosemary Radford Ruether. There's the side of the Catholic Church that emphasizes sin, culpability, and cloaking abuses; then there's the spiritual mysteries and social justice and work of the laity I find compelling and welcoming.
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I don't miss watching television. Sure, Kids in the Hall and QI are great, but are they available on American television networks? Can American TV adopt and adapt these kinds of programs? Where is the audience? Is there a difference of the audience who has a 24-hour salesperson in their homes versus the audience who must pay for a television license or who pays some tax for a public broadcasting network like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation?