Some Have Hats

Come On Over!

To anyone who still shows up here, hoping to read something new from me, today you are in luck. I have started a new blog called "Viking Funeral" and you can find it here.

I will leave Some Have Hats up, for whatever it's worth. But I will be doing all my posting over here.

Tell your friends!

UPDATE

Yes, and so soon!

Lots of stuff going on. One of the things I'm most excited about is the Grand Re-Opening of Black Bear Books. We trying to nail down the date, but it will be late July/early August. The main event on the author front is that my friend Mary Doria Russell will be reading at 7 p.m. that day. There will be a buffet on the cafe table. You're all invited!

We have a lot of other activities planned for that day, but I'll supply those details later when I see how many of them are actually going to come to fruition.

There have been many changes since Chris and I bought the store last November. For one thing, we now have a website where you can order books online. In the store, there is a new sitting area and there is now a sofa and some craftsman furniture in the cafe.

Another big change: Laura's Yarntastic has moved in. It's a great addition to the store. I love looking at all the beautiful yarn every day, and I'm even learning to knit myself. (That is to say, I myself am learning to knit a scarf.) Laura gives free lessons every Thursday night from 6 to 9 p.m. We are an official "Stitch 'n Bitch" location, I am proud to tell you.

On the other side of the country, I am (thank you God) extremely busy in show biz land. I am writing and producing a movie for NBC. I will also be exec producer. We will be shooting in Toronto starting in August. Ah, August in Toronto. What could be more romantic than that? I'm also still working on my Starz pilot. It's a tough concept, so it's moving slowly. But I am happy with the first scene, which any pilot writer can tell you is huge.

Caleb survived the third grade. My garden has survived the horses. (Now growing: radishes, red peppers, red onions, yellow onions, watermelons and potatoes.)

I took and passed a Colored Stones Essentials course at GIA. I am now certified to bore people to death talking about gemstones. I'm now learning to set stones, which is much harder than it looks. And I'm working on a website where I can sell the gemstones that we continue to mine.

Brian is still in law school. I should probably know whether this is his second or third year, but I don't. Christine graduated and, as far as I can tell, is the only person from the class of 2010 who got a job. Julianne is still plugging along at college, and is working at the Sierra Madre playhouse this summer as the costume mistress.

Molly and the horses are getting old and gray. But then, who am I to talk?

Back when I have something new and worth telling.

Oh, one more thing. We took our Nascar-obsessed son to the race in Charlotte. And I painted my nails in Junior colors, but it didn't help.

        

Trying to Support My Habit

I'm in the process of putting together an online jewelry store, otherwise I'm going to go broke turning my driveway rocks into gemstones. (Cutting them is very expensive, since they can only be cut by diamond blades, which don't last very long.)

I'm adding a photo album of some of my gemstones and will post a link to the webstore as soon as it's up and running. If you see something you can't live without in the meantime, give me a holler and I'll figure out its value and give you a discounted price. Western North Carolina draws people from all over the planet to search its gem mines, so gemstones are a lot cheaper here than they are in your local jewelry store. 

A Synopsis of Buffoonery

Burt Prelutsky, a pal of mine who once wrote for M*A*S*H and now writes for World Net Daily, has written a brilliant column that sums up the (I'll be kind) perplexing state of the current administration. Here is my favorite paragraph:

Whether it's insisting that global warming is going to raise ocean levels by 20 feet; that heterosexual AIDS is a major health concern; that law-abiding Americans can't be trusted with guns; that every nation and every culture is superior to our own; that illegal aliens and Islamic jihadists are entitled to all the rights and privileges of U.S. citizens; that providing 31 million additional people with health insurance will save us billions of dollars; that Supreme Court justices should essentially be social workers who get to wear their robes to work; that drilling for oil and digging for coal are evil endeavors; that windmills and sunbeams can supply all the energy a modern industrial nation needs; that Christian symbols should be eliminated from the national landscape; and that the redistribution of personal wealth is a moral imperative; liberals display an arrogant disdain for traditional American virtues, not to mention logic and common sense.

There's more where that came from.

 

Good Luck With That

"The Ark of Hope" was built to house the "Earth Charter" and, as you can clearly see if you go here, has poles so it can be carried just like the Ark of the Covenant. Subtle, no?

I don't know what else to say about the earth worshipers, except good luck with that.

The Long Awaited Update

First of all, if you didn't see "The Good Wife" last week, watch it on the CBS website. It's the episode I wrote and it will be up until next Tuesday. After that, you can watch it on www.hulu.com. It is called "Unplugged."

And after that, go to our book store's new website and start ordering there instead of Amazon. Think of it as supporting a small community in the Appalachian mountains, where it is a hub for congregating. Or think of it as keeping Caleb in jeans and tennis shoes.

Next go to the photo album of Caleb's First Communion, which I'm about to upload.

By the time you're done with all of that, I'll be back with job news. I am in L.A. this week and next, interviewing for staff jobs and pilots and such. Next week the major networks will announce their schedules, and then I'll know more. (There are shows where I like them and they like me, but if they don't get picked up, it's a moot point.)

Sorry I don't make it here often for updates. Feel free to "friend" me on FB if you want daily updates.

I'll be back.

The Current Catholic Quagmire

Over at Insight Scoop, Fr. Fessio has written a very good article explaining in detail what actually happened in the case of the pedophile priest that has the world ready to lynch the Pope. It explains the case from a POV that, surprisingly enough, I had never seen mentioned in any of the MSM reports.

The remaining problem, in my humble and quite unsolicited opinion, is that the MSM has no way to understand what is there between the lines: it is yet another case of the American bishops throwing the flock to the wolves one more time.

This is the decisive context of Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to Bishop Cummins. It is not a smoking gun. It did not mean that Ratzinger was not taking the priest's sins seriously. (He called the accusations "very serious" [gravis momenti].) It meant that he, following the policy of John Paul II, was taking the priesthood and its commitments very seriously.

And again, this entire affair had nothing to do with preventing further abuse by this priest. That had already been done, or should have been done, by the local bishop.

Emphasis mine.

In order to understand Fessio's explanation of the case, one would have to understand the Church's position on the nature of a vow. Needless to say, in a world where the celebrities we worship get married for a weekend, it's hard to make anyone other than an orthodox Catholic understand that context. (As we discovered in the last election, 54% of American Catholics cannot be bothered to care what the Church teaches.)

Of course, it is very helpful for Fr. Fessio to spell it all out for the orthodox Catholics one more time. (I say that as someone who needed to have it spelled out.) I have always said that there is nothing wrong with preaching to the choir, because the choir needs the moral support! And the choir is capable of becoming extremely confused, in a world where they are told that they'll go to Hell for missing Mass, and yet they watch Abortion Queen Nancy Pelosi waltz down the aisle to communion every Sunday.

But...

I still have a problem with the state of things. (Everyone is surprised, right?) And it is this: WHY do the Powers That Be continue to use "the bishop should have done it" as an excuse, when surely they know who our bishops are. Yes, this case is very old. But how many years has Cardinal Mahony remained the shepherd of Los Angeles, long after Rome knew full well who he was/is? While everyone is now celebrating that L.A. will finally have a real bishop, anyone who lives in L.A. knows what he is up against, and knows that it will take many years before he's able to make a difference.

And now the chorus about how slowly the Church works... blah blah blah.

Here's the thing: mothers don't care how slowly the Church works. Mothers care about the souls of their children.

A priest friend told me, not long ago, that the #1 cry he hears from parents re their children is not that they'll get into a good college or find a good spouse, or even that they'll escape accident and illness. The #1 concern of parents is for the souls of their children.

For years I have been saying that if priests, bishops and popes had children, the Church would not spend hundreds of years righting a wrong.

Maybe the Pope was guiltless 25 years ago, but he knows who our bishops are now, and they are still our bishops. So I still have a problem.

Let's try this again...

See if this works.

Happy Easter!

Here is Caleb at Mass this morning. We're one month away from his First Communion. Where on earth has the time gone? But isn't he handsome?

We celebrated Easter here in North Carolina, at our "home" church. The liturgy was gorgeous. All bells and smells and no restrictions on kneeling.

He is risen indeed.

Finally!!!

Why Wasn't THIS on the Oscars?

Why, I ask again, does the entire world have to sit through one boring Oscar ceremony after another, when the point of the evening is to celebrate talent, creativity, and ingenuity?  I don't have an answer. I suspect the answer has a lot to do with power and politics, the evil forces that destroy much, if not most, of the good that actually exists in this town. (And any town?)

At any rate, one of my colleagues made me aware of the following skit from Jimmy Kimmel's Oscar night show. Watch it. You won't get your three and a half hours back, but you'll remember why you felt robbed, and you will feel justified.

Or maybe you'll just laugh a lot.

My World and Welcome To It

Update

There's a lot going on, but I haven't had any time to write. So here's a quick update.

 
I have been in L.A. since late January, working on a CBS show called "The Good Wife." I wrote episode #20 of this season. I don't have an air date yet, but I'll let you know when I do. Yes, I do know what's going to happen for the rest of the season. No, I won't tell you.

I'll probably be here for one more week, doing a rewrite, then back to NC for awhile. I hope the snow will have melted by then!

I also sold a pilot to Starz. I can't really talk about it at this stage, but it's a fun premise and I'll spend the next couple of months working on that.

I miss NC and the Walker boys, but I have really had a great time. I've met some wonderful new friends and the show is challenging and different from anything I've ever worked on. (Which, for me, is saying something.) I've also had a chance to spend weekends with Juli and we've seen some good movies...and also some really bad ones.

Caleb is sailing along in his church classes and will be making his First Communion on Mother's Day, which is the best gift I could hope for. Christine graduated from UNC Asheville and has already found a job! Brian is still in law school. Juli is still at Pasadena City College and is just a few credits away from transferring to one of the Cal State schools. Chris is holding down the fort at Black Bear Books, where all is going well, or so I hear.

(The Black Bear site is brand new and under construction, so please "bear" with us. Soon you'll be able to order from our website!)

A couple of days ago, I had lunch with Earl "Uncle Earl" Hamner, whom you guys know as John-Boy. (Not the actor, Richard Thomas. The real John-boy.) We first met in 1977, when I came to L.A. with a summer school class from the University of Richmond. We have been friends ever since. He hasn't changed at all in those years. He's working on a collection of short stories and is 87 years old! I'd like to be just like him when I'm that age, except the girl version.

That's about the size of it for now. We are having some terrific adventures and all is well. I'm sorry this reads like the Christmas newsletter, but since I didn't have time to send cards this year, I needed to get it all out of my system.

And My Friend Bruce Springsteen Agrees

Best line I've heard in a long time: "My friend Robert Dinero told me to stop dropping names."

I LOVE show business.

Much Easier Than Chocolate!

Happily for me, I'm starting Lent in Los Angeles, and the California bishops have a terrific idea!

In its latest Public Policy Insights newsletter, emailed to subscribers on Feb. 12, the Catholic Legislative Network is recommending a new way to observe Lent, which begins tomorrow. The newsletter is produced by the California Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the state’s bishops.

“As the Lenten season arrives, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has provided Catholics, schools and organizations with more tools and resources for its annual Catholic Climate Covenant,” says the newsletter. “The Coalition was formed three and a half years ago to help implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) 2001 initiative ‘Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.’ Launched last year, the Covenant revolves around the St. Francis Pledge, which correlates five key actions -- pray, learn, assess, act and advocate -- to the issues of the environment and poverty.”

But wait, it gets better...

The calendar contains suggestion for each of the 40 days of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, with “Remove one light bulb from your home and live without the light for the next 40 days.” Other suggestions include, “Turn down your thermostat by at least one degree;” “Check windows and doors for a draft…” “Making travel plans? Consider getting there without flying;” “Check the tire pressure of your car today;” “Learn about mountaintop removal mining;” “Show reverence for life and for the Earth today by obeying the speed limit…” [source]

I'd been planning to give up red wine and French bread, but that light bulb trick sounds a lot better!

Show reverence for "light and the Earth?" As I explained to my daughter years ago, that's like throwing a party in honor of a painting and not inviting the artist to attend.

So we've gone from Brokeback Lent to Pagan Lent. And nothing says atonement like reminding yourself that God is stingy with natural resources.

Meanwhile, that abortion you were planning to have over spring break? ...

Make sure you ride your bike to it.

Just Sayin'...

The Devil's In the Details

Forget the birth certificate, this is even better. An unbaptized Christian?

Granted, I'm no theologian...

Talk amongst yourselves. I'm busy trying to figure out how Chris and I can declare ourselves Amish so we can stop paying taxes.

Nuff Said?

St. Thomas More Must Be Proud

I rarely read The Tidings, especially these days when I'm hanging on the Catholicism by a fraying thread, but I just happened to click on it just now and, wow.

On the front page of the website, no less, there is -- I hope you're sitting -- an op-ed wherein the archbishop of San Francisco explains to us why Nancy Pelosi (and others "within the Catholic community") have a misconception about free will. Turns out, there's an asterisk by murder. Who knew?

I'm sure Nancy and she has seen the light now She's somewhere confessing and weeping for three solid days, just like St. Ignatius did.

Unless, of course, she doesn't read The Tidings.

But either way, the GUTS that must have taken!