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Today, February 1 is the Feast of St. Brigid. St. Brigid is the patron saint of babies, blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle farmers, children whose parents are not married, children whose mothers are mistreated by the children’s fathers, Clan Douglas, dairymaids, dairy workers, fugitives, Ireland, Leinster, mariners, midwives, milkmaids, nuns, poets, the poor, poultry farmers, poultry raisers, printing […]
I grew up believing in Easter the way all Gen X kids did – yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s get to the candy. We watched the Rankin and Bass holiday shows, much inferior to the Christmas shows. Wear a new dress, eat some ham. I had no clue, like most Catholic kids. No clue what any […]
Easter brings to mind a lot of bullet point memories In 1983, things were bleak financially. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade. So, of course, my Dad decided to join my cousins on a spring fishing trip to the Outer Banks over Easter. They weren’t high end, but it was still money […]
Content Note: Images with racist language are in this post. Images with Nazi symbols are in this post. Remember the electronic billboards with hateful rhetoric located in Worthington, Armstrong County owned by John Placek? Here are some reminders Two updates One is that Placek teamed up with Owen Osterling to erect additional signs along Route […]
This is how I have come to describe my campaign: Community-focused, data-driven. This is the next post of our 2023 primary election season series ‘Political Q&A’ with progressive candidates throughout Pennsylvania. Candidates can be anywhere in Pennsylvania running for any level of office. Please note that these are not necessarily endorsements, more of an opportunity […]
During my growing up years, my family wove a tale of our Irish origins leaving me with the mixed up understanding that I was mostly Irish Catholic with a wee bit of German. Oh, so wrong. I learned that my family had participated in a unique 20th century “forgetting” of their ethnic origins and cultures […]
Or Jesus, Cats, and Trans Kids My neighborhood of Manchester on Pittsburgh’s Northside is having a holiday decorating contest. We have a lovely row house, built in 1872, but no outdoor electrical outlets so our decorating has always been limited. Putting things inside the windows is risky business with cats. And the windows are tall […]
We have a little St. Gertrude plastic figurine holding a cat sitting above our sink. Friends gave it to us. It is cute, but I had never heard about a patron saint of cats until then. If you are on social media today (St. Patrick’s Day), you’ll see lots of references to St. Gertrude because […]
I remember most vividly aoproaching her reconstructed image with the resonating moaning of the music imprinting in my brain. She is known as Yde Girl. She came to Pittsburgh via the Carnegie Museums in 2005. I never thought of myself as descendants from Iron Age peat harvesters. Maybe I’m enamored because this child looks just […]
I wrote this in March 2019. I skipped all the Lent fish fries last year, but am unsure what to do this year. Lent is arriving in Pittsburgh and that means fish fry season is upon us. A mainstay of Catholic culture in Pittsburgh, this is the first fish fry season since the release of […]
