Daily Rome Shot 1101 – more than just Ventoux and a mini rant

Hint: Something in there inspired an elegy.

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – UK HERE  WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc..  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.

My thanks to MV for the book from my wishlist about “in between moves” – the dreaded Zwischenzug – in chess.

I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. I have a couple of puzzle books, but they are to simple for my level (so far). This is a “comprehensive guide”. Yesterday in OTB (over the board) with the club, in my first game of the day I was little fuzzy and got myself into trouble with black right out of the opening with an extremely aggressive but sometimes impatient player. He mounted a savage kingside attack and I was on the ropes until I saw a tactic. Knowing him, I hanged a pawn and he pounced. My next move was a Zwischenzug! I checked his King with a bishop which at the same time discovered an attack on his doomed Queen from my own lurking Queen on the other side of the board. His will broken, he resigned on the spot. The dreaded Zwischenzug.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, the Sinquefield Cup is on. Yesterday in Round 2 my guy Wesley So drew with Fabi. All five games were draws. “Puer” is, hopefully not for long, the leader.

White to play and mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

The site that handles the wines of the traditional Benedictine monks of Le Barroux – Earth Labora – also has wines from Sicily and Bordeaux and Piedmonte (including a set with Barolo di Serralunga, Barbera d’Alba, and Langhe Nebbiolo). Shop the wines and help the monks.

Saturdays are often my “make and mend” days. However, after watching a little of the DNC last night, I felt the need to wash clothes and bedding and everything else that might have been in sight or sound of the evil night rites perpetrated in Chicago. I couldn’t bear it and shut it off before their Moloch infested headliners ascended to dissemble the assembled. I was reminded of the “worshippers” in Michael O’Brian’s only Sci-Fi work (so far), Voyage To Alpha Centauri. US HERE – UK HERE

As I have written before, I suspect that O’Brien is a bit of a mystic.  His books have been useful to me in deciphering the signs of the times.

In the book, on their new planet they find a temple in which they find documents about satanic rites celebrated there.  Some of the travelers decide to reenact them.  O’Brien’s description is lurid.

Day 369: Green Day again. A year has passed since the previous exercise in elevating our cosmic sensitivities, or “interplanetary bio-consciousness” as it is called officially. There are few people onboard the Kosmos at present, so the green banners, scarves, and neckties were scarce here. Down on the planet, however, festivities were in full swing. On the panorama screen, I watched a few celebrations at various stations, dominated by an incompatible mixture of ecological cant and jargon and an any-excuse-for-a-party attitude, seasoned with mystical music. One particularly nauseating performance occurred in the temple itself. There, accompanied by the piped-in music of flutes and drums, a bevy of maidens danced around the black altar cube. They were dressed in diaphanous green gowns that left nothing to the imagination. Somewhat frenzied, nearly erotic, and definitely euphoric, the ten young women twirled and pranced and sang in praise of a cosmic “lord” who held fire in one hand and arrows in the other. Their choreography resembled a coil, winding and unwinding hypnotically as they chanted. At the head of the dance, leading it all, was the old Russian psychiatrist lady who had been so offended by me looking at her scar years ago. She was now without doubt far into her eighties, which was unfortunate, since her gown was the flimsiest of all, nearly transparent. With flailing arms, she repeatedly let fly full-throated cries rising from her arching abdomen, a crone-nymph on hallucinogens. As the event progressed, a soft, male voice-over informed the viewers of our need to reconnect to primitive “spirituality”, which entailed, apparently, a “rediscovery of the phallic” (thankfully not acted upon, at least not on screen, as far as I know, which isn’t saying much) and a “reintegration of light side and shadow side” for the sake of universal harmony. (Ay, caramba! I turned it off and went for a long walk.)

O’Brien, Michael D.. Voyage to Alpha Centauri: A Novel (Kindle Locations 8050-8065). . Kindle Edition.

The downfall of Numenor also comes to mind.

Is that what November 2024 is destined to be?  Consider the electorate, the power of the MSM, and wholly unscrupulous pols.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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8 Comments

  1. BeatifyStickler says:

    The DNC was on the anniversary of the 4th apparition of Fatima. There, Our Lady spoke of hell. It’s been said that 25 abortions took place outside of the convention as well as procedures of contraception. This is the battle, this is why so many are falling into hell. It seems as was mentioned in Akita that the foretelling of compromise has come to pass. On both sides of the aisle we need to battle the spirit of Herod. I think of Cardinal Caffarra and what Sister Lucia had told him about marriage and the family. This is a battle. Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Akita, Our Lady of Victory intercede for us!

    It is evident why the O My Jesus was added to the Rosary.

    For the 25 Innocent aborted, Jesus Mercy.

  2. JustaSinner says:

    Planned Parenthood (sic), murdered 24 babies yesterday in front of the DNC yesterday… Not to be too gruesome, but the abortions they’re providing are D&C’s…D n Cs….

  3. bookworm says:

    What is going on at the DNC scares and disgusts me to the point where I literally cannot stop crying every time I think about it. I feel particularly ashamed of the fact that I live in the state of Illinois and work for a branch of the state government, and worry that some kind of curse or punishment will be due me simply for that reason. So I am praying the Rosary daily and trying to fast (though not always able to hold out to the end of the day). I recently suffered a painful knee injury that is making standing and walking difficult, and this has me feeling “down” because of the things I cannot do; but perhaps I can offer that up in reparation for what is happening?

  4. UncleBlobb says:

    Rome Shot:
    It’s an entrance into the Basilica Sanctae Praxedis (I couldn’t find anything about the elegy, alas):

    HERE

    and:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Prassede

  5. Zeddy says:

    Sci-fi has always been a particularly prophetic genre.

  6. I misspoke with “elegy”. There is, however, a poem from a famous poet about something here.

  7. grateful says:

    @bookworm
    a quote from 8/21/1899
    …My Jesus, everything for love of You. May these pains be as many
    acts of praise, of honor, of homage that I offer You. May these pains be as many
    voices that glorify You, and as many proofs that tell you that I love You.’
    https://luisapiccarreta.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/8-August-Calendar-For-Web.pdf

  8. EAW says:

    Chicago is far away from me, but even witnessing from afar the DNC selling their souls to the Devil, accompanied by offerings to Moloch, is gut wrenching.

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