Fr. Z's Blog

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I created a search link at wdtprs dot com slash shop dot htm

Enter anything and search.  You might get a window that “The information you’re about to submit is not secure”. Ignore that and “send anyway”.

Meanwhile…

Robert Card. Sarah has a new book, Catechism of the Spiritual Life.

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BLACK to move.   This has a good example of a certain tactic with a game name.

NB: I may hold comments with puzzle solutions a little longer than others so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

This group sets you up with a realtor who will donate some of the fees to a pro-life group.

Catholic, traditional and you need tech help?

In Rome the sunrise was at 6:52.  The sunset will be at 16:55.  The Ave Maria Bell rings, in a better world, at 17:30.  There are only 51 days left in this calendar year.

There are 16 days until Advent.

It is the Feast of St Martin of Tours, whose skull I once held in my hands (+397).

Back in Rome, the lovely painting of St. Gregory the Great that belongs over the his altar in Ss. Trinità dei Pelegrini has returned to its place.  It had been out for restoration for some time.  This is/was a privileged, indulgenced altar for the release of souls in Purgatory.

I miss it already.  I would like to return for Holy Week.

I was “stuck” in Brooklyn for a couple of days while Nicole the Hurricane/Tropical Storm passed.   When I say “stuck, I mean with great people and a good priest friend in a comfortable and hospitable place with great vittles and beverages.  Not bad.  However, it was time.

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.

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Some of the back end of Nicole as she heads north.

It was windy and a bumpy ride brought us safely to the ground.

A priest friend picked me up at the airport and there was this double full arc for a substantial portion of the jaunt.

At my digs at last, I found all pretty much in shape.  There were dead critters to sweep up and dusting to do, but that’s the way it goes.  Even Adam’s fidelity would not have stopped dust.

I found a lot of mail waiting, including my new board, which I will work on today.  I’ve been waiting for this for months.  I was in on this as a kickstart project with a reduced price from the beginning.

WHITE to move.

Welcome to the slaughter house.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

NB: I may hold comments with puzzle solutions a little longer than others so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

In this affiliate program I get 50%.  So, chess players, check this guy out.  He helped my game.

And you can help some Dominican sisters.   Remember the Summit Dominicans were making Advent candles?  Well, I think we overwhelmed them and they can’t take any more orders for them.  But Sister wrote to me:

If you wanted something else Catholic to suggest when you repost our link, we have these really lovely Christmas cards this year.  One of our Sisters designed the card from an image of a stained glass window in the Dominican House of Studies in D.C. We sent it out as our community’s Christmas card last year, and ordered a bunch extra so we could offer them for sale. And of course, posting about the soaps and candles is always great. We really appreciate your support :) I can’t believe how many people read your blog!

And you can help your Thanksgiving meal with wine or beer from Benedictine monks in France and Italy.  For the wine, use the code FATHERZ10 for 10% off.

Thank you, Lord, for this day.

Remember Mr Cricket? Flipping off the entire world? Loathing the people who desire traditional worship? Drowning wonk shouting for attention?

Keep in mind what I have been saying. For Solum Vaticanum II extremists, the imagined spirit of the Council gives permission to reinterpret everything before the Council. Everything.

From a reader…

Andrea Grillo continues to show his cards. He writes in a comment to a critic of a recent (Nov. 8) article of his:

“The analogy between the Tridentine rite and marriage nullity is based on the need to translate tradition. What was delivered to us by the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century no longer has any structural evidence. The ‘fiction’ of nullity is only an extreme case of a theology of marriage conditioned not by Scripture or theology but by the Tametsi Decree. The inability to distinguish between these levels is the ‘meanness’ at play. That only marriage justifies the use of sex is a Pauline view that history has profoundly altered. And it calls for a profound rethinking, even as the Second Vatican Council inaugurated with the liturgical reform and with the rethinking of the Church, the Word, and the relationship [of these] with the world.”

http://www.cittadellaeditrice.com/munera/rito-tridentino-e-nullita-matrimoniale-le-inattese-analogie/

A special Yut to Marines active and retired including our own long lost Semper Gumby.

6:51 was the sunrise in Rome and 16:56 will be sunset.  The Ave Maria bell should ring at 17:30.

In the Novus Ordo calendar and the calendar of the Vatican Basilica it is the Feast of St. Leo the Great (+461) at whose altar and tomb I celebrated Holy Mass many times over the years.

I’ve been watching the path of the hurricane, considering it already canceled my flight once already.  I’d like for that not to happen again.  I believe I may have a superpower: schedule a flight and it summons a hurricane.

Yesterday Father and I, before schlepping, started with bagels and schmear with lox and black coffee.  Very welcome.

We schlepped to Rockaway.

And then schlepped into Brooklyn again for more schlepping.

As we schlepped I saw this and couldn’t resist.

Then the schlepping took us to an Italian food distributor with a grocery for Father’s supplies.

The moon rose huge like a Cara Cara orange last night before we schlepped to supper.

a

We schlepped pretty fast.

You can guess the cuisine of the place to which we schlepped.

Which drink is mine?

The waiter schlepped some steak tartar our way.

… and then schlepped some Sülze.

The food schlepping ended, for me at least, with sauerbraten.

We headed home because it would be an early morning schlep to the airport for me if all went well.

And I am hoping that it has.  So far so good, since I am writing this from the airport lounge.

It is worth the schlep to LaGuardia these days.  I don’t feel like I am in the third world.

Seriously, the new Delta terminal is great.

I ask prayers for the rest of the trip.

Black to move.  Can you win material with a tactic?

Interested in learning?  Try THIS.

In Rome, the sun rose at 6:50 and will set at 16:57. The Ave Maria is still in the 17:30 time slot. The Moon is full and there are 53 days until the end of the calendar year. It is the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran. Also, we venerate, St. Theodore a soldier martyr in c. 306 and Maria and Neon in the 3rd c.

In other news, I’ve been canceled… again. This time not by a wobbly bishop, but by a hurricane. I had notice today that my flight home was canceled and I’ve been rebooked to tomorrow.

When I left for Rome, there was a hurricane that moved my departure by a day. Coming back, the same. Perhaps I have an unexplored and unexploited superpower! In any event, I am with a friend here in NYC and well cared for.

Yesterday was pretty quite.  We went to a diner for an early lunch/late breakfast.

The coleslaw was quite good.  The soup and the BLT… meh.  I was asked what bread I wanted, which was rye.  Toasted?  No.  So, I got toasted white bread.  Hence, only the coleslaw is on display.

Why pink, I wonder?

Meh… but I do like diners.  I don’t know how they maintain inventory considering the extent of their menus.  In these diners you can get almost anything you can think of.  It’s not always perfect, but you can get some iteration.  Anyway, I am a great fan of diners: they are honest, no pretenses.  “You want that?  You got it.  Not perfect, you still got it. We can bring you somptin’ else or you can go … your self.”

Last night we, with a seminarian, trekked north to Flu Shing for Chinese.  I wanted to go back to a place where I’ve eaten the best Xiao Long Bao you would ever want. Eh-vur.

I was apprehensive about changes during COVID Theatre.  I checked online and the results were as unhelpful as they were for most Chinese restaurants.  I was worried we might not get a table, but, to my dismay, we got one right away.  Why?  We were the only people there.  Not a good sign.

Another bad sign was the “CASH ONLY” sign on the door.  “Hmmm….”

My heart fell as they gave us drastically reduced menus.  They had gone in the dim sum direction and not in a good way.  To my lasting horror… I can hardly bring myself to type… in addition to the several other variations of xiao long bao they were offering, on the wall there was written “chocolate xiao long bao”.

But there we were.  Should we stay or should we go?

We stayed.

We tried some standards… guotie.. jiaozi… meh… the signature xiao long bao were very good but they weren’t as good as they were before.

I asked the two workers if there had been a change of owner and cooks.  Grinning and nodding they said “No!”  I believe I may have been lied to.

Let’s get to the images.

Guotie on a fancy-shaped dish.  Fancy-shaped dishes in a place that is otherwise linoleum and formica are not a good indication.

Good?  Sure.  But I could and have made better.

Again.  They lacked … zip.

The signature dish trailed off the page, I’m afraid.

Again, good but a shadow of their former glory.  And the tops where the gather is were tough, which means that they were made in advance (for an empty restaurant) and injected and steamed later.  Good but … meh.

The seminarian wanted the beef and peppers and it was a good choice.   This was good.

Crispy spicy chicken.

This was also good.  Crispy was surely there.. indeed crunchy.  I think that, in the final analysis, it might have been over fried because it had a hard crunch rather than a soft crunch.  The flavors included cumin, which was welcome.  Good but I think they fumbled slightly with the timing.

This was something they had on the older menu.  The beans were excellent and abundant.

Crispy pork.

Here is a puzzle.  There was delightful crunchiness and sweetness to these shreds.  However the shreds were so fine that one wondered sometimes whether there was pork under that layer.  There was, but pork flavor took a backseat.  This was pretty good, all in all, but it could have been slightly more substantive in a porky way.

Walking back to the car we passed this place.   I asked a young Asian fellow, guiding his elderly cane-wielding grandfather (probably) if the food was good and he uttered an enthusiastic yes, with a nod and smile.  Who knows.  Maybe next time.

There wasn’t much else to the day other than a substantial jet lag induced nap.

Speaking of puzzles.

Black is threatening checkmate in one.   That means we better have a forcing check.  The force helps you discover the solution.  It isn’t hard, but it does have classic tactic.

WHITE to move.
NB: I may hold comments with puzzle solutions a little longer than others so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE

3:16 isn’t just in John.

Please remember me when shopping online. Thanks in advance.

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Thank for this day, O Lord, even with its setbacks.