Today, loyal reader, I thought it apt that we occupy a morning's read with some important, if not exactly breaking, football news. In my official role as the site's "non-football news wrangler," I will freely admit that I've been surprised at the lack of readership. THOUSANDS more people read my Roundup about a cocktail than read my piece on ND Baseball. Which had player interviews, an exclusive with Coach Aoki, and my own personal photos documenting the three-game sweep of Tulane. Not that I'm ...
Irish
Friday Roundup: The “Dark and Stormy Night” Edition
Happy summer, loyal reader. Here in the Crescent City, the twenty-first day of June is not celebrated, or even noticed much. We don't pay the passing of spring into summer too much mind, to be honest. Instead, we mark the other seasons: crab, shrimp, oyster, crawfish, Mardi Gras, and hurricane. We're in hurricane season now. The crabs are running, there's plenty of shrimp, and the oysters are just fine, thanks, but while sucking them down, we're watching for whatever invest or low or trough they ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Last Hurrah
Send three volleys of cheers on high for our Seniors! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hooray! As final exams end today, so begins your last week at Notre Dame. Be proud. Be gracious. Be generous. Be humble. But above all, be happy! For you have achieved something great. And you have achieved it together. When you arrived here as a herd of freshmen in 2009, did you think that in your Senior year you would see your classmates lead your football team to an undefeated season and a #1 ranking? Probably not. ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Season’s Farewells
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” If you tell me that’s from a really cool folk rock band and you like to listen to it late at night when you’re drunk and nostalgic because it reminds you of your high school senior retreat, I’ll increase your Theology requirement from two courses to 16. It is Biblical Wisdom Literature, and in this fleeting season of dramatic transition, we turn to it for guidance. Classes have ended, papers are coming due, final ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: True Colors
There has been much criticism leveled at our basketball team’s tournament uniforms, some of it at a very high level. I suppose I can’t really blame the President of the United States for lashing out at us – after all, we keep suing him. But his disdain is only a mere fraction of the fulsome scorn heaped upon these vaguely mucosal sports togs by the Almighty Alumni. Yet, this sartorial experimentation should come as no surprise, since the football team dressed in uniforms of highly ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Sing-Along
Even though it’s Advent, a time of sober preparation, and finals, a time of wailing and gnashing of teeth, people are already becoming sentimental and excited about Christmas. Maybe not Alabama students, since Tuscaloosa proudly calls itself Druid City (in which case we wish them a happy Winter Solstice). Even though it’s traditional to give presents on the Feast of the Nativity, the gift we are all hoping for won’t come until January 7. We’ll just pretend that there were actually four Magi ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Mercy
We find ourselves is a strange position, awash with unaccustomed emotions. No, this has nothing to do with being undefeated and Number 1. That is our proper position and we should feel simple contentment for, indeed, all is right with the world. I mean we are caught up in the unusual furor of conference-hatred. Not belonging to one of these mutual-mediocrity-assurance societies, we have no natural animosity toward any of them. Normally, we deride them all equally. (Do we hate the Big 10? ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: CHARGE!
How perfect it is for the long victory march to arrive at this place, at this time, with these men! How fitting to face the fiercest foe, the blackest blight of the dark decade now left behind! Twelve is an ancient number of perfection – and perfect the Fighting Irish will be, as no other team in the land! With one more struggle, with one more heroic charge, with one more win Notre Dame will have climbed to the summit of an undefeated season. But one enemy stands in the way – and let him! ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Article of Faith
Tomorrow we play another famously faith-based, religiously-affiliated university. As a courtesy to those approaching this game, who might be unfamiliar with Catholicism, I will now provide a brief recitation of its most important aspects in a user-friendly question-and-answer catechism format. For students, reading this counts as part of your Theology requirement. For alumni and fans, this will provide a plenary indulgence (although contributions are still accepted). ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Sports&Letters
When I started this Indiana adventure, my boss, Fr. Basil Moreau, required that I send regular written reports back to France. I suppose he wanted to keep tabs on his personnel, because it wasn’t like he was spending one thin franc on the whole project. Anyway, I dutifully dispatched informative missives across the Atlantic on a regular basis. These days, the current administration seems to enjoy peddling excerpts of my letters like a jilted mistress. Since we’re in a big anniversary year, I ...