Cathedrals

This weekend I went to mass at the Cathedral Basilica in Newark, New Jersey.   It’s nice, it’s fancy, it’s churchy – everything you want in a cathedral.  Now I’ve covered the 5 archdioceses of the two major metropolitan areas I’m in on a regular basis, actually attending mass at each one.

Cathedral 101.   Obviously the #1 is St. Peter’s in Rome.   As noted earlier, I’ve been there in 1981 on a school trip.  Remarkably, despite going there on a CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRIP (Marymount in Paris), we didn’t actually attend mass there.   I don’t know why.    Below that, there are the archdioceses around the world.  The #1 church, the regional HQ, so to speak, is the cathedral.  Below that are the individual parishes.  You can attend mass at your local parish, or you can do so at the cathedral.   You might get to hear mass by the Bishop or Arch-Bishop, as I did quite often.

NOTE:  the mass is the same at a cathedral, and the bishop – assuming he’s even saying the mass that Sunday – isn’t necessarily any more interesting than any other priest.  [Again, too bad my Dad’s sermons weren’t recorded.]   Mass-wise there’s no advantage to a cathedral.   So what’s the difference?

The biggest deal is that cathedrals are (1) usually pretty big, (2) very fancy, and (3) unlike some of the more modern churches, almost always in the familiar cross shape.   If you enjoying being surrounded by a huge edifice that makes you feel really Catholic, at home with the Popes and saints, then a cathedral is the place to go.  Some of the cathedrals had plaques indicating that the Pope (Francis, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, etc. – though probably not #1, St. Peter) had been there, a distinction your local parish might not be able to brag about. 

I remember years ago I went to mass at St. Martin’s in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  The pastor, Father Mellone, joked that the local paper referred to “the Cathedral of St. Martin”.  “I don’t recall being made a bishop,” he laughed.  [Send that reporter to St. Matthew’s in downtown DC – see below] 

St. Thomas More, Arlington, Virginia [Northern Virginia, which ranges as far west as Front Royal and almost down to Richmond].  This one is actually so close to me, it was my default.  As a result, I heard Bishop Loverde (until recently the head), say the mass.  He was marginally more interesting than the usual priests.  The cathedral itself is more understated and boring relative to the others, though that may be my own familiarity breeding contempt.

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Washington, DC [Washington DC, plus Montgomery County, MD and Prince George’s County, MD].  This in the heart of the financial district, not far from the K Street zone with negligible parking.  Inside it has an Eastern Orthodox flavor to it.  Moreover, many cathedrals are set off by themselves, but this is tucked inside a city block. 

Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Baltimore, Maryland [the rest of Maryland].   Up on Charles Street, well north of downtown, but the neighborhood is really fancy.  Easily my favorite.  Very tall.  Lots of stained glass.  Just so much here to look at and absorb.  It’s amazing.  If I lived in Baltimore I’d go here every Sunday.   Actually, the exterior is fairly dull – in that regard, the Newark branch has it beat, but CMOQ is better on the inside.

Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, New Jersey [northern New Jersey].   Almost as nice as the Baltimore HQ, still very fancy.  Kind of a run down neighborhood, which is what you can expect from Newark. 

St. Patrick’s, New York City, NY [New York].   We’ve all heard of this one, right?  Fifth Avenue, 50^th Street, literally right across from Rockefeller Center.  I made it a point to actually attend mass here.  It ranks up with the good ones, but I still prefer CMOQ in Baltimore.  However, if you are in NYC on a Sunday and you’re Catholic, by all means catch mass here. 

That’s it for the United States.  I’ll mention two outside the US.

Notre Dame, Paris, France.   We lived in Paris for 11 years, and came here a few times.  I believe we even walked up the spiral staircase to one of the towers.   It’s on Ile de la Cite, the island in the center of the city which was originally Lutetia during Roman times.  I don’t recall us ever actually attending mass here.   Paris also has The Madeleine, which is more like the Partenon in Greece, St. Augustin down Blvd. Malesherbes from us, and St. Joseph’s, our English-speaking parish. 

Metropolitan Cathedral of São Sebastião, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Remember I said cathedrals are cross-shaped?  Not this one.  Its’s a huge cone with a flat top, but the sides are all stained glass.  Although I’ve been to downtown Rio, which is where this is, I didn’t visit it.

There you have it.  Again, the mass is the same wherever you go, but the experience is a little more impressive when the house is bigger.    

The Six Day War (June 5-10, 1967)

Recently my former classmate Michael B, now a university professor in NASCARolina, contributed to a discussion of national socialism, prompted by my Facebook post suggesting that we set up parade grounds similar to Nuremburg’s to safely accommodate the free expression of unpopular political ideas such as the ones at issue down in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Of course, that reminded me of our days back at Marymount in Paris, the school we went to up to eighth grade, graduating in 1982.

Aside from Robert S, the elusive fourth male member of our 1982 graduating class, who disappeared immediately thereafter and remains whereabouts unknown (alien abduction, perhaps), the remaining three of us have kept in contact.  We even had nicknames for each other back then (no longer in use today).   With my fascination with WWII in general and Nazi Germany in particular, mine was Erwin, obviously re:  the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel.   John B. (now working in the south of France, as of 2021, to the best of my knowledge), was equally fascinated by science fiction, so his was Isaac, as in Isaac Asimov.  [His parents were French and New Yorker:  he initially grew up in Paris, speaking fluent French, then moved to New York, and forgot all his French, to the point where he was in my same French class learning with me.]   And Michael B., a big fan of the Jewish state, was named after the eyepatched hero of the Six Day War, Moshe Dayan.

Which brings me to this week’s topic, the fiftieth anniversary of which appears to have gone completely unnoticed – at least here in the US. 

Israel came into being after World War Two, and immediately faced a war in 1948 to protect its existence.   Obviously it was successful.  Ironically, much of its weaponry was surplus WWII German:  K98 rifles and BF109 planes.  Soon after, the Suez Canal was a topic for dispute in 1956, which had Britain and France supporting Israel but Eisenhower and Krushchev coming together to persuade the Israelis to back off. 

In 1967, Israel remained in danger, facing enemies from Jordan, Syria, and most notably Egypt, led by Nasser.   Sensing that the manure was going to strike the oscillating cooling device, the Israelis pre-empted Nasser with a successful air strike, destroying the Egyptian air force and ensuring their air superiority.  Nasser persuaded the Jordanians and Syrians to intervene, much to both countries’ detriment:  Israel easily defeated each of them and wound up in a better position after six days of lopsided conflict.   The charismatic general, Moshe Dayan, distinguished by his eye patch (formerly reserved for pirates) can take some of the credit at least.  He lost his eye during WWII fighting the Vichy French.

As expected, the Arabs were mainly Soviet-supplied with AK47s, MiGs, and Soviet tanks.  The Syrians actually picked up surplus German WWII Panzer IVs and Stg III assault guns, from Spain, France, and the Czechs - all of which were taken out by the Israelis with no losses of their own.  The Israeli air force used Dassault (French jets), US tanks, and Uzis/FN FALs. 

What did the Israelis get?  

1) the entire Sinai Peninsula, since returned to Egypt.  

2) The Gaza Strip, currently home to Hamas and its rocket launchers; 

3) the West Bank, which we know is still occupied by Israel and being aggressively settled thereby; 

and 4) The Golan Heights.  Syria retook some of it during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but Israel quickly got it back.  As of today most of it remains in Israeli hands, and with Assad reigning in Damascus, the Israelis are unlikely to agree to relinquish it anytime soon. 

John Adams

Recently I finished a seven-episode miniseries from HBO, “John Adams”.  It’s about our second President, played by Paul Giamatti.  He’s taken various roles here and there, usually fairly snarky, but the best and most memorable, aside from this one, was in “Sideways”, wherein he expresses an intense dislike for merlot.   Rest assured, viewers, our second President made no such preferences – at least not in this miniseries.

Background.   JA was a lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts around the time of the American Revolution.  His first claim to fame was defending the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre – and he got them off.  FYI, Sam Adams (as in the beer) was his cousin.

Next assignment:  getting all the states on board for the Declaration of Independence.  For that he had to work with Thomas Jefferson (Virginia), herein played by Stephen Dillane, better known to us as Stannis Baratheon on “Game of Thrones”, and Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), played by Tom Wilkinson.   Although George Washington has a substantial role – as you would imagine – he’s played kind of low-key here.  It looks like Adams was a major actor in getting this done, for which he doesn’t seem to get much, if any, credit.  Hancock seems to get all the attention because of his snazzy signature, and Jefferson for actually writing the damn thing. 

Third Assignment:  while the War was going on, Adams was sent to Paris to work with Ben.   That didn’t seem to work too well, as Ben was “when in Rome, jump in hot tubs with the French ladies”, while Adams was a bit too serious. 

Fourth Assignment. After the US became a country, Adams was sent to London to act as our first Ambassador to the UK, a job he didn’t enjoy – though at least now he had Abigail by his side.  It looks like the London tabloids were up and running back then. 

Fifth Assignment.  Eventually he came back, and managed to win the Presidency in the 1796 election, after Washington had served two terms and then called it a day (although they did not have term limits back then).  Also back then, the #2 winner wound up as the Vice President:  this meant Thomas Jefferson.  (Imagine that setup today:  Hillary as Trump’s VP?  Sorry, can’t help laughing at that…)  It didn’t take long for the two of them to butt heads, and the 1800 election comes back as the first instance of candidates throwing mud at each other.  Here the mud tends to be overarticulate, but still fun as mud.

Adams Administration.  Back then the US had not much in the way of power at home or abroad.  It looks like his #1 concern was managing the ongoing conflict between England and France, which were at war at the time and both seeking US assistance against the other.  While France had assisted us in gaining our independence, by that time King Louis XVI, the actual sovereign responsible for that assistance, was gone, replaced by Napoleon, who had not yet crowned himself Emperor of France’s “First Empire” – he was leader of France’s First Republic.  Adams’ policy was to remain neutral, obviously the correct position given the circumstances.

Retirement.  The last episode covers his retirement back to his farm outside Boston.  His daughter died of breast cancer, than his wife Abigail (played by Laura Linney) died as well.  Adams managed to reconcile with his erstwhile adversary Thomas Jefferson, and lived to see his oldest son, John Quincy Adams, elected president in 1824 – in a very contentious election.  Finally he and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Speaking of which, he gave the painter, Trumbull, a hard time about the famous portrait.  “We signed individually as we passed through Philadelphia, there was a war going on at the time.  We never gathered together all at once to sign it.”  The moviemakers adjusted the portrait to make the parties resemble their depictions by the actual cast members.  Clever.

Objectively, I get the impression that Adams gets short shrift these days.  Of the first five Presidents (himself, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe) he was the only one to serve only one term and the only one not from Virginia.  [The last Virginia President we had was Tyler.   As Massachusetts Presidents go, we got his son John Quincy, Calvin Coolidge, and JFK.]   But as noted above, he really had one job:  keep us out of the European conflict, and he did that.  So it looks like he is underrated. 

Excellent acting by the cast, though my angle was Rufus Sewell, aka Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith from “Man in the High Castle”, acting as Alexander Hamilton.  It looks like Hamilton and Adams weren’t exactly friendly either.  Either way, Giamatti generally gets the job done.  Bravo!  Huzzah!

Tattoos

I’m suffering writer’s block this particular weekend, so I’ll keep it short and brief on a fairly minor topic: tattoos.

These days it seems that almost everyone has a tattoo.  Moreover, the abundance of “sleeve” or all over deals is even more prevalent than it used to be.  It’s reached the point where “distinguishing feature” would be “NO tattoos” at all, though I confess I do know lots of people with none, however it’s 50/50 instead of 90%. 

Notables.   Bon Scott (AC/DC) had several on his arms, including a parakeet.  Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) has Eddie.  Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath) has that strange oriental dragon coming down his chest, plus the OZZY he did on his fingers when he was in jail.   Scott “Wino” Weinrich (St. Vitus, The Obsessed) has a fairly eclectic array that is probably the most interesting, but as of this moment I can’t recall the individual tattoos.

My own.   I’m weird: I have ONE tattoo.  My dad died suddenly in December 2004, which led me to “bucket list” this abruptly.   Since I was big into Firebirds at the time (still am, just lack the $$ to buy all the ones I want or renovate the two I have) I got the ’73-77 Screaming Chicken on my upper right arm, in dark blue and light blue.  Actually, I also like the '67-69 Indian type design, but the Trans Am version is cooler.

That was it.  One and done.  It’s only visible if I’m topless or wearing a tank top; a short sleeve shirt obscures it completely. 

They talk about “don’t get a tattoo” if you’re in certain lines of business.  I’m a lawyer:  I don’t go to court topless or wearing tank tops.  Wearing a suit and tie in court, the only exposed parts of my body are my hands, neck, and face, none of which areas are prime locations for tattoos.   And a Firebird is hardly an offensive symbol, except maybe to Judge Mustang. 

Does it hurt?  Nominally it’s a needle stitching your skin with ink, but although it’s not a pleasant sensation, I can’t call it painful either.  The sheer numbers of people with tattoos all over their bodies should be a clue that the procedure doesn’t hurt as much as you think it would – otherwise no one would have tattoos. 

Removal.  The prevalence of tattoos has spawned a related industry: tattoo removal.   Not an issue in my case.

Cool?  Back when only sailors and criminals had them, I suppose it might have been.  Now they’re so ubiquitous it’s hard to notice unless the design is particularly special.  Swastikas, of course, stand out immediately (see “American History X”, and Charles Manson).    Please, use your best judgment - to the extent you have any.