Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Still merry, still (more or less) bright…

Yep, that's me circa 1969, posing for a photo on Santa's knee. It would be first of seven photos taken with the old fella (and one of the first laps belonging to strange men in which I'd find myself sitting over the years, a practice that happily continues). You can see the whole gallery of my visits with Santa on Flickr.

As you read this, I'm celebrating Christmas in the Land That Dial-up Forgot with my mother, a warm hearth, a lovely tree and enough food to feed a platoon, should you know any Marines you'd like to send my way. From my ancestral home to you and yours, a very Merry Christmas!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

In memoriam

I just received the following from my alma mater:

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Sister Mary Mangan on July 3, 2007. She had been living in the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky. A memorial service will be held in Kentucky.

Sr. Mary led a remarkable life dedicated to the Catholic faith, progressive political activism, and academic pursuits. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University (wearing full habit) at a time when there were virtually no women in the discipline. She was continually involved with numerous political activities, from the civil rights movement to the League of Women Voters. As a longtime faculty member in the Department of History/Political Science, Sr. Mary served as department chair as well as chair of the university faculty. She was awarded the status of Professor Emeritus in the 1980s, but continued to be an active teacher and departmental member for another decade.

Those of you who knew Sr. Mary will certainly never forget her wry sense of humor, thirst for knowledge, and commitment to high ideals. She represented the best of the Webster tradition.

To which I can only add "amen". Sr. Mary was the professor and adviser who most challenged me during my undergraduate years. She set very, very high expectations for all of her students and inspired them to meet them. She took me on as an already voracious reader and encouraged me to read even more, particularly about public policy and international politics. And she did have a wicked sense of humor, delivered with a wink; if you could make her smile or laugh, you really felt you had accomplished something for the day. And she had a particular vocal tic that sometimes made even the direst subject amusing; after posing a question to you, she would seemingly involuntarily add "mmm-hmm" with a slight lilt. I confess now that we often gently mimicked her during post-class discussions in the halls of the Administration Building.

Until she moved to Kentucky, I would frequently see her around campus or when I was passing the convent. She always had time for a chat. I found myself thinking of her often in recent years, usually when reading the New York Times or Christian Science Monitor, wondering what she'd have to say about this story or that. I more than occasionally wondered if she ever thought of me since one of the things that most amazed me about Sr. Mary was her uncanny recall of nearly every student she'd ever taught, where they were, what job (or, often, elected position) they held and other, minute details of their lives.

I hope those many connections around the globe and her faith were of comfort to her. Knowing she was in the world, still learning, teaching and speaking truth to power, was something of a comfort to me, particularly in recent years. She'll be missed, mmm-hmm.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The 2.0nd Coming

Welcome to the world, Ollie, and congrats to mom and dad.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Here’s to ten more…

I have never been bored in the company of Lance Arthur, not online and certainly not in person, not once in the ten years he's been writing on the web.

Anniversaries like this, the round ten-year kind, are supposed to herald retrospectives that showcase what has come before and yield tear-stained memories of the changes wrought and the regrets still painful and discolored. Unfortunately, I can't dig deep into the archives because some months ago, it was all erased. Gone. The digital bits and bytes all lost except for the few tattered remnants logged by the Wayback Machine, and looking at those pages kind of makes me sad.

But it's been a long time since we sat down to talk, you and I, so I thought I would take this opportunity to offer up some reflections on what has been and what might be, on where I've traveled and what I've seen, the hopes that were dashed to the rocks and the dreams fulfilled.

Lance's was one of the first truly personal websites I discovered in my early surfing and in my own such efforts, I've spent the time since trying and failing to live up to his example. Offline and on, he's a genuinely good guy: smart, funny, honest, creative—an authentically beautiful mind. He's handsome and shy, bitchily witty and charmingly self-deprecating. He is, in short, a catch, and someone I'm so very grateful to know.

Congratulations on achieving ten years along the information superhighway, my friend.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Hooray, hooray!

My heartiest congratulations to Meg and Jason. I'm pleased to say I knew them when.

Monday, October 31, 2005

They did

My very good friend (~and former lover~) Anil Dash got married on Saturday, to the lovely and talented (and, it goes without saying, extremely patient and forgiving) Alaina Browne.

I couldn't be in New York for the wedding but, this being the 21st century, I sort of felt like I was there.

Congratulations and much love.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Ronan Julius Eaton

Welcome to the world, Ronan Julius Eaton, and congratulations with much love to mom and dad.