"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
So the plans for what Dale Price calls the Monaghothouse might not be open to appeal.
You do have to wonder about the prospects for Ave Maria, which appeals to begin with to a rather slim niche, and with these new church plans, has put off much of it.
With its striking architecture, steel-beamed facade and luminescent sanctuary able to hold more than 3,300 seated worshippers, the oratory is intended to draw pilgrims from near and far. Affixed outside will be a 60-foot, red-tinged crucifix, with a 40-foot body of Jesus.
"There is nothing like this in the world, nor could there be," said Mark Mendell, president of Cannon Design, the international architecture and engineering firm chosen to design the church and campus. "This place is destined to attract people from all over the world -- the essence of a world-class place."
Ah, yes, "world-class:" sports fans instantly will recognize the siren appeal of the illustrious Expansion Franchise Boosting Domed Stadium Yahoo.
Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza and former owner of the Detroit Tigers, said the church would be the center of the university and "the very thing that reminds us of what we're about." He said it would be a symbol of the campus "like the Golden Dome is the symbol of Notre Dame."
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The Ave Maria Florida development bonanza reminds me of the Marx Bros' Cocoanuts:
[At the resort hotel, looking at a map.]
Groucho:
Now here is a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.
Chico:
Why a duck?
[more back-and-forth between the two ... ]
All right, why a duck? Why a duck, why-a no chicken?
Groucho:
Well, I don't know why-a no chicken. I'm a stranger here myself. ...
If you're in a Marx Bros mood, go here to send a Groucho e-card, and here for a Marxist cornucopia that includes Harpo's Rules for Raising Children, a picture of Harpo and Dorothy Parker and others from the Algonquin Roundtable, and a WAV of Groucho singing what could be the theme of my site, "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It."
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Meantime, this is my idea of a Crystal Palace – and it came with dinosaurs.