Home


Formerly Ad Orientem


"Irish Elk is original, entertaining, eclectic, odd, truly one-of-a-kind. And more than mostly interesting."
Amy Kane


"Puts the 'ent' in 'eccentric.'"
Callimachus


"The Gatling Gun of Courteous Debate."
Unitarian Jihad


"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

News & Ideas
Real Clear Politics
Politico
Daily Telegraph
Washington Post
Pajamas Media
American Digest
Little Green Footballs
National Review
The New Republic
The Corner
Opinion Journal
Best of the Web Today
Lileks: The Bleat
Instapundit
Mark Steyn
Midwest Conservative Journal
The Spectator
Atlantic Monthly
Front Page Magazine
Israpundit
Critical Mass
Weekly Standard
Power Line
Llama Butchers
ScrappleFace
The Onion
Conservative Home
Tory Diary
Henry Jackson Society
Naked Villainy
Obscurorant
Fear & Loathing in Georgetown
Commentary: Contentions
The People's Cube



Culture & the Arts
Times Archive Blog
Spectator Book Club
Zajrzyj tu
Terry Teachout
Elliott Banfield
Today in History
Telegraph Obits
Maureen Mullarkey
ArtsJournal.com
City Journal
The Historical Society
The New Criterion
American Memory
Armavirumque
Wodehouse Society
Hat Sharpening
Doubting Hall
Random Pensées
Hatemonger's Quarterly
Patum Peperium
Forgotten NY
NYPL Digital Gallery
Mid-Manhattan Library
BPL Online Prints
Cliopatria
Cigar Store Figures
Scuffulans Hirsutus
Mirabilis.ca
Poetry Hut
Spinning Clio
Ooops
Ye Olde Evening Telegraph
Shorpy
Atlantic Ave.
The Monarchist
Panabasis
Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine
The Port Stands At Your Elbow
Sven in Colorado
Dickens Blog
Feast of Nemesis




Music
Red Hot Jazz Archive 'Perfessor' Bill's Ragtime
Arhoolie Records
Sinner's Crossroads
Dismuke
Riverwalk Jazz
WICN
Steamboat Calliopes
Cajun Music mp3
Old Hat Records
Pandora
Virtual Victrola

Sport
UniWatch
Touching All the Bases
SABR Baseball Bios
Baseball Fever: Teams of Yesteryear
Boston Sports Temples
LostHockey.com
"Tessie"
Philadelphia A's
Elysian Fields Quarterly
Mudville Magazine
US College Hockey Online
Baseball Reliquary
Sons of Sam Horn
Smoky Joe Wood & More
WaPo DC Baseball
Royal Rooters
Baseball Library
H-Y Football Gallery
Soxaholix
Shoeless Joe

Hibernia
Cops in Kilts
Irish Eagle
Slugger O'Toole
Tallrite Blog
Irish Echo
Edmund Burke Society
Wild Geese Today

Pantheon
Theodore Roosevelt
TR II
TR III
Winston Churchill
Louis Armstrong
H.L. Mencken
Chesterton
Belloc

St. Blog's Sampling
New Liturgical Movement
Damian Thompson
First Things
Mere Comments
Andrew Cusack
The Revealer
E. L. Core
Catholic Light
Thomas Fitzpatrick
Inn at the End of the World
Dale Price
Curt Jester
Domenico Bettinelli
Erik's Rants and Recipes
Shrine of the Holy Whapping
Todd Flowerday
Some Have Hats
Daniel Mitsui
Roman Miscellany
Against the Grain
Summa Minutiae
Digital Hairshirt

[SMMMHDH]

Blogosphere
Technorati
Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem



He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative.
Chesterton

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Burke

Irish Elk - Blogged

Archives

05/01/2002 - 06/01/2002 06/01/2002 - 07/01/2002 07/01/2002 - 08/01/2002 08/01/2002 - 09/01/2002 09/01/2002 - 10/01/2002 10/01/2002 - 11/01/2002 11/01/2002 - 12/01/2002 12/01/2002 - 01/01/2003 01/01/2003 - 02/01/2003 02/01/2003 - 03/01/2003 03/01/2003 - 04/01/2003 04/01/2003 - 05/01/2003 05/01/2003 - 06/01/2003 06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003 07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003 08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003 09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009 03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009 08/01/2009 - 09/01/2009 09/01/2009 - 10/01/2009 10/01/2009 - 11/01/2009 11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009 12/01/2009 - 01/01/2010 01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010





























Irish Elk
 
Saturday, December 31, 2005  



Cheers!

Irish Elk wishes all a happy and healthy New Year!


#


Saturday, December 24, 2005  



Music to wrap by

"Rudolph" in Latin is among the holiday music offerings at NPR.

Riverwalk Jazz is celebrating Jack Teagarden's centennial

As I type, a 1953 holiday episode of Dragnet is playing at WAMU at American University.

Thanks to Botanica for the link and for pointing to the way to retro cocktails and lap steel guitar.

Louis Armstrong reads "The Night Before Christmas":
http://saturn.nildram.co.uk/~gkhs/louis%20armstrong%20-%20The%20Night%20Before%20Christmas.mp3

Merry Christmas to all – and to all a good night!


#


Friday, December 23, 2005  



Christmas in the Trenches

NOTE 3/10/09: Welcome to Irish Elk! The log shows a number of visitors have been arriving in recent months at this post. Out of curiosity, where are you coming from? If you leave a comment in the box I'd be happy to know. And be sure to visit the rest of the site while you're here. Cheers, MCNS

* * *

The Week Magazine recalls the Christmas Truce of World War I

Meantime, a remarkable site, The Great War in a Different Light, containing more than 7,000 period photos, illustrations and news articles from Great War books and magazines, focuses its coverage this holiday season on "Christmas in the Trenches."

(Via Doroty)


#


Thursday, December 22, 2005  


Elk or Moose

How liberal am I? Eighty-two percent, according to this simple test.

Reactionary I may seem on campus or at family holiday dinners* -- but in certain corners of the blogosphere, my Inner Lefty shines forth.

That doesn't mean I haven't been getting lost in the 50th Anniversary edition of National Review, or that I don't still appreciate a good Roger Scruton interview on Burke.

* * *

* On the phenomenon of the "Liberal Bubble": Thos Lifson * Bookworm

* * *

The Bull Moose blog has been outstanding of late: On Scoop Jackson * On the wayward Dems * On Joe Lieberman * On the Mideast nuclear peril * On ideologues Left and Right

* * *

And via the Fellowship of St. Caedmon, a poem:

"The Bull Moose"


#


Wednesday, December 21, 2005  



The past in living color

The Library of Congress is exhibiting rare color photos from the Depression and Second World War periods. Sixteen-hundred of the color images may be seen online at American Memory.

The picture above shows passersby reading headlines posted in the street-corner window of the newspaper office in Brockton, Mass., in December 1940.

* * *

A gallery of vintage New York Post front pages from the '40s, '50s and '60s is found at a tribute site to late newspaper editor Paul Sann, postwar New York's "king of tabloid journalism." Of Sann's Page One headlines a reporter said: "Some of them [were] so exciting I had to wait for the story to catch up."


#


 


Darfur Mother and Child

Spotlight on Darfur: Christmas Edition


#


Thursday, December 15, 2005  







Iraq the Vote

Coverage
Pajamas Media
Gateway Pundit
Instapundit
Llamas
Publius
Iraq the Model


#


 



Brrrrrrrr.

Thirteen degrees outside. Fine day for a bit of "Clicquot."

But let's have the "Black Bottom," to egg nog and Mount Gay.


#


Tuesday, December 13, 2005  



Purple Fingers of Fate

Yahoo! News photo search: Iraq vote ink

Raise a Purple Finger for Freedom.

Bill Bennett appears to have borrowed my avatar's cap from below.

Dems say No Joe-mentum, train ire on Lieberman: WSJ * RCP


#


Monday, December 12, 2005  



Sen. Eugene McCarthy, RIP

Eugene McCarthy was my parents' candidate in 1968, and I believe we have a picture somewhere of my eldest brother, who'd gone Clean for Gene, graduating from college with a McCarthy pin on his robe.

In an appreciation in the Weekly Standard last year, Andrew Ferguson wrote:

McCarthy stands out from recent political history as a uniquely appealing man: funny, thoughtful, eccentric, allusive; a professional politician whose mind had plenty left over when the politics was done. He's hard to figure out. No one, early in McCarthy's career, could have predicted that his political life would reach a climax with an effort to unhorse a president of his own party. As a young man he had entered a Benedictine seminary, dropped out, joined up again, and dropped out again, and he never shook the habits of a mind steeped in Catholic scholasticism. His classical training would emerge at the unlikeliest moments. Watching from a hotel window as a phalanx of Chicago police-men waded into protestors during the chaotic 1968 Democratic convention, he turned to a companion and said the horrible scene reminded him of the Battle of Lake Trasimeno…

THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, when the professorial mood was upon him (as it often was), McCarthy had called for "the de-personalization of politics"--a phrase that sounded just as pompous then as it does now, but which nonetheless expressed a thought-through belief about how self-government should work. McCarthy thought institutions deserved more care and attention than the men who run them, and that a political campaign should be bigger than its candidate. His favorite politician, he said, was Edmund Burke--pompous again, maybe, but revealing. His reticence seemed principled as well as personal. He attended Mass every day, for example, yet never spoke in public of his private faith--a blessed contrast to candidates who seldom go to services yet won't shut up about how much religion means to them. McCarthy despised charisma, deemed it dangerous and undemocratic--Bobby Kennedy horrified him, partly for this reason--and his disdain, paradoxically, made him all the more charismatic. When he campaigned in 1968 huge crowds would greet him, rafter-swinging crowds, roof-raising, thunderous crowds, and he would refuse to amplify the enthusiasm that poured over him. He never played to the crowd. The crowd loved him for it.


Coverage elsewhere of Sen. McCarthy's passing: The Telegraph * The Times * David Broder * NPR: Ken Rudin * Power Line * Washington Post * The Nation: Jon Wiener * Nation Blog: Re McCarthy's poetry * Minnesota Public Radio

And some Eugene McCarthy haikus

UPDATE, 12/13: More on McCarthy from George Will and Christopher Hitchens


#


Sunday, December 11, 2005  



Look who's playing Cindy Sheehan

in the new play Peace Mom.


It's Madame Maxime from Harry Potter

She'd certainly be an imposing presence outside the Crawford ranch.

But for full moonbat effect, they might have considered some other Potter characters for the role: Winky the House Elf, maybe, or Professor Sybil Trelawney.

Cindy * Dobby


#


Saturday, December 10, 2005  



Famous catch by Willie Mays Polar Ground

A Dutch Google search on the above phrase returns this site near the top.

Today's shoveling music at the 78 Jukebox is "Please Don't Take That Black Bottom Away" by the Seven Little Polar Bears.


#


Friday, December 09, 2005  
Yahoo! Avatars

My avatar at Yahoo!

Accompanied by polar bear, for lack of a Borneo Whatsit.

(Via Mixolydian Mode)

#


Thursday, December 08, 2005  



Immaculate Conception

A search at Web Gallery of Art returns many images.

The Marist Brothers offer their own gallery.


* * *

The Order of Service at the Brompton Oratory:

Wednesday, 7th December:
5.30pm Solemn 1st Vespers
Music:
Ave maris stella Hassler.
Magnificat Tone 8 à 8 Bevan.
Dulcissima Maria Vivanco.
Prelude: Nun danket alle Gott (657) Bach.

Thursday 8th December
Masses:

7.00am, 10.00, 12.30pm,

6.00 pm Solemn Latin Mass
Music:
Prelude: Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn (648) Bach.
Missa l'Aria di Fiorenza Frescobaldi.
Tota pulchra es Maria Bruckner.
Ave Maria Parsons.
Fugue on the Magnificat (577) Bach

* * *

Listen to "Ave Maria" on a Victorian music box, via NPR:

Real Audio * Windows Media


#


 



Comin' down the chimney down

For Worst Christmas Song Ever, Callimachus nominates the Andy Williams chestnut "Happy Holidays/It's the Holiday Season."

So hoop de doo/And dickory dock/And don't forget/To hang up your sock.

* * *

With the slip to Adorable Little Rodent status in the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, it's time to get the hit meter going, so here's the obligatory holiday link to "Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey." Buon natale.

* * *

For classic Addams Family Christmas cartoons like the one above, visit Bah! Humbug!


#


Wednesday, December 07, 2005  



Letter to Jackie

Written by Lt. Commander John J. Shea, USN, aboard the USS Wasp:

June 29, 1942

Dear Jackie,

This is the first letter I have ever written directly to my little son and I am thrilled to know that you can read it all by yourself. If you miss some of the words, I'm sure it will be because I do not write very plainly. Mother will help you in that case I am sure.

I was certainly glad to hear your voice over the long distance telephone. It sounded as though I were right in the living room with you. You sounded as though you missed your daddy very much. I miss you too, more than anyone will ever know. It is too bad this war could not have been delayed a few more years so that I could grow up again with you and do with you all the things I planned to do when you were old enough to go to school.

I thought how nice it would be for me to come home early in the afternoon and play ball with you, and go mountain climbing and see the trees, and brooks, and learn all about woodcraft, hunting, fishing, swimming, and things like that. I suppose we must be brave and put these things off for a little while.

When you are a little bigger you will know why your daddy is not home so much any more. You know we have a big country and we have ideals as to how people should live and enjoy the riches of it and how each is born with equal rights to life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, there are some countries in the world where they don't have these ideals, where a boy cannot grow up to be what he wants to be with no limits on his opportunities to be a great man, such as a great priest, statesman, doctor, soldier, businessman etc.

Because there are people and countries who want to change our nation, its ideals, forms of government, and way of life, we must leave our homes and families to fight. Fighting for the defense of our country, ideals, homes, and honor is an honor and a duty which your daddy has to do before he can come home to settle down with you and Mother. When it is done, he is coming home to be with you always and forever. So wait just a little while longer. I am afraid it will be more than the two weeks you told me on the phone.

In the meantime, take good care of Mother. Be a good boy and grow up to be a good young man. Study hard when you go to school. Be a leader in everything good in life. Be a good Catholic, and you can't help being a good American. Play fair always. Strive to win but if you must lose, lose like a gentleman and a good sportsman. Don't ever be a quitter either in sports or in your business or profession when you grow up. Get all the education you can. Stay close to Mother and follow her advice. Obey her in everything, no matter how you may at times disagree. She knows what is best and will never let you down or lead you away from the right and honorable things in life. If I don't get back, you will have to be Mother's protector because you will be the only one she has. You must grow up to take my place as well as your own in her life and heart.

Love your grandmother and granddad as long as they live. They too will never let you down. Love your aunts and see them as often as you can. Last of all, don't ever forget your daddy. Pray for him to come back and if it is God's will that he does not, be the kind of a boy and man your daddy wants you to be…

Kiss Mother for me every night.

Goodbye for now.

With all my love and devotion for Mother and you,

Your daddy

On September 15, 1942, three Japanese torpedoes struck the carrier USS Wasp as it sailed toward Guadalcanal. Commander Shea was seen running into the flames to rescue shipmates. He was among 193 officers and crew lost.


#


 


Image of Medea, Pompeii

Anything that purports to help a woman by killing her baby has a lot of explaining to do. Frederica Mathewes-Green

An "Underground Railroad" for women seeking late-term abortions is maintained in New York by volunteers who include the linked piece's author and Nation columnist Katha Pollitt.

The volunteers see what they do as important and good, as liberalism in action, and they have been cited by Salon and the ACLU as "Heroes of Freedom."

Words fail.


#


Monday, December 05, 2005  



Go set the world aflame

The feast of St. Francis Xavier on Dec. 3 marked the beginning of the Jesuit Jubilee 2006. The year-long observance commemorates the 500th birthdays of original Jesuit companions Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber, and the 450th anniversary of the death of Society of Jesus founder St. Ignatius Loyola.

To get in the spirit, SJ Web offers a cornucopia of Jesuitana, including a searchable database of Jesuit saints and blesseds; pages on Jesuit history and shrines; and photo essays on worldwide Jesuit churches, including Iglesia de la Compañia, in Quito, Ecuador, from which the above image was taken.

Elsewhere, Mr Mark Mossa, SJ, provides a good stepping-off point into the world of Jesuit bloggers. Fr. Joseph MacDonnell, SJ, at Fairfield chronicles the achievements of early Jesuit scientists and lists the 35 lunar craters named for Jesuits.

Art: The Altar of St. Ignatius Loyola by Andrea Pozzo * The 'Apotheose of S. Ignazio' by Pozzo * The Apotheosis of St. Ignatius by Baciccio * Il Gesu restored * Il Gesu ceiling fresco, 'Triumph of the Name of Jesus,' by Baciccio

Martyrs: Of the 20th century * Of North America

Boston College Blog cover the Hub's Jesuit university, which sees its gridders dispatched for the holidays to Boise, Idaho, where those corduroy whale pants will come in handy for warmth. (Get 'em here, with Yuletide holly.)


#


Sunday, December 04, 2005  



A little Hawaiian music as the snow falls

A remix of "Oua Oua" by Kanui & Lula topped the Austrian charts a few years back, and you can listen to the updated house mix at the bottom of this page. A couple more by Kanui & Lula, including a rather nice rendition of "Mauna Loa," can be heard at a 78-rpm record site.

Of Kanui and Lula, another musician writes:

Kanui and Lula, Hawaiians living in Paris in 1929-3?, good friend of Tau Moe! Played SOLO on Oua Oua! According to Tau, he did this standing up with a squareneck tricone, not with a strap but with a braided silk cord. Tau says he drank quite a bit and sometimes Tau would help him stash his pay, so there would be some left for Lula at the end of the week. She was a dancer and singer…

Lots of pre-1945 recordings, some a bit scratchy, are at this Hawaiian music site. Meantime, Jane's Oceania corners the market on vintage Hawaiian postcards.

And "Mele Kalikimaka," with the Andrews Sisters, is among the offerings at this Bing Crosby shrine. Here are the lyrics for singing along.


#


Friday, December 02, 2005  



Jack Concannon, RIP. The QB who pioneered the instant replay was a school friend of my sister's. Here he is lofting a pass to Gale Sayers, and handing off to Brian Piccolo.


#


 
This page is powered by Blogger.