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
 
Tuesday, February 28, 2006  



Put Buck in the Hall

How could they have passed over Buck O'Neil for the Hall of Fame?

You'd think the National Game would find a place in its shrine for one of its most gracious ambassadors.

Not to take anything away from the late Effa Manley or the late Cumberland Posey of the unfortunate nickname or the rest of the 17 historic Negro League and pre-Negro League inductees, but would it have killed the voting board to recognize the man who is the face of the Negro Leagues and who, at 94, is still here to appreciate the honor?

David Aldridge writes:

If you watched the Ken Burns series "Baseball'' on PBS, you saw and heard Buck O'Neil. If you've watched anything having to do with the Negro Leagues in the last three decades, you've seen Buck O'Neil. If you've heard the exploits of most of the legendary Negro Leaguers, from Ted "Double Duty" Ratcliffe to Cool Papa Bell, chances are it was O'Neil doing the talking.

It was Buck O'Neil who was managing Satchel Paige with the Kansas City Monarchs when Paige was finally called up to the major leagues. It was Buck O'Neil who worked tirelessly to get a Negro Leagues Museum up and running in Kansas City. It was Buck O'Neil who argued for the inclusion of more Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame as a member of the Veterans' Committee for the last several years.

My God, what more does Buck O'Neil have to do to warrant inclusion?


#


Monday, February 27, 2006  



Varia

Black & white, and red all over: Sheila O'Malley posts a fine tribute to Gary Cooper and then follows up with one to Buster Keaton. And a search at her site reveals her to be an even greater James Cagney fan than I. Whaddya hear, whaddya say?

* * *

Little Marcy! Mercy.

Llamas + elkhornitis = this.

(Via Easy Dreamer)


#


Friday, February 24, 2006  



Great Danes

Stand up for Denmark, says Christopher Hitchens, who was to lead a rally of support outside the Danish Embassy in Washington today.

The Bull Moose sees the cartoon jihad as part of a larger offensive against Western freedoms, and wonders at the seemingly widespread lack of concern by liberals.

Meantime, Alan Dershowitz and Bill Bennett criticize the near-universal failure of American newspapers to defend freedom of expression.

Commenter Bill won't be happy.

But the Irish Elk enthusiastically joins Andrew Cusack and others in toasting Denmark's Queen Margrethe, as unapologetic in her opinions as she is in her stinker-banging.


#


Wednesday, February 22, 2006  



Uncle Boo

It was 1945, and rookie pitcher Dave "Boo" Ferriss was mowing down American League hitters for the otherwise hapless Boston Red Sox, when the writer's father, "quite possibly the most rabid Red Sox fan on earth," fastened on an unlikely idea:

That summer he got the wildly implausible notion that if he invited Ferriss to dinner, Ferriss would come. The hook: My dad's birthday was approaching, and he wanted, more than anything else in the world, to celebrate it with the Mississippi right-hander. To my grandparents' slack-jawed amazement, Ferriss, who was getting so much fan mail that the Red Sox had assigned someone to help him manage it, said yes. He arranged tickets for a day game for my father and grandmother. After the game, the three of them went out to dinner at the Red Coach Grill in Boston. When my grandmother commented on his kindness, Ferriss replied, in an accent thicker than buttermilk pie: "It don't cost nothin' to be nice, ma'am."

A worthy tribute, to a good man.


#


 



Spirit of '68 prevails at Harvard

Alan Dershowitz sees the purge of Larry Summers as a dubious victory for the politically correct:

Now that this plurality of one faculty has succeeded in ousting the president, the most radical elements of Harvard will be emboldened to seek to mold all of Harvard in its image. If they succeed, Harvard will become a less diverse and less interesting institution of learning governed by political-correctness cops of the hard left. This is what happened in many European universities after the violent student protests of the late 1960s. It should not be allowed to happen at Harvard in the wake of the coup d'etat engineered by some in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Stanley Kurtz writes of the politics behind Summers' exit, and posts his own recollection of the World's Greatest University:

I want to emphasize that the level of politically correct intellectual tyranny I encountered at Harvard easily matched, and arguably exceeded, the worst that any other university could offer, even the vaunted University of California at Berkeley. Ah, fair Harvard. You evoke such piquant recollections of intellectual bigotries past.

The lesson Kurtz sees in the Summers fiasco: Appeasing tyrants is a bad idea.


#


 



Happy Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

In observance of which reader Tony C sends the photo above.

Prosit!


#


Monday, February 20, 2006  



Hi, Neighbor

New England raises a Gansett to the memory of Curt Gowdy.

In the 1950s and early '60s the sound of summer from Bar Harbor to Block Island was Curt Gowdy calling the Red Sox, sponsored by Narragansett.

The Hall of Fame broadcaster has passed away, at 86, and the tribute boards are up at the Sons of Sam Horn and Royal Rooters.

At about 1:22 of this NPR report you can hear his call of Ted Williams' last home run.

Cut and paste to hear the Gansett jingle: http://www.blohards.com/gansett.mp3

* * *

Funny thing is, when news came of Curt Gowdy's passing, I'd been composing an ode to Narragansett. New England's beer has been re-launched.

People are drinking it for one simple reason:

"It doesn't suck anymore."

So said a patron who turned out for a recent launch party at Bovi's Tavern in East Providence. He raised a pilsner glass filled with the American lager and toasted a small group of working-class fellas who turned their backs on Budweiser to embrace the local brew once again.

Our beer is back, they said.


I'm quaffing some now, and it's pretty good – a beach beer, a mowing-the-lawn-while-listening-to-the-Sox beer.

That was the idea of the former Nantucket Nectars exec from Providence who bought the rights to the brand, with the idea of restoring the beer to its place in the New England cosmos.

At a time when so many New England institutions have been swallowed by outside conglomerates (John Hancock, Gillette, the Boston Globe, the Bank of Boston), moved out of town (the Atlantic Monthly) or merged out of existence (Filene's, Jordan Marsh), it good to see one New England institution being renewed. Cheers, Gansett.

* * *

Red Sox Haiku

Summer in Brunswick.
Lobster, corn & 'Gansett--then
Tony C. got beaned.

Help the Jimmy Fund.
Hey Nay-bah, have a 'Gansett.
Lonborg delivers.


#


 



Cincinnatus Ubiquitous

On Presidents Day:

A survey of Geo Washington iconography

Fannie Farmer's recipe for Washington Pie

Yankee Doodle


#


 



Presidents Day

What I like is the story Carl Sandburg
Tells from the 1870s about Leo Tolstoy
On a wild night somewhere high up in
The Caucasus Mountains, by a crackling campfire,
Spellbinding an audience of local herdsmen,
Holding them captive with his words,
Unwinding Lincoln's unlikely life, touching
Them deeply enough so that his portrait
From somewhere had to be found so they
Could take and hold and remember a few
Threads of his legacy in their windswept
And foreign land half a world away.


-- From "Lincoln," by William W. Runyeon


#


Friday, February 17, 2006  



Behind Every Pair of Patched Trousers

A heartfelt remembrance of grandparents, on a grandfather's passing.


#


Thursday, February 16, 2006  



The Fours

Tracy Fennell has tagged me with a meme making the rounds.

Here goes:

Four Jobs I’ve Had
Canoeing counselor at girls' summer camp
Waiter at the old Wursthaus, Harvard Square
Sandwich-board pamphleteer
Newspaper reporter

Four Movies I Watch Over and Over Again
The Godfather
Last of the Mohicans
King Kong
My Man Godfrey

Four Places I’ve Lived
Beacon Hill
Allston, Mass.
Denmark, Maine
Washington, D.C.

Four TV Shows I Watch
Ghost Hunters
Whatever's on Turner Classic Movies
Masterpiece Theater & Mystery
Iron Chef

Four Websites I Visit Daily
Real Clear Politics
Red Hot Jazz
The Corner
Llama Butchers

Four Places I’d Like To Be Right Now (All of Them Warm)
In the bleachers at a spring-training park in Florida;
Gearing up for the Irish Festival and St. Pat's Day in Savannah, Ga.;
Hunting for Mayan temples and jaguars in Belize;
Exploring the Jesuit missions of La Gran Chiquitania

Readers who are so inclined: Consider yourselves tagged.


#


Monday, February 13, 2006  



Stick & Puck

More cowbell!

Tonight's 54th annual Beanpot Tournament final pits No. 5 Boston College against No. 6 Boston University for all the beans. Herald * USCHO * Globe

This past weekend's snow wasn't a patch on the Blizzard of '78 that stranded hundreds of Beanpot fans overnight at the old Garden.

In other hockey news, Wisconsin beat Ohio State outdoors before 40,000 at the Packers' storied Lambeau Field in the first annual Frozen Tundra Classic.

BC plans an outdoor hockey game next season at Fenway Park, whence, it should be noted, the equipment trucks left today for Florida. (Pitchers and catchers report in five days. Hallelujah.)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled half-pipe, luge and dancing pantomime fir trees.


#


Wednesday, February 08, 2006  



Saint Perfecto

His feast day isn't until April 18, but now seems an appropriate time to recall the Spanish martyr:

PERFECTO

Memorial
18 April

Profile
Priest. Accosted on the street one day by Moors who asked his opinion of Jesus and Mohammed, promising no harm to him no matter the answer. Perfecto explained Jesus was the Son of God and our Savior, while Mohammed was a false prophet. When his questioners felt that enough time had passed that their promise has dissipated, they had Perfecto arrested, tried, and executed by a Muslim court for blasphemy. Martyr.

Born
at Cordova, Spain

Died
executed in 850 at Cordova, Spain

Canonized
Pre-Congregation


#


Monday, February 06, 2006  


Boileryard Clarke

Apoetical Blues

life in courthouses

Brandon McCarthy
who has always been
considered somewhat
messy
had a dream one night
that he was locked inside some
courthouses being chased by a giant
pretzel
and
when he woke up he found he had a case of vertigo
which will keep him out
five weeks
and
the White Sox think they will get by if
Brian Anderson
a favorite of
Ozzie Guillen
steps up


-- by "e. e. gammings" via the Random Diamond Notes Generator

(By way of Nats Blog)

* * *

Boileryard Clarke, pictured above at American Memory, was a turn-of-the-century catcher with the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Senators who later became Princeton's baseball coach.

He now has a blog named for him. Who'da thunk it?

More faces of Senators past:

Beany Jacobson

Nick Altrock

Jimmy Ryan

Happy Townsend

Rabbit Robinson

Scoops Carey

Lew Drill

Joe Harris

Walter Johnson

Ed Delahanty

(Via the Chicago Daily News morgue at American Memory)

* * *

Download a free book of baseball poetry by Jilly Dybka that includes, on Page 8, a remembrance of Big Ed Delahanty, mysteriously lost over Niagara Falls.

* * *

Frank Howard lives as Elysian Fields Quarterly publisher Tom Goldstein makes a nostalgic return to RFK, the Washington ballpark of his youth.

* * *

The Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society doffs its bowlers in memory of Connie Mack, gone 50 years on Feb. 8.

* * *

Pitchers and catchers report in 12 days.


#


 



To Denmark

Eat Havarti, upset a Jihadi, says Jonah Goldberg.

Buy Danish, Judith Apter Klinghoffer and Michelle Malkin likewise urge. (Via Slate)

And while you're at it, raise a toast to the Danish Crown Prince and Princess on the christening of their new baby.

We are all Danes now, writes Jeff Jacoby

Callimachus: Do not apologize * On self-censorship * On liberal lameness * On Piglet

More on the Mohammedan cartoon jihad: Cox & Forkum * VDH * Bill Bennett * Melanie Phillips * BBC * Protester: anti-freedom * Protester: pro-9/11


#


Friday, February 03, 2006  



Exorcists' tower?

Is a secret exorcism library hidden in a Holy Cross clock tower? Holy Cross Magazine examines this and other campus legends, including the Poe-like tale of a cantankerous Jesuit walled up by his own students.

* * *

Listen here to audio of GK Chesterton on a visit to Holy Cross. His comment wouldn't pass PC muster today:

STUDENT - Mr. Chesterton, since you are one of the foremost crusaders in the modern world of letters, we wish to adopt you into the humble ranks of the Holy Cross Crusaders.

GKC-I have to thank you for this very great honour and I do so with all my heart. I can only say that I am not much of a crusader but at least I am not a Mohammedan…


(Via A Gentle Fuss)

* * *

Birettas are on parade in this archival portrait gallery of Holy Cross presidents.

* * *

Found via Google image search for Jesuit tower:

* Western tower (!) of the Jesuit college, Kutna Hora, Bohemia

* Detail of the clock-tower outside the Jesuit mission, Alta Gracia, Argentina

* View from the Jesuit bell tower, Potosi, Bolivia

* Towers of Jesuit church with cloisters, Cuzco, Peru

* Jesuit church with catacomb mummies, Klatovy, Czech Republic

* Jesuit church, Lucerne, Switzerland

* St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco

* Bell tower, former Jesuit school, Dijon

* Jesuit college and church, Salamanca

* Clementinum observatory, Prague


#


 



USA! USA!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, your 2006 US Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team…none of whom recall Gump Worsley.

I like to think a chorus of the "Whiffenpoof Song" is being raised somewhere to Yale's Helen Resor.

Query for the Llamas: Can Melissa Theuriau skate?


#


 
This page is powered by Blogger.