Patrick Madrid's Blog, page 4

Map of American English dialects

Being born and raised in Southern California and living most of my life there (we moved to Central Ohio in 1997), I always thought that the "California accent" was so mild and flat that it hardly qualified as one at all. I still think that, though now that we've been living in Ohio for nearly 14 years, when I hear a fellow Californian speak, it's distinctive enough for me to notice. Native Ohioans are a much different story. I can always tell when I'm speaking with someone who grew up here, especially when they say the words "boosh" (bush) and "poosh" (push). Another common one is that they say "Nerk a-HI-ya" for "Newark, Ohio." There are other noticeable idosyncracies, to be sure. And I have no doubt that we Californians sound kind of odd to them, as well. Without question, the rise of popular television programs broadcast coast-to-coast, as well as Hollywood movies, not to mention the great increase in transience that followed in the wake of President Eisenhower's Interstate construction initiative) contributed greatly to the general flattening of regional accents. We're quite far away from anything resembling a homogeneous American dialect -- I strongly doubt that such a thing could ever develop -- but it seems to me that the regional quirks in dialect are slowly becoming, if I can be forgiven for put it this way, less pronounced.

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Costa Rican Leaf-Cutter Ants are ready for their close-up

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Do you know the early warning signs of a Catholic losing his Faith?

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I do. I've seen them many times in many people over the past 25 years that I've worked in the field of Catholic apologetics and catechetics. They include:



Apathy
Lack of knowledge about Catholic teaching
Being bombarded with messages and invitations from non-Catholic missionaries
Uncertainty
Doubt
Difficult moral challenges and temptations


No doubt, you've seen these warning signs in Catholics (or former Catholics) you know. And I'm sure that, if you're like me, you want to do something to help — to show a Catholic who's teetering on the edge of abandoning the Faith that there are good, solid, compelling answers to the questions, doubts, temptations, and difficulties they may be facing.





Helping people in that situation is something very dear to my heart. That's why, nearly four years ago, I established the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College as a means of reaching out to Catholics of all ages, and especially younger Catholics in high school, college, and who are just starting out in life as a young adult. Our goal at the Envoy Institute is to help equip them before they run into doubts and difficulties with the knowledge and tools the need to remain strong in their love for Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. Through Envoy Magazine, our conferences, summer apologetics camps, online materials, and more, we seek to teach Catholics how to explain their Faith more intelligently, defend it more charitably, and share it more effectively.





And you can be part of that outreach by becoming a member of the Envoy Institute.  In addition to getting an automatic subscription to Envoy Magazine, as well as a bunch of other excellent benefits and insider perks, you'll also gain the satisfaction of knowing that you are personally doing something positive for untold numbers of young Catholics who are in real danger of losing their Catholic Faith when they get to college or head out into the workforce for the first time. (Those are the two must vulnerable transition points, by the way, the two key life junctures where  many Catholics lose their Faith.)





You can get more information here about the Envoy Institute, who we are, what we do, and how you can join us as a sustaining member. Here are my goals as we head into 2011: 

135 members at $10 per month. We have 112 now, so we need another 23100 members at $30 per month. We have 45 now, so need another 5545 members at $50 per month.  We have 18 now, so need another 27

We also need more one-time annual donors at higher levels:We currently have 5 members at $1,200 annually, but we need 20And I'm looking for 10 members who pledge $2500 annually. Are you one of them? 

Of course, as you might expect in this touch economy, the Envoy Institute is running a deficit right now for 2010, based largely on the cost of printing and shipping over 80,000 copies of Envoy magazine FREE to thousands of college students around the country (on nearly 50 major college and university campuses!). We also have a deficit incurred by our first-annual apologetics summer camp, which was extremely well received and promises to expand quickly in 2011. If you'd like to help me expand our Envoy Institute camps other venues in the summer of 2011 and beyond, as well as provide student scholarships for young Catholics whose folks aren't in a position to send them to camp, you can do that and much more good by becoming a member of the Envoy Institute.

Becoming a member of the Envoy Institute is simple and easy, and it helps us in our outreach to Catholic students — high school & college — and Catholic young adults. To enroll, please call Ms. Joan Bradley at 704-461-6009 or e-mail her at joanbradley@bac.edu or visit http://envoyinstitute.net/memberships.html.

Thank you, God bless you, and Happy New Year!http://envoyinstitute.net/index.html

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The woman who inspired the iconic WWII "Rosie the Riveter" poster has died

"Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan "We Can Do It!," died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich.





"Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis.





"For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.





"Rosie's rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist movement.





"But the woman in the patriotic poster was never named Rosie, nor was she a riveter. All along it was Mrs. Doyle, who after graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Mich., took a job at a metal factory, her family said.





"One day, a photographer representing United Press International came to her factory and captured Mrs. Doyle leaning over a piece of machinery and wearing a red and white polka-dot bandanna over her hair.

"In early 1942, the Westinghouse Corp. commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce several morale-boosting posters to be displayed inside its buildings. The project was funded by the government as a way to motivate workers and perhaps recruit new ones for the war effort.

"Smitten with the UPI photo, Miller reportedly was said to have decided to base one of his posters on the anonymous, slender metal worker, Mrs. Doyle. . . ." ( continue reading )http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com

A winter's day meditation: Tempus fugit. Memento mori.

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain';whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that'" (James 4:13-15).



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Inconvenience Store

Makes me wonder how far away their bathroom is located.







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Madrid Family Holiday Traditions

Over the years, we've treasured several fun and nostalgic Christmas traditions here at Rancho Madrid. One of my favorites, for example, is the enjoyable holiday game we love to play called "Pin the Cleanup on the Guest."





Good times.http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com

Take a virtual tour of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome

Like the virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel that I posted on this blog a few days ago, here's another one that lets you explore the the exquisite Cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Rome. And for the historical background on this venerable house of God, here's a portion of the article about it taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

This is the oldest, and ranks first among the four great "patriarchal" basilicas of Rome. The site was, in ancient times, occupied by the palace of the family of the Laterani. A member of this family, P. Sextius Lateranus, was the first plebian to attain the rank of consul. In the time of Nero, another member of the family, Plautius Lateranus, at the time consul designatus was accused of conspiracy against the emperor, and his goods were confiscated. 

Juvenal mentions the palace, and speaks of it as being of some magnificence, "regiæ ædes Lateranorum". Some few remains of the original buildings may still be traced in the city walls outside the Gate of St. John, and a large hall decorated with paintings was uncovered in the eighteenth century within the basilica itself, behind the Lancellotti Chapel. A few traces of older buildings also came to light during the excavations made in 1880, when the work of extending the apse was in progress, but nothing was then discovered of real value or importance. 

The palace came eventually into the hands of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, through his wife Fausta, and it is from her that it derived the name by which it was then sometimes called, "Domus Faustæ". Constantine must have given it to the Church in the time of Miltiades, not later than about 311, for we find a council against the Donatists meeting within its walls as early as 313. From that time onwards it was always the centre of Christian life within the city; the residence of the popes and the cathedral of Rome. The latter distinction it still holds, though it has long lost the former. Hence the proud title which may be read upon its walls, that it is "Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater, et caput".

It seems probable, in spite of the tradition that Constantine helped in the work of building with his own hands, that there was not a new basilica erected at the Lateran, but that the work carried out at this period was limited to the adaptation, which perhaps involved the enlargement, of the already existing basilica or great hall of the palace. The words of St. Jerome "basilica quondam Laterani" (Ep. lxxiii, P.L., XXII, col. 692) seem to point in this direction, and it is also probable on other grounds. 

This original church was probably not of very large dimensions, but we have no reliable information on the subject. It was dedicated to the Saviour, "Basilica Salvatoris", the dedication to St. John being of later date, and due to a Benedictine monastery of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist which adjoined the basilica and where members were charged at one period with the duty of maintaining the services in the church. This later dedication to St. John has now in popular usage altogether superseded the original one. A great many donations from the popes and other benefactors to the basilica are recorded in the "Liber Pontificalis", and its splendour at an early period was such that it became known as the "Basilica Aurea", or Golden Church. This splendour drew upon it the attack of the Vandals, who stripped it of all its treasures. 

St. Leo the Great restored it about 460, and it was again restored by Hadrian I, but in 896 it was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake ("ab altari usque ad portas cecidit"). The damage was so extensive that it was difficult to trace in every case the lines of the old building, but these were in the main respected and the new building was of the same dimensions as the old. This second church lasted for four hundred years and was then burnt down. It was rebuilt by Clement V and John XXII, only to be burnt down once more in 1360, but again rebuilt by Urban V. 

Through these various vicissitudes the basilica retained its ancient form, being divided by rows of columns into aisles, and having in front an atrium surrounded by colonnades with a fountain in the middle. The façade had three windows, and was embellished with a mosaic representing Christ as the Saviour of the world. The porticoes of the atrium were decorated with frescoes, probably not dating further back than the twelfth century, which commemorated the Roman fleet under Vespasian, the taking of Jerusalem, the Baptism of the Emperor Constantine and his "Donation" to the Church. 

Inside the basilica the columns no doubt ran, as in all other basilicas of the same date, the whole length of the church from east to west, but at one of the rebuildings, probably that which was carried out by Clement V, the feature of a transverse nave was introduced, imitated no doubt from the one which had been, long before this, added at S. Paolo fuori le Mura. It was probably at this time also that the church was enlarged. When the popes returned to Rome from their long absence at Avignon they found the city deserted and the churches almost in ruins. Great works were begun at the Lateran by Martin V and his successors. The palace, however, was never again used by them as a residence, the Vatican, which stands in a much drier and healthier position, being chosen in its place. It was not until the latter part of the seventeenth century that the church took its present appearance, in the tasteless restoration carried out by Innocent X, with Borromini for his architect. The ancient columns were now enclosed in huge pilasters, with gigantic statues in front. In consequence of this the church has entirely lost the appearance of an ancient basilica, and is completely altered in character. . . . (continue reading)

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Christmas decorations taken too far. Would you be embarrassed if this were your next-door neighbor?

Here are 25 houses I wouldn't want to live next to. I wouldn't want them in my neighborhood. I wouldn't want them in my state. They are kind of funny, but I prefer to enjoy this kind of humor from a far distance  — like from over the Internet. http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com

Legalism

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