David Mills

We try to keep up with things in the journalistic world, for obvious reasons, but this story may be of less interest to those of you without a professional interest in the subject: Will Oremus at Slate.com reports that Irish Newspapers Say It’s Illegal To Link to Their Articles . An . . . . Continue Reading »

“If,” as Catholic blogger Marc Barnes  wrote , “in the course of human events, a cringe-inducing karaoke of an already over-played pop song is your primary response to the philosophical tradition of the Holy Catholic Church, you’ve negated yourself long, long . . . . Continue Reading »

The audience reaction to a debate on the topic “Religious or spiritual or neither?”, writes the English lawyer  Peter Smith , made  him think. It apparently wasn’t what he expected. Audience questions challenged the contention of Andrew Copson, the chief executive . . . . Continue Reading »

The biweekly “Soho Masses” in London were celebrated for the “pastoral care” of homosexual Catholics, said the archdiocese, but as the English Catholic journalist William Oddie wrote in the  Catholic Herald a couple of years ago, “It is now clear beyond . . . . Continue Reading »

A day late to mark the anniversary, but an anniversary worth commending to your notice a day late: the death of Roberto Clemente, the great Pirates outfielder who was, from all accounts (and I mean all accounts), a very admirable man as well, who did many of his good works in secret. . . . . Continue Reading »

♦ “New Yorkers are so rude ,” declared our midwestern friend. Who, it turned out, had never been to New York. She knew New Yorkers are rude because everyone knows New Yorkers are rude. That has not been our experience, as recent immigrants to the city. Brusque, okay, especially in commercial . . . . Continue Reading »

The trampoline, that upset them. We bought one of the big round ones for our eldest’s sixteenth birthday a few years ago, and parents we knew (mothers more than fathers) were appalled that we’d bought such a dangerous thing and horrified that our children were allowed to jump on it when we were . . . . Continue Reading »

“Only the middle class could act this way toward the middle class, and deem this pandering somehow a forthright and noble condition for an ongoing discussion of justice,” writes the Canadian novelist David Adams Richards in an article on the literary establishment . (My thanks to Tony . . . . Continue Reading »

“The problem with real ghosts, as opposed to the elegant fictional creations of the likes of MR James and Susan Hill, is that their behaviour is so erratic and irritating,” write the  Telegraph ‘s reviewer of a new book called  A Natural History of Ghosts . The book . . . . Continue Reading »

Though the sending of round-robin Christmas letters seems to have gone out of fashion, or maybe the kind of people who used to send them have just taken us off their lists, which has deprived us of some innocent amusement, this is still hysterical: Lynne Truss’ Christmas round-robin letters: . . . . Continue Reading »