The Chicago Tribune reports that three of Virginia’s best public universities are seeking to privatise. I’ve often thought that it’s about time the College of William & Mary returned to the private sector. If only because it would allow them to keep a cross in their beautiful Wren-designed chapel full time (see above). But of course, given the state of academia today, that’s unlikely anyhow. W&M only became public around 1912 if my memory serves me well. Similar proposals have been aired in South Carolina, especially in regards to the more prestigious of its public colleges, the College of Charleston (f. 1770), and the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.

Williamsburg is also home to St. Bede’s Church, which was once also the American Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The parish is now the largest “faith community” in Williamsburg, but seems to have faltered in its devotion to Our Lady. Due to its increasing size, a dodgy new round church is being built.

The officers-in-training from the College of William and Mary form the Queen’s Guard, named so in recognition of the honors bestowed upon the College by Queen Mary II, Queen Anne, and Queen Elizabeth II.

Whilst rummaging through my room at home in New York last week, I came across this article which I had cut out of the ill-fated European in 1998 written by none other than Mr. Gerald Warner, KM. I was fourteen years old in 1998 and the European folded about a year later. Click here to read in jpg form. (A large file, some browsers may require resizing to view the text at a readable size).

I’m back off to Caledonia this evening for my examinations. But I’m back to New York by the evening of next Sunday anyhow, so I’m not gone for long.

For a peek at what our exams are actually like, here are the questions from last year’s exam for “MO3322 French Algeria 1830-1962”. Three questions must be answered in the space of three hours.

The young Miss Burbage points me to this article in the Crimson on the virtues of hatred, with the comment “I thought as much”.

I have observed that some of the most amusing people I know are “haters”. One of the great drawbacks of our politically-correct age is that the most drole and entertaining stories I hear cannot be shared on this webpage for the participants’ fear of prospective employers googling their names and coming up with surly tales of various hijinks.

It’s all in good fun, of course, but some people will just never get it. I’m particularly reminded of an Allison Burbage story which took place at a party in the town of Pelham, which certianly cannot be retold here and now. Nonetheless, just remembering Burbage’s delivery of this story sends me into barrels of laughter.

Someday, I hope to unite all the haters in my life (Miss Burbage, Mr. Ishmael, Mr. Burke, as well as all the closet haters — you know who you are) in one giant transatlantic dinner party where we can verbally savage and profane all the sacred cows of our terrible modern world. It would be a night to remember. Vive le vitriol!

Dr. Robert O’Hara (who runs one of my favorite website) recently took it upon himself to visit the University of Durham and provided a few snapshots. Of most interest to me is University College Durham, situated in ancient Durham Castle. I think perhaps when I start my university our very first college might be partly modelled on this. (more…)

Newsdesigner.com has an interesting post enlightening us to the history of the ‘dingbat’, the vignette which can be found atop the International Herald Tribune.

The design first originated in the nameplate (also called, varyingly, the ‘masthead’, ‘banner’, or ‘flag’) of the New-York Tribune. The Tribune became the New York Herald Tribune, which my Aunt Naomi informs me was a very good newspaper while it lasted. The NYHT died in 1966, being merged into the ill-fated New York World Journal Tribune (aka the Widget) which only produced a few numbers before labor troubles killed it too.

The Herald Tribune, however, has two remnants which still exist today: the Paris edition (now the IHT) which continued under the auspices of the New York Times and the Washington Post, now solely owned by the Times; and New York magazine, which started out as a weekly supplement to the Herald Tribune.

Well the new year is finally upon us. I am very glad to say that this New Year’s Eve has been a very quiet and reserved one, perhaps appropriately enough given the recent catastrophes in Asia and Argentina. The hour was met calmly and quietly with Mom, Pop, Uncle Ed, and the requisite bottle of Veuve-Cliquot.

I previously had designs upon the usual rites of greeting the new year down in Manhattan, but found myself there last night (Dec 30) instead. Fellow Thorntonian Lev Trubkovich had a little event at his apartment in Stuyvesant Town — ostensibly to celebrate the recent Ukrainian highjinks — and I decided to be social for once and attend. Besides, there was pasta and chianti on offer, and I’ve rarely been one to turn down a free meal, even if it is at 11:00pm or thereabouts. There were in attendance an inordinate number of Columbians, but they seemed of a generally jovial character so it was all for the better really.

Last New Year’s Eve was spent in Pipa, a bar on 19th, with Clara and Lucas de Soto and a few others, and was altogether a much enjoyed evening. But this year having been out the previous night I hadn’t the stamina to go out tonight. I am, only somewhat regretably, becoming an old man.

And speaking of fellow members of the prematurely old, I had the immense pleasure of lunching just the other day with the one and only James J. Feddeck, that great proponent of Teutonic and Christian values. James is soldiering on as one of three or four conservatives at Oberlin College in Ohio. I am told that they meet secretly in a dimly-lit boiler room from time to time to watch the Fox News Channel, read the gender-specific translations of the Holy Bible, and fawn over portrait photographs of the late President Reagan. They are hoping the janitors do not find them out and report them to the President of the College, who, the day after the presidential election, sent out an official college e-mail to all the students, faculty, and staff assuaging them for the country’s loss, encouraging them to keep on trying, and telling them the election result shouldn’t dampen the Oberlin College spirit. Absolute insanity. Completely against the spirit of sportsmanship and fair play, if you ask me.

Herr Feddeck is also saddened that the new minister in charge of Village Lutheran is rather low-church. I thenceforth extolled the virtues of Rome, and he grumbled somewhat accordingly – albeit with a slight chagrin.

I’ve occasionally said that I don’t truly feel that I’ve returned home until I’ve heard the incantation of “Asperges me” at the 11:00am Mass at St Agnes, and I was most glad to have done so last Sunday. I rather regret that the obligation for tommorrow’s feast (today’s by now) is moved to Sunday, as we could all really do with some more time at Mass in our lives.

Well then, I guess I’d better wish you all the best for a blessed and joyful new year.

We remember those who have died this passed year, most especially Diane Gannon, my godmother, and Marylynn Heaton, my cousin. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

New York’s Wallabout Market was once the second-largest market in the world. From about 1884 onwards, vendors would gather in this district adjacent to Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn and sell their various wares. It was then that the market vendors had been banned from Fulton Street for making too much noise, and so took up their trades further down by the Wallabout Canal, next to the New York Naval Shipyard, more commonly known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard (founded 1801, decommissioned 1966).

The market featured permanent two-story brick structures designed in a nostalgic Dutch style, commemorating the Netherlandish origins of New York and Brooklyn, centered around an open plaza known as Farmers’ Square where stalls were erected. The centerpiece was a tall clock tower, seen at right and further below.

The market buzzed with activity from about midnight until just after dawn, by which time trading had died down. During the majority of the daylight hours the vast market stood empty. (more…)

One of the hidden gems of our county is St. Paul’s Church, Eastchester. The church has been within the City of Mt. Vernon since the late 19th century, but was the original town church for Eastchester, situated on the village green. The first church building on the site, a simple wooden structure, was built in 1692. The current structure was built in 1763, with numerous additions and subtractions since that date. (more…)

It was on this evening in 1886 that two souls experienced a profound conversion. Thérèse Martin, or Thérèse of Lisieux as she is now known, wrote of it in her spiritual biography, recounting: “On that luminous night, Our Lord accomplished in an instant the work I had not been able to do during years.”

At the same time, almost the same hour, a young man in his twenties, Paul Claudel stood in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris and began his return to the church. He was later to become a diplomat, poet, writer, and exegist.

Well I could go on further about both, but Philip Zaleski describes the conversion of Thérèse in his recent article ‘The Love of Saint Thérèse’ in First Things whereas Paul Claudel’s conversion is described by Eric Ormsby on the first page of the Arts section in today’s New York Sun. So do some research yourself. There’s a vast kingdom out there waiting to be learnt.

A very happy and blessed Christmas to you all!

Ah, the fire burns, the tree is lit, and another Christmas is had amongst the fam.

Photos taken with my brand new digital camera. It replaces the one which was lost amidst the chaos of the 2003 Kate Kennedy Club May Charity Ball. Drowned in vodka.

The brouhaha over our university’s ironically-titled tabloid, the Saint, has made it to the respectable papers.

The Scotsman‘s Education Correspondent, Kevin Schofield, writes today under the headline of “University challenge to freedom of speech – and Welsh jokes“. Slightly misleading since in this instance the challenge is from the Students Union not the University administration, but it was given a mention on the front page of Scotland’s national newspaper. The Scotsman also published an opinion piece entitled “New puritanism we last witnessed in ’20s Germany” which seems slightly hyperbolic.

Andrew Murray-Watson reports in the Telegraph of “Student newspaper at St Andrews University closed after ‘making racist attack on the Welsh’“. The most amusing bit from this article is a quote from Saint editor Jo Kerr:

The terms “broadsheet quality” and “sophisticated manner” appearing in an article about the Saint are hilarious! This from a newspaper which feels free to lecture about Christians and Christianity while displaying a wholesale ignorance of the Faith (e.g. referring to St. Patrick as a “biblical superhero” and ridiculous statements about the Christian Union).

Last night we received the first bout of snowfall since my return home, which means I’m currently in that wonderful period of grace when snow is charming and beautiful. Doubtless it will be but a few days I will be sick of it and yearn for better driving conditions. But for now, it is welcomed and enjoyed. I think tonight I will sit and read by the fire.

Well today was rather heartening. I went to the midday mass at St. Joseph’s (the local church) and Msgr. Doyle (the pastor) addressed the congregation before mass, donning a cassock, something I’d never seen him do before. He then told us all that our beautiful tabernacle was being moved back to the centre of the sanctuary, where it would be joined by the fronting of the 1927 altar which had be found and restored, and that the priest’s chair would move to the side. All this would be finished before Christmas, too! I had often considered writing a letter suggesting this very thing, but never got around to it.

Monsignor also pointed out that there were four pages of guidelines for church regarding dress, behavior, reception of Communion, and various other important things that have oft been ignored in the past forty years. (See pages 5-8 of this pdf file – very good stuff).

Gosh, St. Joe’s is becoming more like St. Agnes. What a Christmas present! Now we just need them to give us some Latin.

Later, Adam Brenner and I went off to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols with the Rev. Andrew C. Mead, OBE at St. Thomas Church (Episcopal) on Fifth Avenue. Caroline Gill dropped out to take a look at a house. Anyways, I’m a big fan of Lessons and Carols, so that was much enjoyed. St. Thomas really do have a superb choir. They also have the reredos to end all reredoses – a massive stone affair that takes up most of the west (liturgical east) end of the Church. Beautiful church, but I still prefer St. Vincent Ferrer (which in addition to being beautiful is a proper church with valid sacraments).

A comment of Mr. Hiss on Fr. Sibley’s blog mentioned the Church of St. Jean Baptiste on the Upper East Side. There are few churches in New York, let alone all America, which are as beautiful as St. Jean Baptiste (or “St. JB’s” as people ridiculously call it). A restoration only a few years ago brought the church back to its full splendour.

It used to be the national parish of the French Canadians in New York, hence the French name, and is now home to the National Shrine of St. Anne, formerly further downtown in what became St. Anne’s Armenian Catholic Cathedral (one of a few beautiful and very active church buildings being pawned off by the wretched bureaucrats who run the Archdiocese of New York).

The church is open most of the day and definitely worth stepping into even if you only have a few minutes. Their parish website (link above) has a somewhat detailed history of the parish and the architecture of the church.

The parish and girls’ high school are now staffed by priests of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament as well as sisters from the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, and the Body of Christ is adored all day long except during Mass.

I stumbled upon this rather drole piece from 1902 about the prophesized New-Yorkification of London in Harmsworth’s Magazine. “If London Were Like New York: A Peak At The Metropolis After The American Invasion” is accompanied by some amusing illustrations of the anonymous authors vision of the future.

Trafalgar Square is rededicated to George Washington, and decorated to celebrate his birthday.

An el is built right through the heart of the City.

There’s even a precursor of our famous American fast food. Perhaps the most prophetic of the author’s predictions!

For the architectaphiles in the audience, the designs for the complete do-over of les Halles (one of Paris’s urban eyesores) are out.

Le Figaro‘s take on it.
Images of the accepted design and rejected proposals from le Figaro.
The New York Times writes on it as well. (Registration might be required).

Lexington, the column in the Economist, writes about the lack of diversity in American higher education in a piece entitled “America’s one-party state”.

The Telegraph notes that more and more Dutch people are leaving their native land, with emigration surpassing immigration in the Netherlands. (Registration might be required to view article).

John Lukacs depicts the rise and fall of the ‘liberal’ in America in “The Triumph and Collapse of Liberalism” printed in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Saint, paragon of social liberalism and this university’s other newspaper, has ironically been banned from using the Student Union’s facilities (in which their offices are located) for making offensive comments about “LGBT students, dyslexics and the Welsh.” How amusing to see infighting amongst the useless institutions of the University!

Oddly enough, despite frequent cause for complaint, there is no mention of numerous offensive comments and innacuracies about Christians. This is probably because most Christians are so used to assaults from the press we don’t bother complaining.

Well, you all read the Mitre anyhow.

Students Association President Simon Atkins’ letter.
Samizdata reports the ban.

When one thinks New York and thinks libraries, the obvious place which comes to mind is the New York Public Library, one of the largest libraries in the world with one of the most beautiful homes in Bryant Park on 42nd St. The Public Library was formed in the mid-19th century by a merger of the private Astor, Lennox, and Linden libraries. The great metropolis, however, is home to a much older bibliotheca called the New York Society Library, founded in 1754.

In that year, six ‘civic-minded individuals’ formed the New York Society with the aim of founding a library which would be “very useful as well as ornamental to the city”. The ‘city library’ was given a room in the old City Hall (later, as Federal Hall, home to the United States Congress), and received a charter from H.M. King George III in 1772. Unfortunately the Library was looted during the Revolution, but survived and was restocked afterwards, receiving a second charter from the Assembly of the State of New York.

The Society Library is still, as it was then, a subscription library which operates almost like a private club, though open to all who will subscribe (and the Society Library’s membership fee is much more economical than a club). The N.Y.S.L. merged with the New York Athenaeum in 1840, and having been located a various locations around lower and mid Manhattan, in July 1937 moved its collection of one hundred and fifty thousand volumes into 53 East 79th Street (seen at top), where it continues today.

I’ve never been to the Library myself, though it seems a suitably comfortable and private location to read or research, and not expensive to boot. Perhaps I will strike up a subscription when I am next in New York as a full-time resident. They even have a Children’s Room which would be useful when progeny appear.

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