Book review: “The Man Who Sold the Moon” by Robert Heinlein
I am pretty much an illiterate about the science of space travel. When talk turns to apogees and pounds-per-second and all that stuff, a fog descends on my brain. Still, [...]
My ministry is…..basketball?
The other day, I got an email from my parish which began: “Dear Ministry Leaders…” I laughed. In the past, I’d chaired the adult education committee and the parish council. [...]
Book review: “Titian: Nymph and Shepherd” by John Berger and Katya Berger Andreadakis
In 1990, renowned English art critic and novelist John Berger began an exchange of letters and cards with his daughter Katya Berger Andreadakis, a film critic. Details of Titian [...]
Book review: “Happy Together: New York and the Other World” by Jan Christiaan Braun
We tend to think of burial art as something solid, heavy, sedate and — as a contrast to what it commemorates — long-lived. We think of the pyramids in Egypt. [...]
Love and the giving of thanks
By Sarah Reardon, David Reardon, Cathy Shiel-Reardon and Patrick T. Reardon Originally published in the St. Gertrude parish bulletin about 10-15 years ago It all comes back to love. Gratitude [...]
Book review: “One Summer: America, 1927” by Bill Bryson
This review originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune on October 13, 2013 You probably had no idea that Al Jolson, the star of the first talkie movie, “The Jazz Singer,” [...]
Small gestures
This essay originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune on October 25, 2013 A couple years ago, when my sister Mary Beth was working a part-time job at a local health [...]
Creaking up and down the court
This essay originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune on October 2, 2013 I started playing basketball when I was 11-years-old. That’s more than half a century ago. I still play, [...]
No expert, just a do-gooder
This essay original appeared in the Chicago Tribune on August 25, 2013 Edward Paul Brennan was one of us. A nobody. Born in 1866, he made deliveries for his father’s [...]
Hope, baseball and A-Rod
This essay was originally published in the Chicago Tribune on August 7, 2013 I took my first baseman’s mitt to U.S. Cellular Field Monday night for the opening game of [...]