The track I downloaded was from John McCormack. I was amused by downloading music recorded for Victrola distribution via the same channel that made Lady Gaga a star.

I recall my mother telling me that my grandfather Murphy enjoyed John McCormack recordings when they were most popular. I enjoy the idea that his great-grandchildren will at least hear the recordings he enjoyed, perhaps they will enjoy them as well. They are part McCormack on my father’s side, so perhaps there is a familial connection as well.

After I found the music on iTunes, I realized the site www.archive.org has a very deep catalog of historic recordings of 78s and similar media. It is an incredible web site and you can spend hours browsing the collection. I highly recommend if you have any interest at all in music history you check it out. (They also host the Wayback Machine that will reveal what many websites used to look like)

Enjoy the Collected Works of John McCormack at Archive.org > http://www.archive.org/details/JohnMcCormack

1. There will be no immediate canonization. I’ve been to funerals where it was literally stated by the priest that NAME is now in Heaven, waiting for us to join him. No. We can’t know this to be true. We can hope this is true. However, I’m asking you now for your fervent and continuous prayers for the repose of my soul and that I may be out of Purgatory as quickly as possible. Please have lots of Masses said for me.
2. No “Eagles Wings”. Yoohoo! Please banish the guitars and the Haugen/Haas/Joncas monopoly for one day.
3. No eulogy by my friends or family members. Please say nice things about me. But do it at the funeral home, the grave site or at the local pub. For that matter, make a Facebook group in my honor. However, I want my funeral Mass to be full-on about Salvation. If I was a nice guy, I’d love for y’all to hear about it. But my funeral is not the time nor the place.
4. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. By this I mean I want incense to form a cloud visible on Doppler radar. To be frank, I feel a little cheated because I’ve not smelled nor seen incense at my parish except for one Mass this Advent and Christmas season.
   I want a man to smell his jacket a week later and say “Wow – They really laid it on thick at Keough’s funeral.”
5. If at all possible have the alter servers dressed in cassock and surplus. I never cared for the little hoodies and rope belts look. It is fine for the Franciscans. My middle name is Francis, but I think the black and white look is more fitting for this occasion.

These are simple requests, no? If these simple instructions are honored I promise not to haunt you to your dying days. Ok?

Image courtesy of jdbradly

The highlight for me is a ride in a wagon pulled by a team of two draft horses. The circuit is festooned with lights representing holiday and fairy tale scenes. This year there was a gentle snowfall to add to the Currier and Ives vibe. We also had a wagon to ourselves, which allowed us the have a Christmas sing-along. Our singing couldn’t have been to bad. The horses didn’t bolt.

I thought I would get in the Christmas spirit and wear one of my snazzier ties. It is covered in baseballs wearing Santa hats. Fun, right? I showed it to my seven-year-old. He loves baseball, so I thought he would love my tie. Not so much, it tuns out.

Yes. The officially “Verified Account” @starwars acknowledged my existence in this galaxy by sharing my less than 140 character message. Click on the image to see the post and follow the link to the image of my boy. He loves Clone Wars, Santa Claus, and has a great imagination.

On December 8, 1941, Feller enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service, becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service in World War II, being decorated with five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars. His bunk is marked on the Alabama at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama. Feller is the only Chief Petty Officer in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Just imagine what kind of records he could have held if he had not missed four seasons in the prime of his playing days.  He set an example of selfless sacrifice that I can’t imagine being duplicated from any top players in professional baseball today.

Mr. Feller had a reputation as being gruff and grumpy, but he earned the right to be his own man.  Anthony Castrovince, an excellent writer who had a chance to return to Iowa with Mr. Feller, shared his thoughts recently.

I’m glad my oldest son, a baseball fan of the highest degree, had the opportunity to meet him and shake his hand. It was obvious that Mr. Feller loved the game of baseball and was eager to share a moment with the boy. And, of course, we got an autograph. He was famous for signing autographs, so a Bob Feller autograph is not rare or particularly valuable. Men like Bob Feller are.

My favorite part of the video is when he sees the camera and reflexively says “Cheeeese”. Do you think he has had his picture taken a few times?

By the way – I misspoke when I guessed the century that the real Saint Nicholas lived.