A Photograph of a Cat on the Farm (in Louisiana)

Cat on the Farm, © 2005

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Letter from Walker Percy to Fr. Dominic Braud, O.S.B.

American novelist Walker Percy wrote Fr. Dominic Braud a letter on March 9, 1980.

Letter from Walker Percy to Fr. Dominic Braud, O.S.B. (Stamped March 10, 2010; Handwritten)

Fr. Dominic Braud, O.S.B. was the choirmaster at Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in St. Benedict, Louisiana for decades. He was a Benedictine monk and priest and he had formed a friendship with Percy after Percy had become an Oblate of Saint Benedict. In the following letter, it appears that Braud had sent Percy a copy of a poem written by William Alexander Percy that was set to music. William Alexander Percy was Walker Percy's guardian and raised Percy as if he were his own father. Click the link to retrieve a scan of the envelope, the back of the envelope, and the actual letter.

     I have transcribed the letter thus:

Walker Percy P.O. Box 510 Covington, LA 70433 March 9, 1980 Dear Father Dominic —      It was very good of you to send me the Green setting of Uncle Will's poem. No, I don't remember seeing it and so am all the more grateful for having it.      What would you say to my coming out sometime and demanding that you sing it? — Otherwise I'll never know how it sounds —        Many Thanks again, Walker

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Postcard of Multnomah Falls in Oregon (With Transcript)

A postcard depicting Multnomah Falls 

in the Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah County, Oregon, U.S. [frontside]

Birthday Letter [backside]

I don't remember where I found this postcard, but I think it was in a public library book on bats.

According to the postcard, Multnomah Falls is the second-highest waterfall in the United States (and it is located 30 miles east of Portland, Oregon on the Columbia River).

A Post to Say I Posted: "Bayou Castine, Mandeville, Louisiana"

Bayou Castine, Mandeville, Louisiana © 2015

A post to say I posted.

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On Gratitude

There is an ancient myth that the world is carried aloft on the shell of a great, cosmic turtle.

I thank the turtle that holds the world aloft.

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Credit: Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue

Chef Boyardee: Wheat Girl

An ad campaign from Chef Boyardee

A photograph of the archetypal farm girl getting intimate with her "amber waves of grain" is so totally interesting to me — even without the Chef Boyardee ad copy (that would normally be pasted over this warped gesture to Norman Rockwell).

The original ad copy reads:

Oh look, a mother's daydream. It'll never be a reality. So serve them Chef Boyardee Whole Grain Beefaroni, now with whole grain pasta. Just don't tell them.Obviously Delicious. Secretly Nutritious.

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Image Source: Zachary Scott

On a Sunday Trip Over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge

Verrazano Bridge

The Verrazano Bridge that connects Brooklyn to Staten Island celebrates fifty years this week. The bridge spans the Narrows, a strip of the waterway that divides Upper and Lower New York Bay.
It is often visible when I'm out and about walking around my neighborhood. Even though I live about fifty blocks away.

It's an impressive bridge. But too bad there ain't pedestrian walkways or a bike path. Only once a year, for the NYC marathon are its gates open for peeps.

Lately, I've had to make trips across the Narrows for work. So I get to see the bridge up close.

I feel like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

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