As a former Catholic I can’t help but spend an hour or so every week searching out Catholic or Pope stories on line…I had no intentions of writing anything but today I can’t help it…probably another mortal sin on my soul…Catholic guilt never goes away…

The Pope is expected to name a new papal delegate who will take care of the Legionnaires of Christ, a special order who’s primary job is to bring new men to the priesthood…But the Legionnaires are plagued with scandal…After years of denial, the order admitted last year that its founder, Rev. Marciel Maciel, had sexually abused seminarians and had fathered a child…it now says he had at least three children…probably the ladies of the Altar Society were to blame...

You know what really gets me? Even as allegations against the reverend grew, the Legionnaires had long been favored by the then Pope John II for its success in bringing in new seminarians! Just this past week 26 new Legionnaires were ordained in Rome, which goes to prove that the scandal hasn’t completely taken away the Order’s ability to attract new men to the priesthood…

As a former Catholic I’ve just about lost complete faith in the Church’s leadership and I’m coming close to losing my faith completely…let me warn you if you see me, don’t stand too close…I’m keeping an eye out for lighting bolts from the sky…

Meanwhile the present Pope, Benedict XVI, is wrapping up his Vatican business, yes business, before going on vacation for the rest of the summer at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo in the southern hills of Rome…it’s the lovely little summer place pictured above…

Rosary Warriors

Almost every night my mother would fall asleep in her bed holding her beads, stressing to us the importance of faith and the rosary...
Would you believe that now real men pray the rosary?

Almost all Catholic men once thought praying the rosary was for old ladies and funerals …but it’s not gender specific or for funerals anymore because now beads are available in the forms of soccer balls, basket balls, footballs and even hockey pucks…no joke...this is a great invention...

They’re called sports rosaries…fathers and mothers of youngsters can gift their children with these and the kids can use them without feeling out of place and be more like their great grandmothers...

They can be purchased at realmenpraytherosary.org and I hope they’re available with golf balls…

SUMMER SOLSTICE

Throughout history this day has sparked ancient celebrations all over the world…

In Egypt the Great Pyramids were built so that the solstice sunset, when viewed from the Sphinx, sets precisely between two of the pyramids…

The Incas celebrated it with a ceremony which included food offerings and sacrifices of animals and maybe people…

The famous Stonehenge in England has been associated with the summer and winter solstice for centuries...the Druids loved to watch the sun rise over the Heel Stone, which stands just outside the stone circles...I'm not sure what they did after the sun rose... they probably had a picnic...

Today is the first day of summer and has the longest daylight hours of the year as a result of the earth’s north-south axis tilt relative to the sun…we all know that the angle causes different amounts of sunlight to reach different areas of the planet…in the Southern hemisphere it’s the winter solstice…good stuff to know…

OK, if there are any Druids reading this, they know summer solstice rituals can be performed by meditating, praying and chanting mantras in the sunlight or indoors over a set of lit candles…the candles must be lit or it won’t work…the purpose of this ritual is to renew, release and enhance external physical manifestations…I’m not sure what this means...

For me, today is the day I could tee off around 5:00 PM and get 18 holes in before dark…

FATHER’S DAY SPECIALS

Sushi and sashimi

Drive up Highway 1 in a convertible 911

A Long straight drive on the first hole

Short putts for par

Baseball,

Watching Golf,

Oysters,

Steamed Clams,

Lobster

Hockey

Getting up early, reading the LA Times with a few cups of coffee

Reading the next best seller

Fresh made corn tortillas at El Torito

Shrimp cocktail

Toasted tuna sandwich with avocado on sourdough

Garlic bread, ciopino and vodka

Sourdough bread and wine

A full tank of gas and a just-washed car

MILLENIALS

I often wonder why my 10 year old grand daughter Sunny, who’s been living with us for a while, isn’t outside playing hopscotch or riding her bike…can it be because kids her age, and many of her 4^th grade friends are into electronics of all kinds?

Yup! I read an article today and discovered she’s one of those kids under 12 sometimes called millenials, generation next-ers or the net-generation who have computers, cell phones, digital cameras, Nintendo wireless DS Wi-Fi games and the new i-Pod Touch…they have a comfort level with different races, ethnicities and cultures, something baby boomers and generation X-ers didn’t always have…and, this generation is likely to be in debt partly because getting a college degree is important to them…Sunny has already asked me what it costs to go to college and how to get scholarships…at her age I was interested in getting a new baseball glove, playing hockey and watching TV…

In ten or so years she’ll be questioning her parents, and after graduating from college, get a job, work side by side with 60 year olds and not be afraid to ask her employers what the heck those old people are doing there…

The Absurd Gardener

From Southwest Trees and Turf Magazine, a monthly landscape magazine… I don’t normally read the magazine in detail but today I forgot to bring my book to read during lunch…I had to share these with you…

In this month’s issue the absurd gardener answers burning questions from the community…

Dear Absurd Gardener,

I have just moved to Las Vegas and am interested in attracting emus to my garden. I saw them at the zoo and think they are just darling. What kinds of plants do you recommend?

Sincerely, Celia Cilliosus

Dear Celia,

You might try an emu bush, native to Australia. It has nice tubular flowers in red, orange and yellow. Though the local birds do seem to like it, I cannot say for sure if it works for emus. Even if it did there remains another problem. I don’t think there are any wild emus in Las Vegas. I can also say that you are not even close to any major emu migration routes. Come to think of it, I don’t think emus migrate. Since they don’t fly and they don’t normally swim and Australia being a considerable commute from Las Vegas, well, you do catch my drift. Even if you planted a garden paradise for emus it could be a long wait.

Dear Absurd Gardner,

I have a problem with the cacti in my front yard. They are situated in a nice, low-lying grassy area with plenty of shade. (If you know cacti you know where this one is going)

The soil is a rich clay and holds the water quite well and all the cacti are on a sprinkler irrigation system that is timed for every other day.

I have been fertilizing them every two weeks but they have not grown at all in over two years. What’s worse they have all turned black and are bending over like little old men. (I resemble that remark), and they smell just awful. Should I bring them back to the nursery for a refund?

Clyde Clewless

Dear Clyde,

What you smell is rot…big time. Your cacti are all dead. You have succeeded brilliantly in creating the most inhospitable conditions imaginable for cacti. I can only marvel that they lasted for so long. Please promise me that you will never buy another cactus as long as you shall live.

PLANET TRIPLE PLAY

Saturn, Mars and Venus appear together

If you live in the northern hemisphere, go out any night this week an hour or so after sunset and look at the western sky to catch a planetary triple play starring Venus, Saturn and Mars.

The first thing skywatchers will see — weather permitting — is the brilliant planet Venus slightly north of west, in the constellation Gemini... Look for Gemini's twin first magnitude stars, Pollux and Castor, just above Venus.

As the sky gets darker, the planet Mars can be spotted to Venus' left as it appears in the constellation Leo very close to the bright, first magnitude star Regulus... Further still to the left will be Saturn shining in the western part of the constellation Virgo.

The three should be visible for a few months as they get both further and closer to earth's orbit...a good pair of binoculars will be more helpful then than now as the planets will appear to be closer together...

E BOOKS ANYONE?

Today I got an email from Barnes and Noble, to which I am a member and can get an extra 15% off of purchases, telling to me about their new BN Nook! …an electronic book with ‘page’ sizes roughly 5” X 7” and selling for $259…they promise one million titles including classic novels like Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Charles Darwin, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Moby Dick…

I googled other E Books and came up with the following comparison of prices and page sizes…I’d love nothing hardly better than to be able to click on a current best seller or a classic book or newspaper or golf magazine and read like crazy…not having to worry about storing the books or recycling newspapers and magazines would be neat…I would love being able to share books with others ...the prices for Barnes and Noble best sellers are around $15.00 compared to $25.00 for paper, with most books selling for around $10.00…the Classics sell for $1.99 each!

· Amazon Kindle 2 $259 8”X5”

· Amazon Kindle DX $498 10”x7”

· Sony PRS 700 $199 5”x61/2”

Right now I like the Barnes and Noble Nook…

Some of these are better than others in that some will let you buy from almost anywhere while others are limited…some have books able to be borrowed and loaned while some can’t…some are easier to read and some are too pricey for me…hopefully prices will go down soon, the best e-books will rise to the surface and the recession will go away…