You’re an assertive, take-charge kind of person. You refuse to take guff from anyone, and in order to get the job done you’ve been known to lean on people. Sometimes you use forceful language and may even threaten to make life difficult for those who cross you, if that’s what it takes to reach the goal. What kind of impression do you make on the boss?…
I love porches with a waist-high wall wide enough on which to sit. I can perch on the edge of my turf, drink a glass of wine and observe the pedestrians passing on the sidewalk or the busy traffic whizzing by on the boulevard. The porch provides a semblance of distance, far enough away so I’m not bothered by the street noise yet close enough to view some of life’s little melodramas unfolding just beyond.…
So the other night, just before I nodded off, I asked Jesus how he felt about 9/11, Iraq, North Korea and this whole “Ball of Confusion,” as the Temptations used to sing. The question was barely out of my mouth when the next thing I know, I hear:
“Well, I’ll tell you, Jack — it’s okay if I call you Jack?”…
The November drive home from the pheasant fields of South Dakota to Minneapolis is the longest and loneliest. Cruise control and a ruler-straight interstate make contemplation easy. I find myself reminiscing about the season past, painting mental pictures of the resplendent graces of nature and some of the people I met afield. I’m denying the calendar reality of the coming winter and the fact that, for me, this hunting season is over.…
My son was born under the sign of the fish, and, from the first, he showed an affinity for water. As an infant, Brendan loved baths — the longer, the better. Once he learned to swim, he moved fearlessly and gracefully through the water as though it were his true home. Now that he is 8, he spends long hours fishing and beachcombing. His latest haul includes the barnacle-encrusted carapace of a Dungeness crab, two large strands of kelp and half a dozen oyster shells, stored in an empty shoebox, smelling of salt and the memory of water.…
Turns out he was born in a small town right here in Indiana. Turns out he was a chaplain during the First World War, stationed in Austria and then Italy (where I myself went this summer). He loved college sports, especially football.
It was February 24, 1949. A bitter winter rain battered the Notre Dame campus. Unconcernedly striding through it, despite water streaming over the brim of his bowler hat and saturating his serviceable tweed coat, was Evelyn Waugh (pronounced EVE-lin war).
Writer of the U.S. best sellers Brideshead Revisited…
My father kept his ranger’s hat on the wall above his bed. It hung over his head while he slept, the same way crosses hang above the heads of many Catholics. The felt hat was brown and formal, with an extra wide brim and a black leather strap around the base, just like Smokey the Bear’s. My father kept four symmetrical dents in the top so he could hold it by the dome and put it square on his head with one hand.…
Back in the late 1960s, when Sister Josepha Cullen, CSC, stepped to the doorway of the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, she didn’t know what kind of reception she would get. Since it had opened in 1872, the Bohemian Club had observed one steadfast rule: no women allowed.
Sister Josepha, wearing the veil of a woman religious, was seeking entrance because the Notre Dame alumni clubs of San Francisco and San Jose were co-hosting their annual Universal Notre Dame Night there, and she had earned master’s degrees from the University in 1966 and 1968. Most men seeking membership to the Bohemian Club will sit on the waiting list for a decade before joining, but Sister Josepha planned to march right in. And she did — graciously ushered by the unsuspecting doorman and warmly received by the Notre Dame crowd.…
This is the true story of a wolf named No. 2, a park named Yellowstone and a little-known society of wild things existing in obscure dignity far beyond most humans’ awareness.
No. 2 was born Canadian in the rugged wilds of western Alberta. One late winter day in the mid-’90s he was running with young siblings in the deep mountain snow of his first winter. Suddenly, a noisy machine appeared in the sky and hovered there with whirling wings unlike any bird ever seen. No. 2 brazenly stood his ground, watching, for a moment too long.…
The Jewish writer Elie Wiesel tells a beautiful Hasidic story about forgiveness. A wealthy Jewish timber merchant in Eastern Europe settles into a train carriage, the story begins. Just before departure an aged, somewhat unkempt, malodorous rabbi settles into the same compartment. Throughout the journey the merchant pointedly, and with fastidious disdain, ignores the old man. When the train arrives at its destination, the merchant sees hundreds of people milling about in eager anticipation. He discovers that the object of their devotion is the old rabbi whom he had so rudely snubbed. The rabbi, he learns, is widely regarded in pious communities as a living saint who possesses profound wisdom and a reputation as a healer.…
War is always a bloody interlude. Before the fury comes the triggering rationale — and afterward the consequences of scarring change.
The age-old pattern repeated itself last spring in Iraq. Beyond this theater of war, however, a related drama — with words as weapons — continues to play out nationally and throughout the world.…
For a high-school student making the rounds of potential colleges, the treatment doesn’t get much more royal than this:
A seven-day, all-expenses-paid trip to campus during the summer. Tickets to a professional production of Shakespeare one night, a pizza party the next, a banquet the night after that. A guided tour of the football stadium, a bowling outing. Meetings and discussions with officers and distinguished professors. Advice on career choices and financial aid, even pointers on how to write a winning personal statement to go with your college application.…
The raid of The Boat Club on North Hill Street in January found more than 200 minors inside the bar, most of them Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s students. The owners of the bar, which had a reputation for being soft on underage drinking, later sued the students for using fake IDs. The plaintiff argued that the minors were to blame for the business’s demise because they misrepresented themselves. The suit asked for damages of $3,000 per defendant.…
In June 2003 an attorney for Chad DeBolt ‘03, ’03MBA informed officials of his intent to sue the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for personal injuries and civil rights violations. Florida law mandates that a lawsuit against a government agency cannot be filed until six months after such a notification letter is sent.…
The former Alumni Senior Club (aka Senior Bar) reopened this fall as a combination restaurant, pub and nightclub known collectively as Legends of Notre Dame.
Located in the parking lot south of the stadium, the facility closed after the 2002 football season for renovation and an L-shaped addition that increased the building’s size by about 50 percent.…
Senator John McCain pays a vist to Notre Dame.