For Crying Out Loud, Picking Chicken Can be a Hassle

Old Fashioned Values Have Value

Someone I know works at a local grocery store in the deli. The store has a special cheap chicken deal one day a week when you can buy a certain pre-selected mix of chicken for a couple dollars off the regular price. It is a big deal. They sell a lot of chicken on those days. At the same time, the margins are low, the deal is the deal--no substitutes! 

My friend was packing up those orders for chicken lovers, but she was constantly getting requests from people to mix up the pieces according to their liking. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you just go pick the pieces willy nilly, the cheap chicken deal falls on its face for several reasons. It could be that people are requesting the larger more expensive pieces so that the store loses money. Or the planning that goes into the cooking fails and they run out of pieces so that the folks who are willing to play by the rules can't get the chicken they want.

But it doesn't stop people from belittling workers at the counter and insisting they fill the orders according to their individual wants.

It's one of those head-shaking complications that you see in our world today. People want they want even when it hurts the other person, even when it can cause the other person to lose their job. Even when it is unfair. 

In years past, I suppose I would have found something of humor in the situation, but I know the woman who has to deal with these customers and I am not amused. 

Lawrence Norris is the author of  Callaghan Goes to St. Cajetan and The Brown and White in paperback and on Kindle. He has not written a book on working in the deli. 

Aristotle and Saint Thomas

Saint Thomas Aquinas,
 Fr. Lew Lawrence, O.P., Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas make me smile.  I mean these two men were uber "thought leaders" as they say.  If they were around today, they would both be on TV and all over social media. I don't think anyone could think like these two in the context of their lives and times. And if they were here they would be that much better able to see though a lot of nonsense that is going on . 

Here's a couple good quotes (source brainyquote) from Aristotle for today: 

The worst form of inequity  is to try to make unequal things equal. 

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is at the worst. 

Here's a couple good quotes (source brainyquote) from Saint Thomas for today:

Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man's own will. 

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. 

I was lucky enough to go to a very good college, Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas,  where we had some exposure to Aristotle and Saint Thomas Aquinas.  

Larry Norris is the publisher of Sports and Faith Book 2 and Pilgrimage by Patrick McCaskey. 

Saint Blaise Feast Day Today

Martyrdom of Saint Blaise, Girolamo da Santacroce

Saint Blaise was the bishop of Sebastea and a doctor. February 3rd is his feast day. He is the Patron Saint of woolcombers, wild animals, and suffers from throat diseases.

The first known record of the saint's life comes from the medical writings of Aëtius Amidenus who lived after St. Blaise and likely wrote about Blaise in the late 5th or 6th century. Amidenus depicts Blaise helping patients suffering from objects stuck in their throats. Blaise is said to have performed a cure of a boy who had a fishbone in his throat who was choking. Among healing miracles credited to Blaise, he was said to cure diseased beasts during his refuge in the country away from persecution that had came to pass under Emperor Diocletian beginning in 303. Diocletian demanded that Christian comply with traditional Roman religious practices. 

In 316, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, Agricola, had Bishop Blaise arrested for being a Christian. St. Blaise was tortured with iron combs, beaten and beheaded.

In many churches on 3rd February – his feast day – the blessing of throats takes place. 

Crossed candles are placed against the throat and the priest or minister says: 

"Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from all ailments of the throat and from every other evil: in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

As a child in Catholic Schools, we always had our throat blessed each year on this day. Today, I had mine blessed at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crystal Lake, Illinois, after our That Man is You session this morning. It was wonderful. 

Like many saints,  writings about St. Blaise were done many years after his death. St. Blaise was (and is) a particularly popular saint. 

Larry Norris is the publisher of Sports and Faith Book 2 and Pilgrimage by Patrick McCaskey. 

St. Brendan of Birr, Apostle of Ireland

Attribution: Andreas F. Borchert, Stained Glass Window at St. Brendan Church, Birr

In my book called The Brown and White the lead character Collin Callaghan is a high school boy from an Irish Catholic family. As an Irish Catholic American, you may not have all your i's dotted and your t's crossed on authentic Irish culture. It's funny  though because I have to wonder how many of us have it all together on our own culture.  In some ways we think we live in the culture and if that is not authentic enough, than what is? 

I am not so sure.  

I remember many years ago working in downtown Chicago.  I came from a family that included policemen, nurses, and teachers.  I thought my touch points with the culture were pretty strong. But a funny thing happened when I worked on Sundays at Kroch's and Brentano's bookstore. A very different group of Chicagoans would come out of their Lake Shore Drive apartments/condos, take a short cab ride  and shop. The young people would come with their parents and grandparents and come into the store.  The pace was very slow, none of them seemed to be in a hurry. I think many times there were making a day of it--and after shopping going for dinner and maybe a show or a play. Probably spending on entertaining one day more than my family did in a month. 

While my family and many others in Chicago at the time had toiled with junky cars, old houses, and cheap meals--the Lake Shore Drive folks were remarkably different. Many of them never owned a car or had them stored away somewhere for the rare occasions when they needed them. A house with a year wasn't part of their American dream. The kids went to private schools that I never heard about and when they shopped and ended with a hoard of parcels, they paid for some kind of delivery service. 

The North Shore residents would look out each morning on the lake.  Most city experiences that I might remember were not shared with these people--but certainly they were part of Chicago--contributing to the culture too--in fact today, many would suggest that they had a better grip on the city than me. They lived close to museums, the music halls, the theaters, downtown and the lake. 

I remember later on in life reading O. Henry's stories of New Yorkers. They say O. Henry  loved all 4 Million New Yorkers and he wrote many stories about many. At one time, he write a story a week. And his characters experiences were human and surprising.  

I guess the lesson for me was that it was not so easy to understand the culture of a city, because it has many elements and people come from many backgrounds. It also reminds me to keep my eyes open to learn about culture and different things it offers. 

And while I see our culture, I will also continue to look at Irish culture and enjoy doing it. 

St. Brendan of Birr 

Brendan of Birr is one of the twelve apostles of Ireland, twelve Irish monastic saints of the sixth century who studied under St Finnian at Clonard Abbey.  St. Brendan was born about 500 and the year of his death is not agreed upon by scholars, but most think he died about 572. Sometimes confused with the more well know, St Brendan of Clonfert (the Navigator), St. Brendan became a friend of St Columba (also known as Columkill) and St Brendan the Navigator. It was at this time the monks of Ireland began a period of 300 years of illuminated manuscript creation. The Book of Kells being the most famous is said to come from one of the monasteries of St. Columba—the Kells Monastery or perhaps created at Iona in whole or in part and then shipped to Kells for safety.

St. Brendan of Birr founded a monastery at Birr in central Ireland although everything we know about Brendan comes from the writings on other Irish Saints. After St. Columba was excommunicated, St. Brendan defended him and told others that Columba was held in high esteem by God and his excommunication was rescinded.  St. Columba would go on to found his celebrated monastery at Iona, an island in the Inner Hebrides off the coast of Scotland.

St. Brendan of Birr’s feast day is November 29^th. Brendan's monastery at Birr is said by some to have created the MacRegol Gospels (after Brendan’s death), which are now housed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Larry Norris is the publisher of Sports and Faith Book 2 and Pilgrimage by Patrick McCaskey. 

The Brown and White Irish

The Brown and White

The Brown and White is a very readable and interesting book. I come from one of those families that was a step out of the old world and so our lives were heavily influenced by our Irish roots. 

I made a mistake recently and posted something on an Irish social network site.  It was just my thoughts on how Ireland was going through some changes in their attachment to Catholicism and I suggested that if they drop the faith they will lose something that has been significantly Irish-in their DNA. I know about the priestly scandals and the brutality from certain institutions that has been reported in the last decade, etc.  And I don't pretend to understand it all, but to lose your faith because of some bad religious caretakers is a mistake. I think I said a couple times that it was up to the Irish whether they would allow Catholicism to become a trivial pursuit there. 

Some people didn't like me expressing my opinion. "A foreigner who has never lived in Ireland, etc."  

I suspect that the media has made a huge deal of the issue there and many many people have gotten on the bandwagon.  I am sorry about the scandal, but there are many thousands of magnificent religious people who came from Ireland. And that rich heritage of priests, brothers, and nuns made a difference all over the world. Parishes all over the United States would welcome a new group of Irish priests now, but they are not coming. And we have had our scandals here--so our numbers are down as well in churches and schools. 

Although I am not an Irish citizen, I had to get my opinion out.  There are a lot of evil people who are out to cast Catholicism and frankly they ignore the massive good that it has done. I know many of my Irish relatives expressed an appreciation and love for their faith, the faith of their ancestors. It was a faith that people suffered for and died for.  Many poems, stories, and songs are predicated upon the faith experience of the Irish. If the Irish decide to eliminate their own faith, to me it's like replacing the anger of English oppression with a self-loathing.  

This is my blog and this is my opinion.  You can get plenty of other opinions on sites elsewhere.  


Larry Norris is the author of The Brown and White a fictionalized memoir that tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School. 

God-Moments from Childhood

Woman and Child

I think most of us are to some extent hypocrites--not "perfect" hypocrites, but rather people who fail at things--even some things  that we try to hold dear.  

I was talking to some friends recently about how some habits that our kids take on really can set us off--aggravate us!  And upon reflection, those habits are often failures of our own and they set us off because we see that our kids are carrying them on despite our best (or worst) efforts. 

Frank Zappa use to say, "We are all bozos on this bus." We are all sinners. 

Of course, it is important for us to pick ourselves up after each failing and attempt to get past it--to do better--to live better--and to be better. 

Often, I look back at my childhood for life lessons. All my relatives had blemishes.  They committed sins. As a kid you didn't dwell on this kind of stuff, but in those days people would sometimes be crushed from the weight of guilt and disappointment. For Catholics, we understand that sins are painful to us and those we have hurt, but our beliefs tell us to get past them. I don't think the church wants us to wallow in misery, although some people believe we should. 

Some people can't get over even one rejection.  A "Dear John" letter is more than they can handle.  Sometimes one rejection leads to violence. But people often have more than one romantic relationship and most get beyond the tough ones.  However, as people get older, they sometimes bring back events in their lives and allow them to take a bigger place than they actually had when they occurred.  I suppose this is natural, but I think it can be harmful. 

Some of the happiest people I have known in their 40s, end up as "sad sacks" in their 70s.  They look back and decide they want to be miserable and that their lives were more troubled than they let on.  I think this is more an age thing than actual disappointment.  They slept like a baby in their 40s and 50s, so they weren't obsessed then, why be obsessed now?  Sometimes I think we need to take lessons on how to get older gracefully! 

I remember one relative who had some very sad moments in her life and those moments would have crushed most people.  As a kid, I never gave her credit for her ability to keep going on.  Her life, like many of ours was messy, but she was a woman who had faith and she was a darn good "prayor." She had fortitude. 

My church men's group is called "That Man is You." And our group leader asks us each week if we had any God-moments. When I look back at my life, I often think of this relative of mine and how she presented us with many God-moments, one at a time, when we were young.  Sometimes it was an Irish story, sometimes a prayer, and sometimes it was encouragement and assurance that God was out there for us all. I hope the Good Lord gives her credit for it.  Our lives can be disappointing at times, but maybe we can inspire others. Maybe we can summon up God-moments for others. 

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Lawrence Norris is the author of The Brown and White and the publisher of Pilgrimage and other fine books. 

Ed Sheeran is popular all over the world

I was thinking about Ed Sheeran today.  No, I am not some kind of crazy fan! But in my searches of internet music of the Irish variety, I have seen some songs by Ed. I do a lot of writing about Irish interests on my blogs. 

Ed Sheeran is popular all over the world. My wife and daughters are listening to the radio and they tell me that Ed Sheeran is the big story in music. It is hard to figure on some level because he is one man with a guitar, but I think he excites people the way the Beatles did 50 years ago. This man is uber talented and his songs seem to lead way outside the normal bounds of voice and instrument.  

I heard a few days ago that Ed Sheeran made it twice on the YouTube rundown of most popular videos for this year.  James Cordon's Carpool Karaoke with Sheeran was one item in the top ten and his song, "Shape of You," was another that features a Kyle Hanagami dance routine. Rather than explain the dance business, if you haven't seen it, view it.

Ed is an English artist with an Irish  father. He is a young man and he has played with many others in group performances and duets. In an era of big sound stages and incredible techno-performances, his songs and his popularity throw a monkey wrench into probability calculations. He has performed duets with Beyonce, Clapton, Bocelli, Eminem, Taylor Swift, Tori Kelly, Elton John, Chris Brown, Demi Lovato, Sam Smith, and others.  

His three albums are named via mathematical signs that are written out on his web site as Divide, Multiply and Plus. 

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The Brown and White

Larry Norris is the author of The Brown and White a fictionalized memoir that tells the story of Collin Callaghan's freshman year at a Chicago Catholic High School.