The ghost of Father Karras

Earlier this week, I was a substitute teacher for one of the teachers at Flagstaff High School, and provided assistance for three of her classes the day that I was there.

The most interesting class of the day was the first hour class, which was working on a budget plan related to their choice of careers. Future career choices included auto mechanic, fire fighter, Navy SWAT team, animal care, carpenter, and psychiatrist. The most intriguing career choice, however, was one that you don’t run across very often.

Exorcist.

As it turns out, there is a school in Denver, Colorado called the International School of Exorcism, and it was founded by noted cult and occult expert Bob Larson in 2012. In the last 30 years, Mr. Larson has performed more than 20,000 exorcisms, which would likely make him the number one exorcism expert in the world. In a nod to the electronic world, Mr. Larson recently has been offering exorcisms by Skype, and the suggested cost of a one hour exorcism is $295.

For most of us, our exposure to exorcism is due to the 1973 movie, The Exorcist, which was actually based on a true story, the 1949 exorcism case of a boy in Maryland named Roland Doe. Roland Doe, as you might suspect, was the pseudonym assigned by the Catholic church in order to protect the privacy of the family involved. The movie was extremely successful commercially, and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, It eventually became one of the highest grossing films of all time, grossing over $441 million worldwide.

In the movie, the team of Father Lankester Merrin and Father Damien Karras are assigned to perform an exorcism on young Regan Burstyn (Linda Blair) , who looks more than a little scary in the movie.

Ultimately, Father Karras is forced to perform the exorcism alone, after the demon possessing the young girl manages to kill the elderly Father Merrin (played by Max von Sydow). Many people consider The Exodus to be the scariest movie off all time, and if you view the 5 minute clip posted below, I think that you’ll agree with that assessment:

how does she get her head to move like that?

The ritual of exorcism has been practiced for more than 2000 years, and it’s not limited to the ritual performed by members of the Catholic Church. Exorcisms have also been performed by Hindus, Muslims, and Jews, and the act of exorcism is mentioned in the Dead Sea scrolls, which go back as far as 400 B.C..

In general, the scientific community does not recognize possession as a valid psychiatric or medical condition, but there ARE those in the scientific community (notably Psychiatrist . M. Scott Peck) who believe otherwise. During the early years of the 20th Century, lobotomies (including surgery with an ice pick) were performed to rid the patient of what was considered to be a mental illness, but the practice of performing lobotomies has largely disappeared throughout most of the world.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the occult, which caused the Vatican to offer a course in Satanism and exorcism starting in 2005. Dan Brown may be partially to blame, since The DaVinci Code has sold more than 80,000,000 copies since its release in 2003.

Satanism has become mainstream enough that a Harvard University student club recently announced plans to host a Satanic Black Mass on May 12th. Due to public outrage, and condemnation by the Archdiocese of Boston and the University’s President, the event was cancelled before it could occur.

I’m not a believer in giving people advice on their career choice, especially in view of the fact that most people will have more than one career in their lifetime (I’ve had 5, so far), but I’d likely recommend something other than being an exorcist.

For those who are still considering the career, they may wish to follow in the footsteps of Washington Post columnist Anthony Faiola, who recently traveled to the Vatican to witness an exorcism being performed by the Catholic Church’s best known exorcist, an 89 year old priest named Father Gabriele Amorth.

If they are still interested after that, my advice would be to feel free to move forward.

Have you ever wondered about Wonder bread ?

Like most of the folks who were growing up when The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was still on prime time television (ABC network), I ate a lot of Wonder Bread, a brand that has been in existence since 1921, when it was created by a small Indiana bakery named Taggart Baking Company.

In 1925, the bakery was sold to Continental Baking, who retained ownership of the company until 1995, when Continental Baking was purchased by Interstate Baking Corporation, which later became Hostess Brands.

Hostess Brands filed for bankruptcy protection in November of 2012, and the United States portion of the company was purchased by Flowers Foods in January of 2013 (Weston Bakeries produces Wonder bread in Canada, and Grupo Bimbo produces Wonder bread in Mexico.)

Continental Baking was responsible for two major innovations during the company’s years of ownership. The first major innovation was that it was one of the very first bakeries to sell pre-sliced bread (in 1930). Its second major innovation came in the 1940’s, when the company began adding vitamins and minerals to its breads as part of a government-sponsored program to enrich white bread, Ultimately, the company was adding 12 vitamins and minerals to Wonder bread, which led to the creation of the slogan “helps build strong bodies 12 ways”. A 1956 ad from Life magazine will bring back a lot of memories for most of us:



I haven’t purchased Wonder bread for years, and probably for decades. My memory of the stuff was that it usually got stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I graduated to more substantial breads a long time ago.

Surprisingly, Wonder bread actually DOES offer good nutritional value, and a significant number of the wide variety of breads sold as Wonder Bread have nutritional values of either A or B:

is that stuff really good for you?

Wonder Bread was in the news recently, but not for reasons that you might expect. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the new owner of Wonder Bread, Flowers Foods, was rated as the most Republican-leaning company in the country. Since 1979, the company has given 99% of its political contributions to the Republican Party, a full 11% higher than the amount contributed by the ultra conservative Koch Industries.

If you’re a died-in-the-wool Democrat (like me) that kind of news is hard to swallow, but you actually wouldn’t accomplish much if you stopped buying the products sold by Flowers Foods. Sharon and I stopped buying Papa John’s pizzas a while back due to John Schnattner’s political affiliations and abysmal employee compensation, but the guy has a net worth of $600 million, so he obviously won’t miss our money very much.

Regardless of your political affiliation, however, there’s one thing that all of us can agree on, and that is that there’s simply too much dough in politics. It’s actually a wonder that our democracy works as well as it does.

Out of Africa

In theory, science and religion should be able to co-exist peacefully, but too often, that’s simply not the case. If you go back in history a few hundred years, you’ll discover that the astronomer Galileo Galilei was convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church in April of 1633 because he believed that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The Church, in contrast, had decided that the idea that the Sun revolved around the Earth was an absolute fact of scripture, and could not be disputed. The view of the Church was still its dogma in 1633, even though scientists had known for centuries that the earth was NOT the center of the universe.

As a result of the hearing before chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo da Firenzuola, Galileo agreed not to teach his “heresy” anymore, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It took the Church more than 300 years (1992) to admit that it was wrong, and before they finally cleared Galileo of the heresy charge.

One of the modern arguments that pits religion against science is the discussion of how old the earth is, and there is a HUGE difference of opinion between the two interpretations of the issue.

Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that the Universe, Earth, and all life on earth began somewhere between 5700 and 10,000 years ago. According to Gallup polls, somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of the American population believe in Young Earth creationism.

For those who believe in the scientific view of the age of the Earth, scientific facts state that the Earth is at least 3.8 billion years old, and scientists have found ice in Antarctica that is roughly 1,000,000 years old. These facts are unlikely to change the opinion of the 30% of the American population who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible.

Since there are large groups of people who can’t agree how old the Earth is, it’s pretty obvious that there isn’t going to be any agreement on how old the human race is.

Ken Ham, the founder of The Creation Museum, believes that the human race is less than 10,000 years old, and co-existed with dinosaurs (who actually disappeared 65,000,000 years ago). Although Mr. Ham was a high school science teacher for a brief period of time early in his career, he quickly switched to working for the Institute for Creation Research, which is a Young Earth creationist organization.

The most comprehensive discussion on the scientific viewpoint of the age of the human race was a 5 part series presented by Dr. Alice Roberts, and released by the BBC in 2009. In total, the series runs just under five hours, and can be viewed by clicking on the links below:

Part 1: (Africa)

Part 2: (Asia)

Part 3: (Europe)

Part 4: (Australia)

Part 5 (the Americas)

In addition to being a medical doctor, Dr. Roberts is an anatomist, osteoarachaelogist, anthropologist, paleopathologist, television presenter and author. In her spare time, she is professor of public engagement in science at the University of Birmingham in England).

It is her belief that modern home sapiens evolved from dark skinned humans that originated in modern day Ethiopia approximate 195,000 years ago. Although she briefly mentions the Neanderthal race in her video on Europe, she does not discuss even earlier versions of the genus Homo, which evolved around 2.3 million years ago.

To a very large degree, the series narrated by Dr. Roberts confirms the findings of an American geneticist and anthropologist named Spencer Wells, who published a book titled "The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey" in 2002. His book became a TV documentary in 2003.

You are free to believe whatever you want about the age of the Earth, or the age of the human race, but I’m of the opinion that Dr. Roberts’ version of things is a lot closer to the truth than the opinion held by Ken Ham. If we really ARE all descended from dark skinned people in Eastern Africa, then it makes absolutely no sense to criticize our fellow humans because of their skin color or their national origin. Unfortunately, the bigotry that was very evident in Little Rock in 1957 still exists today, it’s just a little more subtle. In some states, it’s known as Voter ID laws, but it takes other forms as well.

I wish that we could forever keep religion and science separate, but when you add politics into the mix, we’re all faced with a virtually impossible situation, one that our African ancestors never had to deal with. Fortunately, we can, and the best place to start is the Big Bang theory, which theorizes that the universe started out with a "Big Bang" more than 13 billion years ago. The "father" of the Big Bang theory is a Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre.

Do you believe in the Easter bunny?

At our weekly Thursday evening dinner this week, one of our fellow diners asked how the Easter bunny and Easter eggs came to be related to the celebration of Easter.

After a little research, I discovered that they actually have no relation at all. Like both Christmas and St. Valentine’s Day, all three dates are tied to pagan celebrations. Christmas, of course, is closely related to the pagan holiday of Saturnalia, and St. Valentine’s Day is closely related to the pagan festival of love, which is called Lupercalia.

According to the University of Florida’s Center for Children’s Literature and Culture, the origin of the Easter Bunny can be traced back to pre-Christian 13th Century Germany, when people worshipped several gods and goddesses. The Teutonic deity Eostra was the goddess of spring and fertility, and feasts were held on her honor on the vernal equinox. Her symbol was the rabbit, due to the animal’s high reproduction rate. The Old English version of her name, Eostre, translates into modern English as Easter, and is derived from the old Germanic word austron, which means “dawn”. By no small coincidence, the Greek goddess of dawn is named Eos.

Spring has long symbolized new life and rebirth, and eggs are an ancient symbol of fertility.

The first Easter Bunny legend was documented in the 1500’s. By 1680, the first story about rabbits laying eggs and hiding them in a garden was published. conveniently ignoring the fact that rabbits give birth like humans, and do not lay eggs. The legends of the Easter bunny and the eggs came to America in the 1700’s, when German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania Dutch country in Pennsylvania.

If you dig a little deeper, though, you’ll discover that the pagan celebration of Easter goes back a lot further than 13th century Germany. As a matter of fact, the celebration actually goes back to the time of Noah, who was born somewhere between 2700 and 2800 B.C.. Appropriately enough, the true origins of the festival start with his son Ham. It’s a long and complicated tale, and the full details can be found by reading the details posted at the link below:

when did Easter REALLY start?

The short version of the story, though, is this:

During the later years of Noah’s life, the pagans celebrated a festival called Ishtar (which is pronounced Easter) . Officially, the festival commemorated the resurrection of their god Tammuz, who was the only begotten son of the moon goddess and the sun god.

Tammuz was especially fond of rabbits, which became sacred in the ancient religions. Like his father, he was an avid hunter. One day, while hunting rabbits, he was killed by a wild pig. To commemorate his death, his mother (Queen Ishtar) proclaimed a 40 day time of sorrow each year prior to the anniversary of his death. Every year, on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox, a celebration of his life was held, and was celebrated with rabbits and eggs. Due to the fact that he was killed by a pig, Queen Ishtar proclaimed that a pig must be eaten on that day.

The practice of decorating eggs, surprisingly, goes back in time even further, since ostrich eggs with decorations that are 60,000 years old have been found in Africa.

The Christian celebration of Easter also has a long history, but it doesn’t go back as far as you may think. Early Christians, in fact, continued to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. It wasn’t until the time of the Nicaea Council (in 325 A.D.) that the Catholic church ruled that Easter Sunday would be celebrated on the first Sunday immediately following the full moon which came after the vernal equinox.

At some point in time (possibly as early as the 15th Century) , the pagan symbols of rabbits and eggs merged with the Christian celebration of Easter, which is why we now have the Easter bunny and Easter eggs.

Due to today’s political correctness, I’ve actually seen newspaper ads for “spring bunnies”. Although they are technically correct, I don’t have a problem with anyone who wants to call them Easter bunnies. After all, I also believe in the Easter bunny, and I’ve got an awful lot of company.

Baseball’s holy ground

Set aside the cares of the world for a few minutes, and imagine yourself in the “friendly confines” of a major league baseball stadium.

The smell of freshly cut grass, the crack of a bat, the roar of the crowd, and the taste of a ball park hot dog can chase away a lot of tension, and make you believe (at least for a while) the words intoned by James Earl Jones in the movie “Field of Dreams”:

“it reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again”.

the master speaks

The very next scene in this movie, incidentally, may well bring a tear to your eye, because that is exactly what happened to me when I watched it again:

Doc Graham comes to the rescue

I’ve watched major league baseball games at Met Stadium in Minneapolis (before it got torn down to become the Mall of America), Milwaukee County Stadium in Milwaukee (before it got replaced by Miller Park) , and at the “old” and the “new” Comiskey Park (now called U.S. Cellular Field) in Chicago. I’ve even been to the actual field of dreams, in Dyersville, Iowa. However, my favorite professional stadium is Wrigley Field in Chicago, the second oldest major league stadium in professional baseball.

Although the oldest ball park in the country (Fenway Park) has been called “a shrine” by former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee, it literally is true that Wrigley Field is “sacred ground”. Obviously, that statement requires more explanation, as well as a little baseball history.

For starters, the original location of Wrigley Field wasn’t even in Chicago - it was in south Los Angeles. The stadium opened in 1925, and was named for William Wrigley, Jr., who owned the first tenants of the stadium, the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. After the Pacific Coast league folded, the field was used for a variety of other purposes, and it became the home stadium for the American League Los Angeles Angels in their 1961 inaugural season.

After their first season, the Angles moved to Dodger Stadium, and Wrigley Field, once again, was put to other uses (including a 1963 civil rights rally featuring Martin Luther King Jr.). Demolition on the ball field started in March of 1969 to make way for a new recreation facility, which is now host to Wrigley little league baseball and softball.

The professional baseball park that opened in Chicago in 1914 was named Weegham Field, and was the home field of the Chicago Whales of the Federal League.

A year later, the Federal League folded, which led the Whales owner to form a syndicate with William Wrigley Jr. to buy the Chicago Cubs from Charles P. Taft. Mr. Weegham immediately moved the Cubs from their existing location to his new stadium, William Wrigley bought controlling interest in the club in 1918, and the team’s home field was called Cubs Park from 1920 through 1926, when it was renamed Wrigley Field.

Before Weegham Field was built, however, the property that is bounded by Clark, Waveland, Sheffield, and Addison was owned by a land developer named Joseph Sheffield. It eventually was purchased by Lutheran minister William Passavant, who build St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on the site. Passavant’s dream, though, was to build a seminary, and the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary opened its doors in 1891. By 1910, the seminary outgrew the property, and the property was sold to Charles Havenor, who owned a minor league baseball team in Milwaukee. Havenor’s dream of a major league baeball club in Chicago never bore fruit, and the location was leased to Charles Weegham in 1913, and now you know “the rest of the story”.

The start of the 2014 professional base ball season actually started on March 22, when the Arizona Diamondbacks played the Los Angeles Dodgers in Sydney, Australia. The North American part of the season will start today, March 30.

Since baseball is a sport that is long on tradition, the 2014 season won’t bring any major changes to the sport. Due to political correctness, though, you’ll no longer see either one of the symbols shown below:

Chief Wahoo, long the logo for the Cleveland Indians, will be replaced by a logo that looks something like this:

The pirate logo for the Pittsburgh Pirates will be replaced by the gold “P” that is already on their caps.

The Cubs, though, are true believers of tradition ( Wrigley Field was the last major league stadium to get lights), and will wear commemorative patches to mark the 100th anniversary of their home field.

What are you waiting for? Buy your tickets NOW !!

The Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor Day is celebrated each year on March 25th, a fact I likely would not have known if I hadn’t stopped to buy stamps recently at the Post Office. I liked the look of the Medal of Honor stamp that the Post Office recently issued, and bought the very last sheet that they had.

There are actually three different designs for the Medal of Honor, which is the highest award for valor in the Armed Services of the United States. The Army, Navy, and Air Force have their own distinct medals, and the Marines receive the Navy version of the medal.

The Navy version is shown below:

The official website for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society can be found at the link below:

Congressional Medal of Honor Society

The Medal of Honor was created in 1861, early in the American Civil War, to give recognition to men who distinguished themselves "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity" in combat with an enemy of the United States. Up until very recently, there were 3468 recipients of the medal, and more than half were presented to participants in the Civil War. Due to its prestige and status, the Medal of Honor is afforded special protection under U.S. law against any unauthorized adornment, sale, or manufacture, which includes any associated ribbon or badge.

Just a few days ago, President Obama presented 24 Medals of Honor to 24 vets, but 21 of those medals were awarded posthumously. The three surviving veterans were Jose Rodela, Mevlin Morris, and Santiago Erevia, all of whom were Vietnam vets. All 24 of the vets who qualified for the medal were ethnic or minority troops (Hispanics, Jews, and African-Americans) and may have been overlooked previously due to their minority status.

I served my time in the military during the Vietnam War, but six years in the National Guard was pretty easy duty compared to what the 24 vets who were recently honored endured.

When you run into a vet today, the least you can do is to tell him “thanks”, even if all he did was serve in the motor pool. He’s still helping to defend our freedom, and ALL of our vets deserve better treatment than the returning G.I.’s got in 1975, as the war in Vietnam finally came to a close.

Bob

Bob and I graduated from high school together in 1965. At the time of our graduation, the school was known as Mary T. Hill High School, and it was an all boys Catholic High School. In 1971, it merged with the all-girls Catholic school (called Archbishop Murray) about a mile to the east, and the name of the school was changed to Hill-Murray.

A short time after the merger with Archbishop Murray, the building was sold to a local school district. In 1982, it was sold, once again, to Bob and Sandy Kreischer, who founded a college prep school called Mounds Park Academy. The former Mary T. High School, located at 2051 Larpenteur Avenue East in Maplewood, can still be viewed on Google maps, both in satellite view, as well as in street view.

I still get the quarterly newsletter (Hill-Murray Today) from my old high school. When the Winter 2014 edition came in the mail a few days ago, I thought of Bob, because he was listed on the “In Memoriam” page at the back of the publication.

Bob was a very active guy in high school. When I dug out my 1965 yearbook from a tote in our backyard shed, I discovered that he had managed to get his picture in that particular yearbook no less than 8 times. In addition to playing on the football team all 4 years, he was on the honor roll in his freshman year, a class officer his first three years at the school, a member of the Lettermen’s Club his last 2 years, a member of the Rogues Club his senior year, and a member of the Student Council his senior year.

After high school, Bob and I worked together for a period of time at the Montgomery Ward store on University Avenue in St. Paul. The snack bar at the catalog dock where we both worked was operated by 2 cute young girls, a gorgeous blonde named Cheryl, and an attractive and fun loving brunette named Marge. Bob’s friendship with Marge continued long after they both left Wards, and they got married in 1978.

Like me, Bob is also a graduate of the University of Minnesota, and he ultimately earned Masters Degrees in both Journalism and Agricultural and Applied Economics. After college, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Upon his return to the United States, he went to work for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which he retired from in 2012.

Like most of us, he had gotten a bit grayer over the years, and he also had considerably less hair than he had in high school. His most recent picture can be seen in the obituary posted below:

Bob‘s obituary

Bob was far from the first Hill classmate of mine to pass on, since a few of our fellow classmates were sent to Vietnam shortly after high school. Bob would have been 67 years old on March 21, an age that (to me) still seems to be pretty young. His passing is a reminder, once again, that life is short, so it’s important to live life to its fullest while we have the chance.

Rest in peace, Bob.