God be praised!

Michelle, with Divine help, we got you safely aboard

While composing my post on Scalia, AOL cheerily announced, "You’ve got mail!" I invite you to read the letter I received.

What Ms Sinnott refers to, happened when I was working for both Church and State. While rendering psychiatric services at the Catholic Charities Institute, I also served as an Assistant Director at a NY State, Department of Mental Hygiene, After-Care Clinic, in Manhattan. Though I crossed that Church/State divide repeatedly, the Boston Herald never interviewed me about a possible conflict of interest. Too bad, I would have enjoyed using that traditional Sicilian gesture.

Dear Dr. Gabriele:

It’s a rare day when I get to goof off at my job but I am this afternoon. I too saw you on the cover of the suburban magazine, Journal News, last year and was truly delighted, but for a reason other than golf.

You were my psychiatrist at Catholic Charities Guidance Institute in Peekskill, NY. I was that overweight, withdrawn, lonely high school girl from Ossining. You were truly the first adult in my life who cared enough about me and took enough of an interest in me to help me get into college. You actually drove to Harriman Junior College to check it out. You helped me get a scholarship and off I went.

My previous high school grades were around the low 50’s (no kidding) but you saw a potential in me that I didn’t know I had. I graduated college with a BA in psychology, a minor in philosophy and history and a gpa of 3.9. Thank you!

As an update I have been working as an accountant for the past 25 yrs. and I am still grateful for my education. I did decide to drop the humanities and go with something more compatible with my ocd personality and I discovered how neat and exact numbers can really be.

I have been married for 25 yrs. and I have a 23 year old daughter (who has special needs). I live my life every day to try and be the best person I can be. I try to love and help and to comfort those in need. I guess I am just rambling but my point in this is that I think of you every once in awhile. I was delighted, as I said, to see your story last year but regrettably, I put off, whatever the reason, writing you.

I am glad you are well and I thank you for helping me.

Love,

Michelle (Carlson) Sinnott,
www.msinnott@rmcdev.com

Dear Michelle,

Many, many thanks for your heartfelt gratitude which you so eloquently expressed in your letter. But know this, my dear, whenever I do manage to help someone in need, I like to feel that I have been guided by God’s favorite angel, Archangel Gabriel.

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.com

Scalia, you're bad!

What follows is a brief summary of a current brouhaha relating to the encounter of Supreme Court Jurist Antonin Scalia with a reporter and a photographer from the Boston Herald:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has accused staffers at the Boston Herald of having watched too many episodes of the Sopranos, after that newspaper reported that Scalia flashed what they called an "obscene gesture" outside a church. The Herald said Scalia flicked his hand under his chin as he emerged from Mass, in response to a question about whether his religious life presents a conflict of interest in cases of church and state. In a scathing letter to the editor, Scalia says the traditional Sicilian gesture he used means, "I couldn't care less" and accuses the paper of believing "that any Sicilian gesture is obscene," especially when made by a jurist of Italian descent. He closed his letter by reminding the Herald that he is an American jurist.

I was drawn to this story for several reasons:

It has always bothered me that Judge Scalia, unabashedly conservative, is viewed by the media as some kind of a judicial troglodyte, an atavistic throwback to the stone age. Only rarely (and usually begrudgingly) are the sharpness and brilliance of his intellect genuinely acknowledged. Do I detect WASPish prejudice playing a subliminal role in the way Scalia is regarded? Does his being of Italian descent grate on certain people's sensibilities? And when it comes down to basics, would it not be well to remember that American Law owes much to Roman and even Italian jurisprudence?

But clearly, the thrust of that reporter’s question is that anyone earnestly practicing a religious faith, paricularly a Roman Catholic, cannot be impartial when dealing with church/state issues. But consider for a moment ~ isn’t it manifestly obvious that even atheism and agnosticism are definitive religious attitudes? And therefore, does it not follow that no one can be totally objective when it comes to making church/state judgements? By casting that malevolent question at Scalia, the Boston reporter betrayed his naivete and Justice Scalia had every right to employ the graphic “brush-off” he gave him.

Being of Sicilian descent myself, I am quite familiar with the expression Scalia used. My mother often directed it at me whenever I unjustly confronted her. But when she used that gesture, she also invariably muttered, “La meglia parole e quella che non se dice!” (The best word to say is the one I should not say now). Yet, as I recall, I much preferred her to use that gesture than the one when she would bite her right index finger and shout menacingly at me, “Saracene!” Evidently, in Sicily, the Saracen occupation (827 to 1061) left Sicilians with an anger that is still festering.

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.com

Scalia should not have given fodder to the reporter by making that "cafone" (boorish) gesture, especially because of his status. He has more class than that. To do that at home is one thing, but not in public, especially when in high public office. I’ll always remember my mother saying, "La cortesia e una chiave che apre tutti porte" (courtesy is a key that opens all doors). Mommy would be proud of me for remembering that and now for using it in the right context ~ Christine Stelmack

Nota bene: What is most unfortunate is that more attention is now being paid to the gesture and the photograph than the fatuous question asked by the reporter. The issue of church and state is of transcendent concern to everyone, here as well as abroad. But let us at least have the honesty to concede that the conflict is so very convoluted, it can never be satisfactorily resolved, anywhere. In the meantime, it would be helpful if we can keep frying pans from calling kettles black ~ Dom Gabriele

Hi Julia!

I am happy to announce that Julia Gabriele, my daughter-in-law, who is the Head Schoolmistress at St. Luke’s School in Connecticut, has just entered blogland. The title of her blog is Mom Musings and she has already entered several very interesting postings.

Her URL is just below this paragraph - I urge you to click on it at your earliest convenience and visit with her. May I also suggest that you make this URL a bookmark, to revisit as conveniently and as often as you can. Allow me to reiterate, keeping a personal journal is one of the best and most effective ways we have to search our hearts and minds and communicate with ourselves and others.

http://stlukesct.typepad.com/mom_musings_/

A birthday is nigh!

In two more days, Lenore will turn 89. As I never tire of noting, I was her blind date at the St Valentine's dance-party held by Milwaukee's Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in 1939. She had just graduated from the nursing school at that hospital and I was finishing my senior year at Marquette University's School of Medicine. Together, we have richly nurtured our rapidly growing family tree.

These beautiful flowers were sent by my niece Christine Stelmack. They added much happiness and brightness to an otherwise very dismal day.

Thank you Chrissy, we love you dearly ~

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.comBest

Thank you, everyone. Birthday wishes have been received from every member of our family and from our many beloved friends. Flowers are blooming everywhere in our home and I keep hearing myself humming "Tip toe, thru the tulips ..." as I walk from room to room. No one I know is so dearly loved as Lenore, a woman without an iota of malevolence in her entire system. I consider myself to be most fortunate to have been her husband for so many happy years ~ Dom

Hi to Spring!

Monika, my 8 year old gifted grandchild, is Fred and Julia's daughter. She is a very beautiful and remarkably expressive child. Would you believe that she, and her genius brother Tyler, would rather read books than watch TV? Both are totally at home with computers!

~ Spring ~

At East school
there will be a pile of coats

On a nearby farm
there will be the shedding of goats

Everyone here is wearing shorts
and they are on the tennis courts

We are all in short sleeves
while winter leaves

And now there is no time to rest
because spring is the very best.

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.com

Hallelujah !

Today, while attending the baptism of our two great-granddaughters, Margaret and Leslie Owens, at St. Thomas’ Church in Fairfield, Connecticut, this is what ran through my mind.

>>=<< Had I not met Lenore 67 years ago, it is for certain that our son Fred would not have been born ~ similarly, had Paula’s parents, Henry and Mary Chartier never met, Paula would not have been born ~ had Fred never met Paula, Amy would never have been born ~ had Kay and John Owens never met, Kevin would not have been born ~ had Amy never met Kevin, those blessed little twins, Margaret and Leslie could never have been conceived >>=<<>>=<<

Just think, had only a single one of the above events not occurred, there would be no Margaret and no Leslie. But may I ask you as I am now asking myself, was that sequence I cited, one long chain of accidental coincidence? Or would it be presumptuously arrogant of us to believe that Margaret and Leslie are the sacred products of foreordained, divine design? I opt to believe the latter. But in all candor, the answer to those questions can never be known.

Nevertheless, regardless of how this very remarkable combination of circumstances came to be, each one of us celebrated the baptism of infant Margaret and infant Leslie with unbounded reverence and joy. And we are all joined in wishing that these two new grafts to the branches of our family tree live long, happy and productive lives.

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.com

Staying connected !

From the time I first added a wireless router to my cable modem (more than a year ago) I rarely lost my wireless connection to the internet. But since we added my wife’s laptop to our home network, we kept losing wireless connectivity, repeatedly.

After working many long hours on my system, my son Tom, an IBM veteran with awesome computer skills, suggested I upgrade my Linksys b wireless router to a Linksys G, which I promptly did. While purchasing it at Staples, I was also advised to replace my 2.4 GHz Panasonic wireless telephone system with Panasonic’s 5.8 GHz version. But making both changes failed to resolve the problem. Staples then suggested a house call by their wireless connectivity technician. I readily accepted.

Paul Luke, a most personable and highly skilled young technician, was born and raised in the same section of the Bronx where I first saw light. Though born of Russian parents, he speaks Italian better than Tony Soprano. We bonded strongly during the time he was here. When he finally established what appeared to be a sustained connection, we exchanged happy farewells and he departed. He had barely left, when the system broke down again. He replied to my e-mail with a divinely inspired suggestion. He told me to replace the Linksys with a NETGEAR RangeMax wireless router.

I purchased that router just as the cock crew outside the Staples doorway. While driving home with it, the thought occurred to me that perhaps too many of my system’s components were connected to only one multi-socket (surge protected) electric panel. Pursuant to that thought, I decided to connect the cable modem and the router to an outlet near a further corner of the room. Heaven be praised! By doing that, I finally emerged from Dante’s Inferno and found myself in wireless paradise. How sweet it was and continues to be!

Perhaps, connecting the various components of my system to several different electrical outlets was indeed, the key. Although NETGEAR claims it produces a more efficient product, it is highly unlikely that my Linksys unit was really flawed. But I am in no mood to argue with celestial success.

But guess what! Call it senescence or perhaps I’m coming unwired ~ I really feel better about that smart little corner shelf you see in the photograph above, than the fact that we are now wirelessly connected. So weary had I become with this interminable and enervating project, I very quickly devised what I believe is a totally original and simple way to mount a corner shelf securely on only four little screws. Stay tuned, I’ll describe that opus novum in a later posting.

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.com

Going, going, gone!

Can E-Bay Match This?

Please be advised that my desk chair and two wireless phonesets have been claimed.

All that now remains of our (no charge) priceless, red carpet sale is my 2.4 GHz Panasonic wireless telephone base unit with one extra handset and Dr. Cipes' Microtek Scanner [ScanMaker 4600]. As we mentioned before, the phone and scanner are in perfect working order.

If these articles are not spoken for by Friday, March 17th, they will be disposed of in our local trash heap.

To claim either or both of these objects, simply notify me by e-mail.

Comments:

Dad, Pete and I are interested in the Phone and Scanner you are giving away. Not sure though, when we'll be able to pick them up ~ Loretta

They're yours!

A Sale Like None Other

Because of postural problems I needed to replace this office chair with an arm chair. Although it is still just like new, I actually have no further use for it.

For technical reasons, I had to replace my Panasonic wireless phone system with a different one. Just like the chair, it is still as good as new and it functions flawlessly. But I have no further use for it.

I offer both items absolutely gratis (free of any and all charges) to any of my readers. All I ask is that they arrange to come here and pick them up.

E-mail me if you're interested. First come, first served!

Update as of 3/10/06 - 2 of the 3 accessory handsets have found a new owner and the swivel/tilt office chair has been claimed. My good friend, Paul Cipes has a practically unused scanner (Microtek ScanWizard 5) that he is offering at the same bargain (nada) price. Who needs E-bay? Otherwise, all that is now left is the Panasonic 2.4 wireless phone with two handsets.
domgab85@aol.com