Why this blog?

But...But...But....Karen....Why this blog? Don't you have a perfectly good blog?

Yes, I do. HOWEVER - in the last year I have been going to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite quite frequently - and in the course of the last year have come across some rather good out-of-print and out-of-copyright (as far as I have researched!) material(s), which I'd like to share with others.

Why NOW? Why did you WAIT if you were sitting on this treasure trove? What are you SELFISH or something?

Yes, I'm selfish ... and .... I didn't think of it before ... and because I've been following the EF form since just before last Lent AND a new liturgical year is about to start, which makes the timing about perfect. With any luck, I can put up a few posts re: some general resources for the EF Mass before this Sunday. Kind of "EF for Dummies" stuff.

What do you expect ALL of us to switch over to the EF?

Nah. I'm mostly doing so that I'm not the last one on planet earth who can appreciate all the loving detail that went into what otherwise might be lost or forgotten publications.

Aren't there new Baronius press missals that are good enough?

New missals, yes. But I found Baronius, and other "new" missals really LAME in some key aspects. Like detail. Would you rather read:

BP: Saint Whozis: Feb. 30th -- Killed under Diocletian

OR

Saint Whozis: Feb. 30th -- St. Whozis was born of parents who ran a circus. Mom was a
high wire artist, and dad fed the elephants. One day, the emporer, Diocletian, decided Jasper, the most famous elephant of his time, should be worshiped as a god. St. Whozis told the emporer he was nuts and Diocletian had him thrown to the lions.

Thought so.

What other cool stuff will be in this blog?

I have three missals I constantly use -- from different eras. One from the 20s, on the late 40s, and one from 62. I love spotting when things change. [It's the history geek in me coming out.]
For instance, why in heck was Oct. 31st dropped from the '62 calendar as a formal vigil? Beats me, but I thought it was interesting that they did drop that. Whatever. Sometime, during the course of the last year, I was really amazed at how UNSTATIC, the "static" EF Mass was. So help me, some of those guys dinking around were like dogs marking their territory. Because they "could."

Also, there a lot of good information on how Catholicism spread in the US, state by state - plus good catechetical points - and how the Church calendar has changed. If I get really ambitious, I can also talk about that messy interim period -- between spring of 64 and 69.

I intend to take us through the Church year, bit by bit.

My *other* blog, will still be my main one but this way you won't have to wade through me unloading on zero.

Karen, why did you chose to use blogger again, instead of wordpress?

Believe me, I was tempted by the fact that you can do pages in Wordpress. I was not enamoured by the pain in the ass templates however, along with certain other Nazi-like features that using Wordpress would involve. Some of the things I intend to do, for instance, give the history of the spread of Catholicism through each state in the US, would lend itself nicely to having a "page" of its own. I think I'll be able to work around this by using good, consistent tags and some decent sidebar gee-whiz prestidigitation. [That's PFM to you folks in Rio Lindo.]

Karen, was the new Maidenform lady REALLY necessary? Isn't this supposed to be a more serious blog, don't you know priests might be reading this blog and find the Maidenform lady offensive?

Perhaps. But then they're probably just stick-in-the-muds anyway. And besides, I wanted to give you a "subtext" heads up that in case you found a smart assed remark here and there you shouldn't be too surprised. I mean, what do you expect when there's a picture of a dame in her bra standing in front of a pink elephant? I WAS going to say underneath her: "I dreamed I found some really cool stuff in my Maidenform bra" but, thankfully, it occurred to me that perhaps that might be misconstrued, so I didn't say that.

More to come -- I still have to add some blog features, and work out some conventions -- so hold your water if you don't see all the normal sidebar goodies just yet .. I wasted most of the day screwing around with wordpress before deciding it was more trouble than it was worth -- so keep your shirt on!!! [Unless, you're wearing Maidenform, or are a guy.]