nunblog

With two friends in the hospital, I spent more time there (two different hospitals) than I did in chapel today. Good thing Jesus said what he did about "you did it for me"! I promised Fr. Fred (going on week three--or is it four?--at Northwestern) that I'd visit again tomorrow and bring him a treat from the Taste of Chicago. Being from New Orleans, he'd really appreciate that. I'm going with the wonderful "panna cotta with cherry balsamic and crystalized almond slices" from the gourmet booth. But that's because the spicy "collard green egg rolls" won't make it up that Mag Mile and still be hot enough to enjoy.
Our schedule is going to be weird because St. Peter's will have only a 10:00 Mass tomorrow (and no Mass on Saturday morning or noon at all!). The book center will close at 3:00 (and stay closed through Saturday--which reminds me, I have to fix our phone message!!). In the evening, some of us will be going out to see the fabulous fireworks on the lakefront--us and a million other people. (For readers outside of the Chicago area, that is not an exaggeration; that's the crowd estimate.)
Meanwhile, Sr Helena, alerted by (of all people!) Steven Colbert on his ironic newscast, pointed me to a New York Times piece by Nicholas Kristof. It seems that endocrine specialists are beginning to sound an alarm about the effect that hormones in the water supply are causing in newborn boys.In his article, Kristof writes: "nothing is more terrifying than reading The Journal of Pediatric Urology" for the details of these effects (some of which are "antiandrogenic"). (It ain't about the frogs anymore.) (You can see the clip of Colbert putting Kristof's feet to the fire on Sr Helena's blog.) Surely this is an aspect of environmental safety that "right" and "left" can be united in taking a stand about?