Kevin's Watch

Phantasm wrote:Bet he felt a right tit for crashing.

Cail wrote:

Phantasm wrote:Bet he felt a right tit for crashing.

There's no way.....NO WAY, an American could say that and have it sound right.

A Chicago man apologized for spreading his feces around a courtroom during his trial on drug charges.

Cail wrote:

Phantasm wrote:Bet he felt a right tit for crashing.

There's no way.....NO WAY, an American could say that and have it sound right.

The Leaning Tower of Niles -- a replica of the famed structure in Pisa -- in suburban Chicago. [Credit: Raniero Tazzi/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)]


NILES, Illinois -- Bells at the top of a half-scale replica of Italy's famed Leaning Tower of Pisa in suburban Chicago will be playing some new tunes after undergoing renovations.

The tower in Niles, built in 1934 as part of a park for employees of businessman Robert Ilg's company, was recently named to the National Register of Historic places.

Kim Schafer, founder of Community Bell Advocates, said she arranged a collection of "familiar tunes" -- including "When the Saints Go Marching In" -- for the seven bells at the top of the Niles landmark to play, the Chicago Tribune reported. Schafer said she also created original chime patterns that will sound at each quarter hour.

"Rather than have a Westminster chime that everybody uses, I wrote two separate clock chime patterns that can be used for the quarter hour ring," Schafer said.

She also developed a "peal of bells" that can be played for weddings.

Additionally, Schafer noted that she arranged a version of the well-known Korean folk song "Arirang" to pay homage to the village's Korean-American community.

Three of the seven bronze bells are original to the tower and were restored to working order, while the other four were newly cast by Virginia-based B.A. Sunderlin Bellfoundry.

One of the tower's bells dates back to 1623 and another dates back to 1747. Both have Latin inscriptions and religious motifs, and are believed to have come from a Catholic church in Cavezzo, Italy, according to Community Bell Advocates, which examined the bells' history for the village.

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The Saint Joan of Arc chapel at Marquette University (Credit: photo courtesy of Marquette University)


MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin -- 100 years ago this month Joan of Arc was declared a saint by Pope Benedict XV, and although she may be remembered as patron of France, part of her elaborate legacy has found a home on the campus of an American Catholic university.

In the central mall of Marquette University sits the Saint Joan of Arc Chapel, which the Jesuit institution likes to boast is the "oldest structure in the western hemisphere still being used for its original purpose," effectively making it the oldest chapel in the United States.

"It's the very heart of our university, physically and spiritually," Jesuit Father Frederick Zagone, acting vice president for mission and ministry, told Crux during a visit last year.

The chapel's journey to Wisconsin has almost as layered of a history as the French saint, who was a heroine during the Hundred Years' War, burnt at the stake for charges of heresy at age 19, and later exonerated and declared a martyr.

In the small village of Chasse-sur-Rhône in southeast France, a small Gothic oratory was constructed by a local wealthy family in 1420 in honor of St. Martin de Seyssuel where it eventually fell into disrepair and sat unused for centuries until an architect stumbled upon it after World War I. The architect and historian, Jacques Couelle, photographed it, catalogued its contents, and declared it to be "absolutely unique in its genre."

Soon thereafter, in 1927, the daughter of an American railroad magnate, Gertrude Hill Gavin, learned of the chapel and acquired it for her property on Long Island where she already had a French Renaissance chateau deconstructed, brought over, and erected. Now, she had the Gothic chapel to compliment it and she renamed it in honor of Joan of Arc for whom she had a devotion.

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Interior of the Joan of Arc chapel at Marquette University (Credit: photo courtesy of Marquette University)


Renaming it was not enough -- Gavin would go on to purchase a 13th century altar and a stone which is believed to have been the base for a statue of the Virgin Mary that Joan of Arc kissed and prayed at before heading into battle.

Gavin continued to outfit the chapel with the support of some of the leading artists and architects of the time, including John Russell Pope, who designed the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., Andrew Mellon, designer of the Frick Collection in New York, and Charles Connick, who designed original stained glass windows modeled after the ones of Saint Chappelle in Paris.

In 1933, she appealed to Pope Pius XI to allow for her to have Mass said in the chapel, an appeal that the pope granted in writing.

Following Gavin's death, the chapel was acquired by Marc and Lilia Rojtman, who bequeathed the chapel to Marquette University -- where the chapel was disambeled in New York stone by stone and brought across the country where it arrived in Wisconsin in 1964 and dedicated in 1966.

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A student Mass inside the Saint Joan of Arc chapel at Marquette University (Credit: photo courtesy of Marquette University)


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Interior view of Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder in Amsterdam (Arjan Bronkhorst)


Prior to mid-March, I don't remember many weeks, let alone months, passing without at least one museum visit. Navigating the downtown Washington, D.C., virtual ghost town on socially-distanced National Mall walks with my toddler feels like exploring a Twilight Zone set. Extraordinary architecture calls Washington home, but it's hard to enjoy fully knowing the gems inside great museum buildings are off-limits.

On walks, my mind wanders to Holland's clandestine churches, particularly Amsterdam's Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic), which I visited in 2017. The Israelites carried an Ark of the Covenant sandwich through the Sinai desert -- a wooden box nestled between two golden ones -- but hidden churches (schuilkerken) present differently. Simultaneously marking early-modern Dutch tolerance and dogmatism, they contain treasures but by design appear plain from the street.

Today, Catholics outnumber Protestants in the Netherlands 23.6% to 14.9%, but demographics were reversed after Protestants assumed power there in the 16th century. In the ensuing 200 years, Roman Catholics made up one-fifth of the population of Amsterdam, which banned public Catholic celebrations and restricted worship to churches sans identifiable façades. The republic granted freedom of conscience (geweten) to all, and the official Reformed church didn't force its Calvinist faith but required certain beliefs remain private, said Robert Schillemans, attic museum curator.

"As long as these other religions stayed 'low' and restricted themselves to religious matters, they could act rather freely," said Schillemans.

Though illiberal by today's standards, 16th- and 17th-century Dutch policy here paled in comparison to French Catholic oppression of Protestant Huguenots at the time, according to Remco Dörr, a host for the Hague's marketing and convention bureau. In Holland, Catholics were expected to perform a kind of disappearing act, a " 'We know you're there, but we don't want to see you' mentality," Dörr said.

The worship landscape diverged in different cities and provinces. Large Catholic populations sustained bigger church houses with priests, and governments in cities which relied on international commerce, like Amsterdam, were loath to place onerous burdens on Catholic merchants. "Trade had to go on of course," Dörr said.

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The exterior of Amsterdam's attic museum retains the former church's 19th- rather than 17th-century appearance. (Menachem Wecker)


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Altar of the attic church in Amsterdam (Arjan Bronkhorst)


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View from gallery of Our Lord of the Attic church in Amsterdam (Menachem Wecker)


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Confessional at Amsterdam's attic museum (Arjan Bronkhorst)

Baboons at the Knowlsley Safari Park on Merseyside are notorious vandals, well known for damaging visitors' cars. Now they've been spotted wielding screwdrivers and knives.
"We're not sure if they've been given weapons by guests who want to see them attacking cars," said one park employee, "Or whether they've fished them out of vans and cars. One of the baboons was seen lugging around a chainsaw."
A park spokesman insisted that reports of gangs of armed primates were an "exaggeration".

Finalists chosen for International Prize of Sacred Architecture [YouTube: 1 min]



The Frate Sole Foundation has announced the top 10 projects in the running for the International Prize of Sacred Architecture to be awarded this year.

These were chosen among 114 submissions, from 33 countries, who built chapels or churches within the last decade.

This year, Italy had the most number of participating design studios from one country with 21 entries. Followed by Germany and Spain with 14 entries each.

Among this year's finalists, designs focused on creating spaces that emphasized simplicity, a synthesis between nature and the surrounding built environment, inner quietness and a spiritual refuge amidst a world of information overload.

The winner of the International Prize of Sacred Architecture will be selected and announced by the end of this month.

The Frate Sole Foundation aims to become an international benchmark for research on contemporary churches, promoting awareness on the significance of the "built church" and sacred architecture in the context of society and culture.