Joe Burleigh was my late father-in-law. Pappy Joe we called him. It was a title invented by my husband when, in his late teens, he had overshot Joe by six inches and felt the incongruity of looking down on Joe’s bald head and calling him Daddy. The name Pappy Joe fit. It was comfortable to … Read more
Cincinnati, where I live, is one of America’s picturesque inland river cities. For 200 years she has hugged the northern shore of the Ohio River at a point between the Great Miami and the Little Miami, where Ordovician hills form what geologists call the Cincinnati Arch. These hills are mother to civilization in the Ohio … Read more
As we have allowed liberal education to collapse into relativistic technical training, we have also thrown away the blueprint for educating our girls. Our failure to hand on to the current generation the patrimony of our intellectual, spiritual, and moral tradition is a grave loss both to young men and young women. The loss of … Read more
Everyone is reading Allan Bloom. It is not necessary these days even to mention the title of his number one best-seller, The Closing of the American Mind. Simply mention Bloom’s name and somebody else is also reading his book. That this book has become a best-seller is no surprise. No one who reads it comes … Read more
There are times when momentous events are so compressed and juxtaposed that symbolically they represent a lifetime of great issues. Such was a recent period. Squeezed into a few days was a chunk of metaphysics, significant not only as single events but in happening side by side. First, my close friend Lee Burke announced her … Read more
The high school cap and gown of the first-born, the son, has been succeeded by a college fraternity sweatshirt. The white eyelet eighth-grade graduation dress of the second-born, a daughter, has given way to a Black Watch prep school skirt and crewneck sweater. The elementary school jumper of the third-born, another daughter, has vanished in … Read more
I have done it. Born an Indianapolis Hoosier forty-four years ago, I have finally been to the 500 Mile Race. Although I took in the qualifying trials two or three times, and in my brief career as a part-time reporter I met some of the drivers, never had I seen a race. But I am … Read more
Not long ago we pulled into the parking lot of the local optician, where our son, prescription in hand, was about to invest his savings in a pair of contact lenses. On an adjoining lot is a day care center — a well-run day care center of excellent reputation, owned and operated by a respected … Read more
Twenty years ago last summer I joined the Catholic Church. I came by way of Methodism with a brief stop in Episcopalianism. The catalyst in the final move to Rome was, as in most of our big decisions, a person, in my case an uncoercive but inspiring husband. This was not a surprising route. On … Read more
The current issue of Seventeen lay atop the magazine stack in the orthodontist’s office. “Capture the look,” it said; “Hair that dares,” “Clothes chic,” “Is it love — or obsession?” And, then, burned across the pretty cover girl’s navy blue sweater was the white all-caps notice: BIRTH CONTROL UPDATE. Chiding myself for confining my pop … Read more
Our family has taken up a new pastime — the search for a college. As our oldest child prepares for college, we have recently completed a series of tours of the schools on our son’s “list.” We covered some ten schools, colleges with beautiful campuses, no campuses, and in-between camÂpuses. Three were Catholic schools; the … Read more
Two wise women, from different eras and backgrounds, once commented on the state of marriage. One was Jane Austen, who never goes out of style. The other was Gertrud von le Fort, a German baroness who has been out of style for at least 25 years. Ironically, neither women ever married, yet each one understood … Read more
Our older daughter Catherine was recently confirmed. She asked to wear for the occasion an antique dress that an elderly cousin had worn for her high school graduation in 1910. The dress is white batiste, a tiny-waited model fitted in with small tucks, trimmed with embroidery and inserts of lace, fastened down the back with … Read more