Author: D. A. Hosek
-
The big countdown
This year’s life expectancy is up from 86 last year to 87 this year. It’s been a year of instability and uncertainty and disappointment, so hopefully the extra year won’t be something I’ll regret. As of tomorrow, I will have outlived the following (in no particular order) Abraham Lincoln Steve Jobs Adolf Hitler Ludwig van…
-
Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Carlo Acutis (St John Berchmans)
Carlo Acutis is not the first saint in this project whose life intersected with my own, but he is the first whose life was entirely within my own (not to mention being the most recently canonized—the first I’d heard of him, in fact, was when I was making the spreadsheet of parishes, saints and feast…
-
New poem: Chicago Sonnet #42
Another poem from my Chicago Sonnets sequence is out in the debut issue of Big Score Lit. Despite being #42, it’s actually the first poem in the sequence and the one that inspired the project. There used to be a newsstand near the Adams station of the “L” in the loop and I was always intrigued…
-
A visit with my younger self: 12 February 1989
At this point in my life, I was still essentially homeless and hanging out on campus before my return to Chicago, and yet I did have a girlfriend. She had told me that her roommate was crazy, but I didn’t really believe her until I encountered it firsthand: Wilma’s situation with her roommate leaves me…
-
Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Holy Angels (Our Lady of Africa)
The parish of Our Lady of Africa was formed from the merger of five parishes on the south side, with worship consolidated to the former Holy Angels church which has been renamed to match the new parish name, but since there was no other possible Mass for today, I went to Bronzeville for the 10.30a…
-
Writerly resolutions: September status
It’s been another mediocre month for writing progress. My second full request on We, the Rescued got another form rejection, which tells me that more work on the novel itself is warranted. I’ve gone ahead and printed the current draft so I can re-read and do another editorial round on it to bring it closer…
-
Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Jerome
Chicago has two St Jerome churches but only one had Mass in the evening so I went to Rogers Park. I rushed to get there for the 6p start time and arrived a few minutes to what I assumed was the beginning of the Spanish Mass, but noticed that there was no priest in the…
-
Catholic nerd pllgrimage: Saint Michael
Since I’ve begun this project, one of the things I’ve noticed is that it’s pretty common in a lot of parishes to recite the Prayer to St Michael after daily Mass concludes (and at one parish, they apparently also do it at Sunday Mass). This is not a prayer I’d encountered before (although apparently I…
-
Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Wenceslaus
St Wenceslaus is the good king of the Christmas carol which isn’t exactly about Christmas, but rather the 26th of December, but no mind. As the patron of Bohemia, that was presumably the reason for the name of the parish which I would guess was in what was a neighborhood with a significant Czech population…