Gheorghemas Interlude: Techno Padre

“There is no ‘secular’ molecule in the universe. There is no dandelion owned by the devil," says David Dark, professor of religion at Belmont University and author of “Everyday Apocalypse: Art, Empire, and the End of the World.”

The topic Dark was discussing is the DJ stylings of Rev. Guilherme Peixoto, a Portuguese priest who's made a ministry of blending techno with religious hymns and been so successful at it that he's attracted the attention of Pope Leo.

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As we eagerly await Day Five of Gheorghemas, that most profanely sacred celebration, it's good to be reminded that there's beauty and grace everywhere. Except the White House.

Gheorghemas: Day Four

On the fourth day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me: 

Four songs by "the Chairman of the Board" on his birthday. 

Three Beauties

Two Types of Stories

A Bald Guy with Two Pupp-ies

One hundred ten years ago on this date, Italian immigrants Antonino Martino "Marty" Sinatra and Natalia "Dolly" Garavente welcomed their only child into their adopted hometown of Hoboken, N.J. Francis Albert Sinatra, through talent and force of will fashioned an enormous life that almost pales in its telling. 

Sinatra was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, a giant in music and style whose work spanned generations and will endure well into the future. He was gifted, smart, genial and gracious. He was also petty, vindictive, combative and temperamental. He sang achingly beautiful ballads and jaunty, swinging melodies. He was married four times and fathered three children. His boozing and carousing were the stuff of legend. His ties to the Mob were never far from the surface. 

Some view him as a genius, others as a thug with a voice. After he died on May 14, 1998, many of the obituaries included his remark, “Being an eighteen-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have perhaps an overacute capacity for sadness and elation.” 

There are dozens of Sinatra biographies, ranging from shallow, warmed over accounts and glorified discographies to insider tales from family and associates to deep dives from reporters and journalists. Noted biographer James Kaplan produced maybe the most comprehensive, even-handed treatment, a two-volume set titled “The Voice” and “The Chairman,” each checking in at more than 800 pages. 

One interesting look at Sinatra is “Why Sinatra Matters” by longtime New York newspaper columnist and author Pete Hamill. The two were friendly – Hamill clarifies that they were not friends, they enjoyed each other’s company – and Sinatra discussed having Hamill write his biography, though it never came to pass. But they spent many hours together, and Hamill’s book, a comparatively thin work that's still rich in descriptions and memories, weaves Sinatra’s personal story with the nation’s immigrant and cultural stories. Hamill writes that he didn’t intend to produce anything like a definitive biography, more a snapshot of the man and his times.

 Sinatra had at least three stages in his career. First, as a young, skinny Big Band crooner in the 1930s and ‘40s. The second, after a career lull following World War II and into the early ‘50s, saw him become a more mature singer and craftsman and even actor (he won an Oscar for a supporting role in the WW2-themed film “From Here to Eternity") and embodied cool with his Las Vegas residency and Rat Pack association. 

Third, as a kind of elder statesman of old school popular music after rock ‘n roll marginalized his preferred form. Sinatra’s catalog continues to be mined and refined. For example, the famous jazz label Blue Note Records recently remastered and released the groundbreaking album “In The Wee Small Hours,” to mark the 70th anniversary of its initial release in 1955. It’s considered a masterpiece of lost love and heartbreak, and was one of the first “concept” albums, a collection of themed songs rather than a group of singles. 

He founded Reprise Records in the early 1960s as a label that would give artists greater freedom over their work, in response to what he felt was at-times stifling control at Capitol and other record companies. That effort earned him the nickname “Chairman of the Board,” bestowed on him by well known New York DJ William B. Williams. 

The music sales tracking site Chartmasters said last month that Sinatra has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and his songs have been streamed on Spotify more than six million times. The satellite music channel Siriusly Sinatra (Ch. 70) is a staple on Sirius XM radio. 

Give Hamill the last word: “His turbulent personality, often overshadowed by notoriety, seemed inseparable from the style and originality of his art and gave him an essential place on the public stage of the American century. Now Sinatra is gone, taking with him all his anger, cruelty, generosity, and personal style. The music remains. In times to come, that music will continue to matter, whatever happens to our evolving popular culture. The world of my grandchildren will not listen to Sinatra in the way four generations of Americans have listened to him. But high art always survives. Long after his death, Charlie Parker still plays his version of the urban blues. Billie Holiday still whispers her anguish. Mozart still erupts in joy. Every day, in cities and towns all over the planet, someone discovers them for the first time and finds in their art the mysterious quality that makes the listener more human. In their work all great artists help transcend the solitude of individuals; they relieve the ache of loneliness; they supply a partial response to the urging of writer E.M. Forster: ‘Only connect.’ In their ultimate triumph over the banality of death, such artists continue to matter. So will Frank Sinatra.”

Gheorghemas: Laugh Break

This one's been making the rounds, so some of you may have seen it. But I'm making it my mission to spread it as widely as possible, because a) it features two of my favorite comedic personalities, and b) it's an amazing view into how the minds of some very funny people work. Do enjoy before the Gheorghemas festivities resume tomorrow.

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Oh whoa oh oh On the Radio...

It's back, baby -- ORF Rock is retuned and returned to the airwaves on a regular basis!

Les Coole and Penny Baker are . . . ORF Rock.  Get some.

Listen tonight!

Rocking the ORF from the Hague to the Wharf!

Gheorghemas Day Three: Three Beauts

On the third day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorge gave to me....

Three beauties, my kids. He also threw me a curve ball w/the following formatting - go ahead, let me have it. I'm here for it. Did this in Word and brought it over here, unsuccessfully. Feel free editors, to do your thing. 

Haven’t talked about the kiddos here absent my son when he was on his swim path. As of July, we’ve three teens in the house, two gals – Grace & Mikayla at 15 & 13; and our boy Declan, 17. Interesting times!

The girls, well, have a hate/hate relationship. Or at least the eldest does. The day we brought Grace’s new sister home, her world and disposition changed within about two minutes. She was precocious, really funny, emotive. She’s still pretty funny but it’s of the dry, cynical kind. Emotive has been replaced with stoic. Gracey was a pseudo preemie – about a month early and weighing about 3 ½ lbs. Teeny little thing who has always been smaller than her peers, and by 8 or 9, slighter than her sis. 

She followed her brother into the pool at the age of 7’ish. She was decent, slightly above average and pretty tough, gritty and very disciplined. Missing practice wasn’t/isn’t an option for her. From the age of 12 into her 14^th year, her progress lagged as compared to her peers. Very little growth physically, so as she watched her mates develop while improving consistently meet after meet, she’d only experience marginal gains, and only rarely. Experiencing stalls in swim is not only common, but a certainty. Stalls like this one, well, that’ll get you down. Throw in the fact that her younger sis shined and shined early, double whammy. It was a tough time for her and us.

To her credit, she gutted it out for too many miserable months before eventually emerging from the drought of all droughts. A bit of a growth spurt, added strength from the dry land sessions, and that grit I mentioned helped her realize an amazing frosh season where she qualified for Districts and then Regionals (which was a stretch to do so) and States (never said it out loud, but based on her times, it was very, very, very unlikely). She not only made it, she qualified for the 500 B Finals (Top 16) as the 13^th seed and finished with the 7^th fastest time. In betting parlance, the odds on this would have been 40 or 50 to 1.  Add a 4^th consecutive State title AND “Rookie of the Year” and you get a giddy Grace. One of my favorite pics...several years ago while attending ND vs VaTech, hence the orange pom pom.

Her sis, a bit different. Naturally sweet, kind, big smile. Similar to her brother, she had the physical attributes that would come in handy. Unlike her brother and until recently, she could give 2 F’s whether she went to practice.  A few years back, she’d sometimes cry on her way to practice at which point we said, “okay, you’re done”. I won’t lie, that really bothered me. What’s the line from The Bronx Tale – “there’s nothing worse than wasted talent”?  A natural and with the swim bod to go with it – legs up to her neck, tall and lean, big feet, long arms. Given her social proclivities, she missed it. Hanging with her peeps is what lured her to practice as it was. The alternative for her was to pick up something else whether an instrument or another sport, and until that time, her mom would assign her chores while her friends were in the pool. Fancy that. She saw the light and returned. 

As I figured, she quickly excelled, and so did her desire to race, to compete, to bring home hardware. With multiple top 20 times in the state across various events, including 5^th in the 200M breast (top 100 in US), ambivalence be gone but maintaining that sweetness. Here she is outpacing her fam during a hike in Acadia...

The D-man. You might remember his exploits from a very young age. He was swimming with the big kids year-round at 8. One of 4, 8-year old boys that year to qualify for FL’s Age Group Champs (FLAGS). Between the ages of 9-12, he took home the high-point award once and if memory serves, was never outside the top 5. At thirteen his thirst began to wane. Bored, tired, burned out plus the added high school workload which he took seriously – the writing was on the wall. 

Fast forward to the end of his freshman high school season where his squad took home the State Championship. He missed qualifying by 1 spot for each of his two events. He took a small break, considered packing it in, but committed to one more year of club & high school swim. He had a couple of club team goals but what he really wanted was to make and contribute to a second consecutive State title for his boys’ team team. He did just that, qualifying for A Finals in both 50 Free and 100 fly. He knew that was going to be his last race (fly). We were pretty sure, but not 100%. Seeded 8^th out of 8 in the heat, winning or placing wasn’t in the cards – a 3^rd place would have required a big drop, seconds vs fractions of a second. He finished 5^th while breaking his high school record. He also swam the fly leg on one relay, and free in another where his team took the top spot in each, as well as that State Title. Given how his and their season ended, we thought he might reconsider. 

Not only did he not reconsider, he did an about face and began working out with the football team the following summer before his junior year. He practically moved into the gym and not thinking it was possible, started eating more. A lot more. Between his first day as a sophomore and first day as a junior, he gained roughly 40 pounds. He added another 30 for his senior year – 240 L B’s. 

He played sparingly as a junior – special teams and occasionally as a blocking back or tight end. But he worked his ass off throughout the season and through the following spring and summer. He moved about position wise, kind of a utility guy but mostly as a tight end and H-Back/fullback, but solely as a blocker. Up until his last three games, he was in on 60-70% of the snaps depending on the package they were running. For the last four games of their season, including two playoff games, he started at right guard and was selected as captain for 2 of those games. Their season ended in the 2^nd round of playoffs a couple of weeks ago. He’s had a couple of small schools reach out, but he’s ready to be a college kid without the commitments. And I’m here for it. A pic of the Captains as they head out to midfield prior to their first playoff game. He's 65. (0 going to Okla; 3 to Ga Southern - studs)

It’s still early days for these three, but could not be prouder of who they are as people. 

Kind contributors in school, at home and socially. Love these little effers.  

Gheorghemas Day Two: Megagheorghasbord

On the second day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me...

Two Types of Stories
and a Bald Guy with Two Pupp-ies

This most festive of periods is an opportunity for us to turn inward, towards family and friends and away from, as George Will called it today, "a sickening moral slum of an administration" and all it's wrought. (Look at me quoting George Will. That was *not* on our Bingo card.) 

And while that's tempting, before we look on the bright side of life, we're gonna shine leaven it with some bullshit. Forthwith, the rants of the season.

By dint of my position as a leader of one of the DMV's largest youth soccer clubs, I had the occasion today to participate in an event our Club hosted celebrating a very cool organization that helps kids from underserved communities have access to organized soccer programs. I won't mention the organization by name, 'cause they wouldn't want to be associated with the next thing I'm going to say.

The World Cup draw takes place at the Kennedy Center in D.C. on Friday. Because of that, there are a number of FIFA officials in and around the region, and two of them attended the event at our Club. Ostensibly, part of FIFA's mission is to spread the game around the world, and the fellas I met today were lovely and gracious.

Unfortunately, where FIFA spreads the game, corruption and graft usually follow. Since our nation's leadership has become synonymous with those evils, it's natural that FIFA's greed-feathered flock has come together with it. To wit, the world's soccer governing body plans to award a first of it's kind FIFA Peace Prize during the draw ceremony. 

Per FIFA, the new award will be presented each year to a person who has "taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace" and "united people across the world." The notoriously thirsty President* of our country will be in attendance at the ceremony, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino has repeatedly sucked up to him in shameless ways. Y'all, Trump's getting the prize. 

Consider this G:TB's official renunciation of Gianni Infantino and FIFA's leadership**. I only wish he would've been at our event today so I could offer that sentiment in person.

** To be clear, I'm still a sucker for the World Cup, and I'll watch as much of it as I can. I just won't give one red cent to FIFA to do it.

Onward to our next topic.

Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and loud critic of the corruption of the modern world economy. His online presence is worth seeking out - he's smart, clear in his thinking, and unsparing in his commentary. Too unsparing for the BBC, it seems. 

During a recent radio address he gave as part of Radio 4's annual Reith Lectures series, Bregman said, "Our elites live-streamed the fire and monetised the smoke. Immorality and unseriousness: those are the two defining traits of our leaders today. And they’re not accidental flaws, but the logical outcome of what I call the survival of the shameless. Today, it’s not the most capable who rise, but the least scrupulous.”

All worth noting, but the BBC cut out a sentence from Bregman's lecture out of what must only be a fear of consequence. The remarks included Bregman's assertion that Donald Trump is "the most openly corrupt president in American history”. Only the listeners didn't hear that part. 

And finally, one more grievance before we get to the good stuff.

Garrett Graff is a terrific writer. I'm working on his oral history of The Manhattan Project, "The Devil Reached Towards the Sky", courtesy of the OBX Dave Book Club. His blog, Doomsday Scenario, is a well reported, and more than frequently depressing summation of current events. 

He recently posted a piece on the checks and balances implied in our system, and how they're failing us at the moment. The nut sentence: "Once you elect or appoint someone who has no moral core — who then appoints people with no moral core and fires those who do — nothing else in the system of checks-and-balances turns out to matter." 

I mean, if you put it that way.

Okay, you've made it this far. Now you get some treats!

FIFA may combine football with fraud, but kids who get to meet their heroes don't care one bit about that. Check out USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps with an overwhelmed admirer after this week's friendly against Italy:

This is what it’s all about ❤️ 🎥 @uswnt.ussoccer.com

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— The Women's Game (@womensgamemib.bsky.social) December 2, 2025 at 9:28 AM

Legendary playwright, author, and screenwriter Tom Stoppard passed away last week. Amidst the outpouring of plaudits for his work, a single letter to the editor stood out and outlined one of the untold ways art has real-world impacts.

The letter, written to the Times of London by Michael Baum (Professor emeritus of surgery; visiting professor of medical humanities, University College London), explained how Stoppard's play Arcadia inspired a cancer research breakthrough:

Someday, hopefully far into the future, I'd appreciate if one of you could pen a similar message to the Loudoun Times-Mirror about G:TB's impact on humanity.

And finally, hope y'all enjoy some comedy with your farce. Deep into a thoroughly-reported ESPN story about Lane Kiffin's departure from Ole Miss for LSU, comes this:

Bodacious Ignatius, it turns out, is more than just a pretty name. The 8th-grader can play some hardball - apparently he's a pretty decent little second-baseman. So while this is the first time you will have heard of him, we're betting it's not the last.

Gheorghemas, Day 1: LFG

We ain't got time to waste (or time to bleed), let's get the world's best faux holiday (as voted on by readers of Nuns' Life) started:

On the first day of Gheorghemas

Big Gheorghe Gave to Me

A bald guy with two pupp-ies