DDR: Eucharistic Miracles and Eucharistic Phenomenon in the Lives of the Saints by Joan Carroll Cruz

xxii + 330 = 352 pages

Had to think hard about which of the many books in my Want To Read pile should be next. But since reading the St. Carlo book to Jacqueline--which went into some detail about several eucharistic miracles--I've been very interested in this topic...which was new to me. And just for the record,  I'm not becoming a religious nut, just doing due diligence in the name of my reigning philosophy: What the hell do I know? Thus....

Day 1 (DDRD 3,064) March 22, 2026)

Read to page 57.

I've read The New Testament four times, but somehow this section...which was referred to on page xiv...escaped me:

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Many Disciples Desert Jesus

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

That is some very, very heavy material.  The flesh counts for nothing. It also seems to imply that once you have taken communion, Christ is in and stats in you...which is definitely not Catholic teaching. Must ask ex-wife about this. She'll laugh at me, but she'll probably have an answer.

And...

So that wasn't very satisfying,  but since she's got a Master's Degree in Divinty studies from Notre Dame and a couple of decades' worth of working in Catholic education programs,  I guess it's as good as I'm going to get.

😕 

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about My Life With Communion. I grew up in the Lutheran Church, was Confirmed, and have a distinct memory of my first Communion...though I'm not sure how old I was then. 13? I might have to check on that. At any rate, even though communion was not offered every Sunday at Emmanuel Christian Church. I'm sure that I partook of it a fair number of times until I went into the Army at the age of 19. And continued for a bit even then, but fell off the wagon by the time I'd gotten to AIT at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. And since then (1977), I've probably had communion less than a dozen times, because most of the time I attend Catholic services, and non-Catholics aren't welcome at that table.

Day 2 (DDRD 3,065) March 23, 2026)

Read to page 140.

This book is pretty interesting,  but some of these miracles are...dissettling? Like the guy who had communion, later threw up, and after the vomit was pitched into the fireplace  (questionable solution) the host reappeared. These Catholics just Go There, y'know? I like the fact that the book has many pictures, but I wish they had gone the extra mile and made them color pictures with better definition / reproduction value. It's often difficult to discern what is even in the picture.

When I was on New York with Jacqueline last year, I took communion twice. In two Catholic churches. The first was St. Patrick's Cathedral. We were in a Small chapel for mass, and it was so crowded that we were squashed together when communion was being given out. (I usually step out of the aisle when people are going up.) I had no way to escape, and it didn't even occur to me to do the arms crossed across chest thing. So I took communion. I didn't mean to do it. But the next day, when we went to the church of Saint Lucy in the Bronx, I was thinking hard about communion. I felt like I hadn't had the entire experience since there was no chalice of wine at St. Patrick's. So I did a bad thing. I got up in line and deliberately went up and took communion. I let my desire overcome my sense of propriety. Only to find out that there was no chalice of wine there either. (What's up, New York City?) At any rate, I felt pretty bad about violating the rules of the Catholic Church. So I asked for forgiveness. 

Ever since then, though, I've been thinking I would really like to take communion in an above board way. I could go to the Lutheran church, whete I'm officially authorized to partake. But that hasn't been a good experience for me when I tried to go in Louisville. So now I'm thinking that the Episcopalian church might be the way to go. 

And they have open

communion. Next Sunday I don't take the kids to St. James I'm going to see if I have it in me to go for it. 🤞ma,n

Day 3 (DDRD 3,066) March 24, 2026)

Read to page 213.

Oh man this book. Chapter 22 describes Sir Oswald's experience of demanding the Large Host at communion-- with his armed fellows and while clothed in his full armor. According to the story, Oswald sank into the floor up to his knees, then reached out and grabbed the altar to steady himself and left his handprints in the altar. We're told that the hole in the floor and the handprints in the altar still exist, yet the pictures which follow the story show neither of these. What the actual fuck?

More "What?" After Chapter 32 (which ends on page 201) we have Chapter 33, "More Eucharistic Miracles." And then follow short (a paragraph or two), unverified Eucharistic Miracles.  The puzzlement here is that there were some really good EM stories in the St. Carlo book I just finished reading to Jacqueline which have not been included here. What up? This book is copyrighted 1987, so I don't think it's a time issue. But it IS a puzzlement!

You know, if I keep up this pace, I'm going to finish this book in two more days.

Day 4 (DDRD 3,067) March 25, 2026)

Read to page 253. 

Stories of levitating hosts and people living on the Eucharist alone for years and years. Also, priests who say mass from daybreak to nightfall because they get caught up in rapture. Which is kind of cool.

The Black Widowers books by Isaac Asimov

I started reading the fourth book in this series today,  which inspired me to write to my sister, who reads a bit of "detective fiction"...and who knows a bit about Isaac Asimov...to see if she had read any of these books. She wrote back and indicated that she had not and asked for more information about them. My first instinct was to pack up the books that I owned and send them to her. But then it hit me that I only owned two of them--the first and the third--so that wasn't very satisfactory. When I looked online to see about purchasing the other four books I was somewhere between surprised and astounded. All of them cost more than I usually pay for used books, and some of them were outrageously priced--$100, sometimes much more. But I had found books two and four at Internet Archive, so I thought I would give that a try. I had no luck at all. I found the two books I had already found there (including the one I am reading now), but none of the other four books seemed to be available. Then I remembered how tricky the index to Internet Archive can be at times. I started trying variations on titles and author, and eventually hit upon one that worked. I compiled a list of the titles and links to Internet Archive for the series to send to my sister. I thought someone else out there might be interested as well, so here you go. 

Oh. And as for background information, here's the short version: The Black Widowers is a group of men who meet once a month to share a dinner. They also invite a guest who is interrogated, usually beginning with the question, "How do you justify your existence?" More than a little bit corny, to be admitted, but it usually doesn't linger there. Inevitably the guest has a problem which the Black Widowers then try to solve. They prove themselves incapable of this, however, and the waiter Henry (who is an honorary Black Widower) then comes in to present the solution. There is little variation from this scheme, yet even after reading 36 of the stories (12 per book), I find myself wanting to read more. One warning, however: Asimov cannot resist allowing misogyny to creep into his stories.  Sometimes he manages to rise above himself to counter that cretinous attitude, but it's still very irritating (and completely unnecessary), to say the least. So caveat emptor.

Tales of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/talesofblackwido00asim/mode/1up

More Tales of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack0000asim

Casebook of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/casebookblakwido00isaa

Banquets of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/banquetsofblackw00asim/mode/1up

Puzzles of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/puzzlesoftheblackwidowersisaacasimov/mode/1up

The Return of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/returnofblackwid00isaa

DDR: Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored League of the Maritimes 1895 - 1925 by George and Darril Fosty

I heard about this book a long time ago, but the library didn't have it and I didn't want to shell out the bucks to buy it (it's a bit pricey), so it just hung in my mind, Damoclesian style. And then...finally...it occurred to me to try for an interlibrary loan. A few weeks later...

And check this out:

That's a long way for this little book to travel.

When I opened up to the title page, I was surprised to see this:

An autographed edition! Here's the cheapest autographed edition I found online:

Yowza!

So let's go. ix + 235 = 244 pages, so this shouldn't take long.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,058) March 16, 2026)

Read to page 45.

Lots of history and boxing, but not much hockey yet. Maybe mañana. 

Here's an interesting bit of history I'd never heard before*:

"...at the time of the American Revolution, there was no such thing as thirteen colonies. There were actually nineteen--six of those colonies did not agree with the Revolution. Those colonies became Canada." (12)

 * And which I've been unable to confirm elsewhere. 

Day 2 (DDRD 3,059) March 17, 2026)

Read to page 77.

Finally into some hockey. Here's a thing which caught my attention:

"It is...not surprising that aspirating Black Canadians would also see hockey as an acceptable tool for social upward mobility." (67) If you've ever looked at current American sports such as football and basketball and wondered why there were so many black players in these sports, which used to be either dominated by or exclusively White, I think this is the answer.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,060) March 18, 2026)

Read to page 113.

There have been quite a few bizarre proofreading errors in this book. Like this: "...the Sea-Sides would defeating the Eurekas by a score of 4 -2." (87)

I mean...seriously?

Another strange bit of history: "hockey was the first sport to be played at night" (92) because the locals would dig through snow and ice to expose coal lines and then ignite the coal. Very strange! This would make an excellent scene in a film, by the way. I'd better writer to Michael B. Jordan about this. (Michael B., if you're listening, 🤙.)

And then came The Cakewalk. There's a reference to two of the Black hockey players doing The Cakewalk during halftime. I had to look that up...and found some pretty interesting things. For one thing, The Cakewalk looks like THIS. So far as I can tell, it is a parody / mockery of formal White dances, but apparently the White folks didn't understand that, so they liked watching it performed. On plantations during slavery days, the masters would have a cake baked, then, hold a competition for the best cake dance. Whoever won received the cake. And thus we get the phrase, "that takes the cake."

Ta da.

Day 4 (DDRD 3,061) March 19, 2026)

Read from page 198 to 235...the nitty gritty detail stuff. Not actually worth the effort as it's mostly just a series of lists with few details, but I suppose it's for street cred. Reading it now means I don't have to end the book on such a low note. 👌

Day 5 (DDRD 3,062) March 20, 2026)

Read to page 143.

For the most part I've tried to ignore the (many) proofreading errors in this book, but this one...

...is just too much for me. Versus? Come on, FF'sS.

Day 6 (DDRD 3,063) March 21, 2026)

Read to page 175...which means a mere 21 pages to go. Might even finish it off later today...as I'm kind of tired of this book now. Glad I didn't pay for it. 

3 things:

(1) for reasons unknown,  we've left ice hockey and are now discussing (at great length) Black Canadians in World War I. If I'd wanted to read about World War I, I'd have gotten a book on it!

(2) Sorry to say it, but the Fostys are terrible writers. The regularly go off point and follow a digression for no apparent reason. 

(3) The proofreading fuckups are killing me. They're making me want this to be over with.

Oh...a 4th thing:

(4) Why are White people so awful to Black people? I don't understand.

Later That Day....

Here's a line that sums up a lot of evil. " The Black man's problems were never complex. The problem had always been the forces within the White upper classes of Nova Scotian society who were aligned against them." (187) Of course you can leave out "of Nova Scotian" here.

And this...this is so shameful that I don't know what else to say about it.

"Tyranny is the heritage of the silent." (193)

Read to page 235, The End.

Pete Hegseth

 

Pete Hegseth just referred to "the new, so-called, not-so- supreme leader of Iran." So...the new Supreme Leader, then.

What a fucking idiot.

The World of Children

 

"...the world of children...so easily opens itself towards something other than that which exists, and which is so full of hope."

Winter by Karl Ove Knausgård 

Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone

I know, I know. I've got thousands of books...and and I've only read about half of them. And I probably only have a decade or so (at best) left on this planet. And the library has tons of books I want to read, including this one.

But in my defense, (1) I have intended to read some Wilkie Collins ever since my Dickens binge, when I found out that they were buds and even wrote stuff together, (2) it was only $4, and (3) who could resist that pulpy cover? Not me. And since I'm struggling a bit...a BIG bit...with Zombie Capitalism (my current DDR)...I thought it might be fun to make this my side hustle. (Well...ONE of my side hustles.) 

So let the games begin.

News as it happens.

Oh, by the way, I went online to see how much other people were selling this book for and was astonished at how many different covers there were. This book has been published many, many times. Check THIS out.

And oh oh...there's also a movie. And the LFPL's got it. (Soon I will, too.)

Breaking News 

I've been taking it slow (as I am also reading Zombie Capitalism, Black Ice, Winter, and five books--four of them religious--with my daughter every day), but I'm enjoying this book quite a bit...and looking forward to watching the movie (which I just picked up from the library today). There have been a few moments whuch brought me up short, though. Such as when the narrator refers to two young, buxom girls as "the Bouncers.) 😶 Or, even more inappropriately, when a group of Indians (dot, not arrow),obviously innocent (can't tell you of what as that would be a spoiler), are kept in jail for a week, Just In Case, and the narrator's only comment on this travesty of justice is, "Every human institution, Justice included, will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way." Yowza. That's some ice cold shit, man.

And how's this for some real haha?  "The cook looked as if she could grill Mr. Superintendent alive on a furnace, and the other women looked as if they could eat him when he was done." (69) That is really 😁. 

"

DDR: Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx by Chris Harman

424 pages on the evils of Capitalism. What's not to like? I bought this book years ago after reading a reference to it in something or other, and lately it's been on my mind, so time to get out of my dreams and into my car. Do I have the stamina to read a 424 page book on economics? I kind of doubt it, but let's see.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,043) March 2, 2026)

Read to page 30.

It only took a few pages before a reference to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations came up. Which is not a surprise, but it did remind me that I've long intended to attempt to read that book.  It probably would make a good follow-up to Zombie Capitalism, eh?

A pretty tough read for me, as I am ignorant of event the most basic concepts of economic theory, but I think I can stick with this. As always,  🕰 will tell...and so will 👁.

Day 2 (DDRD 3,044) March 3, 2026)

Read to  60. But it took me until 8:30 pm to get there. Math is hard. 

Day 3 (DDRD 3,045) March 4, 2026)

Read to page 90.

I'm swimming against the current here as my brain tries to grasp the nuances of economic theory, but I'm determined to keep at it. The major point thus far seems to be that the crises which occur in the capitalist system are not abberations, but are built into the system. Or, more eloquently, "Capitalism does live by crises and booms, just as a human being lives by inhaling and exhaling." (68) That's Leon Trotsky, folks. Let's give him a big hand. 👏👏👏👏👏

"The drive to accumulate leads inevitably to crises. And the greater the scale of past accumulation, the deeper the crises will be." (72) 

Or...

Senses never gratified

Only swelling like a tide

That could drown me in the

Material world

(George Harrison)

Day 4 (DDRD 3,046) March 5, 2026)

Read to page 100. Yeah. 😫 I'll go back for more, but right now it just feels like trying to swim through dough. (Though I did read 40 pages of The Moonstone with no strain.

Sigh.

Later...made it to 104. That's it for today.

Day 5 (DDRD 3,047) March 6, 2026)

Read to page 125.

I was thinking pretty seriously about quitting this book, but then I read this line: "The relationship between states and capitals are relationships between people, between those engaged in exploiting the mass of the population and those who control bodies of armed men." (109) That's a big gulp. Enough to keep me going for another page or two, anyway. (But no promises.)

Day 6 (DDRD 3,048) March 7, 2026)

Read to page 155.

Finished Part One: Understanding the System: Marx and Beyond and started Part Two: Capitalism in the 20th Century, and felt like somebody clicked the treadmill down from 30 degrees of incline to flat. I think it's the difference between political theory and history. For the first time I thought, "Maybe I will finish this book."

Labor = the "capacity to be productively exploited" (133)

Gotta give the Commies that one.

In discussing causes of The Great Depression, Harman says that we still cannot explain why it happened today. He then goes on to list several possibilities, one of which caught my eye: "...the raising of US tariffs by the Smoot-Hawley Act in the summer of 1930 unleashed a wave of protectionism preventing a recovery that would otherwise have occurred if free trade had been allowed untrammeled sway. " (145)

Uh-oh.

Day 7 (DDRD 3,049) March 8, 2026)

Read to page 185.

According to this text, "78 percent of Palestine " (185) was seized to create Israel. Must check Israel, The Hijack State by John Rose asap.*

* Which, fortunately,  is available HERE..because the only copy I found for sale was $125! **

** Here are the last two paragraphs of the Introduction:

After discussing the vision of Israel as the beleaguered fiction of terrorism, Mr. Rose says,

"However, the history of Israel suggests the opposite interpretation. The state of Israel was founded upon just those principles of terror: for at its foundation Israel expelled three-quarters of a million Palestinians through assassination and murderous destruction. The “terrorists” that Israel and the US want put to death are often the sons and daughters of those same dispossessed Palestinians.

"Israel’s evolution has seen the increasing use of state terror on a monumental scale. This, combined with American backing for the militarisation of its economy, has turned Israel into a ruthless outpost for Western domination of the Middle East. The pious noises about “terrorism”, from Israel, America and indeed Britain, conceal this deeper motivation."

Wow.

Day 8 (DDRD 3,050) March 9, 2026)

Read to page 215.

Day 9 (DDRD 3,051) March 10, 2026)

Read to page 245.

Day 10 (DDRD 3,052) March 11, 2026)

Read to page 263.

Day 11 (DDRD 3,053) March 12, 2026)

Read to page 285.

Referring to the Project for a New American Century, Harman says, "The Republican electoral victory of 2000 and then the national panic caused by the 9/11 destruction of the world trade center gave them a chance to implement their policy." (271) Well...that's one way of looking at it.

Can this possibly be true? "[Only] 1 or 2 percent of the fiber optic cable buried under Europe and North America has even been turned on." (286) That's what Financial Times 6 September 2001 says. So I guess we're ready for the future... unless, of course, something new comes along that makes fiber optic cable completely obsolete.

Day 12 (DDRD 3,055) March 13, 2026)

Read to page 315.

"US households must spend more than their incomes. If they fail to do so, the economy will plunge into recession unless something changes elsewhere...." (288, quoting Martin Wolf)

This

Just arrived in the mail. Must. Focus. On. Zombie. Book.

Speaking of...here's are two quotes from Karl Marx that pretty much sum up this whole Capitalism thang:

"Après moi, le déluge" which = "After me, the flood"...meaning "I'm hoping the shit doesn't hit the fan until after I've got my goodies."

&

"Ought these to trouble us since they increase our profits?" (with reference to dangers to workers, the environment,  etc.)

As Harry Styles puts it, "Stop your crying, it's a sign of the times."

Day 13 (DDRD 3,056) March 14, 2026)

Read to page 331.

Yet another article which I think I need to read: 

"Peak Oil and Energy Imperialism" by John Bellamy Foster, which you (and I) can find HERE. 

Day 14 (DDRD 3,057) March 15, 2026)

Read to page 424, The End. 

This was a bit of a struggle,  to be sure, but I'm glad that I hung in there with it...and despite coming up short of my 30 pages a few times, I still ended up with a decent 30.29 pages per date rate.

"What we can say with certainty is that...the world by the end of this century is going to be intolerable for the majority of those who live in it." (352)  published in 2009, so the clock is ticking.