Free Republic

Down with the Struggle or Up with the Cross? A Word to Priests, Catechists, and Parents By: Msgr. Charles PopeSome forty years ago, the Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen admonished the priests of his day with these words:We become real priests when we empty ourselves, and no longer seek our [own] identity, and where we are lifted up to the cross, not going "down to people" Too many of us today feel we have to be loved $B!D (J [thinking] the young will not love us unless we talk like them, eat like them, drink like them, clothe ourselves...

Creator of the Pet Rock, Gary Dahl, Dies at Age 78 Gary Dahl's invention of the pet rock made him a millionaire after it went on sale in 1975. Gary Dahl, the creator of the Pet Rock—”one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever,” Newsweek once said—died at age 78 on March 23. Dahl first came up with the concept as joke while working as a freelance copywriter, but the idea of a minimal-effort “pet” and its clever packaging resonated with the times—and quickly made him a millionaire after the rocks went on sale for $3.95 apiece in 1975,...

The way things are going, every kid is going to go to school wearing bubble wrap and a helmet. Back in the 1970s (and earlier), parents didn’t stress about our health and safety as much as they do today. It’s not that they cared less – they just didn’t worry compulsively about it. Parents of 2014 need to be reminded of how less restricted, less supervised, less obsessively safety-conscious things were… and it was just fine. 1. JARTS: IMPALING ARROWS OF DEATH Can your mind comprehend a more deadly toy than a weighted spear that kids hurl through the air...