Today is the Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest (died 1660). Banned Books Week continues.
Born in 1581 in Pouy, Landes, Gascony, to a peasant family, Vincent de Paul studied humanities in Dax, France with the Cordeliers and graduated in theology at Toulouse. He was ordained in 1600, remaining in Toulouse until he went to Marseille for an inheritance. In 1605, on his way back from Marseille, he was taken captive by Turkish pirates, who brought him to Tunis and sold him into slavery. After converting his owner to Christianity, he escaped in 1607. After returning to France, De Paul went to Rome. There he continued his studies until 1609, when he was sent back to France on a mission to Henry IV of France; he served as chaplain to Marguerite de Valois. For a while he was parish priest at Clichy, but from 1612 he began to serve the Gondi, an illustrious family. He was confessor and spiritual director to Mme de Gondi, and he began giving peasant missions on the estate with her aid. In 1622 De Paul was appointed chaplain to the galleys, and in this capacity he gave missions for the galley-slaves. In 1625 De Paul founded the Congregation of the Mission, a society of missioning priests commonly known as the Vincentians. In 1633, with the assistance of Louise de Marillac he founded the Daughters of Charity. He also fought against the Jansenist heresy. De Paul was renowned for his compassion, humility and generosity. He was canonized in 1737; his home town of Pouy was renamed Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in 1828, and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, a charitable organisation dedicated to the service of the poor, was established by French students in 1833. He is the Patron Saint of charities, volunteers, hospitals, and prisoners, of Saint Vincent de Paul Societies, and of the country of Madagascar, and his aid is invoked in cases of leprosy and to help find lost articles.
Our hapless New Orleans Saints played an NFL Divisional Game on Monday night with the Atlanta Falcons, and, as usual, lost the game by the score of 32 to 45. Our Saints (0-3, 0-1) will next play an Away NFL game with the San Diego Chargers (1-2, 1-2) on Sunday, October 2nd, 2016.
I did my Book Devotional Reading, and on our way to work I did my Internet Devotional Reading and said the Sixth Day of my Novena to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. We signed the Early Out list, with no real expectations, and did not get out early. Richard helped change Blackjack cards, then was on Pai Gow for the rest of the day. I changed Blackjack cards, and was on the $5.00 Minimum Bet Blackjack table for the rest of the day. I also signed for taking a call-in on Sunday in the Shift Office.
Once home I read the morning paper, and Richard went to the nursery to get the names of some people who could trim our hedges and the driveway shrubbery. I finished reading The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, then went to bed for the duration, so I did not do my Daily Update (the first time I did not do it this month – drat).
Tomorrow is the Optional Memorial of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, the Optional Memorial of Saint Wenceslaus, King and Martyr (died 929 or 935), the Optional Memorial of Saint Laurence Ruiz, Martyr, and Companions, Martyrs (died 1637), and the Remembrance of Servant of God John Paul I, Pope (died 1978). Banned Books Week continues, and tomorrow also marks the anniversary of when I was baptised into the Catholic Faith (as an infant) in 1958. Tomorrow is also the birthday of my Internet friends Annette in Virginia (1956) and Melissa in Pennsylvania (1971). I will do my laundry and the Weekly Computer Maintenance; I will also do my Book Review for this weblog and for my Goodreads and Facebook accounts for The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde, and do my Daily Update for yesterday, Tuesday, October 27th, 2016. I will then head to Lafayette, and when I get home I will do my Daily Update for today.
Our Parting Quote on this Tuesday evening comes to us from A. C. Lyles, American film producer. Born as Andrew Craddock Lyles, Jr. in 1918 in Jacksonville, Florida, he began working for Paramount Studios part time at the age of ten and full time after graduating from high school. He started out as an office boy, worked in the publicity department of Pine-Thomas Productions (the second feature unit of Paramount), and eventually became assistant to the producer on The Mountain, released in 1954. His first role as full producer was on Short Cut to Hell, a movie released in 1957 that was a remake of This Gun for Hire and directed by James Cagney. He also produced nine episodes of the television show Rawhide in 1959. In about 1963 Lyles was approached by Paramount to do a Western when they realized they had none on their schedule of releases. When Law of the Lawless (1964) did well at the box office, Paramount asked him how many more he could do a year. Lyles replied “five” and he was given the go ahead to produce more second features for the studio. Lyles filled his cast with many older, experienced actors who were his friends. He continued to produce a variety of low budget traditional westerns for Paramount in the 1960s, as well as other movies in other genres like the Korean War film The Young and the Brave (1963), the detective drama Rogues Gallery (1968), and the science-fiction film Night of the Lepus (1972), for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, that featured the American Southwest menaced by giant mutant rabbits. After producing the television movie A Christmas for Boomer in 1979, he was the executive producer for four episodes of Here’s Boomer in 1980 and 1981. His old friend President Ronald Reagan appointed Lyles to the President’s Advisory Council on Private Sector Initiatives in 1983, and in January of 1986 he was sworn onto the board. He regularly attended White House meetings with Reagan and his staff and attended conferences overseas. During the Reagan and George Bush administrations he also functioned as the official Hollywood liaison, which involved getting celebrities to entertain at the White House and other presidential functions. In 1984 Lyles received the George Washington Award of the Freedoms Foundation, presented to him in the Oval Office by President Ronald Reagan. On March 3rd, 1988, Lyles was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His last work was as consulting producer for 24 episodes in 2005 and 2006 of the television series Deadwood. He was a steady fixture on retrospective Hollywood documentaries, having been associated with Paramount and Hollywood since 1928 (died 2013): “I have always been very positive about this business. I don’t know of anything that’s happened in this business that I’ve thought was to a disadvantage of the motion picture and television. Because the motion picture and television I feel are the two most absorbing medias ever invented that we’ve ever known. And of course there are a lot of changes now, but I’ve always felt that the changes that I’ve seen have been a great advantage, not only to Hollywood, but to the audience that sees it.”
From The Recamier 