Articles on PR for People

My Friend Sue

Whenever I traveled to New York, I visited Sue at the Museum, making up for the time lost between us. We both marveled that we had escaped a blue collar fate. Other Yonkers girls took service jobs as health care workers or waitressing, a few taught in public schools. There wasn’t anything intrinsically wrong with these jobs, except they were so Yonkas.

 


The Mother of My Words

My mother told me I had a way with words. She was proud of my poetry and stories, and said I was a natural born writer. I was flattered but I didn’t entirely believe her. She was a high school dropout and suffered from schizophrenia. I’m not sure if schizophrenia caused her to drop out of high school at sixteen. She often heard voices telling her to do things. 


Jani Kelly: A Poet Laureate For The Soul

Today Jani Kelly, a gifted poet and wheelchair bound resident of the Josephinum, has become a local legend. Her words are part prayer, part poetry, with a sprinkling of passion and a good dose of mysticism. On those cold, dark days when all is lost, and nothing will sustain you, Jani’s voice rings with the truth. This poet laureate speaks to your soul.


Book Review: Brawler Screams Desperation

Lauren Groff’s collection of stories share only one common thread: the loud, squawking desperation of working-class lives that inevitably come to an end in a one-two knockout punch. I’m glad to see a writer of considerable merit depicting working-class characters that no one really wants to know about. People are dying, rotting away, flicking cigarette ashes on the food they are about to eat, before blowing out their brains with a shotgun.


Book Review: Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone by Father James Martin

Overall, this book is a rote rendering of very important aspects of living a prayerful life. There is far too much filler content, which can often be due to the terms of the author’s book contract. A longer book nets a larger advance, more dollars, and a bigger “book deal.” I’m grateful for the book, though, because it made me think about how to rescue my prayer life from mediocrity. 


Food On The Table

New Deal Murals by Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, and Seymour Fogel are located in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C. The art cannot be viewed by the public. The Cohen Building is closed. The Cohen Building and other older federal buildings are slated for sale and eventual demolition. They might destroy the murals, but they cannot erase our collective consciousness, what we remember and pass down to our children. #wilburjcohenbuilding #philipguston #benshahn

 


Monetizing Jesus: How Predators Bait Us & How to Outsmart Them

In his famous parable of the wheat and chaff, Jesus clearly differentiated between the children of God, or the good seeds, and the chaff, who are the wicked among us. In Monetizing Jesus, by Glen Randall Bell, PhD, he gives us the tools of discernment, so we can clearly separate the wheat from the chaff.  


Dialing For Dollars

Enter the Sweepstakes to get a big book deal with The Dial Press. But keep in mind that you must have a whole lot of money to be a contender.


Keith McNally: Fanfare For The Uncommon Man

I stumbled upon Keith McNally’s memoir in my usual awkward, almost bumbling fashion. I happened to be in New York City with a friend. I had long promised to take her to Balthazar for breakfast. Four empty tables away sat a man alone with his laptop and a book. Astonished that he sat at a table for so long without being gently prodded to get on with it to make room for the next guest, I struck up a conversation.

 


Art: Fish Shop by Georges-Henri Fauvel

French Artist Georges-Henri Fauvel (1861–1930) had a penchant for painting royal dogs, especially hunting dogs. His Fish Shop is a radical departure from his usual repertoire. He was probably paid handsomely by patrons for painting their beloved hounds. What made him paint “Fish Shop” is anyone’s guess. These fish ladies were undoubtedly deemed to be less valuable than dogs.