Reader notes, related to various previous posts and interests:

I had a week-long conference in SF this summer.  I was staying at the Marriott, just around the corner from St. Patrick’s.  Between proximity and a sung Latin Mass, I didn’t have to think long about where I would go to Mass on Sunday.  I noticed the windows for each of the counties of Ireland, and I supposed that the windows reflected the historical ethnicity of the neighborhood.  It was striking to see the Irish saints overlooking a very diverse parish.

The Mass itself was beautiful.  The parish’s men’s choir did yeoman’s work with a handful of guys.  The Mass was Novus Ordo, but the priest chanted throughout.  Wonderful homily.  As it turns out, I attended Mass one week before Dawn Eden attended the same 10am Mass.  She noted that the Consecration was announced by the bells on the altar and then the bell in the steeple, and I thought it was wonderful.  Best of all, the subsequent Weds morning, I had packed to leave and sat down for my morning Office.  About midway though the office, the church bells were ringing.  Looking at my watch, I saw that it was time for Consecration at the 7am weekday Mass.  It was such a wonderful connection between the Mass and my morning prayers.  I’m sure it serves as a beautiful reminder for the parishioners who are within earshot of the church through the day.

And then, from another correspondent:

In today’s stack of review copies was a new “American Splendor” comic book by Harvey Pekar. Zipping through it, I found a two-page episode in which the Harvey character is sitting in an airport lounge, glowering at a woman as she slobbishly eats a cupcake, scattering crumbs all over the place. In the last panel, we get a close-up that shows us the title of the book she is reading: “The Da Vinci Code.” The title of the episode is “Delicacy.” I can’t decide whether the point is: 1) It is ironic that a slobbish person would be reading a highly intellectual book about Leonardo; or 2) people who read DVC are slobs.

By the way, the number of people I see on the subway reading DVC has finally started to decline. It used to be roughly tied with the Bible as the book I would see people reading most often; now the Bible is pulling ahead again–!