It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

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The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
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Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Abstractionism: A 3rd Sacred Image From His Most Un-Sacredness

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St. Patrick's Cathedral
Christmas Nineteen 
Eighty-Something
featuring a great actor
leading the priest's choir

That priest appears
to be singing with
the other priests
but, in truth,
he is suppressing 
a yawn.

The night before
Christmas Eve,
FATHER FRANK
who preferred that monicker
to "Monsignor Oliverio" 
was refereeing
Midnight Basketball
in Harlem
 until 4AM

Upon returning "home"
to St. Patrick's,
he was handed a telephone
and a short list of
"reluctant" names.

By noon,
five more New York priests
committed to singing
at Midnight Mass.

The choir's formal rehearsal
began at 3PM
and lasted four hours.

My Uncle
cat-napped for
one hour
then met three
very well-dressed
Harlem gangbangers
for dinner
in Rockefeller Center.

Earl, Pearl, and "Monroe"
were—respectively—
the team captains
and the highest scorer
from the Midnight
Basketball game.

They refused to let
my Uncle
pay for the meal.

Monsignor Oliverio
was influential enough
at St. Patrick's
to secure two pews
for a dozen gangbangers
(and their girlfriends)

Their behavior
at the Midnight Mass
was impeccable
and each one
deposited $50
in the collection plate 

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Footnotes
This page is the copyrighted property
of LCSoL
 
Father Frank was the only
Oliverio of his generation 
  to spend his formative years
in Harlem
 
Only three of the twenty-four
"Harlem attendees"
at this Midnight Mass
were practicing Catholics
 
The most profound thing
my Uncle told me 
about this Mass
was that he would rather 
have been sitting with
the gangbangers
 
What should be obvious
to anyone familiar
with Paul Blogiverio
is that Father Frank inspired
  
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