We had a great time

This is Michael's talk at our little blognic yesterday.

We all really did have a wonderful time. The discussion was lively and interesting and covered well the complexities of the relationship between the bloggosphere/new media and the Church. In general, we asked and discussed, how being a blogger and a Catholic influences our lives and the Church. How does this strange and sometimes somewhat scary new method of instant communication and information-retrieval affect us, affect the Church and how can we use it correctly?

The panel discussion went on for nearly an hour and a half, and in the end no one seemed to want to stop.

We had people there from Italy, the US and Canada and had some people there with fairly well-known bloggy profiles.

Many thanks first to Declan and his staff at Scholar's Lounge pub, who were tremendously friendly and gave us a really great space, plenty of room and a fully functioning sound system and wifi connection. (And I'm pleased to report that I've finally found a place in Rome that will give you decent nachos with sour cream... those who have lived in Italy will understand how important this is.)

Second, thanks immensely to Michael Voris, our keynote speaker, to Carol Glatz from CNS, Dorothy Cummings Mclean authoress of the Seraphic blogs, Gregory DiPippo of the New Liturgical Movement for being our panel of experts who facilitated the very wide ranging discussion. Dorothy and Christopher have been a huge help with promoting and organising and general support.

Sorry to everyone who was hoping to follow online, we just couldn't figure out the technology in time.

And sorry also to those who came hoping for polemics and maybe a foodfight. Stuart Reid said he had come expecting a lot of shouting and was surprised at how measured and intelligent all the discussion was.

We'll try to be less charitable next time.



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Vatican blognic livefeed

They're just saying they've totally reworked the Vatican's various websites for news.

It looks like they've done it fairly well. Developed by a private Spanish company.

It's so crazy, it might just work...

News.va

(No, for those wondering, I don't "Twit". Ain't gonna. Can't make me.)



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Vatican blognic livefeed

All I need now is a port in the back of my neck.

I've got the language interpretation headphones on, am texting with someone in London via Skype, sending messages to editors via Messenger, reading the liveblogging updates of about six people who are also at the meeting right now and are posting as we go, responding to text messages from three different people on my phone and posting photos and updates to Facebook.

So... can you guess who's talking now?

All I should say is that I'm glad they gave us some prosecco at the break.

Because he's still talking...

...

still talking...

...

still...

still...

...

Vatican blognic livefeed

Well, they may not have beer, but they've given us prosecco ~ !



Also, just found out that Rocco Palmo and John Thavis have been reading me for years.

Maybe I should be more careful.

...

Nah.

Vatican blognic livefeed

Livefeed of the Vatican's blogger conference is available at http://sqpn.com/sqpn-live/

Liveblogging the *Official* Roman Blognic

So, Richard Rouse seems like a nice enough fellow, thanked me for "all the publicity" [HAW!]. I invited him for tomorrow, but he said he's got to be home with the kids.

A blogger from Milan greeted me in a very friendly manner, saying she is a follower of mine. I invited her to Scholars.

And Rocco Palmo surprised me by giving me a separate greeting by name when he started th meeting. Said he was pleased could make it and that everyone has been praying for me with the cancer thing. Nice.

Also getting a mention was a nice young English fellow sitting behind us who has just been received into the Church through the Ordinariate and ordained a deacon. Also nice.

Vatican blognic

Posting this from the scene. Nice room. Big screen. Everyone lined up behind their screens, madly clicking away.


Venturing forth on the 8:48 treno, in the bright Mediterranean sunshine.


Kat gets her first shot of the Trevi


We picked the day they were cleaning out the money. I think it goes to look after Rome's poor.


Elizabeth Scalia, the Anchoress


Bloggers who clearly never thought this would happen.



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A better day

Well, what an interesting day.

This just in from the Pont. Council for SocCom:

ENGLISH

Dear Blogger,

As you should be aware, you have been selected to attend the Vatican Meeting with Bloggers on Monday 2 May 2011.

Please come to the Palazzo Pio X entrance on via dell’ospedale, which is off via della Conciliazione, 5, at 3.30pm.

This invitation is strictly personal and you are asked to bring some form of Proof of Identity.

We remind you that as the event has been timed to coincide with the Beatification of John Paul II, we are not supplying assistance with travel, lodging or visa costs or logistics.

We are greatly encouraged by the warm response to this event
and the various parallel initiatives, including the creation of other meetings and groups, [HAW!!] a facebook page, a wikispaces, twitter, and the live feeds being set up for the meeting.

Please see www.pccs.va for the programme and any further details that may emerge.

If you are unable to come in person, it would be useful if you were to let us know.

If you are coming, we look forward to meeting you.

Yours, in the joy of the Risen Lord,

Richard Rouse

AND I got a call today, after a small amount of wrangling and only one fairly controlled attack of Brain, from Professore Scambia's office. I am to go for a consultation on Saturday. YAY!!

AND I am a new convert.

You know how I'm all, 'oh all that alternative medicine stuff is just hippie, New Age rubbish'? And remember how I said I hurt my back and have been walking like a penguin for nearly two months now?

Well, went to see the GP today, who does accupuncture and complained about my back being all owie, and he did the accupuncture and some exercisy, stretchy things and

Voy-LAH! Back pain all gone. Walking like a normal person.

Holy cow! It's like those Chinese people had spent some of that three thousand years doing something other than inventing chess and writing and gunpowder. Amazing!

So, now I go home. Maybe sleep for 13 hours again.



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Come to the *Other* Rome Blognic: both cancer treatment AND blognic still on

Attention fellow-bloggie nerds:

I thought I would let you know what's going on. I want you to know first off that whatever plans you have to come to The *Other* Rome Blognic [Pssst... sign up now!] are are still emphatically on. OK? So, no cancelling flights or anything crazy. We're still on for all plans.

The situation with the cancer treatment has changed quite a bit, however, and my own situation is going to be quite a bit different from what I'd hoped. I knew at the start that this blognic idea could easily be interrupted by my treatments, so I'm still determined that everything will go forward.

The doctors have agreed to consider a different treatment involving two short courses of combined chemotherapy.

After insisting pretty hard that the best thing was a complete hysterectomy, and watching me melt down completely at the thought, they offered me an alternative, non-standard treatment. The idea is to shrink the tumour, which is currently at stage 1B1 -leading to 1B2, using this short, sharp chemo course. If the tumour responds, it will be operable with a much less radical and life-changing surgery which will come after the chemo. Normally, this stage of cancer is treated mostly with surgery, but I was very insistent that I want to do everything I can to preserve myself intact, or nearly.

I'm quite grateful that they are willing to give this idea a try. It is a fairly new idea to do chemo prior to surgery for this stage of cervical cancer and I have spent the evening reading the medical literature and all I have seen is that it significantly improves things, both in terms of long-term survival and immediate reduction in complications. The Gemelli is an excellent hospital indeed, the leading cancer research hospital in Europe and they said that they are willing to try.

It won't be fun, but chemo doesn't last forever, and hysterectomy does. It's no joke either, though most of the medical profession regards it as nothing worse than having wisdom teeth out. They regard it as nothing more than a baby-pouch. This is a position I emphatically do not share, and the reading I have done has convinced me that the best thing is to avoid it unless there are absolutely no other options. We are not marsupials and the uterus does a lot more than that throughout a woman's life.

I told them that I would agree to a hysterectomy but only if it were definitely proved to be medically necessary.

This will be a much longer and more complex treatment, but I'm happy that they have shown a willingness to try harder to save as much of my insides as they can.

So, it looks like chemo after all, but I'm ok with it. They said it won't be long and that two rounds will be sufficient to tell them whether it will work. They even said the chemo course will be so short that my hair won't fall out (probably).

The chemo will be very intense, though, and from what I have read a combined chemo regimen will knock you out of activities for quite a while and can have some pretty stern side effects.

This means that for both the Vatican conference and the Scholar's Lounge Blognic, I will either likely be in the hospital or at home asleep on knock-out drugs and/or too sick to move.

I'll be there if I can, but I might have to join the throngs huddling around their computers for the virtual version.

So, on yer bikes and we'll have as much fun as we can.



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Come to the *Other* Rome Blognic: please SIGN UP

I met with Declan, the owner of Scholar's Lounge today, and things are all set.


This is the new room that has just been completed at Scholar's. Gorgeous isn't it? Declan said that all the woodwork was done in Ireland and the whole thing shipped over and reassembled. A real Irish pub in the heart of the Eternal City.

One thing he was quite insistent on was knowing, at least in a ballpark range, how many are coming. This is so that he can get enough food in and allow his cooking staff to prepare.

At the moment, I was unable to tell him. I have really no idea at all how many are planing to be there, but I really REALLY need to know. I told Declan it would be 40 or 50 max. If we get an influx of 100 people at the last moment, he won't be able to accommdate us. So, if you have plans to attend, now's the time to go to the Facebook page, and put your name on the list as "attending".

I've heard from a lot of people that they "may" be there, and I've heard from others that they put their names in as "attending" but know they're not going to be there. I've seen some people saying on their blogs that they will be attending, but haven't seen their names on the FB list.

People, this is not helping.

If you have some kind of Facebook phobia, just send me an email and I will put you on the list. I'm going to be out of things and unable to anything about anything in the next week or so, so now's the time.

If you have plans to come, I need to know.

The "attending" list is not there as an ego booster for me. I need to have at least an idea how many are coming so I can tell the owner of the pub so he can tell his staff and we can all have a nice time, eating and drinking and making merry.

OK?

Gosh, they don't half take things seriously over there!

Well well, isn't this fun!.

I must say I enjoyed being referred to on a blog, with ponderous journalistic gravitas, as "White". I am asked to present "evidence," no doubt in triplicate with attached documentation, for my "charges". (But I do like "La Pirhana", which is almost as good as the insult I got from the Messa in Latine blog a while ago, "La Perfida Albione". I'm going to have to start a separate blog label just for the amusing nicknames I get called by other bloggers.)

I see that Mr. Sensible takes all this terribly, terribly seriously. In a previous post he writes, "The stakes are high of course."

...

Good grief!

No, they're not. Why?

Because the Catholic blogs aren't very important.

What is important?

Well, that babies are being murdered in every corner of the world, and it's legal. That old people are being dehydrated to death in nursing homes. That kids are graduating from highschool who can't write a coherent sentence in the English language. That my cousin in Cheshire was given the HPV vaccine at school and she was only 13. That millions of people believe all kinds of amazing crap about the Faith because the media is owned and operated by Stan.

Honestly, the whole point of my objections to all this is that guilds and Vatican conferences and meetings, complete with proposed treasurers, minutes-takers and subcommittees, is endowing the whole enterprise with entirely too much importance.

Guys, blogs really don't matter very much.

The internet's not real life.

Go pick some flowers, or feed the cat, or have a beer at the pub, woo a pretty girl, or weed the tomatoes, or, I don't know, read a book or something. Take something seriously that is of The Real.

And sign up for the fun blognic. Where there will be real beer, real food and actual live real people to talk to.



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Come to the *Other* Rome Blognic

So, I see that there are still only 16 officially registered on the Facebook site.

If you're planning on coming, please please sign up on the FB page as "Attending".

Didn't your mothers tell you to RSVP?

UPDATE 3: So, it turns out that the people in the Vatican DO have a sense of irony after all. Looks like I'm going to be attending their official blogger conference, along with Kat and a couple of other of our favourite bloggie buddies. Congratulations to all the ones who made the list, but please don't let it stop you from signing in as "Attending" on the page. RSVP, people! It's manners!

UPDATE 2: Just spoke to the proprietor of Scholars Lounge pub and all looks just fine. He's got Wifi, a good sound system, loads of room in a newly built space and would love to have a bunch of bloggers come and drink his beer. Meeting with him on Saturday to firm up the plans.

UPDATE: Keynote speaker will be the rootin' tootin' Michael Voris of Real Catholic TV.com and The Vortex, speaking on

"How the blogs and 'new media' are shaping the New Evangelisation"




Do you have a blog on which you write about Catholic stuff?

Do you read Catholic blogs?

Do you comment on Catholic blogs?

Are you planning on going to Rome for the Beatification of John Paul II?

Are you pretty sure you're not going to get invited to the Vatican's blognic?

Do you suspect that they found your work just a leeetle too ... err... forthcoming about the bishops, the Church, the state of things?

Well, why not come to the *other* Catholic blogger Rome blognic...

and talk about what *YOU* want to talk about...

Ours will be FUN!

AND we'll have beer...

AND pizza...

AND we'll let you come in your pyjamas if you want.

Tell your bloggy friends and enemies.

Where?

We're still in the process of organising this (since we just dreamed it up on Friday). More details about location will follow, but right now we're looking at a very central venue, Scholar's Lounge Pub, the home of the Rome Pub Quiz, which is on all the Centro's bus and tram routes. So it will be an easy access to wherever you'll be camping for the Beatification.

Things we do know:

1) you will be allowed to talk about whatever YOU want

2) No Vatican prelate will "engage you in a meaningful dialogue"

3) the talks will all be in English

4) all the cool kids will be there

For now, the plan is to have two formal "talks," in the style of Theology on Tap: a keynote and a panel. We'll discuss the general state of things, the impact of the "new media" on the Church at the local and international level, the contributions of bloggers to the various Catholic public debates etc (see topic suggestions below).

The rest of the time will be in "small breakout discussion groups" (IOW, sitting around in the pub drinking and talking).

Also, we're going to do our best to get Wifi so you can liveblog it, and we can maybe set up some Skype calls or iChat thingies for people whose bodies can't make it so at least their heads can be there. And we'll see what we can do about getting the thing on video so it can go up on YouTube.

AND, if all goes as planned, there will be discounts for drinks for those who are registered before the event.

"Sounds GREAT! What can I do to help put it together?"

First thing to do is cut and paste this post into your blog (or other new media thingy) and start drumming up interest.

Next, think of three or more Catholic bloggers who fit the following criteria:

1) could be described, in the immortal words of John Allen and at least one influential cleric, "Taliban Catholics"

2) blogs about Catholic stuff

3) is likely to be in Rome for the Beatification anyway

...and invite them to join this facebook event page.

Next, suggest topics you'd like to hear talked about. So far we've had:

1) Whatever the hell we damn well want to talk about

2) "blogging until something happens"
- the intolerable silence of injustice has been disturbed and even destroyed
- the power of the blogs efforts in transparency and accountability

3) "I am not alone"
- isolationism and the iconoclasm

4) Why is the Catholic bloggosphere so nearly uniformly "conservative," pro-Benedict and, above all, young?

5) Are we really "making a difference" or is it really all just narcissism?

6) exchanging stories: how have Catholic blogs, websites and "new media" actually made a concrete difference to the Church or to real people?




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Kat could use a hand with $$s

The Crescat has been invited to Rome too, and really deserves to come. She had been all set, with donated funds even, to make a trip last year and had to cancel because of the volcano that shut down all the international flights.

You just can't argue with a volcano.

But she's on the list and doesn't make a lot of money and is a daily read around here. If you can slip a ten-spot into her paypal acct., do drop by.

Oh, and Kat? I forgive you for stealing my "nungazing" post label without attribution.



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I wouldn't want to join any club that would have me for a member

Well, well!

Goodness. I hardly know what to say, except,


what are they, nuts?!

I would never have invited me, that's for dang sure!

Crikey, does this mean I'm going to have to be on the "I went to the Vatican's conference" panel at Scholars Lounge? Dang again!

I count on my loyal band of friends and readers to come in and rescue me from the carbonite.



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Come to the *Other* Rome Blognic: bring your own tomatoes

So, it looks like I picked exactly the right speaker for The *Other* Rome Blognic.

Everyone's talking about Michael Voris.

Weeeeee hheeeee!

Sign up now!

UPDATE:
Oh phooey. It's just Shea mouthing off again. Doesn't count.



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The light of day

This just in from the National Catholic Reporter:

Censorship is Bad - Always
by Michael Sean Winters on Apr. 13, 2011

The Diocese of Scranton and Marywood University recently cancelled a speech planned by Michael Voris, an obnoxious rightwing personality who runs the outfit "RealCatholicTV." Earlier this year, a bishop told me, "Funny thing is that his show is not real and it isn't Catholic."

Now, it is puzzling to me why anyone would invite the spewer of right-wing agitprop to rant on campus in the first place. But, censorship is not the answer. Let people hear Mr. Voris's paranoid fantasies about unorthodox bishops and the USCCB's supposed collusion with the Culture of Death. There is nothing attractive about his rants. The best way to expose a scoundrel is to shine the light of day on him.

Actually, the headline is incorrect. Censorship isn't alwasy wrong. Sometimes it's a necessity and there are several legitimate reasons to curtail the freedom of people to say whatever they want. In the civil order, these might include restrictions on giving away state secrets, "Loose lips sink ships". In the religious realm, this might include the Church having a right to sack a religion teacher who taught the kids errors and tried to pass it off as Catholic teaching.

I really don't have much objection to the bishop of Scranton telling someone like Michael Voris that he can't speak on Church property. He's the bishop, and it's his house. Frankly, there really isn't any such thing as "freedom of speech" in the Church. Civil realm yes, Church no.

And Michael's view, no doubt, is much the same. Mr. Winters says that the best way to expose scoundrels is to shine a light on them and let people see for themselves. Michael's verbal style may not be to everyone's liking, but the point isn't the manner in which he expresses himself.

As with any whistleblower, whether you like him personally is utterly immaterial. Whether you think he's a rightwing nutter or a leftie traitor, you take his evidence and you examine it for yourself and see if he's telling the truth.



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Come to the *Other* Rome Blognic: conspiracy buffs welcome

This is odd.

I don't know how many times I'm going to have to say it, but I spose I could do it a few more.

I'm not creating a 'rival' event, and the main differences between the Scholar's Lounge Catholic Blognic and the Vatican blogger conference (which are being held on different days] are thus:

1) Whoever runs a Catholic blog, that is, is a Catholic and blogs about Catholic-related stuff, is welcome

2) I have no "selection process," and couldn't enforce one if I did, since I'm having it in a pub...

3) ... where there will be beer and food and fun and

4) no Swiss Guards (sorry Kat).

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Sign up now!

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Jackie Parkes who runs a blog in the UK, just sent me a somewhat puzzling, snarky note:

What is wrong with the official meeting? Aren't you being quite biased in your own links? Some bloggers loyal to the magisterium don't all link to the same bloggers..perhaps a third meeting could include them..

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

Hi Jackie,

Maybe you could read the posts around town about "what's wrong with the official meeting". A lot of people are talking about it, but most of all, what's wrong with it is the infinitessimal chance I have of being invited.

As I've said (many times now) I didn't want to miss out on the fun, so I'm having this one so I don't have to.

And yes, I'm being biased in my links. These are the blogs I happen to like. I invited them because they're the ones I pay attention to.

You will note, however, that the call is for people to invite whatever Catholic bloggers they want, and for any and all Catholic bloggers to invite themselves.

I don't have a "selection criterion" except, "be a Catholic, a blogger and want to come".

It's a funny thing to be accused of exclusivity when I'm putting a public notice of my event on my blog and on facebook and begging bloggers to invite whomever.

But if there's one thing that characterises bloggers of all stripes it's the pleasure they take in sniping at each other.

Normally I erase comments that contain the even tiniest whiff of snark, but this seemed like a teaching moment. Maybe bloggers have just become so used to thinking in terms of conspiracies and hidden agendas that they can't tell the difference any more.

I can help with that.

A conspiracy is usually done in secret and hidden agendas are, by definition, hidden.

We're having a party for Catholic bloggers, people who write about Catholic stuff on 'blogs that are read by the general public. We're holding it in a public place, where anyone at all can come and I am hoping that lots and lots of people will come whom I've never heard of.

The main speaker is Michael Voris, whose opinions are widely distributed on the internet. My own opinions and biases are also plastered all over the internet for anyone to see. Anyone who is in doubt as to my opinion on any topic whatsoever, is invited to email me and ask. As anyone who has read me for more than a week will know, I'll be overjoyed to fill you in.

I've been inviting bloggers by email and on Facebook and I have begged encouraged other people to do the same and to post the post on their blogs to make other people do so too. I've published an incomplete list of which bloggers I've invited, mostly so they will have a link appear on their blogs so they will notice it and come, or post something about it on their blogs.

I don't actually know who all has been invited, who intends to come or who is actually going to show up. The Facebook sign-up page is public for anyone on Facebook, and I've been sending it around by email to people who don't appear to be on FB.

Short of renting a truck with a loudspeaker on top and driving it around Rome on the day of the Beatification and inviting random passers-by, I'm not sure how much more non-conspiratorial I can be.

But if you really want to think of it as a conspiracy, if that gives you a thrill, be my guest. I'm thinking of helping out the Cloak 'n Dagger buffs by giving out "infiltrator" stickers at the Blognic. If you've come from some group that likes to imagine itself in some kind of rivalry, your Official Infiltrator sticker will be good for one free beer, on me.

OK?



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This just in

From the Vatican, issued to all who applied to attend their meeting

Dear Friends
By 8am Monday morning we had received over 400 requests.
On Wednesday 13 April we will close the application process and sort out requests into categories of language, geography, typology etc. and where necessary we will draw lots to make the final selection.

On Saturday a list of participants will be posted on www.pccs.va We are heartened by the widespread interest, and ask you all to be patient with this effort to increase dialogue with the blogging community, and also to support us with your prayers.
Richard Rouse & Ariel Beramendi

Richard Rouse spoke to Vatican Radio the other day, saying,

"One of the things we are a little bit aware of is that sometimes the Catholic blogosphere can become a bit of a ghetto…rather than engaging in the world outside."

When asked if he thought there are risks associated with such an initiative, Dr. Rouse said he knew the meeting could be different than others hosted at the Vatican.

“Certainly we are aware that a blog meeting can sometimes be a blog-fest and sometimes it can be a blog-fight,” he said. “We are aware of that, but our intention here…is to start to engage in a first step with Catholic bloggers. Further on down the line, I’m sure we will be able to articulate a more fulsome pastoral response to the reality, but first steps at a time.”

Discuss...

Living in Sin

Michael finds a bishop he likes! Wonders really do never cease.

I once had a friend who was very keen to be more than a friend. He really didn't get it about the whole Catholic thing though, so I was constantly telling him I wasn't interested, but since he was in other ways quite a good fellow, and quite thoughtful and kind, I didn't tell him to get lost. He knew that I would never indulge in anything sinful with him but he really didn't get why.

Then once, he told me about having lived with a woman for five years. He said that she grew increasingly unhappy and took her unhappiness out on my friend more and more, and of course, they broke up acrimoniously. He told me how much he regretted messing up his "relationship" with this woman.

I said, "Well, I can understand why she became angry with you. You were stealing from her."

He was very taken aback and said, "What do you mean?"

"Well, living with a woman, and having sex with her, without being married is appropriating something to yourself that you have no right to. You were taking the privileges of marriage without being willing to give yourself to her in return. You were stealing something precious and important, something that came out of her soul."

He looked very surprised and this, but finally told me that I had given him an insight he had never had before.

I do feel sorry for people out there in the secular, sexual free-for-all world. I see it portrayed on television shows, and some of them accurately depict how much misery it all causes, but none of them ever have a clew why everyone is so miserable. Unlimited sex was supposed to make everyone happy.

I can attest, it really doesn't.

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As an aside, I might have one criticism for Michael's video above. The sarcasm is just a tad heavy-handed, don't you think? But the point is taken.

Come see Michael Voris in person at the

*Other* Rome Blognic,

Sign up now!

May 3rd 1-5 pm @Scholar's Lounge Pub
Via Del Plebiscito 101b,Rome
just around the corner from Piazza Venezia and Largo Torre Argentina, across the street from the Jesu.

Look forward to seeing y'all.



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Confirmations, want-to-comes, maybes and stragglers

So, who's coming so far?

I've had confirmations from the following well-known bloggers:

Michael Voris
Salt n' Light TV's Rome correspondent
Rorate Caeli
New Liturgical Movement
Orbis Catholicus
Fr. Zuhlsdorf
Seraphic Singles
Discover Happiness
Ars Orandi (whose blog is visually stunning)

Plus a few who have contacted me privately and didn't want to go on the public list. (What can I say? Bloggers are quirky).
Plus a bunch of people who aren't bloggers themselves but just want to come and watch the bunfight.

Registered Maybes
John Smeaton
James Preece
Alex Schadenberg (who told me he'll probably come by proxy)
Dale Price
The Crescat
Weight of Glory

Invited but no response:
John Allen
The Anchoress (Elizabeth Scalia)
The Curt Jester
Chris Gillibrand
Andrew Cusack
Phil Lawler
Eve Tushnet and
Tom Peters


Had a LOT of people say they can't come but want to participate as talking heads via live feed/Skype/iChat or whathaveyou. I've confirmed that the place has Wifi, so this can probably be arranged. I'm still consulting tech-people.

Want to help out?

Send a note about the even to your favourite bloggers who you think might go and give em a poke about it.

We're particularly hoping to see John Allen, Edward Pentin, Andrea Tornielli and Paolo Rodari, all of whom have had the email and the FB invite. Send em a note and tell them there's a beer in it.



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