Subject for September 15, 2010 Meeting - What's Wrong With The World

The 29th Annual Chesterton Conference has just ended (Aug 7, 2010). The Conference celebrated the 100th anniversary of Chesterton's book What's Wrong With The World. You can still see the Conference agenda here. You can read WWWTW at Project Gutenberg here. While it was not listed on the agenda, we had a great treat when G.K. himself made a special appearance. Yes, Chuck Chalberg (pictured above) attended the Conference and donned his wig, cape, hat, pince-nez and swordstick, as he provided a short visit from Mr. Chesterton. The crowd loved it.

At any rate, all that was simply to alert potential meeting attendees to the fact that the initial subject of discussion at the meeting will be selected essays from WWWTW. I'll suggest these three; The Emancipation of Domesticity, The Modern Slave, and Folly and Female Education. I'll have copies of those available. We can, of course, discuss anything and everything.

A Look at Knott Auditorium, Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, MD

Here's a couple of pictures of Knott Auditorium. It will be full of Chestertonians beginning this Thursday.

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

After having dinner in Emmitsburg, at Otts pub, my wife and I drove out to Mount St. Mary's University. It's only a 5 minute ride. You can't miss it. It's quite visible from the road (Rt 15 South). The buildings are well marked and we drove right to Knott (Marion Burke Knott) Auditorium by following the signs. The auditorium is the site of the Chesterton Conference. There are some obviously older buildings further up the hill that are quite attractive. You can view a campus map here.


I found St. Joseph's Church right in Emmitsburg for Mass tomorrow. I couldn't find any pictures of the inside of the church. Maybe I'll take some tomorrow. Here's a drawing of the church from the church's web site.

ChesterTones to Perform at ChesterTen Banquet

The about-to-be-formed Barbershop Quartet, The ChesterTones, will perform at the ChesterTen Banquet. Members of the quartet are: Kevin O'Brien (Lead), Bob Cook (Bass), Joe Grabowski (Tenor), and Don Brady (Baritone). All, of course, are Chestertonians. We've all been working on the music independently (Kevin, just since the first of this week). Our first time singing together will be a a yet-to-be-determined practice at the Conference. It should be exciting.

Summer Break in Meetings

Summer is here and most folks are taking their vacations. In light of that, we'll be taking a summer hiatus. Meetings will resume on September 15, 2010. If you've got the time and inclination, you might consider attending the upcoming Chesterton Conference. Here's an info card I received in the mail yesterday. It should be a great Conference. (Click on the agenda to enlarge it.)

As Nancy noted on the ACS Blog, there has been a change in one of the presenters:
Msgr. Swetland, from the host institution, can’t be there. He’s just taken a new job: President of Seton Hall University. Dr. William Marshner, a theology professor from Christendom College to speak instead on “What’s Wrong with Theology?” (He’s brilliant. It will be a great talk.)

Watch This Space for Possible ChesterTen T-Shirts

I hope to have some T-Shirts made up for the upcoming ChesterTen Conference. If they look OK I'll post some pictures of them here. Even if they don't look OK, I 'll still post the pictures. We all have different ideas of what's OK. Right?

ChesterTen Registration is Open.

It seems strange to access the blog and not see Max Beerbohm's caricature at the top. It looks to me like Mr. Ted Schluenderfritz (the logo designer) might have gotten some of his inspiration from Max's caricature of Chesterton. Then again, maybe not.

Uncommon Sense Podcast #23 Now Available

Nancy Brown interviews Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society, in the latest Uncommon Sense Podcast. It contains lots of good info on the upcoming ChesterTen, this year's Chesterton Conference.