Gerry Matatics Still Alive! (Says he'll prove it by embarking on August 5-15, 2010 lecture tour of New England & New York)
I want to begin by thanking the thousands of people who've been sending flowers, condolence cards, and links to online traditional Catholic dating services to my wife all this year.
Because I had not updated my website since December 28, apparently these good foik had concluded that the only possible explanation for this was my untimely (?) death. But as Mark Twain once famously quipped in a cable he sent to a newspaper that had mistakenly published his obituary, the reports of my death, too, have been greatly exaggerated (no doubt fueled by wishful thinking on the part of some).
By the way, I was totally kidding about the flowers, etc. (including, hopefully, about the dating services): no one really sent any condolences (or even congratulations) to my wife. To be fair, the lack of condolences probably says a lot more about my shortcomings than about theirs.
My August 5-15 New York / New England lecture tour
To provide scientific, incontrovertible proof that I have not yet "shuffled off this mortal coil" (as Hamlet would say), I could think of no better demonstration than to spend August 5-15 speaking one last time in all the cities in New York and New England that I haven't already returned to in my 300-city "swan song" megatour.
As many of you know, I did partial sweeps of New England in 2006 and 2008 and of New York in 2007. Both my limited schedule and my limited funds on those occasions, however, didn't permit me to hit every single city in those states that I'd previously spoken in, which is the whole point of my megatour (to speak in every such city one final time).
This August 5-15 sweep is therefore necessary: not having bowled a "strike" on those 2006-2008 trips, I must now make the rounds again to pick off the "spares." But as far as my future plans go, this should therefore be my very last lecture tour of those seven states, except for one week-long intensive tour of New York City and Long Island that I hope to do either this fall or next spring. On that trip I plan to finally speak in all five boroughs -- Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens -- and also at three different locations on Long Island: somewhere on the west end of the island (e.g. Glen Cove, Oyster Bay, Westbury, or Rockville Center), somewhere mid-island (e.g., Commack, Central Islip, or Coram) and (possibly) somewhere on the island's east end. (I've never been out there, due to the absence of a Hampton Inn in the Hamptons -- which would, I'll wager, strike even Chesterton as being at least slightly paradoxical.)
An Apology & Explanation
Before I tell you where I'll be speaking on this August 5-15 tour and what I'll be speaking about (including an exciting debate on the New Mass), I really do need, though, not only to humbly ask everyone's forgiveness for not having updated my website at all this year before now, but also to explain why I haven't.
...Read more
