Putting the old straw hat back into the mothball closet...

With the end of the Labor Day weekend, summer in America "officially" draws to a close. We don't wait for the autumnal equinox in this neck of the woods.

The Johnstown FolkFest was a pleasant diversion. The expected rain never came. Terrance Simien and his entourage, as well as a salsa band called Bio Ritmo, proved most enjoyable. Still, in this writer's opinion, the annual event has devolved over the years, into an over-commercialized showcase for local yokels playing warmed-over disco and Top 40. Thankfully, many of the people of this heavily ethnic enclave know better, and you can still hear the polka and see authentic folkdancers.

My friend and I spent part of Sunday in the little town of St Michael, located north of Johnstown, for their annual arts and crafts weekend, including a visit to the firehouse for a big breakfast. My friend is an avid collector of American folk art, and did some early Christmas shopping.

Overall, the people of Johnstown and its environs are the friendliest you could ever want to meet. The economically depressed state of the downtown area does not dampen their spirits in the least. From 1889 onward, they've been through worse.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world...

His Eminence Roger Cardinal Mahony (a man who will go to his grave never quite getting it) inaugurated his new Cathedral over the weekend. He began the celebration with the rich and famous, eliciting this comment from the Boston Globe: "On Tuesday, the cathedral will be open to members of the public for two Masses. The rest of the week includes invitation-only festivities, ranging from a civic prayer service on Wednesday to a black-tie gala on Saturday. Missing from the invitation list are most of the cathedral's low-income parishioners, who live down the street from the hilltop cathedral in one of the nation's poorest areas. Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said the cathedral will perform social outreach efforts later but the initial cathedral and parish events are primarily for civic and church leaders."

(I read once where Nero fiddled while Rome burned. I wonder how Rome will handle things this time around.)

On the up side, the dancing nuns who carried incense with braziers wore habits with veils, and the altar is graced with a suitable crucifix showing our Suffering Lord.

A Yahoo News slide show commemorating the event, shows what Yours Truly would be wearing in place of a biretta. (See highlighted photo, left of center.)

Finally, as Gerard Serafin notes at his weblog, today begins a novena in commemoration of the events of last September 11.