From "Catholic Matters" (p.226)
Monday, April 18. At the moment, at this very moment of writing, my dominant thought and feeling is far from edifying. This wretched laptop computer lost all 2,000 words of today's dispatch, and the technological wizards of EWTN have not been able to retrieve them.
As John Calvin is said to have said upon delivering a book to the printer, "It is very much like dropping a beautiful rose down a very deep well, never to be heard of again." That was centuries ago, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that determined folk would be able to find a copy. Not so in this age of digital revolution, and digital frustration. But enough. By an act of near-heroic selfdiscipline, I banish distracting outrage and set about reconstructing at least a digest of what seems worthy of report.
A few hours ago, the Sistine Chapel was hermetically sealed, or as hermetically sealed as anything can be in a world of high-tech communications, as a journalist described the world upon the laying of the first transatlantic telegraphic cable in 1858 or thereabouts. There is something deliciously satisfying in watching the more than 6,000 reporters accredited to these events, along with their hundreds of satellite trucks and anchorpersons at the ready, being forced to watch a stovepipe for a puff of smoke.
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