The CatholiCity Message

Volume IX, Number 8 – September 1, 2005

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

In a nutshell, we have all Classics for you today. A Classic Sneaker, a Classic Recording, a Classic Quote, and a Classic Prayer. Before we get started, we want to thank the hundreds of folks who helped CatholiCity.com by doing the real-time test of our re-programmed and newly-designed online ordering forms. You really helped a ton.

1. YOU CAN'T BEAT THIS WITH A STICK: ONLY $1 PER CD
The Gift Foundation has just re-released their incredibly popular CD "Planning Your Family God's Way" featuring three talks by Eric Scheidler, Steve Habisohn, and Dr. Martha Garza OB-Gyn. And, you can have as many as you want for only $1 per CD. Order it online today:

https://www.giftfoundation.org/transaction/index.asp?pid=2

Every married Christian (and those hoping to marry someday) needs to hear this life-altering, soul-changing recording. Eric Scheidler's story alone is nothing short of stunning. His dramatic return to his faith and delivery from a life of drugs and pornography through the adoption of NFP ranks with the Conversion of Scott Hahn and John Corapi's Amazing Story as one of the greatest conversion talks ever recorded. You will love every minute of it.

We don't recommend recordings very often–once every year or two. Only the best for you. We promise that when you're done listening to "Planning Your Family God's Way," you'll agree that not only were you inspired, but that you have learned something (or many things) you simply did not know before about your faith and how to practice it. Tens of thousands of copies of this classic recording were distributed just a few years ago before the Gift Foundation shelved it during a very successful overhaul.

The Gift Foundation, by re-releasing it for $1 each in any quantity, really is an apostolate after the hearts of CatholiCity Citizens. So enjoy!

P.S. While you're there, don't forget to pick up a few copies of Christopher West's "Naked Without Shame." It's a fantastic 10-CD Introduction to the Theology of the Body for only $3.90 per set:

https://www.giftfoundation.org/transaction/index.asp?pid=1

2. OR CAN'T BEAT IT WITH A RACKET
If you don't care about sneakers or sneaker history, you might want to skip to the next item. It's back to school time again, and while out shopping a couple days ago for new shoes for the kids, we discovered that Adidas has also re-released a classic: the Stan Smith tennis shoe.

When it comes to sneakers, there are three names of pro athletes in the Sneaker Hall of Fame. Everybody knows about Michael Jordan and Nike Air basketball shoes, now celebrating its 20th anniversary. The first $100+ sneaker.

Pick-up basketball junkies past a certain age know that an obscure pre-dunk era basketball player named Chuck Taylor was immortalized by endorsing the canvas-and-black-rubber Converse All-Star, which today, available in no fewer than 732 ugly colors (for purists, the only color for the Chuck Taylor is bland beige–it's canvas, for heaven's sake!) has sadly degenerated into a fashion-statement for junior high school girls. Or, worse, for boys who don't play basketball.

Then there is the Stan Smith. Was Stan a good tennis player? That is besides the point. Fashioned from supple, elegant leather, featuring ground-breaking support insoles, with a dashing green heal highlight and daring, barely noticeable pin-punched holes in a chevron pattern on the sides for real ventilation (not to mention the two-gazillion round-white-stub soul pattern for Michelin-like traction on grass, clay, or concrete) the Adidas Stan Smith was perhaps the first, only, and last truly perfect sneaker.

It was superb as a pure athletic shoe during the game. In fact, we are not ashamed to proclaim that we never played a lick of tennis while donning Stan Smiths ourselves. It was an excellent pick-up basketball sneaker.

And it was, by our estimation, the first sneaker to cross into the now-common realm of social fashion. It was the sneaker that made the sneaker fashionable for dinner, drinks, or movie. Blue jeans and khaki shorts just plain looked better above the Stan Smith.

It wore out perfectly too, growing more comfortable over time like an old friend. In the late second half of the last millennium, a cottage industry even existed to re-sole old sneakers by mail-order, in no small part due to the love owners showered upon their Stan Smiths.

And as far as your feet were concerned, the Stan Smith was an unparalleled ally. When it was all said and done, perhaps its greatest virtue was its lack of soggin', heat-trapping inside cushioning. Only leather in there. The Stan Smith really was a cool shoe, inside and outside–and from every angle.

Then came the Sneaker Wars of 1990s and the era of expensive, fancy-pants trendy tennis, basketball, running, aerobic, and gimmicky cross-trainer shoes driven by marketing-money and the completely un-needed necessity for sneaker manufacturers to release a new "style" every five days. Somewhere along the way, the Stan Smith disappeared. We're guessing, ironically, that sneakers lovers the world over can thank not Adidas, but its erstwhile competitor, K-Swiss, which started releasing throwback sneakers without all the silly and ugly bells and whistles a few years ago. Sneakers buyers discovered, through the genius of K-Swiss, that the only real "style" is one that lasts.

The Stan Smith was gone. Now its back. We bought three pairs, as an investment, if you will, in beauty, and just in case those pinheads at Adidas ever take our love away from us again.

CLASSIC QUOTE
"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."
G.K. Chesterton

3. UNDER WATER
Much of Louisiana is under water due to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. It's difficult for folks outside of the region to grasp just how uniquely Catholic the cultural heritage of this lovely state is. And since the beginning of the Mary Foundation way back in 1991 and CatholiCity back in 1996, Louisiana has always been a hotbed of evangelization and zeal. Thousands of folks from the area have distributed countless numbers of our books, tapes, and CDs "down there," and we know that many have been hurt or even perhaps have lost their lives or the lives of a friend or family member. Let's pray for our brothers and sisters and all those who have been affected by the hurricane by reciting together, all 60,000+ of us, the classic prayer to Our Lady by a classic French saint, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Memorare:

"Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, we fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do we come, before thee we stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not our petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer us, Amen."

Thanks for being a part of our work. Don't forget to get your copy (or copies) of "Planning Your Family God's Way" for only $1 each. We'll see you again on this side of September.

With Christ,

Your Friends at CatholiCity