When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was a science fiction show called The Time Tunnel. If you remember it, please come see me after mass and we can reminisce. The premise of the show was pretty simple, as I recall it. Some inventors had come up with a way to travel in time, but once they’d started traveling they couldn’t control the machine very well, so for each week’s episode they were randomly landed in the past or the future, one week on board the Titanic, one week in the future space age, then the next week all the way back to the dinosaurs. So…

Every family tree has a few branches that have some people on them that you aren’t eager to have it generally known that you’re related to. My spouse will confirm from experience that I have more than a few branches like that, and this week I found myself remembering one of my cousins back in the Midwest. A few years ago this cousin went to the doctor and reported to him that she seemed to have pulled a muscle in her lower back while doing some heavy lifting in the garden. After examining her, the doctor informed her that she was expecting. In fact, he estimated that she was expecting…