WHEN I was a newspaper reporter in my twenties, I worked in an office in the Pennsylvania suburbs with another young woman named Meredith.

Meredith was bright, pretty and she was small like me. She was a hard worker and ambitious.

Eventually, I moved to another office and Meredith took a job at another newspaper in North Jersey. We both married and had children. We both left journalism, but while I stayed home, Meredith pursued a new career as a clinical psychologist.

She became very successful in her career. She joined a busy group practice in an affluent area and had many clients. They came to her for advice about all kinds of things. She would sometimes tell me about her conversations with them, without revealing identities. People in this world often have no one to turn to for comfort, advice or wisdom. When once they might have gone to the woman next door, sitting at the kitchen table, or a priest now they pay fantastic sums to go to psychologists.

One of her clients was a woman who had tragically lost a young child in a car accident. Meredith helped her adjust to driving again. She seemed to have many clients with difficulty handling their children. Once she had a boy who was about 11 and who could not adjust to returning home from school to an empty house every day. He was eventually given some kind of hypnosis to help him cope. Once a young couple came to her and asked her if it was okay if they didn’t have any children. (more…)

A COUPLE in Louisiana sent a donation last night and wrote:

This is a donation from George and Lily, who met through your site in 2014. We were married in May 2017 and are hoping to have children soon! We hope that if we have a girl, we can name her after you! Have a blessed day! (more…)

  IF YOU offer your hand, she will take it. You are the child you always were. She is the mother she always was.

  CATHOLICS who reject the papacy of "Pope" Francis and his Vatican II predecessors, as well as the new forms of worship, don't just exist in Europe and America. Though small in numbers, they are all over the world. In these fascinating videos, courtesy of True Restoration, (here and here), Nigerians explain how they arrived at their position and their efforts to convert others in their country.

FRANK sends a second donation and writes: The truth is heard and needed even in the godless Germany I live in. There are still some Germans who love the truth.

  GWEN sends a donation and writes: You are an encouraging and confident voice to me, a stay-at-home mother of faith. You have filled a void left by my mother, a feminist. I am forever grateful. I am emboldened to continue pursuing a life of feminine grace and virtue.  

NITIDA STELLA (Transl. Clear Star)

Clear star,
happy girl,
you are the flower of flowers;
O Blessed Mother,
Virgin Mary,
Pray for us! (more…)

SUSAN-ANNE WHITE writes from Northern Ireland:

I would like to ask your opinion on an event which took place this week in the UK. It was the British Fashion Awards.

I saw links to it on Youtube although personally I have no interest in modern fashions as most are immodest and vulgar and sometimes frightening.

At this year’s ceremony the Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle) was an unexpected guest and she presented an award to the woman who designed her wedding dress. The woman who announced the appearance of the Duchess is an actress called Rosamund Pike and in my opinion she looked androgynous. Some of those in the audience looked likewise strange and evil.

Meghan Markle is a feminist and, in my opinion, a dangerous woman. She was dressed immodestly and made a point of drawing attention to her pregnancy. Feminists love to wear tight, clingy clothes when pregnant to convey the message that pregnancy will not change their lives or inhibit their activities in any way shape or form. Some feminists wear such clingy T-shirts when pregnant that their umbilicus is clearly seen bulging through the fabric.

Gone are the days when expectant mothers dressed in lovely feminine smocks etc and took things easy so as not to harm their unborn babies.

The pregnancy of Meghan Markle is worth commenting on because something doesn’t seem right. Some commenters on Youtube have declared it a fake pregnancy. I do not know, but it does seem strange that in some photos over the weeks since her pregnancy was announced she either doesn’t look pregnant at all or she looks further along in her pregnancy than her due date dictates. (more…)

  A READER sends $50 and writes: I have been reading your blog for years and so admire the thoughtful and fair-minded approach you take to the topics you write about. Thank you for creating such a beautiful place on the Internet. PS: My daughter (29) also thinks your "awesome." Laura writes: Thank you for your appreciation!  You and your daughter are now officially Thinking Housewife Fat Cats. I am deeply grateful, and hope this generous donation will bring unforeseen -- and unseen -- benefits to you. To others: Please donate today and become a Fat Cat for a mere $25! You won't regret it. The views expressed here are absolutely, 100 percent guaranteed to make you different and stand out from the crowd!! Thank you for your kindness and generosity.                 

  DO you see these peanuts? Do you know what I could have done if I were a successful advertising copywriter with a few rhetorical tricks to get you to buy them for Christmas? I would have convinced you, with just a few words, that instead of possibly being made in a peanut sweatshop somewhere by people who have never heard of Virginia, they were roasted in an "artisanal" workshop.  I would evoke craftsmen in black aprons roasting nuts over a roaring fire. Once I used the words "artisanal" or "hand-picked," I would have you, and then could basically lather it up with the "sea salt," which would evoke images of yourself in the open air, instead of stuck in traffic or on the sofa, exhausted from the daily grind. The "bacon cheddar" flavoring -- possibly not made from much of anything from a pig or a cow, but in a laboratory  -- would be a problem. But I would use the word "small batch" before the "bacon cheddar." That would divert your attention from the "artificial flavors," which evokes smokestacks and people in labs. Words like "handcrafted" and "small batch" and "artisanal" unfailingly work in advertising even though large numbers of people basically realize they are shams. They work because everyone instinctively wants to live in an artisanal world. We were made for a "small batch" economy. We despise the conglomerization of everything, whether we know it or not. Some…

  A READER sends a donation and writes: [This is] from a Protestant couple who knew they were a perfect match when they discovered that The Thinking Housewife was one of several reactionary blogs that they both perused regularly. Keep up the good work! Laura writes: Thank you! Ha! I'm thrilled you found each other and wish you much happiness.

CHRISTOPHER in Paris sends a donation and writes: Thank you, Laura, for your excellent work in gently guiding right-thinking people towards the difficult truths that they must acknowledge in order to be set free from the monstrous lies that are the foundation of today's world.

THIS great performance of Pachelbel's classic, the Canon in D Major, by the Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra is not Advent or Christmas music. But somehow it seems right for what I want to say. I dedicate this posting to all the readers who have supported me over the years and to those who have written to me, in agreement and non-agreement, and also to those whom I have had the pleasure of personally meeting. Every time I have met a reader of this blog, I have been encouraged. I always say to myself, "Wow, I must be doing something right because he (or she) is an interesting and thoughtful person -- warm and considerate too." You give me hope. As my friend Lawrence Auster said, "I'm glad to be living through the apocalypse with you." Thank you to all my supporters, especially those who have given during my latest fundraising campaign, which continues. I can assure you, all the readers of this site have a special place in  my prayers. That is a corny thing to say by the standards of our cool, tough world, but so be it. It's true.  

  I AM seeking 100 donations of $25 today. I have only six more to go! Thank you for your generosity.               

KYLE writes:

The current attack on retro Christmas-time entertainment brings to mind all of the pop vocalists of the past who had five decade careers in radio, television and film yet today, we only hear them at Christmas time. The lasting legacy of some of America’s most iconic popular vocalists will likely be their Christmas recordings. Crooners like Crosby, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Andy Williams hosted dozens of Christmas specials.

From the perspective of someone born in the 1980s, the America of these Christmas shows seems so remote. (more…)

  'THANK YOU' very much to the readers who sent donations in response to my latest fundraising campaign. I am grateful for your generosity. However, it is not over yet! I am looking for 100 readers to donate $25 today. Please consider a contribution. Donate via Paypal below, or write to me at thinkinghousewife@msn.com and I will send you a mailing address. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you read this blog regularly, or occasionally, and if it is worth the price of two movie tickets, a trip to a museum, the price of a decent paperback, or a week of take-out coffee, I hope you will donate. A reader sent a donation this weekend and wrote: I have read your blog for many years. I admire you for your truth and for your courage. I wish I had 10 percent of each. Another reader wrote: Your website means so much to me; it’s a haven of sanity, and wholesomeness,  in a world that is getting exponentially crazier and sicker by the day. Thank you so much for all you do! And thank you for your encouragement and generosity.               

EVIDENCE of rampant sexual abuse in pubic schools (or synagogues) never gains much traction in the media. Only stories, many of them never substantiated, of abuse in the Catholic Church count. See more at TheMedia Report.com.

  ADVENT is traditionally a time of fasting and penance. It's also a good time to consider the subject of gluttony. The sin of gluttony does not just involve eating too much food. It can also entail thinking too much about food or being too fastidious. You can usually find thin people who are gluttons in natural foods markets. Drinking to the point of inebriation is also a form of gluttony. A worthwhile sermon on the subject can be found here.