David J. McCarthy

“Res Ipsa Loquitur” at the Vatican: The Pope’s Tombstone

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Did you know that the spacing between letters is known as kerning? I had never encountered the term before, so the high profile botch committed by the stonecutter and those responsible for overseeing the completion of the recently deceased Pope’s tombstone has had at least one salutary effect: it has shined a spotlight on a seldom used word. Thanks, you boobs!

It and they have also revealed stunning ineptitude and carelessness at the highest level of public visibility and historical permanence. The kerning between the letters on Pope Francis’s tombstone make the ten letters read “F R A NCISC VS, rather than how it was supposed to read, “FRANCISCVS,” his name in Latin.

Brilliant. I wonder…. what’s the punishment in Hell for poor workmanship?

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My Mentor, My Friend: David J. McCarthy, 1935-2020

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Dave McCarthy

I have many things I want to write about, but this is something I have to write about.

I learned recently that my friend, mentor, teacher and my first boss David J. McCarthy, Jr. died on October 1, at the age of 84.  The key word here is probably mentor, but I’m not certain I have the perfect word for David. What do you call the person who probably did as much to influence the course of your life, all positively, than anyone else other than your parents? That was him. I know: I understand the real meaning of “The Road Not Taken.” It’s possible, even likely, that I would have ended up in the same place, or close to it, without someone pointing me to a path I had never considered at a point when I was desperately looking for options. But if a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can cause a hurricane in Milwaukee, David McCarthy was the pterodactyl flapping his wings who changed, literally, everything in my life.

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