Last week, during downtime in her freshman CA class, Molly engaged in a vigorous defense of her eternal essence. The instigators of this deep, philosophical debate were Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Molly's mischievous pal who said, "If your mother's a ginger, you don't have a soul." South Park references aside, I'm here to defend [...]
Category: kostelnik
Chicago is our kind of town
"Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning." - Carl Sandburg We tasted Chicago this weekend and enjoyed 24 hours of wind-blown, gnocchi-flavored, irreverent fun. We celebrated life in all of its delicious, silly, competitive, tasty, warm, witty glory so that, by [...]
These are the women who raised us
My grandmother climbed mountains in her bare feet, raised hell and three hearty children on the edge of a small Pennsylvania mining town. Oldest child of the indomitable Baba Melnyk, who hitched a ride to America all by herself when she was just 13-years old, my grandmother earned her matriarch status with a sharp tongue, [...]
The jersey boys: a circle of Lombardi inspired friendship
A late and unexpected Christmas gift celebrated two key factors in my father's life -- football and friendship. The gift, given to my son Vinnie this week by his godfather, John Olson, mirrored an equally sentimental gift "Ole" gave me nearly 30 years ago. Back then I found one last package addressed to me and [...]
Lombardi’s defensive captain for life
When he described a true friend as someone who "advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably," William Penn might have been describing a fellow William, former Packer great Willie Davis. Davis, a Hall of Fame football player and a defensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers [...]