http://www.cityofsmoke.com New York History, Commentary, and Culture Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:02:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/991 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/991#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:13:17 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=991 Among the publishing sensations of 1836 was a book by one Maria Monk entitled Awful Disclosures, which purported to be her memoir of life in a Montreal nunnery. Hot stuff by early 19th-century standards, Monk's book claimed that all nuns were forced to have sex with priests and that the "fruit of priestly lusts" were baptized, murdered, and carried away for secret burial in purple velvet sacks. Nuns who tried to leave the convent were whipped, beaten, gagged, imprisoned, or secretly murdered. Maria claimed to have escaped with her unborn child.]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/991/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1504 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1504#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:32:21 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=1504 The red hats hang from the ceiling of St. Patrick's Cathedral, high above the sanctuary. Each galero-a circular, broad-brimmed hat, ornamented with thirty tassels of scarlet thread interwoven with gold, fifteen to a side-denotes that the cardinal who possessed it had once possessed the cathedral and held jurisdiction over the]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1504/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1114 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1114#comments Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:51:44 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=1114 James Aloysius Harden-Hickey, Baron of the Holy Roman Empire by command of the Supreme Pontiff, editor, novelist, swordsman, and adventurer, who would proclaim himself James I, Prince of Trinidad, and die by his own hand, was born in San Francisco on December 8, 1854. ]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1114/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/543 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/543#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:43:48 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=543 On August 19, 1815, the Commerce, an American brig of 200 tons, Captain Misservey commanding, raced through the Narrows under full sail after outrunning two British frigates in the lower Bay.  Someone—Misservey never said who—had paid him 18,000 francs in gold to depart immediately from Bordeaux for New York, and]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/543/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1446 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1446#comments Wed, 05 Apr 2000 04:43:09 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=1446 The titles of the Pope sound like a fanfare: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State, Servant]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/1446/feed 0