What I saw today

- Reading about Reschensee ... an artificial lake in the western portion of South Tyrol, Italy ... famous for the steeple of a submerged 14th-century church; when the water freezes, this can be reached on foot. A legend says that during winter one can still hear church bells ring.

- Taking the SNAP challenge - When I first started college, my parents got divorced and for a while my mom, sister, and I were on food stamps. I recall two things about it. One was that you could only use food stamps for food - that seems obvious but there are so many things you need from the grocery store besides food ... soap, TP, aspirin, pet food, garbage bags. The second thing I remember was the way the other people in the check-out line looked at us when we once bought Leibniz cookies with food stamps ... I guess people on assistance don't deserve snacks.

- a really interesting blog - Nineteen Sixty-four ... a research blog for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. It has some statistics about Catholics that I wouldn't have expected, like the info in Unmentionables?: Faith and Sex, Principle and Practice

- the church's never-ending story :( ... Poland's Catholic Church Apologizes To Sex Abuse Victims

- And finally: my brain has been eaten by BuzzFeed Animals :)