hefcar

What's HOT on DVD? The MOM is having a ball watching You Bet Your Life, 50 year old episodes of Groucho Marx's TV show. The only 'special effect' is a toy duck which descends from heaven to announce a prize whenever someone says the 'secret word.' But the real magic lies in the man&woman-in-the-crowd guests: what Groucho elicits from them and how he responds to it all. Charming and engrossing.

Received from Annie:

I met my first astronaut this week. He was on the Space Station for six months. Can you imagine being up in space in a small confined area with only one other person whom you have a cultural and language barrier with. It's not like you can say I need a break from you; I'm gonna step outside and take a walk.
He had some fascinating pictures to show. He said that on the day they came home he was in space and then just three hours later he was signing an autograph for an eight year old girl.
I was able to get autographed pictures for each of the kids. I thought that my 13 year old son would be impressed and that my older boys would not be. I was wrong, the 13 year old could have cared less but my older boys thought it was pretty cool. OH well you never know.

In Chicago, miracles will happen today, and people will march and celebrate. Top of the morning to the lot of you.

Boy, those Irish really know how to celebrate St Paddy's Day. Received from friends in Dublin:

Dan, wishing you all a happy St Patricks Day - we will be in Italy celebrating in the sun (hopefully).
Regards,
Maurice & Kitty

Happy 22nd Anniversary, Annie and Ben. Thanks for the kind words and support.

From Birthday Girl Debbie:

THANK YOU SO MUCH DANIEL TIMOTHY!!!!! Thank you for my “young” birthday wishes!!!! Hope to see you soon for anything good!!!!

Keri, congratulations on reaching your fund-raising goal ! Wishing you great weather for your walk.

Ping Pong, anyone?

Happy Birthday wishes to the oldest child of the oldest Heffernan sibling (the FIRST of the first cousins) and the second youngest baby of the youngest sibling. Yes, they were both beautiful babes, as we see here and here, and are still mighty handsome (here and here). Happy glorious 74th to Jack! and of course, Debbie, you're younger than springtime. Nice age span in our generation.

I've started a 70s, 80s album with some photos from Eileen and Joe's 25th anniversary bash in 1980, including this priceless 21 cousins pic.

(Click photo to see large (one megabyte) version of this picture.)

Men, have you got your kilts ready for the parades?

From cousin Frank in Manchester, England:

i found hefcar on google and bookmarked. alot of work went into building it up- well done. frank---

Okay, folks, if you can't find your bookmark for this blog (I know, the dog ate it), just type hefcar into Google to find us.
Update: Yahoo Search has also taken note of us.

Here are some more Irish links for you if you want to do some Celtic surfing for St Paddy's Day.

From Jeanette:

I was only gone to Oxford for 7 weeks this summer. I guess that's what I get for not posting a message about my return. [I'm] back in Mt. Prospect as of last night.

St Paddy's Day is coming up so fast, some communities have already had their parade. Chicago, seemingly reflecting Ireland, has North and South factions. Northsiders march in the Downtown parade (which isn't held downtown anymore) and hang out at Heritage Center, while Southsiders have their own parade which has become just as big, and their own Gaelic Park. If you'd like a little flavor of the downtown parade, complete with green river, check out these 360º panoramic photos from the 2000 parade (the site includes a link for downloading the Quicktime software, if you don't have it - quick, painless download even with dial-up connection). If you want Irish rather than Irish American, there are a few Irish links in our Links column, including Irish radio.
Did you know you can Google in Gaelic? I just learned it at Irish Echo.

Webshots updates me each morning on how many 'views' have accumulated at the hefcar album, and then it emails me a weekly update each Tuesday morning. 268 views last week, bringing the total to 1,537. The most 'popular' albums are 30s, 40s (229 views) and 50s, 60s (239 views). I've slowed down adding photos to the album, but will continue.
The statistics I get about 'visitors' to this blog are ambiguous. It seems that 49 different computers have surfed here in the first week of the blog's life. Now, some people may visit the blog from more than one computer (home, work, cybercafe, library) and some computers may be used by more than one person to visit the blog. The number of visitors on any given day is in the single digit territory - except yesterday when the number was 13. So, we're talking a fairly small group of people here who drop by once in a while to see if anything new has been posted - very casual and relaxed. If you're reading these words, it's because you're visiting the blog - won't you email me a few words to let us know you've stopped by?

Ben offers help:

Hi Dan,
The email link works the way it's supposed to- which includes doing nothing, depending on an individual's computer set-up.
The link opens the default email application on the computer- for anybody using Windows that would be Outlook, if Outlook is installed & configured to work with their ISP. Yahoo! has a way to make their mail program the default for a computer, but I have always had a lot of trouble getting that to work.
I just copy the email address for the blog to my Yahoo! address book, and use my Yahoo! mail.
Ben

Making good use of the address book (whether Yahoo or Hotmail or Outlook Express or whatever) was the subject of my last letter to the heffernans email group. Using either the 'autocomplete' feature or assigning 'nicknames' to addresses, addressing an email can be as easy as punching a memory button on a phone. Take advantage of these shortcuts and let us hear from you. (Thanks, Ben)

From Carol:

Dear Dan,
I guess that if I click on Email Me on the side of the blog sheet I should get
my news to you. Well......Apparently that doesn't work on my computer or I
am doing something wrong. Help!!!!!!!!!!!
Carol

Have you managed to climb out from under all that snow yet, Carol? Sheesh! Such weather you're having. Makes me grateful for nice warm Chicago.
I don't know why clicking the Email me! link doesn't cause a preaddressed email form to pop up on your computer. Do you ever use Outlook Express or do you rely entirely on surfing to your Yahoo email box? I don't know if that makes a difference, I'm flailing here. But if the link doesn't work for you, ignore it and write me like you just did - your email arrived loud and clear, so just keep 'em coming, Carol

If you never separate whites from colors when you do your laundry, don't go here.

From Cy:

Dan, Thanks for the review on Passion. I hope to see it soon.
Can I call you a "bloggard", (instead of "blaggard"), or would that be inappropriate?
Cy/Mary and Cy

This blog is only a week old, but so far it has attracted very little attention, and has managed to mystify some of the few people who've come by to look at it. So without any likely prospect of a long-range (or even a short-range) future for this blog, I won't worry too much about the fact it was started on February 29th - which could be a problem if I were anticipating anniversaries. These morose musings were prompted by Heather, my advisor on leap years.

Went this afternoon to see Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. The showing was sold out, so I bought a ticket for the next showing. The audience I saw it with, another packed house, seemed predominantly Hispanic and Black. All talking ceased when the show started and only occasional gasps were heard from the crowd throughout the movie. Everyone remained in their seat for two hours.

Some of you have already decided not to see this movie because of what you've read about it. A tremendous amount of effort has been invested by many critics and others in trying to persuade the public not to see this film. I'm glad to see they've failed miserably. The movie is extremely intense emotionally and depicts a great deal of sadistic brutality and its results on a human body. A number of critics say that's enough reason to avoid the picture. Suddenly fans of Night of the Living Dead are offended by a bloody Jesus. The movie is gorgeously photographed, directed, and acted, and from what I saw around me today, has a singular effect on many in the audience. I don't see that effect including fanning of anti-semitism - that is not at all what the movie is about.

The film is also not a 'cult Christian' movie created by a 'cult Christian.' You'll have to ask the critics what they mean by 'cult Christian' but I expect you'll sense a whole lot of condescension in their answers.

From Jeanne:

I was reminded of Lisa and Scott's wedding while at church this morning. Our UU church did an early St. Patty's day celebration, featuring beautiful Irish music. At the beginning of every service is a "children's moment", where the Religious ed director either reads a story relevant to that week's message, or has some children from the church share their talents. Today we had Irish dancers, a young brother and sister team. They were wonderful, and it brought back fond memories of Lisa and Scott's wedding - seeing all those beautiful, talented children dancing to Irish music, and having a wonderful time doing so. :)
Jeanne (/Nora/Mary)

Happy Anniversary to Lisa and Scott ! Wishing you miles of smiles on this big day.