Me, oh, my. I have over a dozen French Catholic comic books of Catholic history. There’s no way that as a 10-year-old living in France I had read the history of the construction of the Abbey of St. Stephen of Caen, “L’Abbaye aux Hommes” (1960). The building started with a vow by William of Normandy, after winning a battle at age 19, to build a chapel of peace. Despite architectural terms I wouldn’t have understood in English or French, this chronicle of all the destruction and rebuilding of the abbey was fascinating.  A big Hmm to “Histoire de L’Eglise” (1957). If I had read this history of the church’s beginnings to the Crusades, I most likely took it in, hook, line and sinker. Sixty years later, I’ll let that version rest.

On the fun side, how I enjoyed the “Big5-Oh” in AARP magazine on Penelope Cruz, as well as the Milestone Birthdays of Jackie Chan, 70, Gladys Knight, 80, and Jane Goodall, 90. So cool.

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