Harvey’s Kitchen presents Laurelyn Dossett singing a song so new it doesn’t even have a name yet. Scott Manring is on guitar.

For more video from Harvey’s Kitchen, click here.

The New York Times reports: “ROME — Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday addressed for the first time the uproar over his decision to rehabilitate a Holocaust-denying bishop, expressing solidarity with Jews and strongly condemning Holocaust denial.” The whole story is here.

UPDATE: Now this. Probably not going to make anything better. Couldn’t this whole thing have been avoided?

I’m relaively new to this medium of blogging, but I do it enough to realize how much time and energy and passion it requires to create a really attractive and compelling blog that people want to visit again and again. I have a new friend in Calabria, American writer Michelle Fabio, who keeps just such a blog. But don’t take my word for it. Michelle’s blog, bleeding espresso, is a finalist for Best European Weblog for 2009.

Congratulations, Michelle! I hope you win. (You can vote for your favorite blogs, including Michelle’s, by following this link.)

When traveling in Calabria (and let’s face it, you really should start making plans!) it’s important to know there is a festival for every season. Cherrye Moore, at My Bella Vita, makes it easy for you to keep up and plan where to go next.

Kari Baumann, a Greensboro blogger, reviews My Cousin the Saint here.

For those of you planning ahead, I am delighted to report that I will be speaking about My Cousin the Saint at Queens College in Manhattan on March 12, a Thursday, at 6 p.m. I have been invited to participate in the Writers Read Series sponsored by the college’s esteemed Calandra Italian American Institute.

The address is 25 W. 43rd St and the institute is on the 17th floor. The presentation is free and open to all, but I’m told seating is limited.

The New York Times reports: VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI reaching out to the far-right of the Roman Catholic Church, revoked the excommunications of four schismatic bishops on Saturday, including one whose comments denying the Holocaust have provoked outrage.  The decision provided fresh fuel for critics who charge that Benedict’s four-year-old papacy has increasingly moved in line with traditionalists who are hostile to the sweeping reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s that sought to create a more modern and open church.

This video was shot by Michael Frierson, a film professor at UNC-Greensboro. We produced this one in both Calabria and Greensboro last year.

I think it’s fair to say that you can learn a lot about saints and the canonization process by reading My Cousin the Saint. But this blog post is good, too. By the way, St. Gaetano Catanoso is the patron saint of parish priests.

My oldest daughter called from Washington, D.C., this morning at about 7:15 a.m. “We made it!” she screamed. “We made it into the city. You can’t believe it. So many people. I sat next to a guy on the metro who came here from Ghana just for this! It’s amazing. This is the happiest place ever!”

It’s a new day, America. We can all be proud. And hopeful.