iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Petrvs and Carolvs, the Greybie Duo, send their regards.

⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Every aspect of St Elisabeth’s Chapel bears the hand of its creator. Deeply grateful to the parish administrator for taking the time to open the building for me and @principia1662.bsky.social today. (2/2)

Rose window by Connick; in the corners, the emblems of the Evangelists, in the center, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Nunc Dimittis.

Wrought iron door handle featuring a bouquet of roses, the emblem of St Elizabeth of Hungary.

Interior of the chapel. View of the chancel and altar.

View of the altar fittings, Spanish retablo, and gilt reading desk.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It was truly inspiring to visit Ralph Adams Cram’s family chapel today, where he, his wife, and much of his family await the Last Great Day beneath a canopy of towering pines. #narthex ⚓️ (1/2)

Facade of the Chapel of St Elizabeth of Hungary, a simple building with a rose window covered in flowering plants.

Two gravestones visible in front of a small masonry chapel, all framed by pine trees that seemingly converge in the heavens.

Gravestone: Ralph Adams Cram, Architect. Dec. 16, 1863 - Sep. 22, 1942
Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Gravestone:
Elizabeth Carrington Read Cram
June 10, 1873 - Sep. 30, 1943
Fac eam Domine de morte transire ad vitam

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Key West has a lighthouse, but it’s not nearly as gay as Chicago’s.

The pierhead light at Osterman Beach, a two-level red-oxide structure surmounted by a light, with a utility shed at the base, upon a concrete pier painted rainbow colors.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

In which I explore a half-century-old assessment framework for the spiritual health of the parish church (link in replies)

“Treasures from Old Journals, Part 1: The Viable Parish”

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Main Street works best when it is the destination in a Republic of Front Porches.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

When the sky over the ancestral church goes all Windows Screensaver 🤩

Puffy cumulus clouds over a brick church with a white steeple, set in the middle of a cemetery full of gravestones.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Quite an unusual visitor passed by the Chapel today. Rather a Big Boy, in fact!

UP 4014, a large steam locomotive, approaches on a hot, hazy afternoon. An American flag s visible on the foredeck. In the lower left corner, a man is photographing it.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Northern Lights over the ancestral cemetery.

Aurora Borealis visible in the sky over Trappe, PA.

Aurora Borealis over the Old Trappe Church, Trappe PA.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Sunflowers: just the thing for a satisfying annual garden. (Protected them from vermin until they’ve germinated.) They grow satisfyingly quickly, and pollinators love them, too!

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

This is one thing that large parts of New Jersey actually get right, probably due to most of the coastline having only been developed in the 19th century as railroad resorts.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

News that HoB had elected *someone* came immediately prior to HoD’s adjournment for lunch. During lunch, someone in the Secretariat put the name of the winner into the resolution on the Virtual Binder, and rumors *immediately* started flying. Bit of an anticlimax when it was actually announced.

An accidental leak of the name of the new Presiding Bishop. Note the time; the Houses were, at that moment, adjourned for luncheon.

(Your reporter was dining with his S/O and said S/O’s rector, with some others, in the food court at the Omni.)

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

The difficulty with concrete is in how it’s used - Candela’s thin-shells are another case where it sings. But for every one of those, there’s a thousand atrocious lumps - parking garages, substations, tower flats, and such - all miserable with rising damp and weird stains.

A thin-shell concrete structure by Felix Candela. What concrete can do.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

On this National Historical Marker Day, a reminder that the text on historical markers is only as good as the sources cited. Quite a bit of this unofficial marker is, quite frankly, inspired fiction, the product of fishy secondary sources, or faulty memory.

A marker for the SS Atlantus, which contains several inaccuracies.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

On the one hand, 1700 really is a bit too early for the Great Vigil. On the other hand…

The interior of Washington Memorial Chapel, lit primarily by communicants with hand candles, and with afternoon light filtering through the stained glass windows.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Fulfilled is all that David told In true prophetic song of old, Amidst the nations, God, saith he, Hath reigned and triumphed from the tree. #goodfriday at #valleyforge

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

YES Also, fun fact, it was given in memory of a deputy to GC who died of pneumonia while there. He’s immortalized as the bearded man at lower left corner (who bears a startling resemblance to the last Rector)

“The Vision of Saint Paul,” a window at St Paul’s Church, Troy NY. The Saint is kneeling at bottom center, flanked by members of the Church Militant and Expectant; angels and an iridescent rainbow divide the scene and Christ stands above, surrounded by angels. Two seraphim appear in the top tracery, with a cloudy vision of the New Jerusalem in the top center trefoil.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

In undergrad I was at St Paul’s in Troy - which is currently in transition, but quite proximate to RPI. Also the *entire* interior is by Tiffany.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

A couple of bonus pictures of St. Paul’s, Troy NY to brighten your Wednesday.

A Tiffany window featuring four angels in front of a sort of golden pavilion.

The high altar of St Paul’s, Troy NY. Mosaics, rail, stenciling, and glass by Tiffany; the altar masonry itself predates the 1890s renovation by a decade.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Visited my undergraduate parish, St Paul’s, Troy NY, this past weekend. Built in 1828 to a Gothick design by Ithiel Town, it was gut-renovated in the 1890s by Tiffany Studios.

Interior of St Paul’s Church. An ornate beamed roof replete with dangling chandeliers leads towards a blue wall with a large Gothic window in the center.

Exterior of St. Paul’s, Troy. A grey fieldstone church with pointed windows and a square, wood-framed belfry.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

In surveying the *uggo* part of the church after Mass, I seem to have created a unique variety of cognitohazard.

Exploded field survey notes of an L-shaped structure, with two components thereof broken off into separate vignettes, and one in turn subdivided into two.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The Litany for Refugees, with Part 2 in the alt text:

For those who await their salvation in refugee camps, Hear our prayer.
For those who have abandoned familiar paths to seek freedom among strangers, Hear our prayer.
For those whose lives are enclosed in barricades of bitterness, Hear our prayer.
For those who brave mountain passes or raging seas to keep their souls in liberty, Hear our prayer.
For those who are fleeing from the ravages of war, Hear our prayer.
For those who struggle against tyranny and oppression, Hear our prayer.
For those destitutes fleeing the scourge of greed, Hear our prayer.
O Lord, hear our prayer; And let our cry come unto thee.
O God, thou hast cast us out, and scattered us abroad; Thou hast moved the land and divided it.
O set me upon a rock that is higher than I; For thou art my hope, and my defense.
Let us pray. O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O Lord, our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; we beseech thee to bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of their fellow human- ity. Endue them with wisdom, patience, and courage to strengthen the weak and raise up those who fall; that, being inspired by thy love, they may worthily minister in thy Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the sake of him who laid down his life for us, the same thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
May Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, grant you to be strengthened with inward might by his Spirit; that, Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith, ye may be filled with all the full- ness of God. Amen.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

How meetings moving onto Zoom tomorrow due to the Eagles parade finds me:

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

The Martyrdom of St Stephen, from a stained glass window by Valentine d’Ogries (1889-1959) at St. Mary’s Church, Wayne PA.

An image of St. Stephen, kneeling atop a banner reading “LORD forgive them for this Sin” as a man prepares to throw a rock at him.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Three Masses, all well-attended, in the books at Valley Forge. Having been the last one out at 0130, it’s time for this Parish Nuisance to settle in for his long winter’s nap. Christmas greetings to one and all!

An exhausted-looking blond man in a dress shirt and bow tie standing in front of a large Gothic building. There’s a light on in the hallway inside, but that’s okay - he had to make one more trip inside to grab his coat, and shut it off at that time.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

I’ve [finally] finished my evaluation of the new furnishings at Notre Dame. The architectural work that’s been done so far is quite impressive! But… askwallace.substack.com/p/the-bowls-...

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

The Hunter and the Good Shepherd over Tuxedo Park

St Mary’s in Tuxedo against a starry winter sky. One window, of Christ greeting the little children, is brightly lit from within. Orion is visible overhead and to the right.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

First snow of the season - always makes me smile. (The big tree is a Cedar of Lebanon, which my grandmother believed to have germinated around 1959 and was planted here in 1967.)

The Ancestral Homestead on a snowy night. A large yellow house with black shutters and candles in all its windows stands behind a massive Cedar of Lebanon tree.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Attended the First City Troop’s memorial for George Washington this afternoon, at St. Peter’s in Pine Street, a “fore-and-aft”church with pulpit stack on the west end and organ and altar on the east! Also got to see @matthewjmcgovern.bsky.social block traffic with a horse.

Troopers preparing to leave following the service. The large organ case dominates the east wall, and was, as you might expect, a late addition.

A member of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry on a horse.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

#BonneMaman Advent Calendar Day 11 (Transferred): Pineapple-Yuzu Jam I’m still not quite sure what a “yuzu” is, save that it imparts a slightly bitter, forest-greenish taste which nicely corrects the sweetness of the pineapple. One imagines this being served over fresh ice cream.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

#BonneMaman Advent Calendar Day 10 (Transferred): Raspberry-Rose Jam The inclusion of rose(hips?) in this recipe makes for a vaguely floral taste, which nicely complements the raspberry flavor. There was something vaguely grape-y afoot, but not in an obscene way.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

#BonneMaman Advent Calendar Day 9 (Transferred): Rhubarb-Spice Jam I’m learning that I’m especially fond of the taste of rhubarb; it’s like a more pastel-tinted sort of strawberry. And this, with the spices? YOMMÉ.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

#BonneMaman Advent Calendar Day 8 (Transferred): Lemon-Elderflower Jam Cheerful and summery. A bit runny by virtue of the ingredients. This would make a particularly delicious filling for a tart. 11/10.

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⚓️ Parish Nuisance in Exile @askwallace.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Face of a cat who totally did not just tip over an (undecorated) Christmas tree

A classic tabby sitting on top of a white banker’s box, not a trace of guilt or sense in her beady little eyes

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