Complaisant: Seamus Bends Toward the Breaking Point

“Why are you so complaisant, Seamus?” his sponsor asked, a hint of irritation in his husky voice. “You keep bending to everyone else’s wishes. Why?”

Conducting a Sockdolager: The End of the Line

Upon learning about Seamus’s fondness for trains and the Beaverbrook’s desire to see the “the End of the Line” in Elmira, A. J. MacDonald’s father delivered a sockdolager: "Seamus, I’ll drive you there, son. It’s only handy from where I spent my first fifty years. Let's go before the roads get slippy, eh?"

Seamus J. O'Sheehan's Castle: A Historical Novel in the Making

Most of the previous posts are snippets from Seamus's story, summarized here: A professional hockey player’s spiritual malady, his father’s death and a family mystery prompt Seamus J. O'Sheehan to reinvent himself, from the inside out.

Pecuniary, Purpose and Prayer

"Your potential pecuniary success, the big bucks you may earn playing in the NHL, matter not one iota to me," Father O'brien once told Seamus. "You will excel at hockey here at St. Kevin, of that I've got little doubt, son. But what will your true purpose be? Who among us knows the answer until we've been tested. I will pray for your soul, Seamus, not your earning power."

St. Kevin Parochial School Hockey: Fundamentals, not Foofaraw

Seamus J. O'Sheehan's hockey coach at St. Kevin Parochial School despised behind–the–back and between–the–legs passes—too much foofaraw for youngsters. What they needed to survive in hockey and in whatever vocation they chose to pursue after hockey was dedication to mastering the fundamentals.

St. John Journal Entry: The Hapless Hockey Confederates

Written by the Mickey Dupere, the fictitious St. John Journal' hockey scribe:

Losers of their last six contests, the hapless Charlottetown Confederates look for better luck (three post-ringers in the third period last night against the Bridgeport Barnums) when they play the St. Andrews Beaverbrooks this weekend. The Feds will need to shore up their team defense; it's like one PEI Islander commented to this reporter: "They're running around like a fart in a mitten."

Etiolated: Weak Imported Play and Vegetables

The Beaverbrooks, 0-5 losers to the Atlantic Puffins, left St. John's with a favorable impression of the local hockey team, as well as the music and pub scene, but the team was less impressed with its weak performance and the days-old etiolated imported vegetables. (Newfoundland can grow stout hockey players, but the province's acidic and stony soil aren't conducive to cultivating first-rate greens.)