Million Dollar Baby

I saw "Million Dollar Baby" this evening....and it's awesome. I highly recommend it. I can barely think right now, for the reason I've listed below....but suffice it to say that the storyline is quite moving.

While it is an excellent movie - there was something completely eerie about me seeing it TONIGHT. Let me tell you a story about Macushla (Hillary Swank's character's name is Maggie, and her boxing nickname is Macushla):

My dad used enjoy sitting in the living room during the evenings, singing along with his favorite singer, John Gary. He's an Irish singer who was probably very obscure even back in the '60's when he released most of his work. My father played his album over and over again, singing along as if HE (my dad) had missed his calling and should have been a singer (not really, but he thought so). The John Gary album that my father had was this one (click here). You'll see there are two songs on the album that have the name "Kathleen" in them. He'd sit my sister, Kathleen, down on his lap and sing those songs to her. One of my earliest memories, when I was probably 3 years old, was asking where the "Kristina" song was on the album. He then told me a story that, in Gaelic, the name Kristina translated to "Macushla". From that day on Macushla was my song and my nickname. I'd crawl onto my father's lap and he'd sing me to sleep with that song. Imagine how surprised I was tonight to see that Maggie's nickname in the boxing ring was Macushla.

My father died 8 years ago today.