Amusing Headline

Michael Flynn, science fiction writer and notable, drew my attention to this unintentionally hilarious article. The headline reads "Education Board calls for Less Cuts to Schools".

Well, you don't need me to tell you what's wrong with it, do you?

I'm on a Mission from God!

We've gotta get the Churches back together!

Mots D'Heures: Gousse Rames

A colleague of mine brought in a delightful tome to work today. It purports to be some kind of collection of medieval French poems (complete with scholarly footnotes) but, if one reads it aloud, one immediately recognises that the French poems are actually English nursery rhymes cunningly disguised. Who would think up something like that (much less publish it)? Fantastic!

Below is one example (which I hope I can reproduce without breach of copyright):

Chacun Gille
Houer ne taupe de hile
Tôt-fait, j'appelle au boiteur
Chaque fêle dans un broc, est-ce crosne?
Un Gille qu'aime tant berline à fêtard.

(Luis van Rooten, Mots D'Heures: Gousses Rames, Penguin Books, 1980)

The author/editor interprets this to be a short tale about a country bumpkin (a Gille), who adores carriages and other such pleasures and who, having uncovered part of a seed while hoeing, calls to a limping man something about cracks in pitchers and Chinese cabbages (the editor conjectures there might be some moral implicit here which is lost on the modern reader). What becomes immediately apparent upon reading the thing aloud, however, is that it is actually 'Jack and Jill'!

Historical Blindness = Unintentional Humour

There was an interview with Roger Alton, editor of The Independent, in the Catholic Herald this week. It was a serious and very interesting interview. Roger Alton is not a Christian, but he has some worthwhile things to say. Some way into the interview there is this anecdote:

A lot of religion has been maligned if you look at some of the murderous bits. I was talking to the Archbishop of Canterbury [Dr Rowan Williams] the other day - a lovely man - saying I do love Anglicanism because it's relatively harmless and hasn't gone around killing people, and he said: 'Well, I don't know about that.'

When I read that, I couldn't stop laughing for at least two minutes!

Nerd Test

As I recall, in school, the epithet tended more towards "spock" than "nerd". Not sure if there's a difference of meaning or simply nuance between the two terms. At any rate, apart from the awkwardness statistic (which surely cannot be right), I think that's a pretty accurate assessment.

The Church's Final Hours

Found this linked on Mark Shea's blog. Looks like the Catholic Church is going to collapse today. Because of course revelations made to an anonymous website manager in 1985 MUST be true. (Especially when his website has such cool music!)

Besides, this guy seems to have a knack for prophecy. After all, he can describe actions taken by Pope John XXXIII!

Haven't heard anything on the news yet. But then, Italy is behind us by several hours. Best keep my ear to the ground.