Month: January 2008

Archbishop of York gives the Pope a bottle of beer

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This was originally a guest post at Stupid Evil Bastard, re-posted here following that site’s demise.

On official visits to meet the Pope, it is customary to provide a gift. Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister and recent Catholic convert, gave a painting of Cardinal Newman. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah presented him with a jewelled scimitar. So what did John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York (one of the highest ranking positions in the Anglican Church) give him? Beer.

When the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, met the pontiff he gave him the Holy Grail, a beer brewed in Masham, North Yorkshire.

It was the highlight of the archbishop’s first trip to Rome to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and to cement cordial relations between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

Following their 15-minute chat in the Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura, believed to be the burial place of St Paul, Sentamu said: “I told the brewery I was meeting the Pope and they made a special brew for him. I heard he’d been given some Black Sheep ale and liked it. So I brought that and the Holy Grail.”

The gifts pleased the Pope, who is Bavarian by birth and prefers beer to wine and water. That the tipple was a one-off would have also suited a pontiff with designer flourishes. During a two-hour service, which was peppered with incense, chanting, coughing and ringtones, his ruby-red Prada loafers peeped out from under his ivory robes.

It’s perhaps slightly ironic that the beer is inspired by the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as it was another of the Python films, Life of Brian, that brought out much angst from the Anglican and Catholic churches over claims of blasphemy. Holy Grail is produced by the Black Sheep Brewery not far from York and is available for mail order.

Father puts pins in son’s tongues because of God

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This was originally a guest post at Stupid Evil Bastard, re-posted here following that site’s demise.

A Nigerian-born father of two boys, living in the UK, felt that since God had his tongue cut off in the Bible, he must inflict similar injuries on his sons. He put pins in their tongues and through their lips, cut their mouths with scalpel blades, and pressing one of the boy’s tongue with sharp pliers until it swelled and bled.

It went to court, and he was found guilty of three counts of child cruelty. He pleaded not guilty; his wife also pleaded not guilty to essentially turning a blind eye to the cruelty. They await sentencing and a verdict on further charges.

Mildly interesting things that I have learned about recently

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  1. There is a phobia of bridges, known as Gephyrophobia – and there’s a New York Times article about it, via Kottke.
  2. The platforms at St Pancras International Thameslink railway station are labelled ‘A’ and ‘B’, to avoid confusion with the main national and international platforms. This was also used at the recently-closed King’s Cross Thameslink station (which St. Pancras replaced) and at Waterloo East station.
  3. Though all Mac Pros now come with two quad-core Intel processors as standard, you can opt to have just the one processor, saving around £320 (to a total of £1442.99). You can also spend over £17 000 if you want every build option, unlimited server license and all the professional software packages bundled with it.
  4. In the past year, thieves have stolen at least two bridges in Russia for scrap metal.
  5. ‘Akbar’ is Arabic for ‘great’ or ‘greatest’. I’d be tempted to post a picture of Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars and say it is a trap, but I’ll refrain.
  6. Frederick Lorz, an American athlete, cheated in the marathon in the 1904 Summer Olympics by travelling by car for 11 miles. He was first across the finishing line but another athlete, Thomas J Hicks was declared the winner, despite him too cheating as he had run the race under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
  7. In China, ‘Dan’ is a girl’s name.
  8. VLC can use many Winamp skins – see this guide.
  9. ‘Blighty’, a slang word for ‘Great Britain’, derives from the Hindustani Urdu word ‘vilāyatī’, which variously means ‘foreign’ or ‘homeland’. It originates from the days of the British Empire when Britain controlled India.
  10. Inner Mongolia is a region in northern China, ‘Outer Mongolia’ roughly corresponds with the independent nation of Mongolia.