My Singing Isn't That Bad...!

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Twitch of the mantilla to Thorn in the Pew.

Who's Been Typing On My Computer...?

I had to go to the opticians today: I'm trying out some new lenses as my astigmatism has worsened slightly. I was due for a discount, and the chap setting up the direct debit needed to get a password from Head Office in order to get the computer system to recognise this.

Head Office is far, far away...

My chap had the relevant screen up, with a little dialogue box saying "Password?" and he rang Head Office on his mobile. I expected them to give him the password.

No. Passwords are meant to be secret. They are not for distributing to the riff-raff on the shop floor...

Instead, the young man quoted his IP address. And then the cursor began to move and a little line of asterisks appeared in the box...

Spooky stuff...!

Buggy Appeal

The Sisters of the Gospel of Life made a plea for help: they desperately need baby buggies for some new mums who have applied to them for help. I saw the appeal, noted that they were asking for help from anyone based in Glasgow, realised that London is nowhere near Glasgow, said a prayer for the Sisters, their appeal and the mothers and babies, and then moved to another blog...

NOT the intelligent response!

The really intelligent response would have been to do what Fr. Tim did: realise that sites like Amazon are happy to deliver, provided you give them a delivery address. And then advertise the fact on your blog (but praying for the Sisters, their work and the mums and babies as well is a good idea too!) Anyway, the Sisters are at:

Sisters of the Gospel of Life
106 Dixon Ave
Glasgow
G42 8EL

...and, if you go through the Amazon link on Fr. Tim's blog, then his parish gets a few pennies back from Amazon as well!

Heheheheh...

Damian Thompson has alerted us to the fact that Archbishop Piero Marini's book tour has been cancelled... sorry, "indefinitely postponed." Shame it wasn't cancelled (sorry, postponed) before he came to England.

Then again, his book launch at Westminster Cathedral might be considered as having flushed all the liberals out of the woodwork so that they could be readily identified...

Not Good For The Old Ego...

Comment today from a Year 10 student (15 year-old) who had a GCSE Science module exam on Tuesday...

"Miss, everything you taught us was in that test we had!"

I was pleased that he felt I'd covered the course material... I was less pleased at the tones of surprise and incredulity which accompanied the comment!

Good News For A Change...

A British Airways Boeing 777 crash landed at Heathrow this afternoon. After a sudden, catastrophic total shut-down, the pilot managed to "glide" the airliner over houses, airport buildings and a busy road before "belly flopping" it onto grass just 50 yards inside the perimeter fence.

The flight from Beijing nearly had one wing ripped away as it landed 400 yards short of the runway and its rear undercarriage sheared off as it skidded a quarter of a mile to a halt.

136 passengers were virtually unscathed - a few whiplash injuries.

The captain was described by one passenger as looking "very pale" as the plane was evacuated. Understatement of the century, I should imagine...

Deo gratias.

Political Correctness Taken To Extremes...?

Looking at revision posters produced by one of my Year 7 classes, I was stopped dead in my tracks by a diagram of an unborn baby "in situ" so-to-speak. It was very well drawn. What got me was the label: an arrow pointing to the swollen abdomen and "pregnant person" written beside it!

Don't look at me. I'm very definite I told the class that women were the ones to get pregnant!

Along a similar vein, the Curt Jester has an excellent proposal for all of us who are tired of being labelled "homophobes" - we need to embrace the victim culture and declare how hurt we are at such hateful and judgmental language. Time to challenge the homophobiaphobes!!

Justification For A Large Family?

Parents of more than 2.4 children are often challenged by complete strangers with thoughtless comments... this has to be the best reply yet! Mantilla-twitch to the Ironic Catholic.

A Very Unhappy Bunny...

I'm not amused... not one little bit...

Firefox (my browser) appears to have had some sort of conniption, updating itself. This isn't normally a problem... however, this time my home page was changed and all of my carefully collected and labelled (and sorted) bookmarks have been dumped. Educational sites, travel sites, reference sites, blogs... all gone!

Grrrrr...

Another Christmas Present...

I was bought this as a stocking filler. It has some rather nasty jibes at religion, but ignoring that chapter, there are a few mildly entertaining quotes...

"I wish I'd known you when you were alive..."

"I have a previous engagement which I will make as soon as possible."

"If you had a brain, you'd be dangerous."

"You have an hourglass figure... pity the sand has all settled in the wrong place."

My favourites involve Sir Winston Churchill...

Nancy Astor: "Winston, if I were married to you, I'd put poison in your coffee."
Churchill: "Nancy, if you were my wife, I'd drink it."

Bessie Braddock, MP: "Winston, you are drunk!"
Churchill: "Indeed, Madam, and you are ugly; but tomorrow I'll be sober."

Time For Another Joke...

A man was in his front yard mowing grass when his attractive blonde neighbour came out of the house and went straight down to the mailbox.

She opened it then slammed it shut and marched back into the house.

A little later she came out of her house again went to the mail box and opened it, looked inside, then slammed it shut again. Angrily, she stormed back into the house.

As the man was getting ready to edge the lawn, the blonde came out again, marched to the mail box, opened it and then slammed it closed harder than ever.

Puzzled by her actions the man asked her, "Is something wrong?"

"There certainly is!" she replied, "My stupid computer keeps saying I've got mail!"

Watch This Space...

Catholic World News had this little snippet to report...

Apparently, Iranian film makers are making a movie about the life of Christ, but based on the teachings of the Qur'an... in other words, "Jesus, God's Spirit" will honour Jesus as a prophet but not recognize him as the Son of God.

The film's director, Nader Talebzadeh has been quoted as saying that the completed film will be "better than Mel Gibson's Passion."

Umm... No. "Holy prophet crucified by Romans" versus "Son of God, crucified for our sins, defeats Satan and rises from dead." No contest.

UPDATE: I've just been corrected on a tenet of Muslim belief... "Holy prophet spared by God, allows another to be crucified by Romans instead" versus "Son of God, crucified for our sins, defeats Satan and rises from dead." Even less contest.

SPUC Has A New Blog

John Smeaton, Director of SPUC, has started a blog, which you can find HERE.

One of the important topics he tackles is that of organ donation, and the recent suggestion to change the law in the UK to allow presumed consent to organ donation, unless a patient has opted out.

I used to be all in favour of organ donation: I registered as a donor some time ago, when I got my driving licence (before that, I carried a donor card.) I remember the anger I felt when my father's wishes in the matter were ignored by the hospital when he died - the staff didn't believe my mother when she explained he'd have wanted to donate his organs... it was only when it was too late that they discovered his donor card in his hospital locker.

In retrospect, I think there might have been some complication because of the inquest which would have been necessary (my father died after coronary artery bypass surgery) but I'm not sure of the ins and outs of the legal system: I was only 15 at the time.

However, I've had a lot more experience of hospitals since then, both as a patient and as a professional. And now there is the problem of what constitutes "treatment", and when exactly a patient is considered to be dead.

I have little doubt that more PVS patients are going to be killed by starvation and dehydration. The same applies to elderly patients who are no longer able to speak for themselves: the desire not to receive "burdensome treatment" will now be presumed. And it's a short step from starving someone to death to pointing out that, in order to harvest their organs before they are unable to function, it would be kinder to allow the patient a "swift, merciful release" by lethal injection...

The Church Is Not A Democracy, But...

...I have to admit that I like the idea put forward by Damian Thompson. Mr Thompson has set up a separate email address for nominations, which he will, presumably, pass on to the Nuncio. The Hierarchy do not appear to be quite so enamoured...

Heheheheh...

There are some rules, however. Nominees must be Roman Catholic priests or bishops. And you can only nominate one person, so choose wisely. No details of nominators will be passed on. The address for nominations is nextcardinal@yahoo.com

One Of My Bugbears...

I get irritated by the misuse of apostrophies. I used to feel like a dreadful old pedant for making such a big thing of it... and then the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" hit the bestseller list.

However, I was delighted to find a young man having a rant on You Tube about much the same thing...

Twitch of the mantilla to Mark.

Something Not Quite Right...

I suffer from the cold. I have done ever since I had a major altercation with a motor car in my very distant teens: the car bonnet was, I am told, seriously dented. Flying teenager landing on top of bonnet is not in the manufacturer's rcommendations. Anyway, since that time, I get cold really easily. I wear polo neck jumpers during the summer (under a blouse) My core temperature is totally normal, I just feel cold.

So, I am inordinately fond of hot water bottles. One year I was given a duck shaped one: "Egg" proved to be very popular on the Winter Conference that year. We were in Upholland instead of Stonyhurst, and they hadn't turned on the heating before we arrived. There was a heater in the chapel which looked like the engines on a jumbo jet. You had to sit right in front of it (and risk being crisped) or you would freeze. Quite a few people wanted to hold Egg for me...

This year, as well as getting a new hot water bottle from my mother, I also acquired "Sleepy Bear" - she had two, and I cast covetous eyes upon one of them...

Now Sleepy Bear is designed to go into the microwave. He comes out all warm, and smelling sort of oatmealy. And he's more "clutchable" than a hot water bottle... and he retains the heat really well...

But... In order to get him to fit into the microwave, you have to make him sit up... and I have to confess to feeling a bit mean when turning it on...