Pope Francis entered Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital last Wednesday with a case of bronchitis. He was discharged on Saturday after a treatment of antibiotics and pizza. His Holiness really, really, really likes pizza.
More:
“Vatican: Pope OK to leave hospital, has pizza, baptizes baby,” Frances D’Emilio, Associated Press
“A Timeline of the Pope’s Obsessive Love Affair With Pizza,” Wil Fulton, Thrillist
St. Patrick (néeMaewyn Succat) was a 5th century Brit, abducted as a teenager as a forced laborer and trafficked as a swineherd to Ireland, where he got religion. He later escaped, went to France, and became a priest (at either Lérins Abbey or Auxerre) before returning to proselytize in Ireland. A millennium later, North America’s early Irish immigrants and their descendants began to celebrate the day of his death as a joyous holiday, which seems a wee bit ghoulish.
The party ramped up after the Potato Famine increased Irish immigration to the US in the mid 19th century. St. Patrick’s Day became a celebration of parades, corned beef and cabbage, fiddle music, soda bread, and green beer rather than the solemn saint’s day it had been in the Auld Sod, but that’s America for you. US tourists in Ireland expected a big bash on March 17th, and the host country was glad to oblige, in celebration of greenback dollars. The holiday has now gone global. Faith and begorrah!
In the 2020 election, 84 percent of White Evangelicals voted for habitual liar, golf cheat, and serial adulterer Donald Trump because he was the GOP candidate. Astoundingly, according to a survey, many Trump supporters began identifying as evangelical during his presidency — he brought them to Jesus. At least superficially.
But some devout evangelicals, raised in conservative GOP households, say that their political views became more liberal as they immersed themselves deeper into their faith. A FiveThirtyEight video by Tony Chow.
Popes dress in white, unless they’re in full regalia for ceremonies and such. Pope Francis is kind of a polos-and-khakis guy compared to his predecessors. A Vox video by Marie Cascione.
“Christmastime for the Jews,” a Robert Smigel stop-action animation featuring the voice of Darlene Love in a “Wall of Sound” production, from a 2005 Saturday Night Live episode (lyrics here).
Gut yom tov to all, and to all a good night.
Related:
“Why American Jews Eat Chinese Food on Christmas,” Adam Chandler, The Atlantic
“The history of Jews, Chinese food, and Christmas, explained by a rabbi,” Jamie Lauren Keiles, Vox
“The War on Jewish Christmas must be stopped,” Daniel W. Drezner,Washington Post
“Are Jews Doomed to Lose the War on Jewish Christmas?” Paul Waldman, The American Prospect
“Why ‘Jewish Christmas’ (Movies and Chinese Food) is Going Mainstream,” Sarah Seltzer, Flavorwire
“Fa-La-La-L’Chaim: Why It’s Okay For Jews to Celebrate Christmas,”
Charlotte Alter, TIME
“Holy Night: The little-known Jewish holiday of Christmas Eve. Seriously.” Benyamin Cohen, Slate
“Nittel Nacht: The Jewish Christmas Eve,” Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily
Christmas was once Banned in Boston, and throughout Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Some early American colonists weren’t too keen on Christmas. A video by History Dose.
More:
“Yuletide’s Outlaws,” Rachel N. Schnepper, New York Times
Why are Qanon True Believers impervious to facts? As prophecized, after 2020, Qanon became a cult, wholly based on belief, and you can’t argue with religious faith.
And this Cult of Q is growing. A recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core found that 15 percent of Americans say they think that the levers of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, a core belief of QAnon supporters. 15 percent of Americans, 30 million people, means QAnon has more followers in America than Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism combined.
More:
“QAnon Now as Popular in U.S. as Some Major Religions, Poll Suggests,” Giovanni Russonello, New York Times
“Christmastime for the Jews,” a Robert Smigel stop-action animation featuring the voice of Darlene Love in a “Wall of Sound” production, from a 2005 Saturday Night Live episode (lyrics here).
Gut yom tov to all, and to all a good night.
Related:
“Why American Jews Eat Chinese Food on Christmas,” Adam Chandler, The Atlantic
“The history of Jews, Chinese food, and Christmas, explained by a rabbi,” Jamie Lauren Keiles, Vox
“The War on Jewish Christmas must be stopped,” Daniel W. Drezner,Washington Post
“Are Jews Doomed to Lose the War on Jewish Christmas?” Paul Waldman, The American Prospect
“Why ‘Jewish Christmas’ (Movies and Chinese Food) is Going Mainstream,” Sarah Seltzer, Flavorwire
“Fa-La-La-L’Chaim: Why It’s Okay For Jews to Celebrate Christmas,”
Charlotte Alter, TIME
“Holy Night: The little-known Jewish holiday of Christmas Eve. Seriously.” Benyamin Cohen, Slate
“Nittel Nacht: The Jewish Christmas Eve,” Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily
Christmas was once Banned in Boston, and throughout Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Some early American colonists weren’t too keen on Christmas. A video by History Dose.
More:
“Yuletide’s Outlaws,” Rachel N. Schnepper, New York Times
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