Something About Wool Over the Aye-yi-yis in Pompeii

10 Outrageous Acts Committed by Renaissance Popes

John Bellairs’s long-time friend from college, Alfred Myers, shared with us once how he and John were both “attracted to the rogues, eccentrics, and general foul balls of the papacy than the much more numerous austere, competent and virtuous examples.” Bellairs wrote a few fictional hagiographical studies of popes belonging to the former categories in Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies (1966) (title character pictured).

Something About Pompeian Political Ads

Or something about voting and hot air.

Something About a Pope, a Pope, and a Pope

omne trium perfectum?

Something About a Slap

Back of the hand-me-down world.

Something About Misokinesia and Fidgeting

Twist and shout.

Something About the Oud

Not Norweignan wood.

Something About Pompeii and Circumstance

You can’t take it with you.

Something About The White House

Cornering the market on history.

Something About the Pilgrim Pope

How many times did the pope cross the ocean?

Celebrating the 'Year Of #Pompeii'

This opening paragraph in Forbes recently caught our eye:

New excavations have been ongoing at Pompeii for a few years, largely related to conservation work and other attempts to protect the UNESCO world heritage site from both looters and the environment, but 2018 has produced dozens of visually striking artifacts and skeletons that suggest 2018 was the 'Year of Pompeii.'

The ancient town is best remembered for being destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD - some 19-hundred years ago. Some of the archaeological interests that surfaced this year include:

Litany of Saint Fidgeta (rev.)

 As you prepare (or wait) for the film, keep Saint Fidgeta on your mind:

• From the wandering wonder we suffer while waiting in long lines ... sweet Fidgeta, deliver us.
• From the pandering previews that preoccupy our time ... sweet Fidgeta, deliver us.
• From the "Let's Go Out to the Lobby"-like earworm playing incessantly in your head ... sweet Fidgeta, deliver us.
• From the feeling during the film we will see our noses and it will make us cross-eyed ... sweet Fidgeta, deliver us.

Gettin' #FidgetSpinner Wit It

As you're celebrating the feast day of Saint Barhadbesciabas today (get ahead of others and look him up), you might find yourself a little irritable, a bit restless. And you might find yourself twitching in mass. And you might find yourself jittery during the Eucharist. And you may ask yourself, well, how did you get this fidgety?

Where's There: Hagia Sophia

Mother Ximenes' Handbook for Grade School Nuns features a section on things Catholic students should know, one fact of which is that a priest is living in the walls of Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul, Turkey (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies; 107).

What's What: Diagonal Architecture

The Cathedral of Saint Gorboduc, among its many wonders, is one of the few churches that features examples of diagonal architecture (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies; 34).

Who's Who: Saint Goar

Some local figure named Goar has a thing for baptisms for those crossing the Rhine River (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies; 66-9).

What's What: L'Osservatore Romano

The publication L'Osservatore Romano issued a statement about the investigation into whether Floradora should be declared a saint (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies, 83).

Who's Who: Dean Husk?

"And who, may I ask, is Dean Husk?" The Question Box Moderator may be asked an assortment of oddball inquiries but this time he’s out to ask one of his own (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies, 49-50).

Where's There: Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The White Sepulchre of Armbruster, Pennsylvania, is the home base of the Knights of the White Sepulchre, a semi-militant arm of the church, whose home organization is a plaster cast of this major Christian pilgrimage site [Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies; 100].

What's What: Prayer for Fair Weather

The Moist Heart missal lists several prayers for Mass, including this one that counters the previous Prayer for Rain and instead asks heavenly guidance to parch the mushy earth [Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies; 119).