Sic
They who climb too
high a pedestal will end up wearing a Doric flat hat
Another week gone by
and not even a phone call from the pope.
* * *
You're driving along and the driver
in front of you does an illegal whatnot, such as an illegal left turn. Are you
the type who hopes he (well, it would never be a she) gets caught, or do you
secretly wish he gets away with it? Your response says a whole lot about who
you are deep down. The above is pop psychology.
* * *
On certain days Sicperson (the
handiwork of NCRperson Pierre Jorgensen) wakes up feeling like the picture.
Frisky. We immediately resolve to climb every mountain, ford every stream,
drink every Michelob, in short we go for the gusto, hitch up our toga, write a
few pages of papyrus and voila! we're a monument from the heroic past.
* * *
Florence Walker of Edina writes,
"Thanks for starting Sic again." She enclosed wisdom from high school
papers:
"Thunder is a rich source of loudness." "Cadavers are dead
bodies that have donated themselves to science." "Mushrooms always grow in
damp places, so they look like umbrellas." "A permanent set of teeth
consists of eight canines, eight cuspids, two molars and eight cuspidors."
"Rhubarb: a kind of celery gone bloodshot."
* * *
Today I celebrate 76 years," adds
Walker. That was last May 29. Sic belatedly names her Fabulous Woman of the
Week.
* * *
Chuck Becker from Clifton writes
pathetic poetry while out on a theological limb:
In this church that has always been male, Isn't it time we
balanced the scale? It goes without stating, Great women are
waiting To celebrate the eucharistic feast. So don't give up hope,
Let us wait for a pope Who will tell her husband he can't be a priest.
* * *
If there's one thing Sic is famous
for, it's reminding the unwary that the next pope may be the man sitting next
to you even as you read this. Or the man with battered suit and cheap plastic
collar at the mall eating a hot dog. Or the one who took an illegal turn just
ahead of you -- it could be Naples, Buffalo, God knows where. The point is,
he's out there. And, not being pope yet, he could be doing goofy things like
illegal turns -- hell, he's not even infallible yet.
* * *
Meanwhile, serious questions from, we
think, the Web:
Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds? Have
you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations? How does the guy
who drives the snow plow get to work in the mornings? If 7-11 is open 24
hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the door? (Sic's answer:
it's for leap years.) If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they make
Teflon stick to the pan? If you tied buttered toast to the back of a cat and
dropped it from a height, what would happen? If you're a vehicle going the
speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights? Why is it that
when you transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when you
transport it by ship it's called a cargo? You know that indestructible black
box that is used on planes: Why can't they make the whole plane out of the same
stuff?
* * *
But -- are you sitting down? -- not
only is the next pope out there, so is the one after that. Indeed, it may be
the one after that who took the illegal turn. Experts say the next pope will be
an old one -- figure it out -- so the one after the next one is probably
sixtysomething as we speak. And a hot dog eater.
One asks oneself: When he sees the next pope elected, will the
one-after-that pity him for taking on such a big burden, or will he be jealous
that it wasn't himself and he already sixtysomething and maybe thinking his
career is over?
* * *
Tourists have been gathering in
Roswell for the 50th anniversary of the alleged crash of aliens and their
craft. Explains the Cutler Daily Scoop: "Once again, intelligent life is
not landing in the desert."
* * *
Dennis Hope from Rio Vista has been
selling off the moon for big bucks. First he wrote the White House, the
Kremlin, the UN and others, staking his claim. No one objected. By mid-June he
had sold 10,000 parcels -- 1,777 acres a shot, which seems generous, but why
should he be stingy, since he is sole owner of the whole universe other than
earth? The price, according to the Los Angeles Times, is $15.99 plus tax
and shipping. This proves once again that capitalism works. Communism wouldn't
have a chance out there in deep space.
* * *
Writes Joan Panaro from Santa Rosa,
"I need to add a last line to Dillon's second limerick" (NCR, May 23).
She did:
... "And bury that pile of schtick." Now, if one could just
work backward and figure out the first four lines.
* * *
Dan Brown sent in the syllabus from
the University of Oregon, including the following: "In this six-session
course, students will participate in sex sessions designed after Harvard
Professor Herbert Kelman's problem-solving workshops."
* * *
More science from the fifth
grade: "Rain is saved up in cloud banks." "In some rocks you can find the
fossil footprints of fishes." "Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it
on a dog's tongue will kill the strongest man." "A hurricane is a breeze of
a bigly size." "It is so hot in some places that the people there have to
live in other places."
* * *
If anyone tells you hubris isn't out
to get you, don't believe it. Or, in the words of the legendary Erik "The Red"
Skallagrim:
For whoever shall be placed On a pedestal shall too Bear its
weight on her Head. Or his. Or vice versa.
This is how Sicperson came to be wearing the Doric Look.
* * *
Let's face it, the next five or six
popes are probably out there. Acting like real people. Some are preaching or
pastoring or maybe going to high school. That little guy who just wet his
diaper may be papabile, not to mention that altar girl with the infallible look
in her eye. It's enough to keep Cardinal Ratzinger awake at
night.
National Catholic Reporter, August 15,
1997
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