Movie critic Peter Howell has just added a few more days to his stay in purgatory for this April Fools joke.
Not an April Fools Joke
I am almost finished mailing off copies of the :Trenchcoat Farewell Project: to those who paid off their installments. Indeed, all that remains to send out are one claimed copy and three unclaimed copies. I see we have a couple of people checking in from Australia about the status of their copies: please be assured that these are on their way. However, reasonable postage to the island continent gets your package there in six weeks. I did have the packages insured, however, so it will get there.
God’s April Fool’s Joke
And this three days after and two days before expected 15’C weather. Cue my annual whining about the joke the weather plays on us in southern Ontario around this time of year. April truly is the cruelest month. At some point within the next 28 days, the temperature will cross 30’C. I guarantee it.
Getting Serious Again
John Paul II (likely to be John Paul the Great) wasn’t my Pope, but his passing deserves to be marked. As much as I disagreed with his stance on homosexuality, the ordination of women and birth control, I note that, under his Papacy, the Anglican Church came the closet in recent history to reunification. Then the Catholics had to declare a Marion year. Then we ordained a woman bishop. Oh well, maybe the next Pope will prove to be more flexible to the forces of history. Miracles do happen, so maybe Anglican-Catholic reunification may still happen in my lifetime.
That aside, one cannot forget how John Paul stood up for human rights, or his role in the liberation of Poland from Communism. I’ll always remember the fondness he had for Canada, and how that bond brought him back to Toronto for World Youth Day, whereupon he insisted to come down from the plane on his own two feet. He lived a fuller life than most of us could ever dream of, and all the monuments he receives will be well deserved.
When the CIA placed a bug in the College of Cardinals fifteen days hence…
“Okay, my friends, we’ve had one round of deciding who will succeed il Papa. Now it is time for the next step. Are you ready?”
(General agreement)
“All right. Remove one of the chairs.”
(Scraping of chair legs).
“Pull the chairs closer together.”
(More scraping of chair legs).
“Now. Re-start the music.”