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Bell

Flashback When Same-Sex Marriage was a Christian Rite

Image
© SS. Sergius & Bacchus - 7th cent.
A Kiev art museum contains a curious icon from St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai in Israel. It shows two robed Christian saints. Between them is a traditional Roman pronubus (a best man), overseeing a wedding. The pronubus is Christ. The married couple are both men.

Is the icon suggesting that a gay "wedding" is being sanctified by Christ himself? The idea seems shocking. But the full answer comes from other early Christian sources about the two men featured in the icon, St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, two Roman soldiers who were Christian martyrs. These two officers in the Roman army incurred the anger of Emperor Maximian when they were exposed as 'secret Christians' by refusing to enter a pagan temple.

Both were sent to Syria circa 303 CE where Bacchus is thought to have died while being flogged. Sergius survived torture but was later beheaded. Legend says that Bacchus appeared to the dying Sergius as an angel, telling him to be brave because they would soon be reunited in heaven.

Cell Phone

Teen runs up dad's cell bill to nearly 22,000

Hayward, California - A 13-year-old teen was probably in hot water with his father after running up a cell phone bill of nearly $22,000. Ted Estarija said he was expecting his bill to be higher this month after adding his son to his plan, but wasn't expecting a bill of $21,917 in data usage charges. The Hayward man said his Verizon Wireless bill soared after his son apparently downloaded about 1.4 million kilobytes of data last month.

His plan didn't cover data usage, so he was charged by the megabyte.

Smiley

Satire - Britain deciding which souvenir to hurl at Brown

Butress
Experts say the flying buttresses of Bath Abbey would hurt
Britain was last night pondering which model of a famous building it would throw at Gordon Brown's head.

Families across the country became embroiled in heated arguments over the best historical souvenir for knocking the prime minster's teeth out, as experts stressed that if you wanted to leave Mr Brown with stitches you should really use a tiny cathedral.

Roy Hobbs, from Doncaster, said: "We were in Stratford back in June and I picked up this lovely, detailed model of Anne Hathaway's cottage. It's got three little chimney stacks and it's good and heavy."

But Mr Hobb's wife Jill insisted: "Anne Hathaway's cottage is bullshit. You want something with lots of spikes and knobbly bits. What about York Minster sellotaped to a brick?"

Yoda

Most unparliamentary language: Irish member of parliament succinctly sums up the state of affairs


Smiley

Washington student gets tongue stuck to flagpole

Vancouver - It sounded like something out of the popular holiday movie, A Christmas Story but it was actually a real-life drama for a Vancouver boy whose tongue got stuck to a flagpole in below-freezing temperatures outside his school Wednesday morning.

Alki Middle School officials called 9-1-1 for help just before 9 a.m. and Clark County firefighters arrived quickly, armed with lots of potential ideas to help the distraught boy. Turns out, the age-old remedy of a splash of warm water did just the trick and the middle school student was happily sipping hot chocolate and nibbling on cookies with firefighters in mere minutes.

Cookie

Virgin: the world's best passenger complaint letter?

Here we reproduce a complaint letter sent to Sir Richard Branson, which is currently being emailed globally and is considered by many to be the world's funniest passenger complaint letter.

Mr. Potato

Man Changes Name to a Snack Food

monster munch
© Eggybird / Flickr
A British man obsessed with a particular brand of potato chips has changed his name to share the same moniker as his favorite snack food.

Chris Hunt, 26, legally changed his name by deed poll to Mr. Monster Munch, according to the Telegraph .

Munch, who is a plumber, reportedly eats the snacks for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and has come up with recipes that include Monster Munch in rice and pasta dishes.

Book

Ohio: Book Returned to Library After 60 years

A book has been mailed back to an Ohio library after six decades, accompanied by an anonymous letter of remorse.

The biography Napoleon by Emil Ludwig recently arrived at Toledo's main library, with a brief note that read:
"I removed this book from your stacks in 1949 and did not check it out. I apologize. It's an excellent book and in good condition."
The person who signed it "An ex-Toledoan" also wrote, "Carrying guilt for 60 years is a terrible thing."

Library spokeswoman Rhonda Sewell says the package, with its Beverly Hills, Calif., postmark, came as a shock.

She says the holiday season may have moved the sender to right a longtime wrong.

Pistol

Kansas: Woman Scares Away Intruder by Claiming Heart Attack

Kansas City police are looking for a man who broke into a 70-year-old woman's house and tried to rob her.

The woman said she heard her rear sliding glass door break about 2:20 p.m. Monday in the 11800 block of Fremont Avenue. A man then crashed through the wooden louvered doors into her kitchen and pointed a gun at her.

"Get on the ground!" he yelled.

The woman told the gunman she couldn't because she was having a heart attack. The suspect ran out the rear door without stealing anything.

Cow

Tennessee: Cows Licked $100 in Damage to House

A Tennessee man's homeowners insurance apparently doesn't cover "acts of cow."

Jerry Lynn Davis called the Hawkins County Sheriff's office on Thursday, complaining that a neighbor's cows had been licking his house. In the process, Davis says the curious bovines did about $100 in damage by ripping off a screen window, cracking the glass and pulling down a gutter.

The Kingsport Times-News reports that Davis' home is just a couple of feet from a fence enclosing the cows' pasture. They managed to poke their heads through to lick the house, though a deputy's report did not indicate what made the house so tasty.