| Commonwealth Games: India Hopes for a Strong Finish New Delhi hopes a strong finish will erase memories of the problems that nearly sank the Commonwealth Games. Now how can officials get the attendance up? feedproxy.google.com |
Seal dentist - it's Odd Box Fried beer, seal dentistry and Russia's inflatable weapons. It's the week's weird and wonderful video stories in Newsbeat's Odd Box with Dominic Byrne. bbc.co.uk |
Pass notes 2,867: Homer Simpson The Vatican newspaper is claiming that Homer and his family are Catholics. D'oh!Age: His creators haven't been entirely consistent over 18 seasons, so somewhere between 36 and 40.Appearance: Jaundiced, morbidly obese and oligodactylous.He does not sound well. He's OK – all the inhabitants of his native of Springfield are the same: yellow and missing a digit on each hand. Although they're not all as fat as the doughnut-and-Duff-loving Simpson paterfamilias.Why is he in the news? Don't tell me The Simpsons is finally ending after 806 years? No, he's in the news because he's a Catholic pothead.Hang on. The Reverend Lovejoy is no Popish popinjay. He brawls with priests and kidnapped Bart when he was briefly in thrall to one Father Sean. The First Church of Springfield is explicitly Presbylutheran, after those defending their right to come to church with wet hair split with Rome in the 1573 Schism with Lourdes. I shall explain. The Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano claims that because the Simpsons say grace before meals, discuss moral matters and "in their own way" believe in heaven, they are Catholic.It obviously hasn't tried to get Homer to swap his pork chops for fish on Fridays, then? No. Nor does the article fully engage with the fact that Homer – who has seen and spoken to God on several occasions – seems to have an uncomplicated, direct relationship with the Almighty that speaks of the simplicity of Protestantism rather than the intercessionary obfuscations of the Catholic church.OK, if you say so. And he's not a pothead either. Lush, yes. Partaker of many trippy moments in the past, mostly born of his willingness to ingest anything remotely edible first and ask questions later, yes, but dope fiend? Surely not. It's a case of guilt by association. His likeness has been found stamped on much of the 105 tonnes of marijuana seized in Mexico this week in the country's biggest ever drugs bust, accompanied by slogans such as, "Let's get high, dude!"D'oh! As ever, that about sums it up.Not to be confused with: OJ Simpson, Jessica Simpson, any classical Greek poets of the eighth century BC.The SimpsonsAnimationUS televisionComedyTelevisionCatholicismChristianityReligionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Obama preps for reshaped postelection presidency By BEN FELLER 2010-10-24T14:15:23ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- Preparing for political life after a bruising election, President Barack Obama will put greater emphasis on fiscal discipline, a nod to a nation sick of spending and to a Congress poised to become more Republican, conservative and determined to stop him.... hosted.ap.org |
Iran blames Israel after nuclear scientist killed TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's president accused Israel and the West of being behind a pair of daring bomb attacks that killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another in their cars on the streets of Tehran on Monday. He also admitted for the first time that a computer worm had affected centrifuges in Iran's uranium enrichment program.... hosted.ap.org |