I’ve often mocked The Media for saying “former Italian prime minister” (what kind of prime minister is he now?) and so it is mildly disappointing that I won’t get to apply the phrase to Mrs Gandhi. The Agonist (cited by Brad DeLong) says:

News reports said she [Mrs Gandhi] would support Dr. Manmohan Singh, a former finance minister, as prime minister. A Sikh, he would be India’s first minority prime minister.

Nu? India has a majority?

David Bernstein, of the Volokh Empire, reports on an appalling funeral in Israël mechanically presided over by a mandatory Ortho rabbi. (Title borrowed from Rasmusen.)

Learn something every day. Philip Anderson writes in rec.heraldry:

Maria is the Latinisation of Miriam, which means something like “drop of the ocean”. But the Latin translation of this, stilla maris, was confused with stella maris, i.e. “star of the sea”, which is said to be why she is often shown with a blue robe decorated with a star.

2004 Oct 24: Now it occurs to me that the same root is in distill and in carmine Burānō: Fortune plango vulnera / stillantibus ocellis (I bewail the wounds of fortune / with dripping eyes).

Lent began Wednesday; as Rebecca so wisely observes, what’s a Catholic occasion without an Irish joke?

Roy Taylor Ministries: American Pie and the Armageddon Bible Prophecy. You can find anything on the Web.

In Dave Langford’s latest Ansible:

FANTASY DEFINITIONS MASTERCLASS. Years ago John Clute, John Grant, and their Encyclopedia of Fantasy team wrestled with tough problems of defining fantasy and telling good from bad. If only they’d had the help of Tom Snyder, whose www.movieguide.org review of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away makes everything crystal clear while explaining how Miyazaki got it all wrong:

In a proper fantasy, the heroine might encounter messengers or representatives, allegorical or otherwise, from God or Jesus Christ, or even God Himself and/or one or more members of the Holy Trinity. The heroine certainly should not learn things from encountering pagan, animistic spirits, unless she’s there to completely defeat them and/or worship or honor the One True God of the Bible. This is the difference between good fantasy and bad fantasy.

The most exquisite crop circles are showcased at c i r c l e m a k e r s. (Link from Steve Sailer.)