A Saint...

Via my mom:

Last Saturday afternoon, in Washington, D.C., an aide to Nancy Pelosi visited the Bishop of the Catholic cathedral in D.C. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's Mass, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a "saint".

The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are her issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi's views."

Pelosi's aide said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to your church if you'll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint."

The Cardinal then thought about it and said, "Well, the church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon."

As Pelosi's aide promised, Nancy Pelosi appeared for the Sunday worship and seated herself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle.

As promised, and at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that Ms. Pelosi was present. The Cardinal then went on to explain to the congregation,

"While Ms. Pelosi's presence is probably an honor to some, the woman is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of her most egregious views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and she tends to flip- flop on many other issues. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self -absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must also say Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed.

She married for money and is using her wealth to lie to the American people. She also has a well known reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington, and in California. The woman is simply NOT to be trusted."

The Cardinal concluded, "But, when compared with President Obama, Ms. Pelosi is a saint."

Flat Lens...

Scientists at Harvard have created a lens that focuses light “perfectly” – no aberrations, phase delays, chromatic effects, etc.  If I'm understanding the article correctly, though, it won't be transforming our cameras anytime soon: the new lenses work only at a single wavelength (color) of light.  For color photos, that makes them useless.  For many kinds of industrial optical systems, though, that makes them extremely useful.  These systems would include just about anything using a laser, most especially fiber optics communications systems...

Curiosity: a Panorama...

Here's a stitched-together mosaic of high-resolution photos, showing the area around Curiosity after its first drive.  Look closely, and you can see the four areas that were scoured by the sky crane's rocket exhaust (Curiosity drove out from between them, where the sky crane set it down).  Awesome!

Wednesday Nght is Pot Pie Night...

... at the Descanso Junction Restaurant.  This week it was turkey pot pie.  Yum!  My lovely bride is wondering why I'm delaying her pot pie consumption by taking this dumb picture...

Note the sign behind her: Enter as strangers, leave as friends.  Yup, that about sums “The Junction” up...