Non habemus Papam

I wrote that in latin for the One True Church fan club, so here is a translation:-

We no longer have a pope, he died aged 88 yesterday morning, I read. He recently had a state visit from King Charles and Queen Camilla (UK) and just the day before from JDVance, vice tRump of the USA. All that may have motivated him to disappear off upstairs ;-) There can be no more appropriate day for a pope to die than over easter ;-)

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on April 22, 2025 permalink Comments Email

An Atheist Easter

Comments(2)
Cop Car wrote "If you don’t care to celebrate der Fuehrer on the 20th, I’ll let you celebrate with me. I turned 87, yesterday. As to Romulus and Remus, if you wish to be more modern on the 21st, you might celebrate the late Queen Elizabeth II." and also "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Swmbo. My German not being all that good, I should stick to English. Happy belated birthday, SWMBO." Just a day apart, what a KoinkyDink!
Patrick (IRL) corrects me "You cannot have a year Zero in 753 BC, zero was not discovered/used until the first millenium AD. In Roman numerals the powers of ten are I, X, C, and M. There is no zero. So the first year was 1 AUC. And there is a grammatical error in your latin, it should read condita not conditae." My bad.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on April 20, 2025 permalink Comments Email

Thankyou, thankyou, CopCar

CopCar's husband HH died recently and whilst clearing out his possessions she showed us on her blog some of his books he had been reading. Surprise, surprise, two of them were on my list of books to be read by me, before I (80) shuffle off this mortal coil too, but which are difficult to obtain here in Germany. So I offered to buy them, subject to the postage not being TOO expensive. But Tom, knowing we are both pensioners, offered to pay the (iniquitous) US postage, an offer not to be turned down. So many thanks to Tom too, very generous.

So your package arrived safely, not even being inspected by the local customs office, and avoiding(?) any tRump tariffs. See how pleased I look. I have covered your return address, keeping it private. Here, return addresses are on the back of the package. The books are in excellent condition, like new.

Back Story : The paperback is Spy Handler, written by Viktor Cherkashin, a KGB spy handler. So it will interesting to see things from the other point of view. The translation is excellent, very seldom that russian grammer shows its face. I have another (UK) friend who was GCHQ's communications officer in the UK Embassy in Washington DC, so when I have finished it, I will ask if he wants to read it too. So it is an autobiography, some black and white photographs included, but I recognised noone, unsurprisingly.

The hardback book is a novel, Flight of the old dog, by Dale Brown. He flew for many years as a navigator on a B52, a US (nuclear) bomber, so doubtless there will many technical details which I hope will not detract from the (fictional) story. CopCar once wrote "HH made a few similar flights (NOT over USSR!) as navigator, back in the day." which is probably why he read this book.

And so, the bedside pile of books to be read has now reached 13 books in height, so should I ever become bedridden I still will have plenty of entertainment. Thanks again to CopCar, Tom and posthumously HH.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on April 11, 2025 permalink Comments Email

Chainsawed tree sculptures

Comments(1)
Billions of Versions... wrote " It amazes me how detailed they can get with a chainsaw. When I use a chainsaw I have trouble making a straight cut most of the time. " I don't even own a chainsaw!

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on April 6, 2025 permalink Comments Email