Sounds almost Buddhist, apart from the eagerness to put to death. Has anyone ever suggested that 'putting to death' should be put to bed?

It was this 12 steps/Genghis khan thing that caught my eye..

I've heard, and had, this 12 steps to recovery from drug addiction rammed down my throat over the years, although I *personally* didn't need nothing but a 'faced with my own mortality' wake up call, so i never really took any notice of all that!

The other kind of 12-steppery has actually saved the life of people close to me, but I don't like it. It has a semi-religious cultlike aspect, and an 'all or nothing' attitude - you're either 100% in or 100% out, either 'in recovery' or on the road to ruin. They don't accept ideas like harm reduction or drug maintenance.

Let's just say I believe in grey areas.

12-steppery is essentially an offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous, started in America around 1940. AA led to NA and GA and the others. Also associated with a system called the Minnesota Method.

And the Gengis Khan connection and comment, did seem like what I'd call a "Domism", but thats not an Insult mate, I'm just not as Intelligent as you and sometimes you lose me, and i can't tell whether you're joking or being serious, lol...

Heh. Strange as it may seem, I'd never noticed how well the words 'roll', 'smoke' and 'fag' go together.

regarding mixing sweden and norway i guess it's just slightly worse than mixing england and wales; after all the latter two both belong to "the united kingdom" which is a formal entity in more contexts than scandinavia is; actually, the only 100% indisputable scandinavia is the "scandinavian peninsula", consisting of norway and sweden, which simply describes a geographical area - the actual peninsula. usually denmark is included as part of scandinavia too, but then we're not talking about the peninsula any longer, but about three nations that are geographically and culturally close to each other although no longer with any formal cooperation on matters similar to what we have among the *nordic* countries. for instance, in the context of chess we've used to have *nordic championships*, which also include iceland, finland and the faroe islands.

[one of the silliest debates ever on the carlsen page crashed partly due to (some parts of) the english speaking world's missing capability to distinguish between the peninsula, Scandinavia and the Nordic countries - and partly due to the severe limitations of discussion forums, in particular when it comes to avoiding certain types of miscommunication.]

I've noticed this is particularly true of the map on Euro coins -- basically Europe, but with the non-EU, ah, *members* invisible. In most cases this doesn't matter -- eg Switzerland just leaves a Swiss-shaped hole in the middle of the continent. Like a cheese.

But the effect on Scandinavia if you strip out Norway is very pronounced and definitely penile. More a softoff than a hardon, though.

I suppose you could argue that a regular map of Scandinavia, complete with Norwegian fjiords, looks like a shaggy male member with a Mohican. Or some very weird disease.

<Did the Vatican dig get zapped?>

When you said 'Vatican dig' I thought the archaeologists had been digging up Roma again ... and Jehovah zapped them in case they found the body of his second only-begotten son in a long-lost catacomb. (cf 'Another Roadside Attraction' by Tom Robbins.)

Don't *think* a dig was zapped here, but it's time for another just in case. Bet ya didn't know that the Vatican City issues its own Euro coins? I've never seen one (I suppose waiters and cab drivers get 'em as tips in Italia, Croatia, and near Glasgow Celtic games ...?) -- but I checked the Euro website to look at the various coin designs when I found some change in my pocket I couldn't identify.

A truly weird entity, the Vatican ... like the last tiny fragment of the original Roman Empire, reduced after 2000 years to a big square in Rome and a few palaces and churches and the odd work of art. Plus, of course, a population of celibate males with a celibate hereditary ruler.

There should be *more* of these things. Lots more. A Worker's Republic in Liverpool 8, a Rasta kingdom in Brixton, a Jewish enclave on the shores of the Eastern Med... oh, hang on, there's one of them already.

I'm looking at a little badge from Vaduz. I think it's the capital of Liechtenstein (the principality, not Roy the pop artist) ... and I can't recall ever being there. I'll send it to my niece, who likes such objects.

'Vatican' is really more a piece of conceptual art than a state, though. I used to bring out an actual 'zine - printed on paper, even - called Zilch. When I got too lazy to continue, I announced that Zilch had left print behind and future issues would be designated neo-Duchampian readymades. So #14 was the French Defence, Winawer Swarm Variation [*mandatory chess allusion in otherwise insane post*], and #22 was the Atlantic Ocean.

I was also pleased yesterday to read the first sentence in the lead story on the front page of a tabloid -- this doesn't happen often, but there's yet another clerical sex abuse scandal cover-up thing in progress here. The top Roman, chap named Brady, has been accused of knowing things that should've been reported to the police, but keeping schtumm out of loyalty to Il Papa. Or fear. I'm reminded of Rupert Murdoch, either way.

And the tabloid story -- written, weirdly, by a guy who was on the film reviewing beat same time as I was -- began with the heartening words "Cardinal Brady is a disgusting man..."

Even 30 years ago, I reckon few would have believed such words would be publishable in Holy Ireland in their lifetimes, never mind on the front of a paper. But they're on the run now, poor buggers.

AFAIK, 'tabloid' newspapers got that name about 100 years ago, because they were compact -- like little tablets (a newly-invented medical fad, back then).

The word 'pillock' might just as well have been chosen.

"And now for a review of the Pillock Media, its over to our man in Fleet Ditch ..."

And it's good to see Murdoch in full retreat. The Murdoch and Roman Empires collapsing together ... it's like the 6th century all over again. Dark Ages, here we come. And as the clever one in Stargate SG-1 once said, "They didn't call them the Dark Ages because it was dark..."

Seems simple, but silence has a different meaning in every culture. Much depends on who is keeping silent about what, and on who is accorded the power and privilege of speech, and at what times.

Omerta? That's the mafioso version, a 'criminal conspiracy of silence' or 'a code of honour', depending what angle you see it from.

Some languages have words -- even, in a few cases, complete grammatical structures -- which women are not allowed to use. And it's still quite common, around the world, for women and children to be told not to interrupt adult males, to speak only if spoken to, etc. And women get accused of being noisy chatterers if they manage to contribute more than 10% of a conversation.

All this is neatly summed up in the classic propaganda poster from World War 2, urging people to be quiet in public for fear of spies. The version of 'keep schtum' then in vogue was 'keep mum' (probably an imitation of 'mumming' or 'mummery' or the 'mmm' sound made with lips closed).

The slogan -- a paean to a well-ordered and productive nuclear family -- was <Be like Dad. Keep Mum.>

Dad 'kept' Mum by giving her 'housekeeping money', typically her only income. Dad did *not* keep Mum by declining to divorce her or by improving his personal hygiene.

Anyhow, solitary bathing was taboo in wartime. And they were all healthier for it. Nobody had even imagined that Germans existed until Robert Hooke and a Dutch chap named Van Leeuwenhoek saw the first ones through their microscopes in the 1600s.

And Bacteria were camels. As were cigarettes. Which featured prominently in a novel by ... yep, Tom Robbins.

Lemma: and the loin lies down with the limb.

Well, erm, word association football is the name of the game ... and sometimes I can't stop myself until I'm in the back of the net.

Ball-bearing Blues, as sung in Chelsea. Not the Hotel.

As for <stumm> - in Dutch we call a deaf-mute, "doofstom", and stom actually means someone is pretty dumb, retarded even, so not a popular term anymore to describe the "disability" - same in German I read with "Taubstummheit."

I knew the Vatican was a country with passports & a small Swiss(multi purpose)army, but your right, I'd never considered currency. If they have there own Euros why aint they on the EU list?, what picture is on the coin/note, Jesus's foreskin? If it is, its a forgery, I've got the real one, selling it on ebay next xmas, I'd get more for it if it wer signed, but I'd have to wait till the 2nd coming & I need the money before that.

I dont mind the idea of the Vatican, as long as they stop giving advice & are forced to use their unequalled wealth to feed & help the poor & starving multitudes, "ouch" you can visualize the 'holy see' & his tight arsed cardinals grimacing as 'their' money is wasted on hungry people.

A man shouldn't take a vow of celibacy until he gets to at least 40, it might reduce the number of not so<poor buggger>ers in the clergy. I know a guy that was raped regularly by the priest in a catholic kids home, it @#$%ed up his whole life, their deeds are unforgivable. Colleagues, superiors & ultimately the popes refusal to help route them out should also be considered a crime & punishable, it would be great to see the pope in handcuffs stood in the dock "honest guv, it weren't me, I was tellin AIDS sufferers not t use condoms that night". Its good to hear Ireland is speaking out against this anachronistic institutions hypocrisies.

You may remember another old gent named Maurice Coveney -- used to finish a bit behind Eugene in 1960s championships. I asked him recently if he knew whether your uncle was alive, and he replied "Lord, no, if Eugene was alive he'd be a hundred years old!". Maurice himself is not just alive but still *travels* to chess tournaments -- he was at the Dublin event at Easter. Has trouble with words because of a stroke, but still playing solidly at a 1500-ish level.

Loved it back then, though. Naughtyyyyy! - though it doesn't seem even remotely of influence now 15+ years later. But at the time it was. That's the exponential curve for ya.