This is an ‘html-only’ version of Scribblings with no database behind it. This means it is not possible to search it. I am working on a new version with which I am hoping to eventually put back into the main site. The new version is here but please note that there is no link directly back to the main site.
Sunday, 3rd April 2005
Silver hammers
I keep coming across this story that when a Pope dies the chamberlain (or, in some versions, a cardinal) taps him on the head with a silver hammer to make sure he really is dead and not just in some private, deep communication with the Man With the White Beard. I’ve been wandering around all day, on and off, singing the Beatles’ song “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” from their Abbey Road album. Because it’s such a catchy little number I even found myself at one point dancing with the cat1.
To paraphrase the lyrics very slightly the chorus goes like this:
Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
came down upon his head
Clang! Clang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
made sure that he was dead
Now, unfortunately, The Guardian has more or less shattered my illusion of a guy in a long red frock bashing someone over the head with a hammer2. According to The Vatican, the whole thing is a myth. On the other hand though, more or less everything The Vatican would have us believe is a myth so where’s the harm in one more?
An apology
Since moving the site to a new server Scribblings is not as easy to find your way around as it used to be. It used to depend on a script and a database on the server but is currently served as ‘flat html’.
I have some ideas about how to make it a bit easier but they depend on writing another script. I hope to get around to it ‘eventually’.
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