Holy Roman Empire

While I was roaming Italy this month, several questions crossed my mind. They came up in conversation or contemplation while writing in my journal. Now these mysteries have been solved...sort of.

1. Which is older? The "Popemobile" or the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile?
Mercedes claims to have built the earliest version of the Popemobile in 1930. But the car doesn't resemble the model (that capture the full body view of His Grace behind bulletproof windows) we see today. In fact, bulletproof glass on all four sides was not added until 1981, following an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. So it's really a matter of determining when "Popemobile" entered our vernacular. Here are some images of the various Popemobiles over the last 40 years. As for the Weinermobile, Oscar Mayer started using the vehicle in 1936 and it has been redesigned at least six times. Of course, it has its own blog.
(for rappers or lyricists, words that rhyme with popemobile include waterwheel and cochineal)

2. What is the difference between surrealism and dadaism?
This question popped up after a visit to the Vatican Museum, which houses $40 billion worth of art. We all know Salvador Dali was a surrealist, and liked to paint melting clocks. According to several sources, surrealism is an art movement characterized by unexpected juxtaposition and exploring the creative power of the unconscious mind (started in the 1930s). As my friend Allison so aptly put it, "when stuff doesn't make sense." Actually, I think she was describing dadaism. But it's important to know that surrealism was born out of dadaism. Dadaism included art that rebelled against the so-called civilized world and the barbarism of war. It was a response to the horrors of World War I and tried to subvert what was traditionally beautiful. Some examples of Dadaist art included photomontages assembled from magazine ads and illustrations, collages made from pieces of litter, and ordinary items (such as a bicycle wheel mounted to a stool). This was not a Renaissance with pretty oil paintings; it was a hostile reaction to the declining values of mankind and it sought to illuminate the absurdity in the world. Surrealism was more about expressing the perspectives of the "metaphysical world."

3. What's the chain of command in the Catholic Church?
It's not a rigid heirarchy, except that everyone answers to the pope and a particular bishop. In order of closest to farthest away from God: The Pope (successor of St. Peter and Bishop of Rome and Latin Church), Cardinals (make up a College of Cardinals that advises and elects the pope), Archbishops (head of Archdioceses - duh!), Bishops, Priests, Deacons.

Thanks be to Wikipedia. Amen.