Papal bracketology and shoes, steampunk and derivatives

Today in lab, Holly informed us of "The Sweet Sistine", or the Pope brackets inspired by college basketball's March Madness. i think my favorite description included " Participants can narrow down the Sweet Sistine to the Ecumenical Eight, the Flagellant Four and the Diocese Duo. Those two finalists must duke it out for Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. " from the Chicago Tribune.  It was discussed whether or not this is blasphemous. My lab's general consensus was it's fine, so long as you're not putting money on it. A second opinion came from Bryan:

Bryan:is it blasphemous to have a favorite cardinal?

  i don't think so

 Bryan: because you can have a favorite saint

 me: a patron, dear

6:34 PM Bryan: i rule it not blasphemous then, depending on your mindset

And honestly, anything that stimulates positive press for the Catholic Church, i support. The official word from the Vatican is that Pope Benedict will be referred to as Pope Emeritus, and "Likewise, the Press Office director announced that the Pope will no longer wear the red papal shoes". i can say this about the last two weeks, i certainly check the Vatican's website with frequency now.

A word or two on the Pope's shoes; he wears red loafer-style shoes. The Pontifex Maximus (King/High Priest) in Rome wore red boots; this continued when Rome became a republic, and then when Christianity became the state religion. JPII didn't wear them in his late pontificate, but Pope Benedict re-instated them.

And, a really interesting steampunk tumblr. The monthly adult night at the local children's museum (Adult Swim) features a Steampunk theme this month. i feel like costuming of  Steampunk and greater Victorian are genres not made for my body type; scrawny does not lend well to corsets, but i still appreciate the essense. Also, holy heck, there are a TON of general "-punk' types, stemming, as steampunk does, from cyberpunk. Teslapunk?! ("This narrative or style commonly imagines an alternate history where widely available cheap (or free), clean, and often highly portable electrical energy replaces all previous energy sources (such as wood, coal and oil, and the steam engines that were fueled by them), but has yet to be replaced (or is never replaced) by other energy sources itself (such as diesel or nuclear power).")