corned beef, guiness, priest salaries, etc.

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Patrick, and my cohort had a get-together. Holly made corned beef, which is apparently more of an Irish-American thing than a traditional Irish dish (it was made and exported from Ireland, but too prohibitively expensive for most to eat there) . The 'corned' part refers to the old English for 'corns' or grains of salt, used during the salt-curing process. A question last night was 'why is it so red?' to which i yelled, repeated, Nitrates!. Double-checking myself, sodium nitrate, one of the chemicals referred to as saltpeter, is added during the curing process and binds to the meat's hemoglobin and forms a stable, red-colored complex. Tyler, being awesome, earned himself a(n additional) Guiness at the local liquor store by belting the Irish classic Danny Boy (he did own up that the words were present). i'm super happy that he did this; i only know the first line ('Oh, Danny Boy/ the pipes, the pipes are calling'), and would have probably sounded like these Muppets.

Curiously, the old Guiness slogan was "Guiness is good for you!", and it might be (Should i feel a little pride that that study is out of UW? i do, actually.) And, because it does contain a small amount of iron, it might have be recommended at one point for pregnant women: this probably isn't the best idea.

This is an interesting article detailing the use of the word 'junk' in relation to food (the arc being old, damaged rope was called junk; Sailors referred to salted, tough meat as junk, and... there ya go.)

There was a brief discussion regarding the new Pope. It was inquired as to whether priests are provided with a pension. Yes, they are. Catholic priests in the US make the least amount of pretty much any clergy, apparently, but are given room/board, healthcare, transportation monies, and funds for job-related expenses like subscriptions, books and conferences paid for. Also, education is expensive, and their education is paid for by the Church. Rup, an article directly regarding the Pope Emeritus' retirement package can be found here. And the question of regnal names came up (the name change the pope makes), so the wiki-article is here; "The custom of choosing a new name began in AD 533 with the election of Mercurius. Mercurius had been named after the Roman god Mercury, and decided that it would not be appropriate for a pope to be named after a Roman god. Mercurius subsequently decreed that he would be known as John II.  ". Since we're on the subject, there was probably not a female pope (Pope Joan), and there are antipopes, or figures/groups outside of the Church who feel that they have a rival claim.

Argo was actually really excellent. Was the line 'Argo f*ck yourself' real? Apparently so.