Nik Nak's Daily Teaser — 17th December 2023

17th December, 2023.

It's got to be said: I owe my online friends -- and my family -- a huge thank you.

Thank you, everyone!

Especially regular commenter, Debbi: whose contribution to my iMac repair fund came through, this morning!

Cheers, Debbi!

Hopefully?

Come Friday, when the repair is due to be finished, those contributions will be money well spent!

~≈⇈≈~

I caught the first episode of The Mayfair Witches, on the iPlayer, last night.

That first episode?

Tonally, it was ever so slightly The Witches of Eastwick meets Dynasty: but entertaining enough.

So I thought I'd watch the second episode.

The cast of the opening scenes?   Of the few minutes I saw?

Had just about acceptable Irish accents: just about acceptable, Hollywood Irish accents.

Perfectly acceptable, Hollywood Irish accepts.

Apart from one small, minor, trivial, detail.

No, seriously, a minor detail.

The scene was set in Scotland.

I turned off.

Understandably!

~≈⇈≈~

Nik Nak’s Daily Teaser — 17th December, 2019.

17th December, 2019

You know, I’ve done most of my Christmas cards: and got them posted.

Written, stamped, posted and hopefully on the way to their respective destinations.

Bar a few I can hand deliver, that’s that lot done.

Now … ?

All I have to do is wrap up Xmas presents.

I just hope I’ve still got some Sellotape.

Someone’s getting a great big pile of stuff … 

~≈†≈~

Vatican Skulduggery

Right, ok ...

The Windoze version of Google Chrome won't let me save a post ...

If other tabs are open: that's something of a flaw.

At least, I think so.   I just hope that anyone from Google's who's reading this paying attention!

Anyway, yes, I know: I'm posting from the library again.   But I do have the excuse that my doctor insists I take have an hour's exercise.

Trolling up Warley Hill to get here to post counts, just.

Where I was going to highlight some news that floated past me, earlier: that a senior Vatican cleric has been arrested over money laundering scandals in the Vatican Bank, the  Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or Institute for Religious Works.

Hmmm ...

Can I make a confession, here?   Which is sort of an irony, when speaking of the Roman Catholic Church.

At any rate, I'll be frank: and confess I'm not Catholic.   But the affairs of the Church have always interested me: religion can be an interesting subject to someone who's fairly agnostic, at heart.

And, many years ago, I read In God's Name, by author, David Yallop: an investigator whose work Id read before, and who had managed to highlight various issues in the case of the Yorkshire Ripper, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and the 'Let Him Have It' case.

Fascinating reads, I should add: and ones that convinced me of Yallop's abilities.

In God's Name was Yallop's investigation into the death - after 33 days in office - of Pope John Paul 1st.

Covered all sorts of territory.

But highlighting the late pontiff's desire to investigate fraud and corruption within the Vatican Bank: and it's links to the Mafia.

Yallop's assertion - one I found convincing - was that John Paul 1st had been poisoned* by any one of a number of figures in order to prevent this.

◊◊◊

Now ...

Since reading In God's Name, back in the day ... ?

I've kept following the Vatican's public activities.   So the recent election of Pope Francis has been interesting, certainly.

Especially since I've found him reminiscent of Yallop's description of John Paul 1st.

And can't help but wonder, if he's (quietly) condoning this investigation, amongst other things, what else he'll be getting up to.

*        Yallop proposed Digitalis as the poison.