1) Friends overnighting it at Chez Weed on the way to Boston say that I am maligning Mssr. Villepin in previous posts. They say (based on word from a friend in a position to know) that he did his job at the UN defending his boss's position, but that he's a force of moderation, and the principal force behind the sub rosa help the French are giving in the war on terror.
2) How cool is this? Friends getting married tomorrow had a holy hour for their friends tonight. In the homily on the Feast at Cana, the celebrant addressed that puzzling line of Christ's: "Woman, what is it between you and me?" Apparently one scripture scholar working 80 years ago was pondering and pondering that one line, unable to make any sense of it --or at least not sense that was satisfying.
One afternoon he was being rowed across the Sea of Galilee and because of inclement weather suggested, "Perhaps we should stop at the next town." The oarsman responded, "What is it between you and me?"
Astonished, the scholar asked, "What does that mean?" The oarsman was nonplussed and just repeated himself, but the scholar kept pressing him --what does that mean?. Turns out, it is an idiomatic expression --how did our hearts communicate? Or how did we come to think the same thing? (!) In other words, if this is correct and not just an apocryphal tale, what Jesus is saying to his mother in response to her, "They have no wine," is: "Great minds think alike."
The priest couldn't remember the scholar's name, but did remember the priest who told him, so RC2 is on the case to confirm the story.
