In case you are living in a cave in Pakistan hadn’t heard, the Pope visited New York last week. And it was a BIG DAMN DEAL. A lot of people come to visit the city regularly, including the United Nations Delegates, Dubya, etc., but I’ve never seen anything like this. Many streets were blocked off, barricades were all over the place, and the police presence was off the charts!
I was in the midst of all this mayhem as it was a lovely spring afternoon and I was meeting someone for a walk in Central Park. There was GREAT people watching involved, and we both had fun checking out all the action.
Eventually I walked home. I was starving and stopped in a local place to get a take-out salad for supper. And I couldn’t believe it, I had to walk around even more barricades to get inside the restaurant! I chatted with the waiter as he put my meal together.
Lisa: “This Pope thing is getting crazy. All the streets are blocked off and it’s really hard to get around.”
Waiter: “I know, it’s been that way all day.”
Lisa: “Are you going to go see him tomorrow at St. Patrick’s?”
Waiter: “No, I have to work.”
Lisa: “That’s a shame.”
Waiter: “Eh, you seen one Pope, you’ve seen them all.”
We both laughed.
New Yorkers RULE.
I hear the Pope was styling with some red shoes…
Pope-mania was in full form last week. Quite remarkable. The most remarkable thing of all is the extensive press coverage of the Pope’s outfits. The Post (I think it was) featured a visit to the traditional Papal tailor in Rome, who after making the threads for the Big Kahuna for something like 300 years had been thrown over in favor of an upstart who the former Cardinal Ratzinger had used on his way up the ladder. Especial interest was given to the red slip-ons that His Holiness favored throughout the trip, with endless speculation of the brand, wondering if the Vatican was going to do any awards ceremony red carpet endorsements like they do at the Oscars.
The fashion coverage rated a double-page spread in the Post, and apparently they were thoughtful enough to tack on a sidebar that summarized the Pope’s sermons as basically “war is bad, we should fix hunger and poverty, be nice to each other.” Just goes to show the priorities of many New Yorkers — wall-to-wall fashion coverage, but soft-pedaling the “brotherly love” stuff…. If we wanted to revel in brotherly love, we’d live in Philadelphia…
I hadn’t realized it’s been this long. Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) celebrated mass in Yankee Stadium more than thirty years ago. Same furor all over. He was a little man, but evidently had a great deal of charisma anyhow.
Did you get to see him? I’ve always thought how neat to have a photo with the Pope, with 2 fingers sticking up behind his head/hat. I’m probably going to hell for thinking that! ;-D
humphhh – puts his dress on like every other priest.
was he in the bubble or could you get right up and smell him?
Well, you could’ve kept him there a bit longer ya know. Didn’t necessarily have to ship his ass back to Europe…
I haven’t been this excited since the New Kids on the Block Reunion album and tour was announced!
I wonder if he was wearing a seatbelt for his trip through town? Be a fine way to become infamous by ticketing the Pope.
Course, you’d go straight to Hell, but still.
Forget the Pope I’d rather meet your waiter, sounds like he has pretty good logic.
Damn! All we ever get out here are Olympic torches and protests.
How come you guys get all the fun — with red shoes? Sheesh!
In D.C., INS should have set up camp by the White House. I’ve never seen so many mustache-toting, guitar wielding amigos in my life! What the hell was with all the guitars? Was that unique to D.C.? The hispanic population was out in full force!
I love that he needs to ride around encased in bullet-proof glass.
I wouldn’t bother to look at him if he knocked at my door.
Did you get to see the popemobile? I hear it can go from zero to heaven in 4.3 seconds! Now thats fast!
The Pope arrived in DC just before I left. It was getting nuts there too. We were hoping to get a shot of his motorcade but it was after we got out of town. Pity.
What? The Pope was here?!? Why didn’t the news stations report anything about this??
A sensible program that mixes steroids and human growth hormone–followed by an aggressive weight-training regimen–would probably help the Pope compete in Yankee Stadium during his next visit.
I would suggest that he gets that going well before his next appearance.
The modern-day fan is not satisfied with mere religious platitudes–what with your parking and your concessions and your merchandising, people legitimately expect the Pope to bash a moonshot out of the park and into the bleachers.