"paphian" - The Finale

[Elliott A Moreton]

> Elliot mentions some kind of odd story about "pope smoke." Did I miss
> something? Or should Elliot be forced to tell "Jim Moskowitz's Pope Smoke
> Canard" to us all?

Sorry, yall -- I completely forgot to follow up on this.  The Pope Smoke 
Canard was invented by Jim Moskowitz circa 1987, as an attempt to come up 
with a plausible and catchy urban legend.  It goes something like this:

sub PopeSmokeCanard {

When a Pope dies, the cardinals meet in solemn conclave in the Vatican to 
choose a successor.  They keep voting until someone has a majority.  
After each unsuccessful round of voting, they burn their ballots, 
producing a puff of white smoke which signals to the spectators outside 
that no decision has yet been reached.

When a new Pope is finally chosen, that fact is announced to the world by 
a puff of black smoke -- and that's the old Pope burning.

}


Now, this canard is demonstrably false, since it has the smoke colors 
backwards -- they burn, I believe, wet straw for black smoke (no Pope) and 
dry straw for white smoke (new Pope).  But if I had heard it in, say, 3rd 
grade, I would certainly have believed and repeated it, and might even 
have rejected the true story when I heard it later on.

Hope I haven't garbled this one in repetition.  Jim is, of course, the 
final judge of accuracy.

Anyone interested in a canard contest?


em