But I do seem to be gradually getting better at this important skill.

For example, today I saw a hilarious video on the Patheos blog Why I Am Catholic. It was one of those shows where some comedians pretending to be a news team go out and ask the “man on the street” for opinions on increasingly ridiculous news items. In this case, they were asking for opinions on how the new Pope is doing – a new Pope, remember, who has not yet been elected. Watch it. It’s pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz-LxZnPjJA

Anyway, my immediate reaction was “Man, who could possibly have guessed that Catholics would be so quick to praise a nonexistent father figure just because someone exerted mild social pressure on them to do so?”