It will be interesting to see who creates the puff of white smoke.
White smoke?
Yes. White smoke. White smoke means we have a new Pope.
It comes from the olden days. A pope is elected by secret ballot by the College of Cardinals and if on the first round one is not elected the ballots are gathered and put into a stove and a cup of olive oil is added and the fire is lit. The olive oil creates black smoke. The process is repeated until a pope is elected.
When that happens the ballots are burned and no olive oil is added to the fire, creating white smoke.
Thousands of Italians would watch 24/7 for day, sometimes weeks and even months looking for the white smoke and cheer and spread the word far and wide that there is a new pope.
Nowadays not only do the usual gang of Italians watch but the news services station post a camera or three thousand there and the word goes throughout the entire planet immediately making the old gang of hewers and criers obsolete in this day and age.
Back in the day it took a few hours to find out we had a new pope. Reporters would have to be there to call in in to their radio or TV stations or wire services and then it would be on radio and TV. A lot of people would simply read it in the daily newspaper.
Now we have the internet and we can see it live, with probably a nanosecond delay.
No comments:
Post a Comment