Friday, March 25, 2005
tGif
It's Friday. Good Friday to be precise. And it also happens to be Greek Independence Day, which I know only because it's my friend Sara Checkal's birthday, and EVERY year I use the same tired joke of calling her up and saying "Happy Greek Independence Day", and then at the last minute pretending to remember that it's also her birthday. And this year I added to the hilarity and hijinks by calling and wishing her a Happy Good Friday, which isn't all that funny, if you're Christian. Because the Christians are supposed to be in church today, allllllll day, remembering the suffering of Jesus on the cross. But thank God the Brits didn't get the memo. They're all off today, shopping. And one of my students told me we don't have class today because it's a bank holiday. Yes, Jesus was a huge figure in the British banking community.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Actually, Good Friday was the original bank holiday. After Jesus faked his death by mimicking Spartacus, he holed up in Joseph of Arimathea's "tomb," which was actually a primitive vault of sorts. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin and a prominent banker of the day, hailing from the tri-city banking area of Arimathea, Ramatha & Ramleh. For years, he had been offering safe deposit box service to the wealthy of Jerusalem out of his tomb. Anyway, Joseph and his Senior VP, Nicodemus, placed Jesus' linen-wrapped "corpse" in the tomb and rolled a big rock in front of the vault opening and had Roman guards run interference out front. Inside the tomb, Jesus cuts his way out of the burial shroud, in which he'd been breathing thru primitive SCUBA gear, much like James Bond in You Only Live Twice. The gases released by the breathing gear left a terrible stain on the linen. Then Jesus and his eleven henchmen (I think there were twelve to start out with) got to work clearing out the contents of the vault thru a secret tunnel in the back. It took them three days, but finally they did it and loaded it up in Roman wagons. Joseph and Jesus had a secret deal with Pontius Pilate to smuggle all the valuables out of the tomb and into the Roman treasury. So on the third day, they pay this actor to stand at the opening of the tomb and act all pious and misdirect the wealthy Jews who came to get their stuff out of the safe deposit boxes. The actor did some improv on the spot and spun this yarn about how Jesus ascended to heaven and he had to use their valuables to pay Charon, the three-headed dog who guarded the gates of heaven (remember, St. Peter wasn't dead yet). Anyway, the wealthy Jews bought his story and went home. Meanwhile, Jesus & Joseph & Pilate and all their stooges are laughing it up in Pilate's stately pleasure dome, drinking wine and eating weird Roman delicacies. Pilate was so happy with all the newfound riches that he decided his subjects could afford to take a day off once a year to commemorate the heist, with the Roman treasury footing the bill for the lost productivity. Hence, the first bank holiday was born. The moral of the story? I have no clue.
i cant believe you sought out that link to the bba. thorough work anna-lisa, thorough work.
I typed "British Banking" into Google.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4383243.stm
I took the quiz. Got two wrong: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4383243.stm?markResults=true&a_01=3&a_02=1&a_03=2&a_04=3&a_05=2&a_06=2&a_07=1&a_08=3&a_09=2&a_10=1&x=27&y=17
Post a Comment