Feathers in your cap

[JSFMACLJR]

Bishops wear black. Crows are black. The rest is details.

Well not to be too pedantic, bishops seldom wear black. The episcopal colour is green; their cassocks ( generally ) are purple; they wear vestments of the colour of the day/season which may be white, red, green, violet, rose...or black.

Maybe there are bishops somewhere who wear black, but I really can't agree that "bishops wear black." They only do so when celebrating masses of the dead and on Good Friday ( if they follow the older uses ).

[davidg]

Maybe there are bishops somewhere who wear black, but I really can't agree that "bishops wear black." They only do so when celebrating masses of the dead and on Good Friday ( if they follow the older uses ).

The idea that bishops wear black may come from the medieval chimere. Originally a riding cloak the chimere is now used primarily by bishops in the Anglican communion, some independent Episcopal churches, and by holders of doctorates at certain universities. While for the most part the chimere is scarlet in colour, traditionally it is black for a bishop, with the scarlet version only being used "in convocation". Often it is hard to find a bishop wearing a black chimere these days but if you look hard you can sometimes still see that

However, I don't think bishops or mitres have anything whatsoever to do with eagle feathers, crows or how they may stand at 45 degree angles to the horizon!

[Chas]

PugC,

Have you noticed the tendency of crows to stand with their backs at an exact 45 degree angle to the horizon?

I have an interest in crows, too and I have noticed that they usually stand with their backs at a perfect 45 degree angle, but I can't explain it or add any particular significance.

Um... Because the horizon is all around us, don't all birds, and all animals including humans, have their backs at a perfect 45 degrees to some point on the horizon at all times? Day and night, 24/7, forever.

Unless, of course, they are dead and lying on their back, with their feet in the air.

Or am I misunderstanding you completely?

Regards

Chas

[MacLowlife]

If we are going to be scrupulously honest, the horizon is not a straight line, but a VERY gentle curve. As such, only a curved line is going to be parallel to it and nothing is going to be diagonal (Exactly 45 degrees) or perpendicular (exactly 90 degrees) to it, unless you adopt a small fiction and ignore the curving parts at the ends of some short segment, say, 100 miles or so. If we are going to get sloppy like that, we can agree that sure, somewhere on earth, there is a person whose sporran knob is pointing 45 degrees to/from our selected point in the horizon, just not to the horizon on which he appears.*


Owing to posture or species-based habit and custom, or maybe just the physical limitations of their bodies, some birds stand more erect- think of cranes and flamingoes, while others' backs more closely follow the (apparent) flatness of the ground- ducks, for instance. Crows hold their backs scrupulously at the 45 degree. We all know that crows are very smart, at least for birds. If you could train a couple of crow acrobats, one could lie on the other one's back and his feet would be exactly parallel to those of his partner. I think such a picture would make a good start on the mystical imagery of the crow back religion, maybe depicted with awestruck or venerating onlookers standing by.

I am unfamiliar with the ways of magpies and I caution readers to avoid assuming anything about their behavior or stance, be it similar or contrasting to crows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdneEEOskzc Because of the age of this clip, it may not be entirely reliable in every detail, when compared with modern thought and shcolarship.

As for bishops wearing black, I must admit, the ones I see do generally wear purple shirts. On further reading, I see that bishops of the Roman Catholic Christian church wear a lot of red. At about 10 seconds in, we can view a cinematic bishop in this clip. (Be warned, there is no black visible on the bishop's body.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsPN8_oSQwg


But please step back a little. If we are forming a new religion here, we aren't going to borrow some other religion's bishops, are we? [take them in a chess game, perhaps, but not borrow them...] And, so far as I know, the diagonal back crow religion either does not yet exist or it has not existed for very long. In either case, I challenge readers to locate a bishop of any church or religion ( I think I have one in this neighborhood- at least before you get to the perceptible curve of the horizon) and ask if he or she is now or has ever been a member of the diagonal crow back religion.

Oh, and I have it on good authority that they wear black shoes with their kilts.



*unless, of course, he is drunk, standing in a windstorm, imitating Fred Astaire, or is someone who grew up on a mountainside and has one leg shorter than the other.

[Chas]

Or am I misunderstanding you completely?

Regards

Chas

Well, obviously, I am misunderstanding you and even more-so now.

Regards

Chas