We now return to our regularly scheduled ... stuff!

Now that things are returning to (what passes for) normal around here, it occurs to us here at man with black hat that we have been missing out on opportunities to tell you which cardinal would make the best pope, and why someone fat, jolly, and charismatic, or someone young, fresh, theologically vague, liturgically indifferent, and charismatic, would sound like a good choice only to John Allen and a few overly-excitable-albeit-faithful Catholics, but to no one who has been paying attention to Pope Benedict, and the direction he has taken us.

Speaking of which, some bunch of yahoos are already talking about him as "the Great" and he's not even dead yet. (One more reason not to blame him for quitting.) And as far as the conclave goes, it is worth pointing out that the honorary clergy of Rome (that is, the Sacred College of Cardinals) are not picking the Homecoming Queen, but the Bishop of Rome, who by virtue of that title becomes the Supreme Pontiff, and the Successor of Peter (and no, it's not the other way around). It also seems that the cable news channels aren't exactly picking the brightest bulbs in the sockets to be talking heads, not as well as they did the last time. (Where is Father Z when you need him? Oh, now I remember.)

It seems to me that we as a Church need to get a grip on ourselves, don't you think?

Or don't you?