Pope Benedict XVI Scandal?

Pope Benedict XVI Off-Duty?

Tippling from the Holy Grail?

(Image from Expatriate Games)

This may be just a baseless accusation, but given my history of defending the Pope, I feel that I must report this recent, disturbing claim against His Holiness.

A baby living in Daejeon has identified Pope Benedict XVI as his maternal grandmother (see photo of grandmother above). The precocious baby girl -- whose name is "Hayden Lee" and who lives in Korea with her Korean father and French-Canadian mother -- made the claim on November 11, 2007, also known as Pepero Day (a Korean national holiday). According to the baby's mother:

"I was reading one of my favourite blogs -- Gypsy Scholar -- when Hayden spied a photo of Pope Benedict XVI. And gasped. And said "Nan-nee! Nan-eeee!"

The poor thing was attempting to say "Nanny," which is what she calls her grandmother. Here's the papal image that the child was looking at:

Pope Benedict XVI

(Image from Wikipedia)

Given that the young child's mother is the well-known KAIST blogger Melissa, of the fine blog Expatriate Games, I'm inclined to take this report very seriously despite the slight differences in appearance, age, and gender perceivable in the two photos above. I mean, do babies lie? Surely not!

However, honesty compels me to observe that the child's credibility might be doubted based on an earlier, similar accusation leveled against a refrigerator:

Since we left Canada in August, I have, by special request, been showing Hayden photos of my mom and my sisters and my step-father while saying their names. She can now recognize their faces and repeat (reasonable versions of) their names. Or so I thought. But. My mom's photo is on our refrigerator so when we go to the kitchen I point at the picture and say "Nanny. Hayden, that's Nanny". And she would smile and nod and say back "Na-nee. Na-neee". Cute as a button. But the other day as we were bypassing the kitchen to make our way to the bathroom, Little Miss Lee spied the fridge -- gasped -- ran up to it, patted the side of our LG Dios Digital and said "Na-nee. Na-nee". And nodded proudly. The child thinks our fridge is her grandmother. Sorry mom. At least it wasn't a kimchi cooler.

Hmmm.... It occurs to me that the child might have been identifying the Pope not as her grandmother but, rather, as a fridge. Here's an image of an LG Dios Digital fridge:

Spitting Image of Pope Benedict XVI?

(Image from sunlit.com)

Right. Well... perhaps this little kid is not only mixed but even mixed up -- a bit of fusion confusion. Moreover, kids often say the darndest things! And they'll do the darndest things, too. Here, you'll find some kids posing for photos the way that the little boy in Calvin and Hobbes always did.

Speaking of that comic strip, go here for the latest idyllic image...