There probably should be a law prohibiting octogenarians with COVID-19 from posting anything on the internet. The latest strain of the disease, which I believe targets seniors who have had all the shots, has some extraordinary symptoms: extreme fatigue, non-stop sneezing, nodding off, and an enormous appetite for pepperoni pizza along with the rationalization to justify it as curative. I’m sitting here now at four in the morning picking the pepperoni off of the pizza and letting Alexa decide the music. (Fewer calories if you eat the pepperoni and pizza separately – no brain fog here). Every minute or two I nod off: a super-short nap, the kind with two seconds of REM and a magically good short dream, the naps 80-year-olds have at traffic lights as the light turns green and people behind start to blow their horns, the types of naps I have during homilies on Sunday when my wife is there to kick me awake. 

I just dreamed they had just redone the carbon dating, with a new 200 page protocol designed by Hugh Farey using sample locations picked by Joe Marino. The result, written on an electronic blackboard, was 650 AD! Everyone, medievalists, authenticists and the undecided alike, was able to find a way to say, “I told you so.”

And Alexa was singing, “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to be out of the rain . . . La la la la la la,”

Are we beyond the point when we can be rational?  I don’t think so. Hold your horses. We’ve got a significant posting by Colin Berry coming soon. Stay tuned. And in the meantime, read Hugh Farey’s latest posting, With Friends Like These… at the Medieval Shroud Blog

What would happen if such a date, 650 AD, resulted from new tests?

*According to the song’s composer, Dewey Bunnell, the folk song is a metaphor for getting away from life’s confusion into a quiet, peaceful place.