ArtieShaw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_for_the_historicity_of_Jesus

A google of “historicity of Jesus” will turn up some results. The wiki link is one of at least three very similar wiki articles on the topic.

tl/dr - it’s generally accepted that Jesus was a historical person but all that can be confirmed from written accounts is 1) he was baptized and 2) he was crucified.

Of course people can and do question the independent contemporary Jewish (Josephus) or Roman (Tacitus and Pliny) sources, but they seem to be in the minority. Even the less shady version of Josephus’s passage suggests that he was talking about a person who existed.

I don’t have anything to add since I’m not Christian - merely surrounded by Christians. I’ve done a fair bit of reading trying to figure out what’s going on with all that.

Unless I’m also having an off day, the article is just really confusing. It makes sense to me that Italy would want the base back because it would be like selling a framed painting to Hitler and getting only the canvas back when it was returned. (Hitler, amirite?)

It’s probably a pretty nice base. Probably custom made for the statue shortly after it was unearthed, and probably the sort of thing that art historians would care about keeping together with the sculpture for art historian reasons.

It was a not so subtle way of saying “we love you but you’re not saved so you’re going to suffer during the tribulation.” Or, “are you sure you don’t want to accept Jesus and avoid all that?”

The rapture is not an instakill scenario for them, but the details make my head hurt.

Baptized Lutheran shortly after birth, but never attended church. It’s a long and vaguely racist family story. Don’t consider myself Christian.

My in-laws are fundamentalist end times folk, and it took years to try to make sense all of that. I love my husband, but it’s a lot to take in. And my brain naturally tends to try to make sense or analyze things, or figure out what’s motivating people.

Their older generation are very interested in controlling the people around them and they’re very good at it. I think it’s control and authority at the heart of it, with a helping of genuine trauma that makes death and reward look appealing.

Actual quote that I’ve heard a few times: “Life is hard, short, and cruel - and then you die!” \ Let me just say that Christmas visits can get really weird.

On a lighter note, they mailed us a Tribulation Survival Care Package for the 1999 x-mas, ahead of the Y2K impending millennial crisis. That was actually sort of fun, and the shiny space blanket came in handy a few times.

There’s an interesting podcast called Stuff the British Stole.

They did an episode on the Elgin Marbles, but they cover a wide range of stolen goods.

And not to lay all the blame on Britain, Germany stole an entire temple from Pergamum. It’s currently in a museum in Berlin. (I tried to see it while in Berlin, but the exhibit was closed. I’m still a little salty about that. Can’t see it in the original location. Couldn’t see it in the museum.)

Pretty lady transforms into monster covered with greenish spaghetti hair, a bad outfit, and typewriter fingertips. If she puts those on your face you’ll be sorry unless you’re dead.

That episode really freaked me out when I was a kid.

I mean, really freaked me out. It’s in the top ten of scariest monsters from childhood.

If you displease me again,

“Bwang-ang-ang-ang!”

Tons of potential for TIT(Trekked)U.

I can’t go to San Francisco without thinking about the nuclear wessels. My husband is legitimately worried that I’ll start asking random strangers about them.

Actually - considering the amount of unsolicited (and invariably wrong) advice we got from SF locals who saw us looking at transit maps and butted in to offer some friendly assistance… I may just do that at the next visit.

“Are you looking for Fisherman’s Warf?”
“No.”
“It’s just down that way!” <points due south, towards transamerica building>
“I think we’re good! Thanks for the help!”
“Actually, we’re looking for nuclear wessels. Do you know where I can find nuclear wessels?”

<sigh> He’s right to be worried.

Aw, I remember a confused new cat “owner” who wrote to a cat advice sub about that. He was extremely stressed out because he couldn’t help himself from looking at his new cat. It was sweet. Weird and overly literal, but sweet. He seemed genuinely worried that being seen would bother the cat.

Everyone reassured him that he could look at the kitty if he wasn’t weird about it.

Worf? Worf here is being weird about it. And holding him wrong. Worf’s gonna get mauled.

The name means just “lobster in/on a roll” - with roll meaning " a small bread" rather than the act of rolling something. This does look delicious, but it is also somewhat atypical of the dish as I know it. The bread looks underdone and untoasted and the lobster is just sort of sitting on top, weirdly. Typically, the lobster is loaded into a slice in the roll and there is much more of it. Paradoxically, you can eat a proper lobster roll without a knife and fork, but this one seems to demand that you use utensils.

A google image search will demonstrate more clearly, but I could describe it as “an unholy amount of lobster salad in a hotdog bun.”

Also - worth noting: you can make a lobster roll with the shellfish dressed with either butter or mayonnaise/lemon. Differences are regional and although it causes mostly good natured fights, I think both are nice. This one appears to be of the butter variety.