Overheard, Part I

Perhaps you've noted that Old Ken hasn't been doing one heck of a lot of blogging of late. True enough; but rather than recriminations, let's get it started by going for something relatively easy. That's where the shark mouth comes in.

Now, I take it that sharks have been in the news of late as some Australian assclown was swimming, got bitten by a shark, poked it in the eye, etc. Well, this concerns us only for the following reason:



There Old Ken was, sitting in the Courtauld lunch hall, eating my lunch and minding my own business, when some curious opinions started coming my way. Two ladies were also enjoying an afternoon repast and reflecting upon the national news.



Adoption, as you can clearly discern from the image above, has been the subject of a recent debate here. Should gay couples be allowed to adopt children as freely as heterosexual couples?


Yes, says the government and electorate.



No, says the Catholic Church.

Well, anyway, one woman gestures toward a picture of the shark mouth and says to the other woman: "That's where all those Catholics should be." In other words, all the Catholics should be in the shark's mouth.

Now, this strikes a familiar chord in English parlance. Since the age of Elizabeth I and the repulsion of the Spanish Armada, hatred of "popery" has been something of an article of national self-definition. But, there was one further, curious detail about all of this. First of all, this woman was wearing a chartreuse blazer (sorry, even the internet fails to deliver images suggestive of this fine garment) with a giant cameo on the left lapel.



When asked about the identity of the woman on the cameo, she promptly suggested that she believe it to be that great enemy of the Catholic Church, Marie Antoinette! Is it somehow an act of mockery to wear an effigy of the head of a Catholic monarch who herself lost her head? Old Ken's not sure, but (and here's our tagline) "that's what I overheard."