Black or White?
Whoever is in charge of burning the ballots and the end of the College of Cardinals voting session is a genius. I don’t even know if he realizes how much suspense he is causing. Twice now, black smoke has billowed from the stove pipe. But both times, it came out white at first, and then gradually turned darker and darker shades of grey over the course of about 30 seconds. The whole time, TV commentators go on like they’re calling a horse race. “It’s black in the lead, black by two lengths, white closing the gap, coming up on the right, it’s black by one length with a quarter of a lap to go, and black is breaking away! Black by four lengths coming onto the home stretch, and it’s black!”
Whee! New Popes are fun.
