Brevity by Dan Thompson for March 17, 2023

To all the Ebesneezers: “God, bless you and bless us, everyone!”

Whatever happened to his clerk, Bob Cratchooo!

God bless you…

There are two basic origin stories for the sneeze blessing:

In ancient times, people believed that a person’s soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed and that sneezing opened the body to invasion by evil spirits. So blessings were used as a protection against the devil snatching the sneezer’s soul and/or to keep evil spirits at bay.

During the Roman Plague of 590, Pope Gregory I ordered unceasing prayer for divine intercession. He also ordered that anyone sneezing be blessed immediately (“God bless you”), because sneezing was often the first sign that someone was falling ill with the plague. By AD 750, it became customary to say “God bless you” as a response to someone sneezing. [An Uncommon History of Common Things, National Geographic, 2009] I wonder if Pope Gregory I was aware of the ancient folk remedy.

gesundheit

Blasted March winds blow all kinds of crud into our nostrils.

I thought he might wipe his nose with Tiny Tim.

Wow, that pun name was right on the nose.

Thanks Dan, very clever and funny…