Month: July 2026

Garbage in Bern

kenritley

I find this kind of interesting. The word “steit” is written here starting with “st…” but it is pronounced “scht…” – so it is quite interesting why some words in Bärndütsch are written like they sound (e.g. chunnt dri) but other words (e.g. “steit”) are not written that way.

This may be one of those mysteries that nobody probably knows the answer to!

Pope Leos – or is it Popes Leo?

kenritley

This is Pope Leo IX, or at least a statute of him, in downtown Eguisheim in Alsace, France:

And thirteen popes later we have Pope Leo XIV,

Clearly, both of them are wielding big sceptors – call a ferula. The one on the statute has three bars – which differentiates itself from those from archbishops (two bars) or bishops (1 bar). But . . . it raises an interesting question: when did popes stop sporting beards?