# 21 gun salute for the Pope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 14, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264 "2008-04-14T06:42:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/1 "2008-04-14T06:42:44Z")
I think I’m liking what I see in this article: [http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/13/pope.visit.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/13/pope.visit.ap/index.html) …but I’m leery of what a Bavarian-style 81st birthday for the pontiff at the White House will look like. I’m picturing a polka band trying to stick to hymns during a kegger with high-end schnitzel on the good china. “Doin’ a heckuva job, Popie.” That, of course, is because I am a bad and biased person. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/2 "2008-04-14T07:06:15Z")
I so want to see the YouTube video of that 21 gun salute…just what a Pope would dream for! Leave it to Dubya to include that…maybe they can fly in a few prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and demonstrate waterboarding during dinner? And having Bavarian food?! Gee - just what I would want when I go to Europe - someone to have me over to their house and make me their version of a cheeseburger because, well, I have been gone from the home country for a grand total of 12 hours and already miss homestyle cookin’? Idiots. Give the guy a fuckin’ steak and a baked potato…that is what most Europeans come to the USA to eat! I’ll bet George seats him next to Condi Rice at dinner - the Pope’s single and who knows, they might hit if off and get married! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/3 "2008-04-14T07:27:27Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] I so want to see the YouTube video of that 21 gun salute…just what a Pope would dream for! Leave it to Dubya to include that…maybe they can fly in a few prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and demonstrate waterboarding during dinner? And having Bavarian food?! Gee - just what I would want when I go to Europe - someone to have me over to their house and make me their version of a cheeseburger because, well, I have been gone from the home country for a grand total of 12 hours and already miss homestyle cookin’? Idiots. Give the guy a fuckin’ steak and a baked potato…that is what most Europeans come to the USA to eat! I’ll bet George seats him next to Condi Rice at dinner - the Pope’s single and who knows, they might hit if off and get married! [/QUOTE] Palpy _won’t_ be eating. > [@](#): > > But Benedict’s prayer service that evening with U.S. bishops at a famed Washington basilica preclude him from coming to the dinner, according to the White House. Catholic leaders will be there instead. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/4 "2008-04-14T07:33:49Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] I’ll bet George seats him next to Condi Rice at dinner - the Pope’s single and who knows, they might hit if off and get married! [/QUOTE] “I’ve eaten Mexican rice, I’ve eaten Japanese rice, I’ve eaten Indian rice, I’ve even eaten _wild_ rice…but I’ve never eaten Condi Rice.” ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/5 "2008-04-14T11:11:18Z")
Minor factual confusion here from the CNN article. > [@](#): > > The Bush-Benedict get-together will be the 25th meeting between a pope and a sitting president. > [@](#): > > Every president has met with the pope at least once, often more. Unless some of those meetings were multi-president transtemporal extravaganzas, I don’t see how this could be possible. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/6 "2008-04-14T11:28:15Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/7 "2008-04-14T14:47:12Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS. [/QUOTE] Sorry. I’m still working on that delineation between my opinions and pointless stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/8 "2008-04-14T14:59:31Z")
The Pope is a head of state, right? Is it normal for heads of state to get a 21-gun salute? Oh, and he isn;t single. He’s married to the Church. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/21-gun-salute-for-the-pope/445264/9 "2008-04-14T20:24:07Z")
[QUOTE=Lama Pacos] Unless some of those meetings were multi-president transtemporal extravaganzas, I don’t see how this could be possible. [/QUOTE] They mean every president since Eisenhower.