# Holy Grail, Batman! I've found it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 2, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129 "2014-04-02T01:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/1 "2014-04-02T01:16:54Z")
Today’s Straight Dope Column: [What is the Holy Grail?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2444/what-is-the-holy-grail) (Orig. pub. April 4, 2003) now comes with an added footnote: > [@Editor's Note:](#): > > April 1, 2014: Here’s yet another claim: [Historians identify ‘Holy Grail’ as goblet in Spanish museum, new book says – New York Daily News](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/historians-holy-grail-goblet-spanish-museum-article-1.1740633) This, and the New York Daily News article linked, are whooshes, right? Something about the linked article doesn’t pass the sniff test. (But, that could be said about a whole lot of N Y Daily News articles, no?) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/2 "2014-04-02T01:51:26Z")
The NYDK article is dated March 31, not April 1. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/3 "2014-04-02T04:22:04Z")
Lots of newspaper articles are dated the day before. I don’t know of any Church historian _or_ Arthurian scholar who has ever said that there was a real Grail cult. (I would almost say “real Grail”, except that, obviously, there must have been _some_ cup used at the Last Supper, whether it was preserved or not.) This story just goes against everything I know on the subject, and requires a great many unrelated facts to be suddenly and simultaneously turned on their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/4 "2014-04-02T11:09:40Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Lots of newspaper articles are dated the day before. Yes, but rarely when it’s intended as an April Fool’s joke. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/5 "2014-04-02T17:58:55Z")
I remember a Superman story from the 50s that was titled “The Night of March 31st”. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/6 "2014-04-02T18:21:38Z")
That’s not the cup of a carpenter! ---
**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 2, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/7 "2014-04-02T18:33:39Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > That’s not the cup of a carpenter! Just Googled “Athletic cup of the Carpenter” and go zero hits. Thank ghod. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/8 "2014-04-03T02:41:40Z")
Well, Karen didn’t need one, but Richard would. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/9 "2014-04-03T02:44:33Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > That’s not the cup of a carpenter! “Choose wisely.” ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/10 "2014-04-03T07:56:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Just Googled “Athletic cup of the Carpenter” and go zero hits. There’s at least one hit now, thanks to you. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![sich\_hinaufwinden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@sich\_hinaufwinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sich_hinaufwinden)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/11 "2014-04-04T15:04:55Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > That’s not the cup of a carpenter! This quote from the article hints at their claim: [QUOTE=] The cup, made of agate, gold and onyx, is actually two goblets formed together, the authors claim. [/QUOTE] Which is explained better in this article: [Jewel-encrusted goblet found gathering dust in tiny Spanish museum 'touched the lips of Jesus and is in fact the HOLY GRAIL' say two historians with evidence to prove it | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2593336/Jewel-encrusted-goblet-gathering-dust-tiny-Spanish-museum-touched-lips-Jesus-fact-HOLY-GRAIL-say-two-historians-book-prove-it.html) [QUOTE=] The onyx vessel made between 200 BC and 100 AD, they claim, is trapped inside a bejewelled medieval chalice. [snip] Centuries later, in around 1050 AD, it was sent as a gift to King Fernando I of Castile to thank him for sending aid during a famine, they say. By that point, it had been concealed with opulent decorations. [/QUOTE] ---
**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 4, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/12 "2014-04-04T15:29:29Z")
Were innkeepers in the habit of using onyx dinnerware back then? "And he took a cup, and gave thanks, then took another look at the cup and said “Verily I say unto you, I knoweth not who arranged this shindig, but I am not paying extra for _this_.” ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holy-grail-batman-ive-found-it/685129/13 "2014-04-05T04:23:07Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > I remember a Superman story from the 50s that was titled “The Night of March 31st”. May 1961. [www.hembeck.com/WordsAboutPictures/NightofMarch31st.htm](http://www.hembeck.com/WordsAboutPictures/NightofMarch31st.htm)