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About the Rhubarb question and answer: The parents in the story would say the question about the rain hurting the rhubarb intending to break up a fight that the kids were having. The kids would reply, "not if it's in the can". Isn't a fight sometimes called a rhubarb? And can't the expression "can it" also mean "stop it"? So the parents might have simply said, "Can the rhubarb!"
My Mom, a good Catholic, would tell us this story on Thanksgiving: when a little boy asked his prim and proper parents about the names of the various parts of the bird, there was no problem until the boy pointed to the tail end. The parents would hem and haw, and say, "we don't know, but the Pope knows!"
Your caller, or perhaps one of our esteemed hosts, said she had never eaten the Pope's nose, but instead, fed it to the cat. This reminds me of going to my sister-in-law's house for Thanksgiving and asking if there was any dark meat. She told me "No, we threw the legs away." What planet are these people from?
I grew up in a nominally Protestant household. We always called it the Pope's nose. I have always assumed that Protestants say "Pope's nose" and Catholics say "Parson's nose", so it was interesting to hear about the nun who said "Pope's nose."
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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