Gone With the Wind

Did you hear about the priest who tried to set a record for balloon powered flight? This might come as a huge surprise to you: He’s missing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7360416.stm

When I first heard about the incident I figured it was some sort of fund raising stunt to feed the poor. That would have been noble albeit dangerous. But apparently there was no fund raising involved. The priest just wanted to hold the record for balloon riding.

This got me wondering what sort or world record attempt by a priest would piss off God the most. From The Almighty’s perspective, any diversion from the core mission of saving souls is probably time poorly spent. But some types of record attempts have to be worse than others. For example, you don’t want to see your priest winning any kind of pie eating contest. And you don’t want a man of the cloth to hold any titles involving nudity, tequila, or self-gratification, just to name a few. The best a priest could hope for in those cases is that God is busy and doesn’t notice.

But a balloon ride, way up there next to heaven? That’s total smite bait.

Comments

[Lennongirl]

Noooooooooooooo.

The prospect of reading your blog is the only thing that got me through this morning and now there is nothing!

:-(

Please please please post soon!

[Church of Dim Sum]

I guess those truck drivers in Paranagua will have no rest then. No time to eat some tasty morsels, or have a nap.

Do we know if there is a lot of accidents on the road in that country? Perhaps there is another solution...

[Andy Coulter]

the only thing better than smite is the past tense smote.

[CPB]

I am a sucker for anytime the verb "smite" is used.

[Blood Pressure Monitor]

And there was I thinking that priests were supposed to be praying. In any case, fair play to the bloke. You've got to get some entertainment from any job.

[Will]

Jay wrote: 'He SO was trying raise funds! Look:

"He was trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."

Ooooo!!! Scotty was wrong! Let me point it out and it will show that I am better than him.....my life has been given meaning... I AM VALIDATED!!!'
-----------

Your sarcasm would be spot on if it weren't for Scott Adams' history of constantly belittling and criticizing his blog readers. One of his favourite techniques is to criticize blog readers for "poor reading comprehension" and "hallucinating his point of view" (e.g. incorrectly reading between the lines of his posts to infer an opinion he doesn't hold.)

So excuse us if we call him out on his bullshit when he makes a mistake. Excuse us if we get all giddy when Scott Adams hallucinates the facts of a very simple news story. (Or rather, he hallucinated the absence of a very simple fact that was stated clearly in the story.)

[Gustavo B.]

Like someone here said, he took a GPS device with him, but didn't know how to use it. But Wait, there's more! He took a satellite cell phone with him too, but it was not fully charged. And the last call was along those lines: "I need someone to tell me how to operate this gps device, so I can get my latitude and longitude!"

[Big Al]

I pretty sure Scott realizes that he missed the part about the fundraiser by now.

Seriously, you don't need to be the 147th person to point that out.

Besides that, I loved the first two sentences...

[Leo]

The priest was found! Check it out:

http://www.kibeloco.globolog.com.br/Padre%20Lost.jpg

And:

"The cleric's former flight teacher called his disappearance a "tragedy foretold."

Paragliding instructor Marcio Andre Lichtnow, who gave courses to Father de Carli three years ago, described him as a "headstrong, anxious individual who was always in a rush."
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4t-K_IjQUzaN2Hi-EmmwYAyRoVw

[Simian God]

This had me laughing, but then I remembered to play it down a bit so my deathbed conversion won't seem so phony.

[DJL]

I don't know about the pie eating. Glutony yes, but any priest winning a pie eating contest has my vote. (Do we vote on priests yet?)

[Warfreak2]

"He was trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."

You lose.

[smncameron]

No offence, but did you actually read the article? It says he was raising money for a truck stop.

[RUBBA]

I THINK HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN TO SPY ON GOD. AND THAT WASN'T SMART.

[Brian]

The article you linked said that he was trying to raise funds.

I was surprised to see that we are talking about standard, birthday party style balloons. Maybe, at an anniversary celebration for a couple of his parishoners, some drunken table talk went awry. The conversation started with "I bet if you had enough of these ..." and twenty minutes later ended with "I TRIPLE dog dare you!" The rest is history.

[Joelle Leboutte]

"He was trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."

I guess he wasn't that selfish.

[Ben]

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this but, the article states "He was trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."
So there was a vague form of charity involved, saving lives through having someplace to sleep.

[Joelle Leboutte]

"He was trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."

I guess he wasn't as selfish as you thought.

[Joelle Leboutte]

"He was trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."

I guess he wasn't as selfish as you thought.

[Mike]

"And you don’t want a man of the cloth to hold any titles involving nudity, tequila, or self-gratification ..."

You're restricting this to a Protestant work-ethic type God aren't you?

[Dan Roy]

The thing I wonder about is whether he, in his particular situation, died and went to heaven, or if he just sort of strolled over there? I read he was at one time at 18,000 feet. That ought to count as heaven, right?

[Ivan Cronyn]

I'm sure it's a terrible thing for his family and friends, but it did make me smile too.

From the BBC article you quoted as a source, it seems he was "trying to raise funds to provide a rest stop for lorry drivers in Paranagua, a major port for agricultural products."

Not sure I'd risk my life for that.

[F Ho]

The new Dilbert.com SUCKS!! (I know i'm the millionth person to say this)

I can NEVER load the strip on the home page and can only view them in thumbnails... Honestly I don't freaking care whether they are in color or not.... T_T

[teutates]

"smite bait" sounds like a cool slogan to put on t-shirts! :)

[ShaunL]

There's just something undignified about a prient wearing a helmet, thermal flight suit and waterproof coveralls- kind of lacks gravitas