Late Pope John Paul II Audio Cards

I never hide my deep love to the late Pope John Paul II. And now, I'm jealous that people in Italy can get this cool audio card and I can't:


Source: ANSA News

Here's the story of the audio card as reported by ANSA:

ROME (ANSA) - The enduring popularity of the late Pope John Paul II has been underlined yet again by the runaway success of a new gadget offering a blessing from the Polish pontiff at the press of a button.

Offered as a free gift with a new Catholic monthly, the palm-size device is comprised of a small picture of John Paul mounted on an electronic card which has his voice recorded on it digitally.

When pressure is applied, the user hears the pope's voice saying a blessing in Latin.

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So far, more than 35,000 people got a free copy of the audio card. But NOT ME. Still, I'm happy to know that people's love to the late Pope is still alive. That's all it counts.

Wal-Mart and Christmas

Last year, Wal-Mart went under a lot of criticism for its refusal to recognize Christmas for what it is. Christmas is Christmas. It's not some other generic holiday.

This year though, Wal-Mart is trying to reconcile with Christmas:

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - It is beginning to look a lot more like Christmas at Wal-Mart.

This holiday season, Wal-Mart isn’t trumpeting big bargains only. It’s also bringing “Christmas” back into its marketing, after several years of playing down the term.
[...]
“We learned a lesson from that. Merry Christmas is now part of the vocabulary here at Wal-Mart,” said Linda Blakley, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

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I haven't been to Wal-Mart in long time. I prefer other shops with better shopping atmosphere and products quality.