Did anyone watch "Hardball with Chris Matthews" today?

[aaaaaa5a]

I have a dumb question to ask that I am hoping can be answered here.


Why did the Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger have a giant ink spot on her head? Is this some type of protest that I am not aware of? Is it religous? A joke perhaps? And if it was some type of mistake, why did they let her go on without telling her she had a huge ink smudge on her forehead?



Just askin'

[StopTheNeoCons]

1. Ash Wednesday....nt

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date ...

the internet answers all questions

[MiniMe]

2. It's ash Wednesday

[earthside]

3. It's a Roman Catholic thing.

Today is, what? the beginning of Lent?

Whatever that is.

[elleng]

4. ASH Wednesday!

[NutmegYankee]

5. It's not just Catholic, many mainline Protestant churches practice it too.

I celebrated Shrove Tuesday yesterday

[earthside]

11. True enough ...

... but I don't think Protestant churches have traditionally done the forehead smudge thing.

[Bohunk68]

25. Wrong!

I am an ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Deacon and we have been doing it for hundreds of years. BTW, we are the Liberal branch of Lutheranism. It's not a smudge, it's the sign of the cross. Traditionally, the palm branches used the previous year on Palm Sunday are burned to create the ashes which are mixed with oil and applied to the forehead with the following words spoken, "From ashes you came and to ashes you will return." Some use the word, "dust". It's a reminder of your own mortality.

[demosincebirth]

15. So is Mardi Gras. Ever think of that.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. A form of ritual face painting....

[whathehell]

20. Uh, no.

[aaaaaa5a]

7. Thank you to everyone!

I wish that could have been explained on the TV program before the segment began. Not all of his viewers are religious. Oh well!



I appreciate everyone who helped make me a little smarter today!

[mach5555]

8. I'm pretty sure that was some sort of shunt...

Uh- not so fast.
We watched on a big screen TV and looked closely. I am positive that it was a brown plastic shunt being held into place with clear tape onto her forehead. The shunt was round and potruding and had a round opening in the middle. That is what we saw.

[CTyankee]

9. It really looked like she had been shot in the head! Awful!

I knew it was an ash smudge because I had seen Ricky earlier with his little teeny weeny smudge but hers was a gun shot wound size! Sheesh!

[Nancy Waterman]

10. Sick Rick Santorscum had one earlier today

I wonder if he will keep it for the debate tonight.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I screamed at the TV when I saw her

I am Episcopal and we have ashes applied (in the sign of the cross) on the forehead as well on Ash Wednesday... But most folks don't have it looking like a giant billboard like that. It was like "See me?! See me?!"

[CTyankee]

14. Hers was disturbing. It sent a message to me that this stuff with the Church is pretty

awful. They are in this in a serious way, by which I mean Spanish Inquisition and Third Crusade way. I mean, really!

It gives Roman Catholicism a whole new meaning here in the U.S.A.

And it's not good for them...

[aaaaaa5a]

18. Agreed. It was distracting. I thought it required a brief explanation from her or Matthews. nt

[MerryBlooms]

30. Matthews did mention it and the reason, then follwed up with-

he hadn't been to church yet, but would be later.

[aaaaaa5a]

31. I am sorry if that is the case. I must have missed it. nt

[Raven]

13. "Remember, thou art dust and unto

dust thou shalt return." Or something like that.

[demosincebirth]

16. True.

[Scottdt21]

17. Really strange mark, not like a smudge

Watched Hardball tonight and saw it on a 50" HDTV. Thought such was so weird that I rewound and paused the TiVo to get a better look. It really appeared there was a bruise behind the lower left side and it looked like a square blackish layer overtop other discoloration. Really strange, like she had suffered a head injury.

[grantcart]

19. lol

[Iggo]

21. wow...

[aaaaaa5a]

22. Sorry guys. Not all of us are religious. NT

All I could have told you about it, is that red dots look prettier than having ugly black ink smeared across your forehead. Especially when it is done right before you go on live National Television.

When I first saw her, I thought she had been hit and had bruise on her face.

[Iggo]

23. Sometimes I forget...

...that not everybody lives where there's millions of Catholics. If you'd ever eaten a fish taco on Ash Wednesday in SoCal, you'd know why I was laughing and you'd be laughing right along with me.

[aaaaaa5a]

33. Agreed!

[ecstatic]

24. I was wondering about that too

It looked like a bullet hole. Interesting info!

[bonchesva]

26. I have a dumb question to ask that I am hoping can be answered here.

You're not alone. Myself and my family were also wondering WTH was on her forehead! Now that I know, I have to say......What's pathetic is, she would've never done that if the interview was about "anything" else.

[Iggo]

27. Where do you people live?

You've never seen a devout (or at least observant) catholic on Ash Wednesday before?

Or you've just never see one on TV?

This is really new to you?

[aaaaaa5a]

32. Sorry. It was fairly new to me. nt

[Cleita]

28. If I remember my religion classes correctly, Christians wore sack cloth and ashes

on Ash Wednesday. Eventually over the centuries it became a symbolic smudge. The ashes are from palm leaves supposedly left over from the previous year's Palm Sunday, or so they told me. I was often suspicious that the priests scraped the ashes off the grate in the rectory's fireplace.

[mainer]

28. The first time I saw an ash spot on someone's forehead, I was in my late 40's.

So it's not a dumb question at all. It's all very regional.