• From the funeral of Otto Von Habsburg

    The following traditional Habsburg entombment “knocking” ceremony took place at the door of Vienna’s Capuchin Friary after the funeral followed of Otto Von Habsburg.

    FIRST KNOCK

    Capuchin Friar : “Who desires admission?”

    Leader of funeral party: “Otto of Austria, former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Prince Royal of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukowina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Osweicim and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Dubrovnik and Zadar; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria: Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenburg; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and Windic March; Grand Voivod of the Voivodship of Serbia”

    Friar : “We do not know him!”

    SECOND KNOCK

    Friar : “Who desires admission?”

    Leader : “Dr Otto von Habsburg; President and Honorary President of the Pan-European Union; Member and Father of the House of the European Parliament; Holder of honorary doctorates from countless universities and freeman of many communities in Central Europe; Member of numerous noble academies and institutes; Bearer of high and highest awards, decorations and honours of church and state made to him in recognition of his decade-long struggle for the freedom of peoples, for right and justice.”

    Friar: “We do not know him!”

    THIRD KNOCK

    Friar : “Who desires admission?”

    Leader : “Otto — a mortal, sinful man!”

    Friar: “Let him be admitted.”

  • Fred Perry

    casual comment made within hearing of his opponent in the changing room before a big final

    I wouldn’t want to be playing me today.

  • Matthew Parris

    We have been living beyond our means. We have been paying ourselves more than our efforts were earning. We sought political leaders who would assure us that the good times would never end and that the centuries of boom and bust were over; and we voted for those who offered that assurance. We sought credit for which we had no security and we gave our business to the banks that advertised it. We wanted higher exam grades for our children and were rewarded with politicians prepared to supply them by lowering exam standards. We wanted free and better health care and demanded chancellors who paid for it without putting up our taxes. We wanted salacious stories in our newspapers and bought the papers that broke the rules to provide them. And now we whimper and snarl at MPs, bankers and journalists. Fair enough, my friends, but, you know, we really are all in this together.

  • Bruce Cockburn

    I’ve been scraping little shavings off my ration of light
    And I’ve formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it
    I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache
    Under a loose board in the floor
    And I blow across it and I send it to you
    Against those moments when
    The darkness blows under your door

    Isn’t that what friends are for?