I’ve been to the procession. It is … incredible. And now it is a target.
#Attentato sventato a #Viterbo alla tradizionale Festa di #SantaRosa. Arrestati 2 cittadini turchi, un terzo è in fuga. Erano pronti a colpire durante le celebrazioni.
I dettagli con @aridigiorgio #GR1 pic.twitter.com/OdOcCE3Poc— Rai Radio1 (@Radio1Rai) September 4, 2025
Okay, it is in Italian. Some Turks, planning to shoot up the annual procession, were arrested. The procession has a HUGE “macchina”, several stories tall, carried by men through the packed streets as massive drums beat a marching rhythm. Had there been an attack… imagine.
UPDATED:
It almost (!) happened again.
The Italian police thwarted an Islamic terror attack in the small town of Viterbo last night, where two Turkish men armed with machine guns were planning to open fire on a crowd of 40.000 Christians who were gathered to celebrate the Feast Day of… pic.twitter.com/Cv85fbbzTf
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) September 4, 2025
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Abundant blessings and good things to JM who was kind enough to send me more San Marzano tomatoes from my wishlist.
Life is better with San Marzano tomatoes. And the price had dropped 24%!
This is good.
It is a joy to see the restoration of the oldest Catholic parish in Portland! https://t.co/6ZIMtCX18J pic.twitter.com/obhpPg7wUn
— Archbishop Sample (@ArchbishpSample) September 3, 2025
St. Pope Pius X, the first Saint ever filmed https://t.co/oeVOdj85Gw pic.twitter.com/5gWbmx6LsY
— ? ????? ? ????® (@0remvs) September 3, 2025
Very cool
The new beautiful bells for Notre Dame???? pic.twitter.com/9DNEiQGbHF
— T.E. Jentzen (@Faithful2Pray) September 3, 2025
In chessy news… The FIDE Grand Swiss is on and Hikaru is playing in any old rated tournament against vastly lower players because he needs a certain quota of games to qualify for the Candidates.
White to more and mate in 4.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
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Personally, I favor the Gia Russa San Marzano tomatoes.
When I can’t get those I find, surprisingly, that the crush tomatoes from Aldi make a decent sauce.
St. Rose of Viterbo, thank you for praying for us!
As a girl, she preached penance in the streets. She was also a vowed virgin. And she did miracles galore. So of course this is particularly offensive to Islam, which opposes a good chunk of that stuff (and whose ‘prophet’ did no miracles at all).
The reason she’s associated with the big bright tall machina is apparently because, a few years after she and her parents were expelled from Viterbo for her embarrassing preaching, she went to a town called Vitorchiano and stood in a blazing bonfire for three hours to demonstrate the power of God over the power of witchcraft, turning the entire town to repentance and winning the witch herself back to God. This event was “well attested.”
After that, she and her parents were finally allowed to go back home to Viterbo.
So yeah… it’s pretty hilarious that the official Franciscan page in English says that she lived an unremarkable, uncontroversial life that was hidden from the world! Much more fun to read webpages elsewhere! Lol!
Anyhow… her body is incorrupt, and it’s carried through the streets on her feast day. So yeah, it’s pretty clear that these particular terrorists had no idea what saint they were tangling with, and I think it’s great that the police collaborated with their saint.
White to move and mate in 4
Finally got this one!
Early on I noticed that unless black’s first move was forced the black queen and bishop could chase the white king around and extend things beyond 4 moves. So seemed like the white’s first move had to be a check with 1) Rd8+ being the most obvious choice. Tried a lot of variations on this and then on 1) Qc7+ but never could get anything to work and was close to giving up. For some reason the second move rook sacrifice on a8 just never occurred to me. When I tried it, DOH! there it was.
1) Rd8+ Ka7 (forced)
2) Ra8+ Kxa8 (forced)
3) Qxa6+ Kb8 (forced)
4) Qxb7 mate