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From: tindall@mercury.interpath.net (Bruce Tindall)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Waldheim knighthood (UL content)
Date: 12 Aug 1994 16:49:06 -0400

I telephoned the Austrian Information Service in Washington. The nice lady there told me that yes, Kurt Waldheim was indeed awarded a papal knighthood sometime within the last few weeks.

(She did offer to go look up the exact date, but I figured she had better things to do so I just thanked her. If somebody is really fired up about this I suppose he or she could look in Clarinet or recent NY Times Indexes or something for the details.)

BTW, the first (wrong) number Directory Assistance gave me for the A.I.S. connected me with somebody speaking a completely incomprehensible language, the only words of which I was able to decipher were "Consulate....Bruce....Bruce....logical positivism....sheep dip."

b "or as Wittgenstein once told me, 'Es gibt KEIN Regel sechs'" t

From: tindall@mercury.interpath.net (Bruce Tindall)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Waldheim & Karadzic knighthood details
Date: 29 Aug 1994 13:32:48 -0400

Pope John Paul II named Kurt Waldheim a Knight of the Ordine Piano, according to a column by Martin Peretz in the September 5 issue of _The New Republic_. "The order, founded in 1848, honors individuals 'for outstanding service to Church or society.'" (No specific date for the event other than "midsummer" was mentioned.)

Peretz also writes that "about a year ago" the Greek Orthodox Church named Radovan Karadzic a Knight (first rank) of the Sovereign Greek Order of Saint Dionysius of Xanthe. "The 900-year-old order's knighthood...honors 'humanitarian achievement'". (Peretz asks, "Were these Dionysians drunk?")

Sorry if these details were posted already; I hadn't seen any followup to this thread, though there may have been some while I was on vacation for a week.