The Perils of Newspeak

From an article on the installation of the new Bishop of Reno (ht: Open Book):

When the Rev. Randolph Calvo becomes bishop of Reno tonight, he will literally take it by the seat of his pants.

Calvo will assume power as leader of the Roman Catholic flock only when he sits in the traditional bishop's chair, according to Brother Matthew Cunningham, chancellor of the Diocese of Reno.

"When he is seated in his chair, he becomes the bishop of Reno," Cunningham said. "When he hits the chair, he is being installed."

It is a tradition that dates to the Roman Empire when governors of provinces such as Pontius Pilate of Judea ruled from a throne. So until he sits, Calvo can't claim to be the diocese's seventh bishop and the first with an ethnic background.

(You stay classy, Nevada.) Now, the prior ordinaries of the Diocese of Reno are: Thomas Kiely Gorman (1931-1952), Robert Joseph Dwyer (1952-1966), Michael Joseph Green (1966-1974), Norman Francis McFarland (1976-1986), Daniel Francis Walsh (1987-1995), and Philip Francis Straling (1995-2005). Please count me among those surprised to discover that "Irish" had been abolished as an ethnicity.