JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

An on-again-off-again scandal that the Italian press has called VatiLeaks burst into the open on Friday with the arrest by Vatican gendarmes of a man, identified in news reports as Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, who the Vatican said was in possession of confidential documents and was suspected of leaking private letters, some of which were addressed to Pope Benedict XVI.

The arrest follows by a day the ouster of the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, amid conflicts over how to bring the secretive institution in line with international transparency standards and days after the publication of a sensational book, “Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI,” in which the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, aided by “Maria,” discloses a huge cache of private Vatican correspondence, many revealing clashes over the management at the Vatican bank and allegations of corruption and cronyism.

Read In Vatican scandal, a whodunit of a suspect in the NYT.

Granimator wallpaper by RickyV

What line/s from any of our books, columns, articles or blogs would you like to see on a T-shirt?

P.S. “I’m not doubting your honor, I’m denying its existence” would look great on a T-shirt. We would buy that T-shirt in all available colors. Unfortunately we don’t own that line, George R.R. Martin (or HBO) does.

We mean something we wrote ourselves. Sorry.

The coffee with readers at Caffe Nero on Tooley Street was so much fun that it became dinner at Nicholson’s on Southwark by the river and ended with drinks at the 184-year-old Globe Tavern on Bedale Street off Borough. Not bad for a bunch of people who had just met. Here we are at the Globe (from left): Will, Cielo, me, Tess, Anthony and Shivaun. Not in photo: Claire, Ryan and Bodhi.

Thanks for the company and the stories! Everyone who turned up at this meet-and-greet works in the mental health, nursing and biomedical sectors, so it was just like group therapy.

According to Will this elevator at Canary Wharf appears in the Jude Law movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Caffe Nero on Tooley Street near Tower Bridge, 4ish to 7ish. (Ooh near a dungeon! Perfect venue.)
We have your books (if you made a reservation). If you didn’t, come anyway for the chitchat and you can claim your book in Manila.

Random picture taken from the London Eye

We’re all set for the Twisted meet and greet.

Date: Thursday, 19 May 2011
Time: 4 pm
Place: Caffe Nero at Tower Bridge, Tooley Street, London.
Fifteen pounds gets you high tea and a copy of Twisted 9.

We only have five books left (the first five went quickly) so please sign up in Comments pronto. If you don’t mind not getting the book, you’re welcome to join us for tea and conversation.

We’re accepting entries to LitWit Challenge 2.12: The Birds and The Bees until 11.59 tonight.

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My white tabby Mat is the sweetest cat, but our oven-like weather is making even Mat cranky. Yesterday I woke up because he was breathing on my face.

“I want my breakfast,” he said (telepathically).

“There’s food in your bowl, go eat. I’m still sleeping.”

“My bowl must be full. You have to top up the kibble.”

“Later, don’t be like your neurotic human mother.”

“I want a full bowl of kibble.”

“Zzzzzz.”

Whack! He smacked my forehead. Realizing what he had done, he ran out of the room. A chase ensued. No more sleep.