Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
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Matthew Wai
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It might take a very long time to stone someone to death with popcorn.
YAMATO2201
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Why did the writer/speaker use the expression "being stoned to death with popcorn"? Is that because there's no such expression as "to popcorn someone to death"?
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We'd have a better chance of knowing why the writer used that expression if giddyman would provide the source and context of the quoted sentence.
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The sentence is from a smartphone app called "Brilliant Quotes". It doesn't provide any context.
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Fulton Sheen is reputed to have said, “Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.” I can’t remember where I read it or why it stuck in my mind, but the words came back to me as I waited in line to make my first confession in more than 20 years.
It had taken several days to gear myself up for Confession, but when I arrived at the National Shrine in Walsingham a coachload of nuns had just disembarked and got to the confessionals ahead of me. I was at the back of a very long queue, and the nuns were taking their time. “What can nuns possibly have to confess?” I thought testily, before telling myself off for ignorance and impatience. I silently recalled Sheen’s words. After all that nun popcorn, the priest wouldn’t know what had hit him when I walked in with my confession.
Source: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/december-4th-2015/my-burden-lifted-forever/
It had taken several days to gear myself up for Confession, but when I arrived at the National Shrine in Walsingham a coachload of nuns had just disembarked and got to the confessionals ahead of me. I was at the back of a very long queue, and the nuns were taking their time. “What can nuns possibly have to confess?” I thought testily, before telling myself off for ignorance and impatience. I silently recalled Sheen’s words. After all that nun popcorn, the priest wouldn’t know what had hit him when I walked in with my confession.
Source: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/december-4th-2015/my-burden-lifted-forever/
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The quote's deeper context is the frequent admonitions in the Old Testament of the Bible to stone people to death with stones. There's never a requirement to stone someone to death with marshmallows, popcorn, ping-pong balls, or really anything but stones.
People who grew up in a religious setting that involved studying the Old Testament are probably familiar with the refrain "stone to death with stones", so suggesting some other implement is amusing to them.
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