Jerry: So, where’s my sneakers?
Kramer: That’s what I want to know. I saw Mom and Pop this morning, but on my way home, the place was empty. Everything is gone. Mom and Pop vanished.
Jerry: So, all my sneakers are gone?
Kramer: I’m afraid so. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been askin’ around; they didn’t even have any kids.
Jerry: Mom and Pop aren’t even a mom and pop?
Kramer: It was all an act, Jerry. And they scored BIG TIME.
Elaine: Mom and Pop’s plan was to move into the neighborhood, establish trust for 48 years, and then run off with Jerry’s sneakers?
Kramer: Apparently.*
In the Middle Ages in Europe, relics became prized and valuable. In fact, a trade in real and knockoff relics developed for items, such as clothing and even the body parts (like teeth, bones) of saints. According to Morris Bishop, “Wandering friars and imposters in clerical dress sold pig’s bones as those of saints, slivers of the True Cross, and drops of the Virgin’s milk at country fairs. Said San Bernardino of Sienna: ‘All the buffalo cows of Lombardy would not have as much milk as is shown about the world.’” And Bishop reports on another tale similar to the “Mom and Pop” skit in Seinfeld: “The monks of Conques commissioned one of their number to steal a saint’s body from Agen. The criminal inveigled himself into the monastery, and after ten patient years, managed to be appointed custodian of the relic, which he triumphantly carried off to Conques” (157).
Ignore that these tales of the mom and pop and of the monk involved subterfuge and criminality. They provide another lesson: You want something? Be patient.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwnanPuuCwk
**The Middle Ages. 1970. New York. American Heritage Press.
Kramer: That’s what I want to know. I saw Mom and Pop this morning, but on my way home, the place was empty. Everything is gone. Mom and Pop vanished.
Jerry: So, all my sneakers are gone?
Kramer: I’m afraid so. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been askin’ around; they didn’t even have any kids.
Jerry: Mom and Pop aren’t even a mom and pop?
Kramer: It was all an act, Jerry. And they scored BIG TIME.
Elaine: Mom and Pop’s plan was to move into the neighborhood, establish trust for 48 years, and then run off with Jerry’s sneakers?
Kramer: Apparently.*
In the Middle Ages in Europe, relics became prized and valuable. In fact, a trade in real and knockoff relics developed for items, such as clothing and even the body parts (like teeth, bones) of saints. According to Morris Bishop, “Wandering friars and imposters in clerical dress sold pig’s bones as those of saints, slivers of the True Cross, and drops of the Virgin’s milk at country fairs. Said San Bernardino of Sienna: ‘All the buffalo cows of Lombardy would not have as much milk as is shown about the world.’” And Bishop reports on another tale similar to the “Mom and Pop” skit in Seinfeld: “The monks of Conques commissioned one of their number to steal a saint’s body from Agen. The criminal inveigled himself into the monastery, and after ten patient years, managed to be appointed custodian of the relic, which he triumphantly carried off to Conques” (157).
Ignore that these tales of the mom and pop and of the monk involved subterfuge and criminality. They provide another lesson: You want something? Be patient.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwnanPuuCwk
**The Middle Ages. 1970. New York. American Heritage Press.
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