Pope's Potion

Prideful as a pouter pigeon, Gabriele d' Annunzio, spoiled heroic darling of all Italy, announced last week that "cherry elixir," a liqueur invented and concocted by himself, has been pronounced "most excellent" by the Sanctissimus Pater, Pius XI (Achille Ratti).

The Dominus Apostolicus, according to Signor d' Annunzio, finds his palate so agreeably titillated by "cherry elixir" that plans are going forward to erect a "monastery" near D' Annunzio's exotic home on Lago di Garda (TIME, July 5), in which this rare tipple may be produced for ecclesiastical and lay consumption.

Ever tactful, the Beatissimus Pater bore in mind last week taut-waisted d' Annunzio's scorn of fat men when he despatched to him a communication anent the "monastery" : ". . . I will allow you ten monks picked from among the thinnest in all Italy. . ."

So profound is the spiritual veneration of Italians for their quite literally "beloved Papa" (the Pope) that, where only the transient material world is concerned, a jest may be thus bandied between poet and Pope without creating the scandal which would ensue in Anglo-Saxon lands. During Holy Year (1925) carefree Latins were to be seen daily flinging banana skins and chocolate wrappers upon the floor of St. Peter's, and greeting the Pope when he appeared with just such excited squeals and shrieks as a large family of happy children bestow upon their temporal father.

Throughout the week material was found for many a jest in the reported similarity between D' Annunzio's "elixir" and Danish cherry brandy, a most powerful intoxicant.