[Steppes] Pope Joan special on tonight

[Elinor Salter]

If you don't have other plans, tonight on Channel 8 (ABC) from 9-10pm, 
Primetime Live is featuring a Diane Sawyer report on the mystery of Pope 
Joan, a medieval urban legend.
 
If you've never heard of her, the story of Pope Joan first appeared in 
the 9th C (although the 13th C accounts are when it first really became 
popular), alleging that a woman made it into the papacy during that time 
and was only discovered when she gave birth in the middle of a 
procession.  As usual, there are many versions of the story.  There is 
also reputedly a bottomless stool that a papal candidate once had to sit 
on in order to confirm the presence of testicles (the story says as a 
reaction to Pope Joan).  She was declared a myth in 1601 by the pope at 
that time.
 
Here's the Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan

I'm not holding my breath too hard to find out what she's discovered.  
They're hyping this up to be "the next Da Vinci code".  I'm hoping I'll 
learn something new, but it could always turn out to be another Al 
Capone's vault (which I did see live, sad to say).

Elinor