Nuns Win Award for Webcam

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LUKE BURBANK, host:

It's THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT from NPR News. Thanks for listening.

I'm Luke Burbank.

(Soundbite of music)

ALISON STEWART, host:

Do you like turtles?

BURBANK: Oh, more than you could ever know.

(Soundbite of laughter)

STEWART: We're just going to keep going back to that clip.

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Mr. JONATHON WARE: I like turtles.

STEWART: I do. (Unintelligible) turtle? I need somebody who…

BURBANK: We need to come up with an internationally recognized hand signal for whenever we want that clip throughout the show if we put - if we do this…

STEWART: Jazz hands?

BURBANK: If we do jazz hands…

STEWART: Okay.

BURBANK: …that just means we like turtles.

STEWART: All right.

BURBANK: But what we also like is The Ramble, which is our little segment where we bring together all these interesting stories that probably not that important to your life, but certainly they're going to get your attention. Again, we call it The Ramble. And, let's go for it.

STEWART: Me first, me first.

Okay, here's a message this morning from Julie Myers, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, quote, "Sorry, sorry, sorry. I did so not mean to do that."

BURBANK: Ooh.

STEWART: There was an ICE Halloween party. We're not sure if anybody like turtles there. But she appeared to give her approval of a costume, which a lot of people saw as racist. One of ICE's white employees was wearing…

BURBANK: By the way, we should say ICE's - oh, you said that already - Immigration, Customs and Enforcement.

STEWART: One of their white employees was wearing dark makeup on his face, a dreadlocked wig on his head and a prison-striped outfit. And he won most original costume at the staff party.

Myers posed with a photo for - with the guy dressed like that, fill in the blanks yourself. Now this is especially interesting because Myers, she's got a confirmation hearing in the Senate coming up. She was a recess appointment.

BURBANK: Almost seems like a dirty trick like someone who didn't want to get reconfirmed.

STEWART: Yeah.

BURBANK: I mean, because that's just status as bad as it gets (unintelligible) time.

STEWART: Yeah. She did so not mean to do that.

STEWART: All right. You're up next, Luke.

BURBANK: Oh, I'm next?

All right. Well, poor Jeff McMeans of Fort Bend, Texas, the county of Fort Bend. He had a nice little political job there - hide inspector, which, as you all know, is the person who inspects all the livestock that are being sold or moved out of Fort Bend County. This is actually this old, like, from the 1870s kind of position back when they actually used to - this is an important job for people to do.

Well, on Tuesday, Texas voted to abolish the job. Unfortunately, for McMeans, he was really enjoying doing it even though he didn't have any pay or any real responsibility. I think he just liked having the business cards. It just seems kind of mean that they wanted to take away this guy's little, you know, I don't know, corner of the world.

STEWART: This little piece of the world.

BURBANK: Yeah, I mean, he wasn't hurting anybody, but he had a great quote. He said it was the perfect political office. He said had no pay, no office, no responsibility, no nothing. So Jeff McMeans, you'll always be Fort Bend County hide inspector in our hearts here at the BPP.

STEWART: Hmm. It's true.

RACHEL MARTIN, host:

Okay. I'm going to tell you guys about this very funny story. It's not funny, but I find it interesting. And Ilya gave this to me, our producer Ilya gave this to me because I used to cover religion for NPR. And I would have covered this. I'm serious. This is a story about some nuns. We're talking about real nuns. Not the kind that you come up with pictures if you Google nuns. These are…

BURBANK: Yeah. They don't put in real nuns and Webcams together. I learned that the hard way.

MARTIN: Webcams - so this is the story. There are 22 sisters of the Convent of God's Love in Philadelphia, and they have installed a live Webcam streaming to the Internet, so people can watch them do nun things - taking sacraments…

STEWART: Moving(ph).

MARTIN: …blessing the host. And this is such a biblical term.

BURBANK: Terrorizing.

MARTIN: I was the official NPR religion correspondent. And we just…

BURBANK: Oh, yeah. That's a (unintelligible). Why aren't you (unintelligible) corresponding with anyone?

MARTIN: Yeah, I don't know.

BURBANK: Can't figure that out.

MARTIN: These (unintelligible) apparently gotten about 45,000 clicks a month, making it a hit with some Catholics, or so they say. And this weekend, the sisters will win the Outstanding Catholic Leadership Award for their innovative use of technology. Go sisters.

STEWART: And that is The Ramble for this Friday, November 9th.

Rachel Martin, don't you go anywhere. We have use for you.

MARTIN: I'm staying right here.

STEWART: Hang on.

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