Ah, the first pareidolia of the year! It’s like a bright sunny morning in America!
What does this look like to you?
If you said the Virgin Mary’s big toe, you win!
If you think it’s the Virgin Mary herself, well, then you agree with the family upon whose wall it appeared:
“I feel like it’s telling us something, like it’s protecting us,” Quintana said. “It’s like a miracle.”
Her family concurs.
“I think God is trying to tell us something, like a message from heaven,” said Mariah Quintana, Donna Quintana’s granddaughter.
If that’s a message from heaven, then someone should tell heaven to clean their fax machine. In fact, that looks just as much like the Grim Reaper as it does Mary, so maybe their wall is marked for doom, not protection.
That makes just as much sense as their claim. Or maybe it’s a message telling them that proper foot hygiene is important. Will 2008 bring a pandemic of fungus? Ingrown toenails? Maybe it’s a sign to encourage foot washing.
Hey, if Armageddon comes to Earth because of this, don’t blame Desenex.
Via Fark. C’mon, BABloggees, you need to send these to me when you see ‘em!
January 1st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I thought it looked like a woman wearing niqab.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
At least with some of them there are some kind of unique marks, like jesus’ spikey hat thing (sorry, non native English speaker, I don’t know what you call it).
January 1st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Looks like someone just drew an outline. Anyway, it looks more like Death or someone wearing a hood.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Naaah…it’s just a partial drawing of a cicada’s head!
http://www.cicadahollow.com/resources/_wsb_336×290_Cicada2.jpg
or
http://www.mlcsmith.com/humor/cicada/
January 1st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
As a member of the media, this kind of “news story” embarrasses me to no end. It’s stupid and irrelevant.
I understand slow news days, but, come on, people.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Looks like a dementor from the Harry Potter series.
Or Angelina Jolie wearing a Hijab.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Looks more like one of these
http://images.tomservo.cc/fencer.jpg
January 1st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Big Toe. “And the Lord stubbeth His toe in Thy wall. Thus the saying, Ouch, came into being.”
Michael 12:12
Really, don’t these people have anything better to do with their time? It is this kind of thing that makes people look at religious people as total nut-jobs. Well, I suppose we will now hear about the masses (no pun intended) of people coming to worship God’s Big Toe.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Looks like the Grim Reaper.
Perhaps there is a problem with their salmon mousse.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Wow, Edward Gorey lives! These people don’t know what they’re talking about. That could be any old woman he has drawn there. e_e
January 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hey,
I’ll be moving into my newly bought house soon. I promise to send my first random stain to you!
January 1st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
It’s a Nazgul! Hide the rings!
January 1st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
So, wait, let me get this right. They were spraying texture or something on their walls. And God caused they sprayer to break twice!? Just so God could graffiti their house. Man, God is kind of a jerk sometimes… They should track him down and give him community service.
January 1st, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Sorry, I just don’t see a toe. Looks more like an empty cowl to me.
January 1st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Am I the only one who thinks it looks like an ice cream scoop? And, if so, what does that say about me?
January 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
It is certainly the Virgin Mary as well defined as possible.
January 1st, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I see… another item that probably will soon be bought by goldenpalace.com. Another worthy addition to the religious junk collection they have already aquired.
http://www.send2press.com/newswire/2006-03-0309-004.shtml
January 1st, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Sure, it’s the Virgin Mary. In a fencing mask. Yeah, that’s right, there were a lot of pirates in those days, you know, before global warming. Had to know how to take care of yourself.
As to the ice cream scoop, well I worked in a store adjacent to a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop some years ago. I knew I was in trouble when I went in one Sunday and the clerk asked me “You’re usual?”
IOW, Mike Marsh, whatever it says about you it also says about me.
January 1st, 2008 at 5:13 pm
If it IS the Virgin Mary, then she has a pretty big nose.
Otherwise… yeah, I see a dementor.
January 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I saw a penguin!
January 1st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
If the Virgin Mary wanted to make herself known, why doesn’t she appear in the ky over Manhattan? Wouldn’t that be more dramatic than showing up on the wall of a house in New Mexico?
January 1st, 2008 at 5:26 pm
It is clearly an Auditor. Woe befall any who dare deny this clear Pratchettism!
January 1st, 2008 at 6:06 pm
So, I guess the question is: why is death the Virgin Mary fencing in a hidjab?
January 1st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
It’s clearly this woman:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/WhistlersMother.jpeg
The only question is, what message is James McNeill Whistler trying to send us?
January 1st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
It looks like many things if you’re willing to be creative, but the first thing I thought when I looked at it really was “hooded woman.” But Mary? Well, it actually might be – unfortunately, there’s just a tad insufficient detail in a generic insinuation of a hooded woman, drawn in outline, to decide the identity of said woman.
January 1st, 2008 at 7:01 pm
The video shows the wall without that outline and in one shot I can see what would resemble the Virgin Mary much better than the outlined picture above. But in two of the shots I clearly see a big rabbit face and ears.
They’ve had a difficult three years, they have framed pictures of Jesus and Mary on their wall, so it’s no surprise they didn’t see the rabbit. Rabbits just don’t draw the crowds, ya know?
January 1st, 2008 at 7:51 pm
This tells my evil side I could make up a cheap “miracle” and make a fortune off it.
And I wouldn’t even have to work hard on it.
January 1st, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Pshaw! You’re all missing it: It’s Benazir Bhutto reaching out to us from beyond the grave!
January 1st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Wait, there’s a religious significance to washing your feet? I just do it because I like having clean feet.
January 1st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I immediately thought of Whistler’s Mother that I saw only last week in Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistler%27s_Mother
January 1st, 2008 at 11:08 pm
I think of the poster from X-Files that says, “I Want To Believe”. That’s what these things remind me of. People need something tangible to point to, to make it easier to believe.
January 1st, 2008 at 11:28 pm
[…] Blessed Virgin Mary Finds New Venue: Living Room Wall Fresh from her longtime engagement on a garage door, the Virgin Mary has now appeared on a living room wall after a construction mishap. Pessimistic Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy thinks it looks a little more like the Grim Reaper. […]
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:37 am
It’s one of the humanoid crewmembers of the Cygnus from The Black Hole. Mary’s been turned into a cyborg!
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 am
Dougal: Images appearing on skirting boards. That’s a bit whacky, isn’t it?
Ted: It’s strange alright. It’s like the Turin Shroud, or that woman in Sligo - Padre Pio keeps appearing in her teabags.
Dougal: Or the time I saw God’s face in that painting. That was a bit strange!
Ted: It wasn’t that strange, Dougal. It was a painting OF God.
January 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 am
Of course it is a typical cameo appearance by Al Hitchcock in whatever that famous movie I can’t recall the title. He crossed the screen briefly as one of the passers-by covered in nun’s hood. It’s his nose that gave away. Frolic on the wall instead of his favorite screen?
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 am
Why don’t any of these images ever show up in STUNNING TECHNICOLOR ?
Anyway, I just watched The Seventh Seal last night, looks like Death to me.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:06 am
it looks more like a puffin to me
ALL HAIL THE HOLY PUFFIN
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
It could very well be toxic mold and may do a great deal of harm to the family if they don’t control it soon.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
I like “puffin” and “dementor”, but my first thought was “Obi-Wan Kenobi”.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 am
I think we can all agree that this looks like the noodly arms of the FSM reaching out to touch us all.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
I look at it and think “my spoon is too big.”
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Jones –
The FSM is like the church of Bob and the invisible unicorns that were all the rage 5 or 10 years ago — vaguely funny in a juvenile kind of way, but losing all effect when repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until your head explodes. Come up with a new anti-religious joke, okay?
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
It’s a Jawa!
Does this mean we have to convert to Jediism now?
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
So toe stubbing is what we’re being cautioned against, eh? Suddenly the end of Acts 9:5 takes on a whole new meaning for me.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Correction: a “toetally” new meaning for me!
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I think it’s Fonzie’s thumb. Ayyyyy!
January 4th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Some of us are already Jedi…