Most meaningless use of a religious icon reference in a press photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images (front page of the New York Times online edition today, a story about Congress's current session concluding without getting much done).

Frist Shit Icon

Handlers position these functionaries hoping photographers will grab the bait--in this case making Bush stooge Bill Frist look holy--and they do it every time. "Honey, can you believe I got his head in the dome? I'll win a Pulitzer for this!" "You're a great photographer, Chip."

A memorable moment in Jim Jarmusch's film Dead Man occurs when a bounty hunter falls dead on top of a pattern of concentric sticks from a burned-out campfire, which appear as rays emanating from his head. Just as you're thinking he looks like a religious icon, cannibal desperado Lance Henricksen says "Looks like a goddamned religious icon," and puts his boot down on the bounty hunter's skull, improbably crushing it like a canteloupe.

- tom moody 9-25-2006 7:43 pm