The News You May Have Missed

This summer, archeologists in Egypt opened an ancient sealed sarcophagus and found three skeletons stewing in a putrid, rust-colored soup. A Change.org user going by the name Innes Mck created a petition to allow people to sample the sarcophagus soup. “We need to drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die,” reads Mck’s petition, which has garnered 8,000 signatures so far. When it was revealed by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities that the liquid is actually sewage water that leaked in over the centuries, Mck responded on Change.org: “Please stop trying to tell me the skeleton juice is mostly sewage thats impossible [sic] everyone knows skeletons cannot poop” (Huffington Post, June 21).

Officials in Newport Beach asked a superior court judge to block an operation that identifies itself as a church but is actually a marijuana dispensary (Los Angeles Times, July 3). The lawsuit states that the Church of the Holy Grail (CHG) has been operating without a business license, and the Southern California city is seeking a $25,000 civil penalty. CHG is listed on Weedmaps.com, an online marijuana forum, as a dispensary selling marijuana herbs, extracts, edibles, and topical products. But CHG’s attorney says its use of marijuana is “a lawful exercise of religion.” CHG wrote on Weedmaps that its “ministry centers provide individualized faith counseling to members in conjunction with Q’Aneh-Bosm and its herbal components…. For many years, Q’Aneh-Bosm, our central sacrament, has been used in religious rituals and for healing.” Customers on the site give CHG 4.9 out of a possible five stars.