I don't understand why there is a national day for Mar Marun in Lebanon. I don't like religious holidays, but in Lebanon they are not equally distributed. At the private school that I went to in Beirut, we celebrated Thanksgiving Day but not `Ashurah for example. I asked once my history teacher (a fanatic sectarian Christian (she was a huge fan of the Crusades but did not think that they stayed long enough), her name is Ms. Shalhub), and she said: it is because `Ashurah is not important. I was 11, and she once was talking about Saladin, very critically, and then added: but in fairness. He has one achievement: he expelled Shi`ites from Egypt. I raised my hand and told her that her prejudice is becoming quite clear. She looked at me and said: I guess you are right. I should not have said that. I remember once Jawad Khal (where is he now? Last time I saw him we had a huge fight because I said to him that Mauritania is not less dear to me than Lebanon) came to me at AUB and was very agitated. He asked me why we did not make Karl Marx's birthday a national holiday in Lebanon. He was quite serious. I was a Marxist at the time, so I did not disagree, but did not think that we would get support for the idea. He then started to yell that we should close down the campus in celebration of Marx's birthday. So Mar Marun: well, maybe I should not be critical. I mean, that man is renowned for his "miracles." In fact, according to an "official record"--kid you not--there have been some 12,600 miracles attributed to Mar Marun (since 1981 ONLY) kept at his Monastery in `Annaya. (According to the official in charge of keeping records of Mar Marun's miracles, there are thousands other miracles but they have not been yet "verified"--so the figure of 12,600 refers to the verified cases only, and only since 1981.) Wait. I can't breath. Is that another Mar Marun's miracle?