Ritual view

For many Americans, watching television is a sacred ritual — kinda like practicing Catholicism. Think about it: Both TV viewers and churchgoers regularly assemble in a specific place (church vs. family room) in odd positions (kneeling vs. slouching) while worshiping an idol of some sort (altar vs. television). So it’s appropriate that you can now combine these two revered pastimes in one. All it takes is the miniature, glow-in-the-dark replica statue of St. Clare, the patron saint of television ($3.99 at www.accoutrements.com). According to the packaging that accompanies this holy figure, St. Clare was your run-of-the-mill Catholic saint — you know the type: lived a long time ago, helped the poor, saved some soldiers and had some visions and on and on. Anyway, in 1958, the Pope at the time allegedly made Clare the patron saint of television, because of the visions of church services that were said to have appeared on her walls as she lay in bed too sick to make it to Mass.