This week, both alt-weeklies hate on the Bishop of Rome. In a Seattle Weekly arts column, Steve Wiecking treats the ongoing media papal deathwatch as a personal gong show [#], arguing that the artist formerly known as Karol Wojtyla has overstayed his welcome and should exit stage left ASAP. In the next newsbin over, The Stranger makes use of their regularly new “new column” (this week’s is a “return to kwiz korner”) to compare and contrast the Pontiff with a rutebega [#].

The personal attacks are complimented by coverage of the burgeoning lesbian scene in the Stranger [#] and an examination of the upcoming gay marriage case before the state supreme court in the Weekly [#]. All in all, a bad week for John Paul part Two. We don’t expect to see the popemobile rolling down first avenue anytime soon.

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Incidentally, we’re beginning to wonder if someone over at the Stranger is conducting some sort of bizarre experiment to test the limits of simultaneous humor and offensiveness. The past few weeks of implied scatalogical fetishes [#], suicide [#], and this week’s holy cannibalism seem like a particularly strong string of features.

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Also of note: the Stranger hosts an MP3 of a Starbucks corporate cheerleading reworking of Starship’s “Built this City” [mp3]; listen at your own risk.