It was a cheese pizza, by the way…

With the recent alleged appearance of the salsa splatter Virgin Mary on a kitchen wall in California, I’m reminded of simulacra that occurred in Houston last year. A cafeteria worker at Pugh Elementary was scrubbing a pizza pan on Ash Wednesday when she noticed the image of Mary:



Interestingly, the cafeteria work claims that she tried to rinse & scrub the image off at least three times before acknowledging that it was a miraculous image. After conferring with her fellow cafeteria worker about the image, a PTA official absconded with the pan to set up a shrine. HISD, not pleased at having official property, miraculous or not, stolen, asked for the pan back. This resulted in the PTA holding a religious demonstration match from the shrine to the elementary school to hand over custody of the pan. As of right now, the pan is apparently safely locked away in the administrative offices.

For a more in-depth look at the event, here’s an article I snagged from the Chronicle’s archives when the story first broke.