I've been trying to get in touch with a certain "Father Bob" today for a story I'm working on. He's the pastor of a small-town church. In looking for his contact information, I noticed he was called "Fr. Bob" on the church's Web site. Obviously "Fr." is the abbreviation for "Father" when speaking of religious fathers. This is not something I've always just known.

True story:

A couple years ago I had to call a local church to speak to its pastor for, again, a news article. After perusing the Web site, I came across a phone number for "Fr. John." I don't actually remember if John was his name, but that's just a detail in this story.

Because the point of this story is that I called the church, stumbled over words, and asked the secretary if I could speak to Friar John.

Because cuh-learly "Fr." means "Friar," and we have friars running our churches. Friar Tuck, anyone?

krittabug