#55494: — 12/28  at  02:51 PM
I think it looks more like Shrek with his ears eaten off.

#55495: Kristine Harley — 12/28  at  03:06 PM
I don't see a face at all. It is supposed to be her face, right? (Heh.) Maybe the thief didn't see the resemblance, either. Maybe the person who stole it was just hungry, and homeless. Now, that would be a real tribute to Mother Theresa, in my opinion.

#55496: — 12/28  at  03:06 PM
The closest thing to a rational theory of valuation is economics, and according to that, it's worth whatever the market will pay for it. The delusions of its owner probably don't help much, but the delusions of prospective buyers can make it as valuable as they think it is.

#55498: — 12/28  at  03:15 PM
Mother Teresa? Don't you think it's a lot more like this guy? (The one in the middle, not quite safe for work...)

http://www.ralf-koenig.de/en/drawings/scrib10.html

PS: I got confirmation word "probe", strange are the way's of the Lord Chance. DS

#55500: Mrs Tilton — 12/28  at  03:23 PM
<i>Do the delusions of its owner add value to it?</em>

Emm, well, they might, actually. Intrinsically, the Mother Teresa Bun is worth whatver any small piece of stale pastry is worth, i.e., approaching nil. But then, the intrinsic value of (say) van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' isn't much more -- it's whatever the value of a couple of sticks and a bit of oilstained old cloth is. In each case, the material value is nothing (or virtually nothing), and the vast majority of the actually obtainable value inheres solely in whatever people are willing to pay for the thing. This notion is especially obvious when we're talking about artworks (and I suppose we could call the Portrait of Mother Teresa in Baked Grain-Derived Modelling Medium an artwork, in the broadest sense -- found art, if you will); but a lot of economists would say that's the only true measure of the value of anything.

In fact, the owner in this case (a Jew and hence unlikely to think the bun looked like the dead nun thanks to a miracle) probably thought the thing nothing more then a curiosity (indeed, he might have been displaying it only out of a sense of postmodern ironic hipness). But let's assume arguendo that he really did believe the bun looked as it did because of the direct intervention of the almighty. If the bun has no value, that is not because he is delusional, but because nobody else shares his delusion. If sufficent numbers of other people shared the delusion, and shared it to a sufficiently strong degree, the bun might well be worth quite a lot (one could easily find out by putting it on the block at eBay). He'd still be delusional; he'd just be a deluded person with a valuable asset.

#55501: — 12/28  at  03:36 PM
"Maybe the person who stole it was just hungry, and homeless. Now, that would be a real tribute to Mother Theresa, in my opinion."

No, in order for this to be a tribute to her, the homeless guy would have to stay hungry and enjoy his suffering.

#55502: — 12/28  at  03:36 PM
According to evolutionary theory, stale bread should have a selective pressure towards resembling religious figures since otherwise it gets tossed out in the trash.

But if that's true, then why do we still have stale bread that doesn't resemble religious figures?

Answer that, you smarty-pants Darwinists!

#55503: — 12/28  at  03:38 PM
Now, now Patrick, don't go around and shatter peoples' illusions about Mother Theresa (who I consider a pretty vile person, becuase of her principle stance of people having to suffer).

#55504: — 12/28  at  03:38 PM
The cost of a delusion? Last I heard, it was something like $177 million a day for the delusion in Iraq.

#55505: jinx — 12/28  at  03:41 PM
Oh, some delusions can be agreed upon by enough people to create tremendous "value."

Several paintings by Picasso rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. On May 4, 2004 Picasso's painting Garçon à la pipe was sold for USD $104 million at Sotheby's, thus establishing a new price record (see also List of most expensive paintings). From answers.com

#55506: Chris Clarke — 12/28  at  03:51 PM
What's gold worth?

#55507: — 12/28  at  03:52 PM
I think I found where the thief put it <a href="http://www.kurtknoll.com/fungv17.jpg>right here</a>

mmmm tree fungus.

#55509: Kristine Harley — 12/28  at  04:05 PM
Shatter away, Patrick, since that bun, dating from 1996, was coated in shellac! And the homeless guy would be stealing from the hand that doesn't really feed him... I was being sarcastic (and making a joke about eating a different body part). Yes, I know a few dark things about Mother Theresa, for instance, her associations with right-wing dictators.

#55510: Chuko — 12/28  at  04:23 PM
I have seen the bun! Even as an athiest, I was profoundly moved by the shellacked pastry, and the letter from Mother Teresa's convent asking that the bun not be used for personal gain.

Seriously, the coffee shop is just off campus - the joy of this bun is in the irony, like watching bad movies.

#55511: — 12/28  at  04:28 PM
shorter jinx:

I do no like the Picasso.

So thees means that hees paintings, they are no good, eh?

Therefore, peeples that like hees paingtings, they are the deluded, no?



Short answer: no.

so.

#55512: — 12/28  at  04:53 PM
Miraculous or not, it would be cool to find a cinnamon bun that looked like Charles Darwin. Or PZ Myers. Dressed as Mother Theresa. In a pirate suit.

#55515: — 12/28  at  04:59 PM
It's a lot easier to see if you look at this:

http://www.indiana.edu/~jkkteach/P335/nunbun.html

But, to me, it looks more like Dopey than a nun.

#55516: — 12/28  at  05:01 PM
Since the bun resembles a profile by virtue of misalignment in folding and uneven distribution of it's tasty cinnamon filling (two reproducible manufacturing defects), my question is:

Why wasn't the shop selling "Replicas of the famous Mother Teresa Bun" complete with letters of authenticity, on Ebay?

They could have moved any non-Teresaesque buns as "silhouette rolls" in the store.

And the comparison to Picasso isn't valid. The bun was a product of chance convergence of manufacturing errors. A painting is a product of goal-oriented effort.

Equating the two is like saying a lottery-winner and a entrepreneur-millionaire are both the same sort of person just because their bank accounts match.

#55517: Tobin — 12/28  at  05:05 PM
It blows my mind that people not only see things like this (mostly the religious types), but let alone get obsessed over them.

I guess that's why icons are such a powerful draw.

#55518: — 12/28  at  05:25 PM
I think the "nun bun" thing was tongue-in-cheek since the very beginning. I mean, it really looks like a caricature of the famous nun... not as solemn as a "true" manifestation would have to be.

#55523: — 12/28  at  06:56 PM
My idea is that the bun WAS Mother Theresa. She was reincarnated as a donut as a judgment on her life as a human.

#55524: — 12/28  at  07:03 PM
I would like to concur with what Mrs. Tilson said above. My impression watching the owner on Olbermann was that he viewed it as just being a little oddity that, if it brought people to his little coffee shop and tourists to the town, was not hurting anyone. He said that the "nun bun" brought a lot of people to the town and even credited it with "revitalizing" the town's tourism. How much of that is true, I don't know, but there's absolutely no indication that the owner harbors any delusions about some intrinsic holiness or miraculousness in the pastry.

#55530: — 12/28  at  07:54 PM
I am reminded of Elton John's tribute song on the death of Mutha Teresa. 'Sandals in the Bin'.

(Congratulations to Elton on his recent marriage btw.)

#55534: Ophelia Benson — 12/28  at  08:26 PM
You missed the one about the ten-year-old piece of cheese on toast with a bite taken out, that bears an uncanny nonresemblance to the virgin Mary. (And how does anybody know what she looks like anyway?)

#55536: — 12/28  at  09:20 PM
Basic economics... What adds value to anything, is people's willingness to pay for it. A piece of stale bread is worth as much as you can get any sucker to cough up for it on e-Bay.

So, get out the wonder bread and a soldering iron, and make a picture of Elvis.

-jcr