He's appeared on pancakes, toast and baking sheets, but for his next heavenly engagement, Jesus Christ has turned to chocolate.
On April 1, artist Cosimo Cavallaro will unveil a 6-foot-tall, anatomically correct rendering of Jesus in milk chocolate at a midtown Manhattan hotel.
Billed as "My Sweet Lord," the sculpture took 200 pounds of chocolate to create, and it's already astounded the staff of LAB, the New York arthouse that sponsored the work.
"His art always gets a reaction, but this is the most dramatic piece of his career," says Matt Semler, the LAB's creative director. "It is absolutely amazing”
Of course, what will make this one-week appearance truly miraculous is if Jesus doesn't melt.
Thou Shalt Not Speed, Thus Sayeth the Lord
Even priests have the need for speed.
Portugal's Association of Motorist Citizens has asked the Vatican to clamp down on a certain lead-footed father so that he might "resist the temptations of speed," Reuters reports.
Father Antonio Rodrigues, who has publicly "thanked God" for never being fined for speeding, owns the country's only 150-horse-power Ford Fiesta 2000 ST.
The association wrote the letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking "to help this unfortunate priest to ponder the gravity of his acts and the immodesty of his words and to resist the temptations of speed and boasting."
The priest, known for joyriding with his flock's youngsters, denies he's addicted to speed.
"I am no speed freak," the newspaper Correio de Manha quoted Rodrigues as saying Monday. "I have a car that I like but I drive with prudence."
Took a While to Save Up in the Seat Cushions
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A $1 parking ticket from 1980 has been paid off, after the offender sent the payment along with a $3 late fee to police — without giving a name.
"It's kind of cool that someone took the time to take care of their obligation after 26 years," police Capt. Mike Babe told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a story posted online Monday. "Maybe their conscience got to them."
The signature on the money order used to pay for the ticket is not legible, and the return address reads: "Someone who keeps way too many old papers way too long." The envelope carried a Chicago postmark.
State transportation records show that the license plate number on the ticket is inactive.
Waukesha stopped using parking meters in 1989, a city official said.
Tokin' Just Not Kosher
JERUSALEM (AP) — In bad news for its religious Jewish supporters, an Israeli pro-marijuana party announced Tuesday that smoking pot is forbidden on Passover.
Cannabis is among the substances Jews are forbidden to consume during the week-long festival, which begins Monday, said Michelle Levine, a spokeswoman for the Green Leaf party.
Biblical laws prohibit eating leavened foods during Passover, replacing bread with flat crackers called matza. Later injunctions by European rabbis extended those rules to forbid other foods like beans and corn, and more recent rulings have further expanded the ban to include hemp seeds, which today are found in some health oils — and in marijuana.
Green Leaf is a small political party that supports the legalization of marijuana. Although it is by no means a Jewish religious authority, the group decided to warn its observant supporters away from the drug on Passover.
"You shouldn't smoke marijuana on the holiday, and if you have it in your house you should get rid of it," Levine said. The edict was first reported in The Jerusalem Post.
But not everyone needs to give up their habit for the duration of the festival. The rabbinic injunctions banning hemp were never adopted by Sephardic Jews, who come from countries in the Middle East and North Africa. That means there is no reason they can't keep smoking marijuana, Levine said, except that it remains illegal, despite her party's best efforts.
Green Leaf contested the last three national elections but never won a seat, despite gaining popularity as a protest vote. According to Levine, the party has a large number of religious supporters.
Intimidation of the Televised Kind
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — An alleged Taiwanese gangster has chosen a novel way of threatening the life of a rival: He sent a video to a local TV station in which he promises to kill him the next time they meet.
Chou Cheng-bao, reputedly a member of the Celestial Way Gang, sent the video to Cable Station TVBS on Monday, less than two weeks after police say he was involved in a shoot-out with other members of the gang at a pub in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung.
The video was broadcast repeatedly on Taiwanese cable news stations Tuesday.
Wearing a tight-fitting black top and matching flak jacket, Chou brandishes a pistol in the direction of a table laden with automatic and semiautomatic rifles, and says he is gunning for Liu Rei-rong, reputedly another member of the gang.
"The next time I bump into you, I'll kill you," he says.
Taiwanese media say Chou was attempting to kill Liu during the Taichung shoot-out on March 18. They say Liu was wounded, though not seriously.
Kao Cheng-sheng of Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau said Chou's threat against Liu — and the public way it was made — may be an effort by him to raise his standing in the Celestial Way Gang.
"This was a blunt challenge to government authorities," he said, adding that police reinforcements would now be mobilized to try to bring him to justice.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Sara Bonisteel.
Got a good "Out There" story in your hometown? We would like to know about it. Send an e-mail with a Web link (we need to authenticate these things) to outthere@foxnews.com.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox