MM 50 Years Ago

The Everest Crucifix

It is fairly well known that a small crucifix that was once attached to a rosary now lies in the eternal snows at the top of Mt Everest. It was placed there by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. ... A priest gave it to Sir John Hunt (the expedition leader) and asked him to place it on the summit. Hunt handed it to Hillary and asked him to do it for him if he got there.

Hillary said later he almost forgot it, but when Tenzing began burying prayer flags, he fumbled in his anorak for the crucifix and pushed it into the snow. ...

In July 1953, Sir John Hunt reported to Dom Martin Haigh OSB, a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a friend of Hunt, who had given him the crucifix, that “the little crucifix was left on the Summit of Mount Everest on May 29 by Edward (his spelling) at my request.”

‘The Optimist’

A TV producer received a script entitled ‘The Optimist’, and called a meeting of his staff. “This title should be changed to something more simple. Of course, we here are all intelligent and know what an optimist is, but how many idiots who watch TV will know that he’s an eye doctor?”