Sorry, Dan, that's not a crazy fundamentalist interpretation of an everyday food. It's a pretty widely accepted piece of apocrypha. I don't know what kind of Catholic school you went to, but I definitely learned this as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretzel

You'd see more people praying with their arms crossed if you went to a Mormon church, but I wouldn't suggest going just to see that.

Send some to President Bush and ask him to eat a lot of them, fast, with no water. Maybe miracles DO happen...

Omg.

@1: Then what's the deal with those stupid wafers? From now on, I demand pretzels with my communion wine!

@6: Personally, I go for the wife swap.

12th generation Catholic here.

Never heard of this pretzel baloney.

Capitalism will say anything to get a sale.

I only eat the pretzels that are big and soft, with rock salt on top and dipped in nacho cheese. Mmm... tastes like the flesh of Christ.

@7. I'm not sure I take your point. I'm an apostate myself. You can accuse the Catholic church of a lot of things, but having a soft spot for (or being a victim of) Capitalism isn't really one of them. If they had their way, feudalism would still rule the West.

The arms folded in prayer thing was a Final Jeopardy question about pretzels a few months back.

Branding "Red Hot Cross Buns" merits the next trashing of popular culture symbols - now that pretzels, candy canes and barber poles have met similar Urban Legend fates. Not to mention those hot crosses are oddly similar to those woven into the Mormon temple undies above each nipple.

@6: wh... what?

I meant @2, but was off by 4. Thanks for caring enough to ask.

But of course you would prefer pretzel sticks.