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Msgr. Charles Pope 12/22/2015 Nativity animals Question: I was told that the animals in the Christmas Nativity scene have a symbolic meaning. Is this so, and if so what?— Jennifer Ladd, Buffalo, New York Answer: Yes, the traditional animals of the Nativity scene are chosen for a reason. The ox and the donkey are a reference to Isaiah 1:3 which says, “An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger; But Israel does not know, my people has not understood.”So, it’s actually rather an unflattering self-accusation we make of our own human family that, in effect, declares the...

Rather than let the herds drown or starve, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game opened the season on Thursday, giving hunters the go-ahead to start harvesting herds found on drifting ice floes in waters adjacent to Nunivak and Nelson islands.

RICHMOND, Va. — The maker of Red Bull energy drinks is challenging a Virginia craft brewery’s use of the word “ox” in its brand name.

EMIDJI, Minn., March 14 (UPI) -- Babe, Paul Bunyan's blue ox companion, a concrete statue built in 1937 by the Bemidji, Minn., Rotary Club, will be getting $100,000 worth of repairs. Bunyan and Babe have been featured twice in Life magazine. Kodak has said they're the second-most-photographed statues in the United States, right behind Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Babe developed a one-inch-wide crack from the neck to the hindquarters that city officials have annually fixed with caulking and blue paint, but the crack continued to widen, reported the Grand Forks Herald. The Rotary Club raised more than $53,000 and...

LONDON (AP) John Entwistle's skeleton has sold at auction. Actually, both of them. A pair of skeletons said to have been used by The Who bassist to play pranks on houseguests sold for $840 at an auction near his home in England, the BBC reported. On sale were more than 700 items that belonged to Entwistle, who died at 57 after a heart attack in June 2002. A pinball machine fetched $2,800, no doubt thanks to The Who's classic song "Pinball Wizard." Other items revealed Entwistle's eccentric tastes: A snakeskin-covered tambourine went for $305 and a stained-glass chess board decorated...