From Hollywood superstars to adulterous dilettantes, several seminary dropouts have managed to find success in the secular world. Here’s a sampling of the finest in almost-clergy.

1. Tom Cruise (1962– )

In 1976, a deeply religious child named Thomas Cruise Mapother IV enrolled in a Franciscan seminary in New Jersey. Within five years, he’d ditched the church, dropped the Mapother, and landed a part in Endless Love. And in spite of his diminutive height (5 feet 7 inches) the man who might have been a priest became one of Hollywood’s top leading men. Around 1986, though, he abandoned Catholicism altogether, embracing the Church of Scientology, which he once credited with helping him overcome dyslexia. Wildly popular with celebrities, Scientology has been the chosen path for everyone from John Travolta to the guy who played Parker Lewis in Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. Incidentally, while Scientology does have ministers, Cruise has yet to seek ordination.

2. Casanova (1725–1798)

Everyone’s favorite 18th-century libertine began his scandalous escapades at the seminary of St. Cyprion, from which he was expelled under cloudy circumstances (we’re guessing he slept with someone). And as you well know, his postseminary life was as ungodly as it gets. By the age of 30 he was sentenced to prison for engaging in “magic,” but he escaped after only a year to Paris. There, he made a fortune by introducing the lottery to France. But before settling down to write his ribald, self-aggrandizing autobiography, Casanova was expelled from more European countries than most of us ever visit. Along the way, he slept with tons of women, dueled with many of their husbands, and generally sinned his way to the top of European culture, befriending such figures as Madame du Pompadour and Jean-Jacques Rousseau along the way.

3. Joseph Stalin (1879–1953)

Lasting longer than the vast majority of divinity school dropouts, noted mass murderer Joseph Stalin studied at a Georgian Orthodox seminary in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) for five years, between 1894 and 1899.

He left the seminary either because of poor health (his mom’s story) or revolutionary activity (Stalin’s story).

Either way, Stalin clearly didn’t take much of what he learned to heart. After he became the Soviet leader in 1922, he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of religious leaders, and Stalin did more than any other premier to eliminate the role of Christianity in Soviet life. But his seminary wasn’t exactly a study in Christian love, either. Prior to Stalin’s arrival, a rector was murdered there—possibly by unruly seminarians.

4. Michael Moore (1954– )

Controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore began studying at a seminary in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, as an eighth grader in 1967. Brought up a devout Catholic, Moore aspired to a career as a priest, but he left the seminary the next year for thoroughly secular reasons. When the Detroit Tigers made it to the World Series in 1968, the seminary refused to let him watch the games—so he quit. Before his successful filmmaking career, in fact, Moore was something of a serial dropout. He dropped out of the University of Michigan because he arrived at school one morning and couldn’t find a parking place, and he once got a job at an automobile factory in Flint—but called in sick on his first day and never returned.

5. Al Gore (1948– )

Al Gore graduated from Harvard in 1969, but he’d always been interested in theology, so he decided to continue his studies. He didn’t exactly live up to his potential though. After enrolling in Vanderbilt’s prestigious divinity school, over the course of three semesters, he failed five of his eight classes. Gore’s allies claim that the birth of his first child and his duties as a reporter at the Tennessean newspaper kept him from his studies. For the record, though, Gore also later dropped out of Vanderbilt’s law school (in 1976), but this time for a truly higher purpose—to run for Congress.Ed. note: This list was pulled from Forbidden Knowledge.

The New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2007. Surprisingly, there are no science books on the list.

Real-life Superheroes: 10 People with Incredible Abilities. The kind of abilities you once found in carnival sideshows.

Dear Rockers helps you pay musicians directly for music you’ve downloaded in the past. You can clear your conscience, showcase your creativity, and thank a musician all at once!

TIME presents The Morality Quiz. It’s not as simple as right and wrong, but you will get to see what answers others chose.

How to Eavesdrop from a Distance. There are no guarantees you’ll like what you hear.

Today I met a man who intends to walk across the country, and I bought him some sardines, his top request. My, some of those sardine tins are pretty–I thought I was at Sephora! I have to admit I’ve never had sardines, nor have I been to Sardinia. But my new friend spoke so passionately about sardines (generally how they’re addressed when they’re young; grown, they’re usually called pilchards, akin to herrings, and they’re all part of the family Clupeidae), especially since they outdo milk in calcium content–and if they’re coming at you in the form of ice cream (”grilled sardines” flavor, from the shop bringing you spaghetti, garlic, and trout ice cream), then watch out. I’m going to make it a goal to try some before the quarter wraps. In honor of my ambitious friend, here are some others who have, with various agendas, completed the cross-country trip:

• Steve Vaught, the self-dubbed, “Fat Man Walking” made it to NYC from CA in 2006.
• Frances Choate walked from Rochester to San Francisco in 1925, following a tuberculosis diagnosis
• Doris “Granny D” Haddock walked from SoCal to DC in 1999
• Planetwalk founder John Francis went on foot for 22 years, and in 1983 he walked from Port Reyes Station, CA to Cape May, NJ (meanwhile earning a master’s & a PhD; he also did it silently–he didn’t speak for 17 years, until Earth Day 1990, and the next day he was hit by a car!)

As November winds to a close, let’s take a look at some artists we otherwise wouldn’t be able to cover. I’ve found fascinating facts about several artists who were born or died in November. Today’s post covers the first six artists on the list; check back on Thursday for five more.

1. Giulio Romano, an Italian artist who died on Nov. 1, 1546, is the only Renaissance artist to be mentioned by William Shakespeare in a text. Act V, Scene II of The Winter’s Tale refers to a statue by “that rare Italian master, Julio Romano.” The only catch? Romano wasn’t a sculptor.

2. The term “Fauves,” or “wild beasts,” was used to refer to Henri Matisse (death: Nov. 3, 1954) and his fellow artists in the early 1900s. Fauvism was so disliked by much of the public that Matisse’s “Nu bleu” was burned in effigy at the Armory Show in Chicago in 1913.
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The CNN/YouTube Republican debate is tomorrow, and I’ll probably forget to watch. But perhaps in five or ten years I can cherry-pick some of the funnier moments and post them for you here. In the second installment of our laziest and least-frequent regular feature, we’ve rounded up a few great moments in presidential (and vice-presidential) debate history.

1. Lloyd Bentsen vs. Dan Quayle

Year: 1988
Quote: “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

2. Ronald Reagan vs. Walter Mondale

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My husband and I went to Disney World for Halloween. Returning to our 9-to-5 lives was a little depressing. So, to get our little fix, we started watching some old-school Disney movies. We had on The Jungle Book and I wasn’t paying very close attention (I like to multi-task) when I heard a strangely familiar voice coming from the screen. I looked up and saw Kaa – you know Kaa, the evil snake who tries to hypnotize Mowgli – only I was pretty sure I knew that voice from somewhere else.

So I hopped onto the Internet Movie Database and looked him up. Turns out that the voice of scheming Kaa is also the voice of one of the sweetest Disney characters ever drawn – Winnie the Pooh. Let me tell you, my mind was blown. Sterling Holloway, the voice actor, was also the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.

I started wondering what other voices overlapped and began feverishly searching IMDB. Here are the results of my time-wasting:

1. Nancy Cartwright

Nancy Cartwright, AKA Bart Simpson, has also been the voice of Rufus on Kim Possible, Kip Kangaroo on Shirt Tales and, for a few episodes, Chuckie on Rugrats. Plus, extreme fans of Who Framed Roger Rabbit might recognize her as the voice of the “dipped” shoe. OK, probably not.

2. Billy West

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Our friend Evan Schiller (of “Ten Crazy Facebook Groups” fame) pointed us to a good old-fashioned online whale-naming. From Evan’s blog:

Generally, rescued whales are tagged and promptly named Willy, or something equally trite. But in this case, Greenpeace decided to leave the naming up to the dopey, glassy-eyed masses.

“More than 11,000 possible whale names were submitted but we are now down to the last 30 possible whale names. Choose your favourite name from among the 30 below and hit the submit button at the bottom of the page. The voting ends on the 30th of November 2007 at 17:00 Amsterdam time.”

One name choice, Kaimana, means ‘divine power of the ocean’ in Polynesian. Another, Amal, translates to ‘hope’ in Arabic. But one name shines above the rest: Mister Splashy Pants (which doesn’t translate to anything, as you probably imagined).

Of course he voted for Mr. Splashy Pants. And he’s not alone…

“I’m no soothsayer,” Evan said. “But if you’ve ever dreamed of being part of something great, I’m gonna go ahead and say this is probably your chance.”

In 1965 Jim Henson produced a short film featuring a Leroy Anderson-style “found sound” composition. This experimental film starts with a human heartbeat and moves outward to a clock, a bird, city streets, an office, a factory, and so on. The film was nominated for an Academy Award, and premiered at the Museum of Modern Art. Take a look, and keep an eye out for the strangely alluring dinner scene (apparently a Tom Jones reference) around the middle:

Special bonus: keep an eye on the credits, which thank Frank Oz(nowicz), who appears briefly as a messenger boy. Read more about Time Piece at Muppet Wiki.

Thanks to everyone who played this past weekend’s WGC, which ran over into Monday due to the holiday.

We’ve whittled 500+ entries down to only 20 finalists. (Remember, we were looking for phrases that you’d think would bring up some hits somewhere on Google.) The staff will be voting on your entries today, and we’ll announce the winner Wednesday morning. Feel free to vote on your favorite of these entries if you’d like to try to sway us. The contest is now closed, but if you’d like to see some of the great entries we received, click here.

The finalists (in alphabetical order):

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It was only a matter of time before toy manufacturers started listening to their customers’ demands: kids want to laugh, they want to be grossed out and they want to play with slimy, ooky stuff. Forget Gak, Play-Doh and Garbage Pail Kids — what kids really want is poop! At least, that’s the conclusion some manufacturers at home and abroad have reached. Here are some of their crappiest products.

Porky Pooper

This was found at a candy store in Ohio by boingboing reader Leah. Yes, those are jellybean turds, apparently meant to be eaten. Don’t play with your food, now! (more…)