I saw something frightening last weekend. Every fall here in MA there's an 8-week production called King Richard's Faire; a more or less recreation of a Renaissance Faire complete with jousts (lots of fake blood, guts, and dismembering of limbs), food, drink, wenches (you should've seen the cleavage contest), and vendors. Anyway, one of the Faire characters was a women wearing a 15th century nun's habit and hanging from her belt was a 24" long, 1/4" thick ruler shaped like a sword. She said, in a very ribald manner, that it was to see if I "measured up". Well, I got the joke but the sight of a nun wielding that kind of "weapon" was at best un-nerving to a 12-year veteran of parochial schools.
Here's the website for the Faire:
http://www.kingrichardsfaire.net/