you know you're an opera geek when ...

[Mark Bartelt]

A photo very similar to (not quite identical, but this
was the closest I could find online) the one at ...

http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mark/spear.jpg

... appeared in today's LA Times, and the first thing
that immediately popped into my brain was ...

Den heil'gen Speer -
ich bring' ihn euch zurueck!

... until I noticed it was actually part of an ad in
"now playing in Vegas", something called "Defending
the Caveman" ...