Sometimes you can go too far when portraying yourself humble and modest, like the new pope Benedict IX has done:

``As the trend in the ballots slowly made me realize that - in a manner of speaking the guillotine would fall on me - I started to feel quite dizzy,'' a smiling Benedict said, clearly joking. ``I thought that I had done my life's work and could now hope to live out my days in peace. I told the Lord with deep conviction, 'Don't do this to me.''' He recalled saying to God in his prayers: ``You have younger, better, more enthusiastic and energetic candidates.'' ``Evidently, this time He didn't listen to me,'' Benedict said.