_______     In march of 2003, Reverend Phil attended the dedication ceremony at the opening of Ben & Jerry's new factory in Burkesville, Kentucky.  After bestowing his blessing upon the first batch of  Phat Phree Phil, their newest flavor, he slipped away from the crowd to meditate (He always referred to these spiritual out-of-body retreats as "naps").
    Upon his return to normal space ("coming-to") he blundered out into the now dark and deserted factory and promptly fell into a frozen vat of the new ice cream bearing his sacred name.  The following monday he was found frozen stiff as a Republican unexpectedly caught up in a gay pride parade.
    His devoted followers quickly placed him in Kettle, Kentucky's premier cryogenic storage facility (Ms. Opal Watson's Kenmore deep freezer - behind the pork chops), where he remained, largely forgotten, until January 18, 2053.  The old freezer, now unplugged, was being emptied to make room for a poached deer carcass  when Bwana Kennedy, chipping away at the accumulated frost for Ms. Opal, proclaimed "man, this freezer smells really bad" and went outside for some fresh air.
    Phil emerged a few minutes later, still smeared with the remnants of the 50 year old Ben & Jerry's ice cream, complaining that he really needed to take a leak but that his zipper was frozen stiff as a Republican unexpectedly caught up in a gay pride parade.  The rest is history.
     A Temporal Imaging scan of Phil's head spinning - circa 2062 (Courtesy Encyclopedia Britanica).       In his 2177 book The Unexpected Thawing of Phil, Dr. Froedrick Snark, noted historian and Chief of Temporal Phrenology at the Mayo Clinic,  points out the handsome contours and shapely frontal bulge indicating above average intelligence.  He also notes that "although Phil's dental hygiene was impeccable, wear patterns indicate that he often ground his teeth."
    Phil himself attributes the tooth wear to the fact that he never truly warmed up following the episode with Ms. Opal's Kenmore freezer.  "My teeth were always chattering."