QUARANTINE BLOG # 39

May 8, 2020

A popular television show from the days of my youth was “You Asked For It.”  Viewers were invited to send a postcard to the producers describing something they wanted to see on TV.  One request, they said, was enough to start them looking.  I sent a postcard asking how Cecil B. DeMille filmed the parting of the Red Sea in his 1956 movie, “The Ten Commandments.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqCTq3EeDcY  I received a thank you back telling me not enough people asked to see it.  So much for one person.  Anyway.  This tale is to introduce a story asked for by one of the blog readers.

As Art Baker used to say, “You asked for it!”

LEGO building blocks is one of the most popular toys around the world.  They certainly claim pride of place at 233 Woodland Drive.

The LEGO story started in a Danish woodworking shop in 1916 with a carpenter, Ole Kirk Christiansen. The company’s name comes from two Danish words, “leg godt,” or “play well” (LEg GOdt). His first products were ladders, stools, ironing boards, and wooden toys.  After World War II he got into plastics, and in 1949, created a plastic product called the Automatic Binding Brick.  In 1953, the automatic binding bricks were renamed LEGO bricks. In 1957, the interlocking principle of LEGO bricks was born, and in 1958, the stud-and-coupling system was patented. And this transformed them into the LEGO bricks we know today – and all bricks produced since 1958 are compatible with each other.

Check out this YouTube video for more interesting LEGO facts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8SawNrKQPw

The largest Lego produced was a 5,922-piece Taj Mahal. In 2017 a 40th anniversary Millennium Falcon was produced with 7,541 pieces and retails for $800. Two of the designers discuss the new model in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxAsZVWoz8

Something you are curious about? One request is all it takes to get our research team on the hunt.  One email, that’s all.

👉 Speaking of plastics, if you’ve seen the movie, “The Graduate,” perhaps you remember the line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk

👉 And the beat goes on.  Princess Cruise Lines is canceling all Alaska cruises through the end of summer; all Europe and Transatlantic cruises; all Summer Caribbean Cruises; all Canada and New England cruises; all cruises from Japan; all Australia cruises through August; all cruises sailing from Taiwan in July; and all Hawaii and French Polynesia cruises through November.

Holland America Line, another part of Carnival Cruise Lines, announced their affected cruises include all Alaska, Europe and Canada/New England voyages scheduled for 2020.

I guess your favorite bloggers are going to be landlubbers for the foreseeable future.  Rats!

** A TV series that we enjoy – “Great British Railway Journeys” – comes from the BBC.  In one of the journeys, presenter Michael Portillo (who was once a member of Parliament, Minister of Transportation, and Maggie Thatcher’s Secretary of Defense before reinventing himself as a journalist) stopped in Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch, Wales.

That city whose name means “Saint Mary’s Church in a hollow of white hazel near the rapid whirlpool of the church of Saint Tysilio with a red cave,” is spelled with 58 letters. If you are interested, there is a pronunciation guide included on the sign.  If you are not interested, there is a pronunciation guide included on the sign.

The honor for the longest place name (85 letters) goes to Taumatawhakatangi-hangakoauauotamatea-turipukakapikimaunga-horonukupokaiwhen-uakitanatahu in New Zealand.  Actually, it is a hill, not a city.  Translated it means: “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who traveled about, played his kōauau (flute) to his loved one.”

For you Russophiles, the longest place name in Russia is Verkhnenovokutlumbetyevo (Russian: Верхненовокутлумбетьево).  It means “The upper new settlement named after Kutlumbet (a Turkic male personal name).”

👉** Brian and Elizabeth, in Victoria BC, sent me a couple of humorous signs.  With a plethora of signs popping up, and none of them funny, I will include a few in the next couple of blogs.  Thanks B&E!

👉 I wrote recently about two hymns which were written during camp meeting season in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland.  That got me thinking about hymns that I enjoy, and the list began to grow.  Reducing it to the top 5 (in alphabetical order) I came up with: “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” “In the Garden,” “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” and “Silent Night.”

Reducing the number of Christmas hymns down to one was tough.  My list eliminated “Joy to the World,” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and, well, you get the idea.  I settled on “Silent Night” from the Christmas list because I was asked by Reader’s Digest to write the back story of that hymn for their December 1993 issue.  I was in Samara, Russia, and my return date to Augusta didn’t give me enough time to complete the assignment (no internet, no computer, no story).

If you have a favorite hymn, put it in the comments below.  Stories behind several  sacred songs will be featured in upcoming blogs.

👉 This last piece is a combination word study and devotional.  It comes from one of my favorite writers Frederick Buechner (pronounced “Beek-ner”).  His book Telling the Truth: The Gospel As Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, is one of my all time favorites.  He autographed my copy in January, 1990.  The next time I read it through will be the tenth.

From Buechner’s Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary.

A woman with a scarf over her head hoists her six year old up onto the first step of the school bus.  “Good-bye,” she says.

A father on the phone with his freshman son has just finished bawling him out for his poor grades.  There is mostly silence at the other end of the line.  “Well, good-bye,” the father says.

When the girl at the airport hears the announcement that her plane is starting to board, she turns to the boy who is seeing her off.  “I guess this is good-bye,” she says.

The noise of the traffic almost drowns out the sound of the world, but the shape of it lingers on the old man’s lips.  He tries to look vigorous and resourceful as he holds out his hand to the other old man.  “Good-bye.”  This time they say it so nearly in uniform that it makes them both smile.

It was a long time ago that the words God be with you disappeared into the word good-bye, but every now and again some trace of them still glimmers through.

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