QUARANTINE BLOG # 58

May 27, 2020

Please be in prayer for Pat McCorkle.  Several years ago she had radical surgery for cancer, but it has returned.  She is meeting this week with doctors who will devise a treatment.  Pray that God will use their skill and wisdom for Pat’s complete healing.

👉  I had my annual check up by my allergist yesterday (small potatoes compared to Pat’s health crisis).  I was his last patient before lunchtime so he had time to just sit and talk.  I told him about our last cruise and the hurried trip home.  He asked me what I am doing to maintain my sanity.  I told him about the Quarantine Blog.  He told me he and his daughter have put together 10 jigsaw puzzles and he is currently jig sawed out.

And of course we talked about the pandemic.  Regular readers of this blog know I have been urging caution about opening things up.  I said to the doctor, and still say, we are going too fast!  And people aren’t doing things to keep us all safe.

One for instance:  At Lowe’s Saturday, Bonnie and I were among the 10% or so who were wearing masks, and most of that percentage was made up of the workers – we were there because the ceiling fan in the Lego Room was dying.  The parking lot at Lowe’s was slammed.  We drove around looking for a parking spot like it was Christmas at the Mall.

Back to the doctor visit.  This trained physician agrees with me.  And we both said if safety isn’t practiced, we are setting ourselves up for a serious relapse.  You’ve seen this clip before:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfy5QU_QbII

👉  In other news, I bought gas yesterday for the first time since March 20.  My Hyundai Sonata (nicknamed “Frank”  – Frank Sonata) gets great gas mileage, but this has happened because of great sitting still mileage.  With my Kroger discount, I paid $1.05 per gallon.  The last time it was this low was 1989.  Adjusted for inflation that would be $2.19 today.  Still cheap.

👉  Baseball is mentioned in the Bible – Genesis 1:1 – “In the big inning.”  Other references may be found in the Prodigal Son’s home run, and Gideon rattling the pitchers.  If it turns out that those three citations are all new baseball you see this year, you may want to thank me.

As things look, this season may join the 1994-1995 strike which started on August 12 and wiped out the entire post season, the 1981 strike which canceled 713 games, and the

1972 strike which canceled 86 games.  Some New York Yankee fans, think that there was a strike in 1960, but the rest of us know the Pirates from Pittsburgh defeated the New Yorkers.

Those first three strikes were about money.

Money, money, money.  Must be funny in the rich man’s world.  Money, money, money.  Always sunny in the rich man’s world.  You can listen to the complete Abba  song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0

Atlanta Brave great Chipper Jones thinks there may not be a season in 2020.  Players and owners have agreed over safety matters in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.  The stumbling block is – wait for it – money.

“In all honesty, I’m a little less optimistic than I was say, 10 days, two weeks ago, having listened to some key players come out and speak out on it.  It’s made me a little less optimistic that they continue to squabble over dollars and cents, salaries, revenue sharing, all that kind of stuff.”  Jones was quoted on DK Pittsburgh Sports from a link to CBS Sports Radio.

👉  It’s a fair guess that all of you are familiar with “America’s Game” hosted by Pat and Vanna.  But before Wheel of Fortune there was another word game, Number Please.  Two contestants competed to solve two puzzle – his or her own, and the opponents.  Each player had a row with spaces on each row covered by numbers 1 through 20.  Contestants alternated choosing a number not yet revealed in their own puzzle, with each number revealing either a letter or a space.

Each puzzle described a prize, and the first contestant who thought that he could solve both rows rang in.  If the contestant was correct, he or she won both prizes.  Initially the competition was one and done, but the format was changed to best-of-three, and winners stayed until they were defeated.

The show was hosted by Bud Collyer, one of America’s first major television game show stars.  He was also famous in the roles of Clark Kent/Superman on radio and in animated cartoons.  Every Superman episode featured a scene in which Clark Kent changed into his Superman costume, an effect which Collyer conveyed by shifting voices while speaking the phrase “This is (or “looks like”) a job for Superman!” his voice always dropping when becoming Superman.  Here’s one of the Superman cartoons from 1942: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1JQhLfyqc

Beat The Clock was another game show which starred Bud Collyer.  Couples were featured in a race against the clock to perform silly, sometimes messy, tasks, called “problems.” Here’s an early commercial featuring Collyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsBv5W8salg

Beat The Clock started on the radio as Time’s A-Wastin’ in 1948, changed its name to Beat The Time in 1949, and finally Beat The Clock when it went to TV in 1950.  The shows wrapped up with Collyer giving his famous sign-off: “Next time may be your time to beat the clock.”

Revivals and reincarnations appeared over the years called The New Beat The Clock and The All-New Beat The Clock and The All-New All-Star Beat The Clock.  Oh, the hard work that was put into Sabrina when she asked how the writers came up with the words to “Yes, We Have No Bananas.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQBfqXWeA3A Boggie said, “Oh they are clever aren’t they.”

coming up with those names!  It reminds me of Humphrey Bogart’s remark to Audrey Hepburn in the movie

👉  In March I took all my financial information to my CPA to prepare our tax returns.  Before that, I took my car to my mechanic for a tune up.  Last year when my furnace went out, I called a heating and cooling company who sent out a technician to get it working again.

We’re used to having professionals take care of things that we can’t.  But this coronavirus is different.  There is as yet no medical researcher with a cure for this pandemic.  There is as yet no doctor we can go to get an immunization vaccine.  The best the government can do is recommend we limit contact with each other.  We’re feeling vulnerable and helpless and frightened.

Jesus’ disciples felt like that one day on the sea of Galilee when a furious storm came up so quickly the disciples had no time to make it to shore.  Before they knew it, the rain was blowing sideways, the waves were crashing into and over their boat, threatening to sink it.  They were helpless.

But Jesus was also on that boat, and He addressed the storm as if it was an unruly child, and said, “Quiet!  Be Still!”  Suddenly, the wind stopped blowing, the rain stopped falling, the waves stopped churning, and the once wildly rocking boat glided calmly along the glassy surface of the sea.

Jesus has power you and I do not have.  In this health crisis, which makes us feel so small and weak and helpless, He is with us.  He promised that when He said, “I am with you always to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

No matter how helpless you may feel, you are never helpless with Jesus by your side.

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