QUARANTINE BLOG # 61*

May 30, 2020

Today I salute the graduates of Columbia Counties high schools for staying the course and seeing the vision through, and particularly our grandson, Luke Henry Herrington.

Luke is an Honor Graduate from Lakeside High School with an Academic Letter.

Luke, they will call the ceremony today “commencement.”  That doesn’t mean the end.  It is just the beginning.  Your future is wide open.  May the Force be with you!

**  Today’s quarantine blog is headlined 61* as a salute to Roger Eugene Maris.  On October 1, 1961, Maris beat Babe Ruth’s single season record of 60 home runs.  Watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9jGRPZNSE

Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said an asterisk should be placed beside of the record because Maris’ season was 162 games, and Ruth’s only 154.  When cheater Mark McGuire hit 70 in 1998 and cheater Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001 no symbol was put beside of their drug assisted performances.  This blogger suggest that a skull and crossbones – for pirated or stolen – would be appropriate.

**  Password was television’s first successful celebrity-civilian team game show, premiering on October 2, 1961.  Host by Allen Ludden, two teams, each composed of a celebrity player and a studio contestant, attempted to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues.  Daily winners would play the Lightning Round which was among the first bonus rounds on a television game.  Later editions of the show were Password Plus, Super Password, and Million Dollar Password.  So far my research has not turned up a million dollar winner in Million Dollar Password.  Extra points if you can identify the two celebrities with Allen Ludden in the photograph.

Another word game from the early 60s was You Don’t Say!  The object was to convey the name of a famous person by giving clues leading to words that sounded like part of the person’s name.  As host Tom Kennedy handed the names to the players he cautioned, “This is what you don’t say.”

A round might play out like this:
Clue #1: A person who can’t hear is... (Deaf)
Clue #2: The fifth letter of the alphabet is... (E)
Clue #3: When you park your boat, you tie it to the ... (Dock)
Deaf + E + Dock = Daffy Duck

**  Kevin Smith is reopening the Liberty Tree Tavern in Elgin, TX (not to be confused with a restaurant by the same name at Walt Disney World Resort).  As he prepared to reopen, Smith  taped a poster to the front door of his bar: “Sorry, no mask allowed.  Please bare with us thru the ridiculous fearful times.”

A town of about 10,000 people, Elgin has reported 53 coronavirus infections and one death.  Smith says the virus does not poses a serious threat, and he does not believe masks are necessary.  “This quarantine, that’s not living, that’s existing,” he said. “Going to the bar, going to the lake, going swimming with your friends, barbecuing, fishing – that’s living.”

That is until you die from something that could have prevented, and your selfishness gave it to someone else.

**  Everyone knows that a “white elephant” is a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of, but where did that expression originate?  White elephants were once considered sacred creatures in Thailand, and as the story goes, they were also wielded as a subtle form of punishment or revenge.  To accomplish that task, you gave your foe a white elephant.  The beast was expensive to feed and house, and because it was sacred, it could not be killed.  So the recipient would be driven into financial ruin.  I could find no evidence of such an exchange being transacted, but the term still refers to any burdensome possession – pachyderm or otherwise.

**  Attention automobile racing fans!  On this day in 1911 the first Indianapolis 500 race was held.  Ray Harroun drove his single-seater Marmon Wasp to victory.

In 1906, in order to better test automobile top speeds, Indiana automobile dealer Carl Fisher built a private auto testing facility – the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  In 1911, Fisher and his partners decided to focus on one long race per year, as opposed to numerous shorter events, in order to attract more publicity.  Forty cars lined up at the starting line for the first Indy 500 mile race, and almost 7 hours later, Ray Harroun took home the $14,250 first prize, with an average speed of 74.59 mph.

In 1961, A. J. Foyt won the 500 with an average speed of 139 mph.  His winning prize was $117,000.  In this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eh-9c1Y9vY Foyt and Harroun both appeared on an episode of I’ve Got A Secret.  The 2019 winner, Simon Pagenaud, received $2,525,454.

**  You and I are freed from carrying the burden of all the regrets of the past, of our own needs in the present, and of all the unanswered questions about the future.

You and I have been freed from the stress of thinking that we have to figure it all out on our own.

You and I have been freed from worrying about needing to control things that are actually beyond our control.

You and I have been freed from wondering what may be coming unexpectedly down the road.

You and I have been freed from the weight of finding our own way.

You and I have been freed, as God’s children, from carrying any of these burdens.

Why?  Peter tells us, “For you know that you were not redeemed from your useless spiritually unproductive way of life ... with perishable things like silver and gold, but you were actually purchased with precious blood, like that of a sacrificial lamb unblemished and spotless, the priceless blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19 – Amplified Bible).

You and I have been bought with a price, so our lives are under new ownership and new management.  Bought with the priceless blood of Christ, God has covered our past with His grace.  Bought with the priceless blood of Christ, we don’t belong to ourselves anymore.  Bought with the priceless blood of Christ, God’s grace has welcomed us to His rest and peace.  Bought with the priceless blood of Christ, why are we not trusting Him more?

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