QUARANTINE BLOG # 80

June 18, 2020

The Civil War Centennial Commission Plaque – a plaque that paid tribute to the soldiers who fought on both sides of the Civil War – located on the main level of the Maryland State House, was installed in 1964, to mark the passing of 100 years from the start of the bloody conflict over slavery that threatened the nation’s survival.  In installing the plaque more than 50 years, ago, the commission said it was not seeking to determine “who was right and who was wrong.”  Rather, “it seeks to pay tribute to [all] who fought and died ... during the civil war.”

Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, introduced a measure, which passed, that plaque be removed.  Jones renewed her earlier objections to the plaque again last week in the wake of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.  She said, “This plaque is not a symbol that belongs in our seat of government ... where we have stood together to work toward equality for every Marylander.”

Responding to Jones’ call to remove the plaque, Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford said, “To build a better future, we must reckon with our past, not hide from it.  Erasing our history just because it makes us uncomfortable harms the work we must do.”

If you could gather into one place all of the evil things that human beings have done to each other, it would be hard to find anything worse the evil of slavery.  But I think the quote below from George Santayana speaks volumes:

👉  Thinking of rules that change and are tossed aside, of rules that are no longer rules, I thought of the rules expressed by Leroy Jethro Gibbs:

Rule # 3: Don’t believe what you’re told.  Double check.
Rule # 8: Never take anything for granted.
Rule # 9: Never go anywhere without a knife.
Rule # 15: Always work as a team.
Rule # 44: First things first – hide the women and children.

And one of my personal favorites, disconnected from the 5 above to be sure, Rule # 62: Allow people to get off of the elevator before you try to get on.

👉  In other news, today is “National Go Fishing Day.”  Find a stream, a lake or pond, bait your hook, cast your line and catch a fish or two.  Or, don’t put any bait on your hook and just relax.  If you can’t go fishing, eat some fish.  I recommend Tilapia, lightly grilled and served with vegetables, also grilled.  One of my favorites that I haven’t had in 50 years, probably 60 years, is fresh bluegill, battered and fried by Skinny Granny.  One day Skinny Pappy went fishing, and came home with 137 bluegills.  He found a nest and kept dropping his lure into it – occasionally catching a fish on an empty hook, he said.  He recruited my mom, his mom and his sister to help clean them.  They stocked the freezer!

👉  NPR reports that there is a surge of new COVID-19 cases in Florida – where there were 2,783 new cases Tuesday.  It was the third time in 7 days that Florida set a new daily record.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Trump say the rising number of new cases was expected and is mostly the result of increased testing.  But local officials and public health experts are concerned about other statistics that show that the coronavirus is still spreading in Florida.  The state’s Department of Health reports that the number of people showing up in hospital emergency rooms with symptoms of the flu and COVID-19 is rising.  Also worrisome – the percentage of people who are testing positive for the virus is going up.

👉  The Man from U.N.C.L.E. led the spy craze on television.  Two years after its 1964 premier there were nearly a dozen imitators.  The series featured secret agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum (for NCIS fans, he’s Ducky), who work for a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency called the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.  U.N.C.L.E. won the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Show in 1966.  Ian Fleming contributed to the concept proposing two characters, Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (later appearing on the spin-off series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.). 

U.N.C.L.E.’s primary adversary was THRUSH.  Who or what THRUSH represented never divulged.  In the U.N.C.L.E. novels it is the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity, described as having been founded by Col. Sebastian Moran after the death of Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls in the Sherlock Holmes story “The Final Problem.”  U.N.C.L.E was introduced with this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQyJnAs7BlU
THRUSH’s aim was to conquer the world.  It was considered so dangerous an organization that even governments who were ideologically opposed to each other – such as the United States and the Soviet Union – had cooperated in forming and operating the U.N.C.L.E. organization.

👉  Haldor Lillenas was born in Norway and immigrated to the United States when he was a small child.  Converted to Christianity at the age of 21, he entered Bible college and later became an elder and a pastor in the Nazarene church.

Lillenas was also a song writer.  His best known composition is “Wonderful Grace of Jesus,” which he wrote during his pastorate at the Church of the Nazarene in Auburn, Illinois.  Lillenas explains the song’s origin:

“In 1917, Mrs. Lillenas and I built our first little home in the town of Olivet, Illinois.   Upon its completion, we had scarcely any money left to furnish the little home.  Having no piano at the time, and needing an instrument of some kind, I managed to find, at one of the neighbor’s home, a little wheezy organ which I purchased for $5.00.  With the aid of this instrument, a number of my songs, were written which are now popular, including ‘Wonderful Grace of Jesus.’”

“Wonderful Grace of Jesus” was copyrighted in 1918, but not published until 1922 in the Tabernacle Choir Book.  Lillenas was paid $5.00 for the song – equal to the amount he paid for the little wheezy organ.  Together, he and his wife, Bertha, wrote over 4000 hymns (making him the most prolific Wesleyan theological composer of the 20th century – falling 2,000 short of Charles Wesley’s hymns).

While the tune may lend itself to being played up tempo, in a bubbly sort of fashion, Lillenas himself cautioned against the hymn begin played too fast.  He wanted it to be slower so that everyone could focus on the wonderful grace of Jesus.  Here is an incredible acapella version by Michael Eldridge  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhSOnw8a_AI singing all four parts.

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