QUARANTINE BLOG # 85

June 23, 2020

Returning to The Wild Wild West, let’s take a look at one of the most interesting “characters,” one without a word to say, in fact, couldn’t speak, but was vital to the series: the train.  President Grant gave a special train to James West and Artimus Gordon for use on their assignments.  It was a luxury hotel on wheels and their base of operations.

For the pilot episode the producers used Sierra Railroad No. 3, that was built in 1891, almost 2 decades after the series was set.  Best known for its role as the Hooterville Cannonball in the CBS series Petticoat Junction, Sierra No. 3 probably appeared in more films and TV shows than any other locomotive in history. 

The train was used only for exterior shots.  The luxurious interior of the passenger car was constructed on stage at CBS studios.  The set cost $35,000 in 1965 (approximately $300,000 today).  The train interior was also used in one episode of Gunsmoke, and in two episodes of The Big Valley. 

Another important part of The Wild Wild West was all of the gadgets and inventions which played rolls in the series.  Many of them were concealed in West’s clothing.  One of the most often seen was sleeve gun (a Remington Double Derringer), a  concealed weapon.  In a some episodes the ejecting arm of the device dispensed other useful gadgets, such as a tiny squirt-can containing acid, iron climbing-claws, a knife, a pulley, and various blades.  Someone, with a lot of time on his or her hands, counted 171 devices of all kinds which were used on the show.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at a different kind of spy show, Get Smart.

👉  The coronavirus is gaining ground.  Nationwide, cases have risen 15 percent over the last two weeks.  Cases are rising in 18 states across the South, West and Midwest.  Seven states hit single-day case records Saturday, and five others hit a record earlier in the week.  The pandemic has now sickened more than 8,899,000 people, and at least 466,200 of us have died.  Across the United States, the number of new infections has steadily risen during the past five days after plateauing for the previous 80 days.  At the same time, overall deaths have dropped dramatically.  The 14-day average was down 42 percent as of Saturday.  Strikingly, the new infections have skewed younger, with more people in their 20s and 30s testing positive.

👉  On this day in 2013, 34-year-old Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk a high wire across the Little Colorado River Gorge near Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.  In June of the previous year, Wallenda, a member of the famous Flying Wallendas family of circus performers, became the first person to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls.  Because the event was televised around the world, broadcast officials required Wallenda to wear a safety tether in case he fell.  Wearing jeans and a T-shirt and holding a 43-pound balancing pole, he prayed out loud as he walked untethered across a 1,400-foot-long, 8.5-ton cable suspended 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River.  It was the highest walk of his career.

👉  Based on the requirement that a prophet be 100% accurate, it appears that my title as a prophet is suspect.  I said yesterday that the chances of playing baseball in 2020, or any major league sports, were slim and none, with slim having already departed the premises.  The proof of my non-prophet status came yesterday when Major League Baseball owners voted unanimously to proceed with the 2020 MLB season under the terms of their March 26 agreement with the MLB Players Association.  The projected opening day is July 24.

That March agreement has a 67-page health and safety protocol which will make this season very different from any we’ve seen before – if things during this coronavirus pandemic were not totally upside down anyway.  For instance, players and other team personnel not participating in the game would sit in the stands, separated by at least six feet.  Celebratory contact is forbidden: No high-fives, fist bumps or hugs.  No spitting, chewing of tobacco or sunflower seeds or any combination thereof.  So, there you go.

👉  You have heard the calls that Uncle Ben’s Rice should no longer be Uncle Ben’s, Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup should no longer be Mrs. Butterworth’s, Aunt Jemima’s Syrup should no longer be Aunt Jemima’s, the UNLV’s Running Rebels should no longer be the Running Rebels, and because the name has an association with law enforcement, there is a call for baseball’s Texas Rangers to no longer be called the Texas Rangers.

Let me say unequivocally, I understand why these calls for change have surfaced.  Feelings caused by recent events have dug into the history of centuries gone by, and have remarked upon the ugliness, the inhumanity, the sin of human trafficking.  But there is another side to the call for the names of products and teams to be changed that is not being heard. 

The Richard family of Hawkins, Texas, objects to the changing of the name of Aunt Jemima’s syrup, because it was their aunt, Lillian Richard, who became a goodwill ambassador for Quaker Oats, and for decades, portrayed Aunt Jemima.  And the family is proud of what she did.  “She was considered a hero in Hawkins, and we are proud of that.  We do not want that history erased,” Virginia Harris, the family historian, said. 

Harris said her family feels that activism has gone too far.  “I wish we would take a breath and not just get rid of everything, because good or bad, it is our history. Removing that wipes away a part of me.  A part of each of us.  We are proud of our cousin.”

👉   Don’t be discouraged today.  You can leave your “what-ifs” and “if-onlys” in the hands of the One who loves you and rules all things.

“Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.  Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.  Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?  And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?  Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?

‘And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.  For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.  But seek ]the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you’” (Luke 12:22-31 NKJV).

Real, sturdy, lasting peace, peace doesn’t rise and fall with circumstances.  Peace is found only in trust, trust of the One who is in careful control of all the things that tend to rob you of your peace.  He knows, He understands, He is in control of what appears to be chaos, He is never surprised, He is never confused, He never worries or loses a night’s sleep, He never walks off the job to take a rest, He never gets so busy with one thing that He neglects another, and He never plays favorites.

You need to remind yourself again and again of His wise and loving control, not because that will immediately make your life make sense, but because it will give you rest and peace in those moments that all of us face at one time or another – when life doesn’t seem to make any sense.

-30-