QUARANTINE BLOG # 92

June 30, 2020

Today’s blog will run longer than normal.  I’ll be back to a briefer size tomorrow, and won’t repeat this length until the end of July.

👉  COVID-19 is not going away any time soon.  That’s not news.  As of this writing 126,369 of us have died in the United States, and Georgia – 13,401 in the last 7 days – is now in the highest category of infection along with California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts – those being the only states over 77,210 infections.

👉  It is no secret that I am a fan of professional wrestling – not as intense a fan as some readers of this blog, and not always a fan of Mr. McMahon’s modern version, but a fan of choreographed sports entertainment nevertheless.  So it was with interest that I read the comment of one of the WWE’s top superstars, Roman Reigns.  The former Georgia Tech football player pulled out of WrestleMania 36, because he is  immuno-compromised from a battle with leukemia.  Following WrestleMania, Reigns continued to remain absent from WWE programming in the midst of the pandemic.

In a public statement Roman Reigns, born Leati Joseph Anoaʻi, said, “For me, I just had to make a choice for my family.  The company (WWE) has done everything that they can to make it the safest work environment possible.  It is not the workplace that I was necessarily concerned about.  The decision was taken mainly because each performer travels so much, and we are all such a diverse group and from all over the place.  I’m not convinced, and I can’t trust the fact that everybody is taking it as seriously and locking themselves down at home like I am.  I trust my life with my co-workers every time I step foot in the ring, but I just can’t put the same trust when it has my children, my wife and my family involved.”

👉  On this day in 1936 Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time was published.

In 1926, Mitchell quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal to recover from a series of physical injuries.  With too much time on her hands, she began telling the story of an Atlanta belle named Pansy O’Hara.

In tracing Pansy’s tumultuous life from the antebellum South through the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era, Mitchell drew on the tales she had heard from her parents and other relatives, as well as from Confederate war veterans she had met as a young girl.  She sent a partial manuscript to Harold Latham, an editor from New York’s MacMillan Publishing.  Latham encouraged Mitchell to complete the novel, with one important change: the heroine’s name.  Mitchell agreed to change it to Scarlett.

Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937.  The movie version, produced by David O. Selznick, premiered in 1939 at Lowe’s Theater in Atlanta.  Starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind  became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, breaking box office records and winning nine Academy Awards out of 13 nominations.

Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Oscar.  The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.  She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table.  Her Best Supporting Actress Oscar was presented by Fay Bainter (in the picture).  The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but made an exception for the Oscar-nominated McDaniel.

Hollywood pigeonholed McDaniel as the sassy Mammy archetype, with 74 confirmable domestic roles out of the IMDb’s list of 94 (“I’d rather play a maid than be a maid,” was her go-to response).  The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – NAACP – disowned her for perpetuating negative stereotypes.

To date, more than 30 million copies of Gone with the Wind have been printed worldwide.  Adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind is the top grossing movie of all time at $3,706,000,000.

👉  I haven’t given an “on this day in history” event for every day this month, so let’s look back at a few other notable happenings.

👉  On June 2, 1935, Babe Ruth, one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, ended his Major League playing career after 22 seasons, 10 World Series and 714 home runs (those homers were not assisted by performance enhancing drugs).

👉  On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”

👉  On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to rocket  into space.  Her first flight was the second one for the space shuttle Challenger.

👉  On June 20, 1975, Jaws, a film that made viewers afraid to go into the water, opened in theaters.  The story of a great white shark terrorizing a New England resort town became an instant blockbuster and the highest-grossing film – not adjusted for inflation – in movie history until it was bested by 1977’s Star Wars. 

👉  On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

👉  On June 24, 1953, Jacqueline Bouvier and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy publicly announced their engagement.

👉  On June 29, 1995, the American space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir to form the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.




👉  An graphic illustration to close this part of the blog:

👉  One more bit of history as we go to the record stacks and play a golden oldie.   This one is not from June, but from October.  Released on October 15, 1962, it was a moderate hit, reaching # 17 on the national music charts, but “Love Me Do” by a band from Liverpool, England, would set the stage for a music revolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uuLocPnDDM Here is the first recorded song by the Beatles.

👉  A young boy came in from the backyard and announced to his dad, “I’ve been playing baseball with God!”

A little bit taken aback by his son’s new playmate, his dad asked for an explanation of the game.  The little fellow said, “I throw it up to God and He throws it back to me.”  Simple enough!

It may have been the same fellow, I’m not sure, but a youngster asked, “Does God play hide-and-seek?”  I don’t know what his parents answered, but I would have said, “No, God does not hide from us.”

He reveals Himself to anyone who wants to find Him.  “God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.   They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.  Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature.  So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1:18-20 New Living Translation).

All nature is a witness of God’s power and plans.  Look around.  Pay attention to the world God has created.  The main thing He says to us through nature is that He’s real, and He’s truly here.  It is as if He is saying, “I am here!  You don’t have to worry or be afraid.  I am here.”

Daily the sun peeks over the horizon, rises into the sky, and disappears over the opposite horizon.  Daily when the sun goes down the stars come out in the night sky.  The universe remains in order as a reminder that God is watching out for us.  In spring the grass is brown and most trees are barren of leaves, but soon, though they look totally dead, they come back to life.  Just so, God will bring our lives back into full bloom – regardless of our circumstances – when we put our trust in Him.

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