QUARANTINE BLOG # 112

July 20, 2020

Launched on July 16, 1969, and after traveling 240,000 miles, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19.  The next day the lunar lander, Eagle, separated from the command module, Columbia, touched down on the Sea of Tranquility and radioed to Mission Control in Houston its famous message, “Houston, Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed.”  At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module.  Seventeen minutes later, at 10:56 p.m., he spoke to millions listening at home: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” A moment later, he stepped off the lunar module’s ladder, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

For a long time after the Moon landing, people have asked whether the astronaut said “a” before “man.”  The single word itself is not discernible from the Moon landing recording but Commander Armstrong was adamant he said it.

The astronaut photographed on the left is Buzz Aldrin.  Reflected in his visor is the only picture taken of our first moon walker, Neil Armstrong, while he was on the surface of the moon.  A publicity photo of Armstrong is on the right.

**  The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped.  The shots are poised to begin key final testing.  “No matter how you slice this, this is good news,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.

The experimental vaccine, developed at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., is scheduled to start its most important step one week from today – a 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus.  There’s no guarantee but the government hopes to have results around the end of the year – record-setting speed for developing a vaccine.

**  Last Monday, the Seward (Alaska) City Council approved the demolition of the historic Jesse Lee Home, the removal of hazardous waste from the site, and the construction of a memorial.  The Jesse Lee Home for Children was operated by the Methodist Church as a boarding school for displaced children from 1926 until the building was damaged by a 1964 earthquake.  The residents were mainly Alaska Native children from the Aleutian Islands and Seward Peninsula.  It was also home to Benny Benson, the designer of the Alaska State Flag.

32 years before Alaska became a state, the Alaska Department of the American Legion sponsored a contest for Alaskan children from grades 7 to 12.  Benny’s design for the territory’s flag was chosen to represent the future of the Alaska Territory.  His design was chosen over roughly 700 other submissions from schoolchildren.  Most other entries featured variations on the territorial seal, the midnight sun, the northern lights, polar bears, and/or gold pans.

Benny looked to the sky for the symbols he included in his design.  He submitted this description with it: “The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower.  The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union.  The Dipper is for the Great Bear – symbolizing strength.”

For his achievement, Benny was awarded $1,000, an engraved watch and a trip to Washington, D.C.

Here is a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKsywvLG76A&feature=youtu.be to Alaska’s state song, sung, appropriately, by school children.  The background of the clip is Benny’s design, the Alaska state flag.

**  My favorite way, so far, for the preparation of hash brown potatoes (not counting hash brown casserole at Cracker Barrel) is scattered, smothered, chunked, diced, and country at Waffle House.  That’s scattered on the grill, smothered in onions, chunked ham, diced tomatoes, and topped with country gravy.

Website betterbe.co suggests using a waffle iron for perfect hash browns.  They say the waffle iron makes the potatoes much more crunchy because it steams them, streamlines cook time and the inside of the potato waffle is silky smooth (dollop of sour cream and chives are optional).  Now if I just had a waffle iron.

**  It’s been a few days since we’ve read the funny papers, so let’s take a look at another one of my favorites: Shoe, a strip about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds (as a former newspaper columnist, it is a natural attraction).  Shoe deals with the day-to-day foibles of a group of newspaper employees and their families, all of whom are portrayed as anthropomorphized birds, in the fictional locale of Treetops, East Virginia.

P. Martin “Shoe” Shoemaker, a purple martin, is the cigar-smoking editor of The Treetops Tattler-Tribune, whose difficulties with his various ex-wives is legendary.

Prof. Cosmo Fishhawk (usually called the “Perfessor” and my personal favorite), is the paper’s columnist.  His trademark desk is always overflowing with a very tall stack of papers, extending beyond the frame.

Roz, whose species is never identified, is the owner of the local diner, Roz’s Roost.

The strip is usually not political, but the closest it comes is in strips featuring Sen. Batson D. Belfry, a beltway blowhard, seemingly patterned after Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy, and whose name is a pun of “bats in the belfry.”

Tomorrow we will journey to The Far Side.

**  Audrey Mae Mieir was ordained to the Gospel ministry in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.  In 1955, she was working in her brother-in-law’s church, Bethel Union Church in a suburb of Los Angeles.  Christmas fell on Sunday that year, and the church was decorated with pine boughs.

“As the morning service began,” Audrey later said, “the pastor stood to his feet, opened the Bible, and said, ‘His name shall be called Wonderful.’  I wrote the words and music to a new song in the flyleaf of my Bible.  In the Sunday evening service, I taught the chorus to a group of young people, and it was sung for the first time.”

A friend told her, “Audrey, His Name Is Wonderful, is a good song but there just isn’t enough of it.  Maybe you could write a bridge for it.”  Audrey went to lunch that day with her friend’s advice more important than the menu.  She ordered a hamburger, opened her Bible, and found a list of names given to Jesus in the Scripture.  She jotted some of them down on her napkin.  After returning to her office, Audrey went to the piano and began writing: “He’s the great Shepherd, the Rock of all ages, Almighty God is He . . .”

Though it was inspired on Christmas day by a traditional Christmas text, “His Name Is Wonderful” has never been pegged as a Christmas hymn.  It’s been a favorite of Christians around the world throughout the year.

This link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pmNeTSKOvo is recorded by Carman.

His name is Wonderful,
His name is Wonderful,
His name is Wonderful,
Jesus my Lord.

He is the Mighty King,
Master of everything,
His name is Wonderful,
Jesus my Lord.

He’s the Great Shepherd,
The Rock of all ages,
Almighty God is He.
Bow down before Him,
Love and adore Him,
His name is Wonderful,
Jesus my Lord.

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