QUARANTINE BLOG # 150

August 27, 2020

First of all Happy Birthday wishes to Emma Kensington Sisler.  There is just no way you can be 12 years old today.  It seems like only yesterday.  And so many precious yesterdays, and incredible future ahead.

Beautiful girl!

Bridesmaid for her big sister. She will trade that dress for a bridal gown before we know it.

👉  We haven’t been to the Jukebox in a while, and as luck would have it, we get three spins for a quarter today.  Our featured artists, and featuring 3 of their Number 1 hits, are Herman’s Hermits.

Herman’s Hermits was formed from two different local bands, the Heartbeats and the Wailers.  Some said that lead singer Peter Noone resembled Sherman from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.  Sherman was shortened to Herman, and the band became Herman and His Hermits, which was shortened to Herman’s Hermits.  Which is all kind of strange because Noone doesn’t wear glasses and lead guitarist Derek “Lek” Leckenby does.  But it was the 60s.  Go figure.

In 1966 the group was nominated for the Grammy award’s Best New Artist of 1965 – they lost to Tom Jones – and for their song which hit # 1 in the United States, “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv8k0VI9tBc – they lost to the Beatles “Michelle.”  After “Mrs. Brown” had been on the charts for awhile, John Lennon called lead singer Peter Noone and said, “Peter, the song does not have  one single rhyming lyric.”  And Peter’s response was that that was correct, but nobody else that he knew ever seemed to notice.

They scored a second # 1 in the U.S. with “I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am.”  The character’s name is spelled “Henery” but pronounced “Enery” in Cockney style.  It’s roots are in a 1910 British music hall song.  It became the fastest-selling song in history to that point, and was the group’s second # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  At 1:50 it is one of the shortest number one singles of all time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6EJxYNQxvw.

And # 1 on the British charts was “I’m into Something Good,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRvcIj3XzU8 a song composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

👉  Gannett Co., Inc., in a copyrighted story in USA TODAY, written by Elizabeth Weise and Karen Weintraub, talked about public confidence and delivery of COVID vaccines https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/health/2020/08/25/covid-vaccine-race-experts-steady-progress-worry-logistics-distribution/3389988001/.  With thanks to Gannett for the 4 page story, and apologies to Weise and Weintraub, I offer a Reader’s Digest version (the original is at the link above).

A coronavirus vaccine or even several could be ready in just a few months, so experts are beginning to worry about how to get it into people’s arms.  “Vaccines don’t save lives. Vaccinations save lives,” said Daniel Salmon, the director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Editorial comment: good point since there are parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against common childhood diseases.

Educating the public about how the vaccines will work and the painstaking process required to approve them will be key to getting people to line up and roll up their sleeves once they’re available.  The agencies that decide if a vaccine is ready and who gets it first – the FDA and the CDC – need to be front and center and as transparent as possible.

This may not be one-and-done, said Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group.  Just as the common cold and flu mutate a little each year, coronavirus could do the same.  Funding new vaccine development that can fill the void in case of viral mutation/recombination will be critical.

With at least 10 possible vaccines now in the final Phase 3 clinical testing stage, two looming questions remain: Will they work and will they work long enough?

Only the Phase 3 trials will determine if vaccines provide immunity to COVID-19, but even if immunity only lasts a year, booster immunizations can be given.  Simply having a vaccine that worked for a year at a time would turn COVID-19 from a pandemic into something manageable, just like the seasonal flu.

Finally, the public needs to remember that life isn’t going to suddenly zip back to the way it was in January, when we all lived blissfully unaware of the virus or its effects.  It’s not likely any vaccine will be 100% effective and it could be that people who are immunized might still get sick, but less severely.  That alone will be a huge win, but the need to keep wearing masks and socially distance might still be there.

👉  Back to Bond.  Daniel Craig is the current 007 and it seems that he will surrender his license to kill after the appearance of No Time to Die – his 5th Bond and the 25th installment in the James Bond film series produced by Eon Productions.  Work has been ongoing in NTTD since 2016.  It was scheduled for release this past April, and now may hit the big screen on November 20.

While Craig has come to be regarded as one of the best Bonds, the announcement of his casting caused noses to turn up in Bondom with no less than The Daily Mirror running a front-page news story with the headline, “The Name’s Bland – James Bland.”  However, after the premier of his 2006 film Casino Royale, the reviews changed.  “Variety” said, “Craig comes closer to the author’s original conception of this exceptionally long-lived male fantasy figure than anyone since early Sean Connery.”  Steven Spielberg called Craig “the perfect 21st-century Bond.”  And the BBC observed that “Daniel Craig is not a good Bond.  He’s a great Bond.”  However the violence in the Craig Bond films has left your friendly neighborhood blogger behind.  Do we really need to see our hero tied naked to a chair that has the bottom cut out and the villain swinging a torture device at Bond’s exposed body parts?

To wrap our visit with 007, I offer for your Bond pleasure the 55 greatest James Bond one-liners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7__HL3zWn0 (Make that 54 greats – I had no way to edit #53 out).

👉  Today’s closing is by Max Lucado.

The widest river in the world is not the Mississippi, Amazon, or Nile.  The widest river on earth is a body of water called If Only.

Throngs of people stand on its banks and cast longing eyes over the waters.  They long to cross but can’t seem to find the ferry.  They are convinced the If Only River separates them from the good life.

If only I were thinner, I’d have the good life.  If only I were richer, I’d have the good life.  If only the kids would come.  If only the kids were gone.  If only I could leave home, move home, get married, get divorced.

The If Only River.

Look at Paul’s antidote for the anxiety of If Only.  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6).

If it came in pill form, gratitude would be deemed the miracle cure.  It’s no wonder, then, that, God’s anxiety therapy includes a large, delightful dollop of gratitude.

Gratitude leads us off the river bank of “if only” and escorts us into the fertile valley of “already.”  The anxious heart says, “Lord, if only I had this, that, or the other, I’d be ok.”  The grateful heart says, “Oh, look!  You’ve already given me this, that, and the other.  Thank you, God!”

Anchor your heart to the character of God.  Your boat will rock.  Moods will come and go.  Situations will fluctuate and change.  But will you be left adrift on the ocean of despair?  Not if you have found a contentment that endures the storm.

No more if only.  It is the petri dish in which anxiety thrives.  Replace your if only with already.  Look what you already have.  Treat each anxious thought with a grateful one and prepare yourself for a new day of joy.

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