QUARANTINE BLOG # 162

September 8, 2020

Many blogs ago I shared two strips from Peanuts which featured Snoopy writing a novel.  I don’t remember when I ran them, and because I have frequently gone back and looked through 160+ blogs to see if I have mention something, I’ve started an index.  But I digress.  Here are 4 more strips of Snoopy working at his typewriter from atop his dog house.

Snoopy’s suggestion to the publishing house to come and pick up his newest masterpiece reminded me of a time I sent a manuscript to a publishing house, and the editor reviewed my work, wrote back and said, “You have taken me for a ride in a Ferrari.  I want you to take me for a ride in a surrey with the fringe on top.”  I rewrote and rewrote, but never got it slow enough.

👉  Yesterday I read a distressing report from a travel website: “According to a well-connected source, US cruise lines do not intend to sail again until 2021.  While the source couldn’t disclose specific information (as they did not have the approval to make any official announcements), the source indicated that no cruise line for which they are aware intends to operate before 2021 at the very earliest.”

I usually don’t read the posted comments because after a very few appropriate responses to the issues at hand, they typically break down into Republican vs Democrat, regardless of the topic.  But I read a few this time.

Robert said, “I just called three cruise lines.  They said your information is false.   Because they would post it online and plus send everyone a email about it.  So therefore stop spreading rumors about the cruises or they will get you.”

The author of the column replied, “I was clear that no official announcement had been made ... If you have any suggestions on how to make ‘rumor’ ‘unconfirmed’ and ‘no official announcement’ any clearer, I am always open to feedback.

So, I commented: “You said your well-connected source did not have the approval to make any official announcements.  My suggestions.  If a source cannot put his or her name to it, one, the source should not disclose it, and two, if the source cannot put his or name to it, don’t report it.  Hiding behind anonymity is cowardly.  The source said something, but didn’t have permission to say it.  That smacks of dishonesty.”

👉  If you play Texas Hold ‘Em, or watch poker telecasts, you know the name Mike Sexton.  Mike died Sunday night, two weeks shy of his 73rd birthday, following a battle with prostate cancer.  He is survived by his wife Karen and son Ty.

Sexton is best known to poker fans as the longtime voice of the World Poker Tour, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STTe0dFms-g serving as a television commentator for 15 years.  For many watching at home, Sexton was their first introduction to hold’em, explaining the rules of “the Cadillac of poker,” a game that took just “a minute to learn, and a lifetime to master.”

Sexton was an accomplished player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjcm-ZqG1y8.  He won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 1989, he won the Tournament of Champions in 2006 for $1 million, giving half of the prize money to charity, and in 2016 he won the WPT Playground Poker Fall Classic.  As a tour winner, he had his name etched on the WPT Champions Cup Trophy.  In July, the WPT renamed the trophy in his honor.

He ended every televised episode of the WPT with the sign off, “May all your cards be live, and may all your pots be monsters.”

👉  Prostate cancer is the easiest cancer to detect and to treat.  To the men who are reading this blog, if you are over 50, go get a prostate exam.  It can save your life.  The whole procedure may be a little embarrassing, but the first time Dr. Brett Wallentine examined me, he said, “I’m sending you for a colonoscopy.  I think there may be something evil in there.”  It was not prostate cancer, but I subsequently had precancerous nodes removed from my colon.  Because I had a prostate exam, that few seconds, as Dr. Wallentine remarked, when the doctor and patient get intimate, it saved my life.  Men, if you are not yet 50, put a reminder in your calendar and give yourself a birthday present.  Then repeat it every year!

👉  Today we premier a new feature for the Quarantine Blog – our “Did You Know Department?”  DYK is borrowed from the website https://www.thefactsite.com/.  If it’s not true, it’s their fault.  But it is on the Internet, so it must be true.  Right?

DYK pound cake got its name from its recipe?  The early recipes of pound cake called for one pound of butter, one pound of eggs, and one pound of sugar.  That’s a big cake.

DYK crackers have holes in them for a reason?  During the baking process, the holes prevents air bubbles from ruining the product.

DYK ketchup used to be used as a medicine?  Back in the early 1800’s, people thought tomatoes had medicinal qualities.  One doctor claimed they could treat diarrhea and indigestion, so he made a recipe for a type of tomato ketchup which then became a pill.  And you just thought it was a vegetable (see United States Department of Agriculture USDA Omnibus Regulation Act of 1980 and Food and Nutrition Service Omnibus Regulation Act of 1981).

DYK white chocolate isn’t chocolate?  Its name is deceiving, because white chocolate doesn’t have any components of regular chocolate.  It’s really just a mixture of sugar, milk, vanilla, lecithin, and cocoa butter.

DYK the red food dye for Skittles is made from the body of an insect called cochineal, dried out and then mashed?  The cochineal is used in maraschino cherries, strawberry and raspberry flavored candy, and lipstick (This one I know is true.  See my cruise talk, “Red: The Color of Desire,” or vignettes from QB 45 and 47).

👉  Today’s closing piece is from Max Lucado.

“If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good.  You will be mature and complete.  You will be all that God wants you to be” (James 1:4 ERV).

Sometime ago our church staff attended a leadership conference.  Especially interested in one class, I arrived early and snagged a front-row seat.  As the speaker began, however, I was distracted by a couple of voices in the back of the room.  Two guys were mumbling to each other.  I was giving serious thought to shooting a glare over my shoulder when the speaker offered an explanation.  “Forgive me,” he said.  “I forgot to explain why the two fellows at the back of the class are talking.  One of them is an elder at a new church in Romania.  He has traveled here to learn about church leadership.  But he doesn’t speak English, so the message is being translated.”

All of a sudden everything changed.  Patience replaced impatience.  Why?  Because patience always hitches a ride with understanding.  “A man of understanding holds his tongue” (Proverbs 11:12 NIV).  Don’t miss the connection between understanding and patience.  Before you blow up, listen up.  Before you strike out, tune in.

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