October 27, 2020
Yesterday at 12:05 p.m., NASA announced on their live stream a much-awaited piece of space news, and I, your favorite space nerd, was watching. The “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy” (SOFIA) detected, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the moon. This discovery suggests that water may be scattered across the lunar surface and not limited to shadow areas near the lunar poles. As NASA finally looks back to the moon (it’s almost unbelievable that we went to the moon 51 years ago, and we haven’t been back in almost 48 years!) this is an important discovery for the goal to establish a permanent base on the moon.
** It’s less than 2 months until Christmas, and I know you will want spread the smell of fried chicken in your fireplace. This year, for the first time, Walmart will sell KFC’s highly coveted Herbs and Spices Firelog – created in partnership with Enviro-log – for the holiday season. This is the third consecutive season for the fried chicken-scented firelogs, but the first time they’ll be available at the nation’s largest retailer. They went on sale yesterday, and sold out the first two years KFC offered the 11 herbs and spices logs, so dash right out to your favorite Big Box or surf over to Walmart.com. The regular price is $19.98, but they are $15.88 online.
Side Bar, your Honor. Does anyone know why the sudden move by Sam Walton’s descendants to get into the chicken business? First Truett Cathy’s special sauce. Now, Harland Sander’s fire logs. Look out, Frank Perdue.
** In the never ending search for great Winter Shopping Frenzie Gifts, the Quarantine Blog is constantly on the lookout for that must have item for you to wrap and put under someone’s tree or stuff it in their stockings. Today we alert you to an auction coming up soon. Prop Store, a leading auction house based in the United Kingdom, will host its annual live auction of movie and TV memorabilia for the seventh consecutive year starting December 1 (I know it’s cutting it close to the WSF deadline, but it is “their” auction). Here are three treasures from the more than 900 items in stock.
The most valuable item in this year’s auction is Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber from 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. It is estimated to sell between $103,000 to $155,000.
Top Gun fanatics also will have the chance to get their hands on the bomber jacket worn by Tom Cruise in his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from the 1986 classic. It’s anticipated to fetch between $15,000 to $21,000.
There was no estimated price given for the boots worn by Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman, but if you miss them, it will be a big mistake. Big. Huge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgeiZY2H7zc.
** Enquiring minds want to know https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r3Xs9sBEVg, or they did in 1986. But that doesn’t matter now. We were watching a great program on Amazon Prime called “The Booksellers” (two thumbs up) and one of the sellers was Rebecca Romney. “Rebecca Romney,” you say? You remember. The rare book expert on Pawn Stars. Curious to see if she had written any books – she did Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History – I also found that she does a blog. It’s not a daily. In fact, her most recent post was January 2, 2020 (http://www.rebeccaromney.com/).
One of her posts, from October 3, 2018, was “The Art of the Painstaking Sherlock Recreation.” It is about one man, Denny Dobry of Reading, Pennsylvania who recreated Sherlock Holmes’ 221B Baker Street flat down to the last detail. Dobry is one of those fans of Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective who is a Sherlockians. These folks are to the Conan Doyle character what Trekkies are to Star Trek and Wookies are to Star Wars: fans who are on the verge of forgetting William Shatner’s admonition – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwolZbfRwlA.
If a Sherlockian reads the above paragraph, he or she will, with some justification, be insulted. Sherlockians are serious Holmes scholars. They do not wear pointed ears to conventions (serious Star Trek fans, like your humble blogger, are Trekkers, not Trekkies). They study the “Canon” – Conan Doyle’s 60 original stories – with great passion. Many become collectors of Holmes paraphernalia. Stories are memorized. Some, like Dobry, build rooms, and the pieces in them are collected from the stories time period.
His 221B is built in his basement, a compromise with his wife who demanded that first he build her a large screened-in porch. After getting the “go ahead” from his spouse, Dobry’s next problem was how to create a second floor flat in a basement. He was already two floors too low to start. The solution was to paint a facade of the buildings on Baker Street on the back wall of the basement. Leaving a narrow “dead” space from the facade, he constructed a wall containing the two board windows mentioned by Watson in “A Study in Scarlet,” and placed a hidden tape-recorder playing London street sounds.
** I almost forgot. Today is Stamen Grigorov’s 142nd birthday. Born on October 27, 1878, Grigorov was a prominent Bulgarian physician and microbiologist. In 1905, at the age of 27, discovered the Lactobacillus bulgaricus bacillus, which is the true cause for the existence of natural yogurt. In recognition the strain was called by the scientific community Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
The original variety of Bulgarian yogurt can only be produced in Bulgaria and in some neighboring regions on the Balkan peninsula. In other natural climatic conditions the bacteria quickly degenerate, lose their qualities and die. The unique blend of bacteria native to Bulgaria cannot be reproduced in other countries, so those that want to create their version of Bulgarian yogurt must constantly import new starter cultures.
And now you are ready for Jeopardy!
“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV).
How often do you let God do major surgery on your spirit as his Spirit uses the Word to encourage, judge, motivate, convict, instruct, and inspire? With such a great tool so readily at hand for most of us, let’s not let a day go by that we don’t let God use his word on hearts.
Prayer: Almighty God, your will is my heart’s desire. But I realize that I need to be fed more consistently by your Word revealed in Scripture. Give me strength and consistency in my walk with you through your Word. Through your Spirit, inspire me to change what needs to be changed and to be blessed and encouraged in the areas that I need it most. I turn to you and trust in your Word to point me in the way of life. Through Jesus I pray. Amen.
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Thank you, very interesting reading today,thank you so much,fran
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