QUARANTINE BLOG # 307

January 31, 2021

WHERE IS YOUR CONFIDENCE?

Willie was born in Poland. He grew up first under Russian domination of his nation and then under Nazi occupation.

The Germans screened 30,000 students to be placed in special schools. From them, the number was narrowed to 1,000 and then finally to 30. Willie was one of the 30, placed in a special school, and taught by a man who was the seventh person to become a member of the Nazi party in his region.

One night, the headmaster said, “Let’s all sing.”

Willie expected a patriotic song. The headmaster selected “The Church’s One Foundation Is Jesus Christ Her Lord.”

Willie learned that the headmaster was a Christian. He was only using the party. He talked openly about the Lord and encouraged His students to follow Jesus.

One day, when Willie was 16, he was walking down the road with two friends. A sniper shot one of the other men in the head and killed him instantly. At that moment, Willie, a minister’s son, realized, “I am not ready to die.”

Ten minutes later, and much farther down the road, Willie was ready to die. He had met Jesus.

During the closing days of World War II, Willie ended up as a prisoner in a concentration camp outside of Warsaw. His mother was in a second camp. His sister was in a third. Somehow they got word to each other and planned an escape.

The plan went perfectly until they reached the rendezvous point. They realized they had to take a train, but they did not know which train led to safety. They had no travel papers to even permit them to purchase a ticket.

Suddenly, a man Willie did not know, a man he had never seen, came up to him and said, “You need to catch the train on track two. It is leaving right now.”

“Whether he was an angel, or not, I do not know,” Willie said, “but we ran for the train and climbed on board just as it was leaving the station.”

There was only one vacancy in only one compartment on the train. Willie knew the other man in the compartment. He was the local head of the Gestapo.

They were out of options. They took that seat.

When the conductor passed through their car asking for tickets, he glanced into their compartment, and saw the Gestapo chief. Assuming that Willie, his mother, and his sister were members of the Gestapo agent’s family, he did not ask to see either tickets or travel papers.

When the train stopped, they got off, still not knowing what to do.

A man walked up to them and asked, “Do you wish to go to the west?” He meant the western part of Germany. Willie said, “Yes,” meaning the United States.

They took the train to the end of the line. There members of group of underground resistance fighters met them and helped them to emigrate to Canada and to freedom.

Willie was asked how they survived. His reply was a simple statement of faith, “Our confidence was in the Lord.”

When Willie was asked how he learned confidence he said, “God led me each step of the way. I was picked for a special school out of 30,000 other young people. I was taught by a leading Nazi who loved Jesus. When people were dying in concentration camps, my family escaped from three separate camps. Two men I had never seen before or since directed us to safety and to freedom. How could I not have confidence in such a God?”

Where is your confidence?

In a God who can lead you step by step, perhaps through very ordinary circumstances, perhaps through very miraculous circumstances. Or in yourself?

If you answered, “In myself,” you need to reexamine your confidence.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 306

January 30, 2021

One day a mother potato was startled when her daughter approached and said, “Mom, I know who I am going to marry.”  Her mother said, “You are too young a potato to be talking about marriage.”  She said, “Mom, I know who I am going to marry.  It is David Brinkley.”

Her mother almost fainted.  When she recovered, she said, “You need to talk to your father.”

Father potato was outraged.  He said, “You cannot marry David Brinkley.  You come from a family of famous potatoes.  Your great grandfather was made into vodka by Catherine the Great. Your grandfather was scalloped by the Indians.  Your great uncle was French fried during the French Revolution.  Royal starch flows through your veins.  And David Brinkley is just a commentator.

Origins

With apologies for my favorite potato joke, we begin a look today at one of God’s great food gifts to us. The potato’s history starts in the Andes mountains of South America in pre-Columbian times and continues with its global stardom today. 

There are many reasons for the potato’s success: it thrives in arid where other staple crops, such as wheat, rice and corn can’t grow. It has a fairly short growing season (75 days). And it requires relatively little effort to cultivate and harvest, for which the only tool needed is a spade – for planting, weeding and digging up the potatoes.

Potatoes are also prolific. A single plant produces an average of 4½ pounds of potatoes, but productivity can be much greater. The Guinness Book of World Records records the growing more than 370 pounds of potatoes from a single tuber.

Then there’s the potato’s nutritional content. A medium sized raw potato contains a mere 100 calories and is a good source of vitamins C and B6, iron, potassium and zinc. Just 100 gm of potato provides nearly half the minimum daily requirement of vitamin C. When men were dying of scurvy during the Klondike gold rush, potatoes sold for their weight in gold.

The potato is easily transported, and keeps well for months if stored properly. It is low-cost and adaptable to a tremendous variety of dishes featuring all sorts of tastes, textures and aromas. 

Potatoes can be boiled, baked, fried, roasted, steamed, sauteed, mashed, hashed, souffled and scalloped. They are used in pancakes, dumplings, salads, soups, stews, chowders and savory puddings. Due to this versatility, more potatoes are consumed than any other vegetable.  Kind of like shrimp in Forrest Gump.

As important as the potato is today, hundreds of years were to pass after Europeans first ran into the spud in South America before it was widely adopted in the mid-19th century in Europe. It was not generally consumed in China, today the world’s largest potato producer, until the mid-20th century. The potato’s path to stardom began about 12,000 years ago.

The traditional view of human settlement in the Americas is that indigenous peoples crossed the Bering Straits 16,000 years ago and moved down the west coast of the Americas, reaching southern Chile about 14,000 years ago.

Human muscle power created the thousands of growing areas that are scattered throughout the high Andes – muscle assisted only by the taclla, a spade-like foot plough with a narrow blade and a handle set low on the shaft to ease the job of lifting and turning the heavy soil.

The Inca domesticated an estimated 70 plants – almost as many plants as were domesticated in all of Europe or Asia. Twenty-five were tuber or root crops, the most important being Solanum tuberosum – the common potato. The most important crop in the Inca Empire was potatoes, which the language of the Inca, were called “papas.”

Once harvested, potatoes keep for only a few months before they sprout, and are vulnerable to decay. The Incas developed a method of preserving them so that they could be stored for years.

After harvest, the potatoes were covered to prevent dew from settling on them and left out overnight in freezing temperatures. The following day, the potatoes were exposed to the sun and families trod on the frozen potatoes to squish out their liquid, a process repeated several times during the following days. The resulting freeze-dried potato, called chuno, would keep for years before deteriorating. Chuno was ground into flour and baked into bread, or rehydrated and used for thickening soups and stews. It was the first freeze-dried food.

When Sir Francis Drake visited Chile in 1577, on his  circumnavigation of the world, he received potatoes from the natives. A popular story says Drake carried potatoes across the Pacific and back Northern Europe. This story is only an urban legend – potatoes would have rotted long before the voyage was over.

The Traveling Potato

Potatoes came first to the British Isles – starting around 1575 – in regular trade between England and the Iberian peninsula.

Not all herbalists saw the potato as an important addition to the European food supply. In fact, several were convinced that potatoes were poisonous and caused leprosy, dysentery and other diseases. Their nodules and the bulbous finger-like protuberances were viewed as sinister. In the eyes of the some, potatoes resembled the deformed hands and feet of the leper. 

Some French provincial governments forbade their cultivation. Gardeners in England regarded radishes as a more worthwhile crop than potatoes. Clergymen and priests banned their parishioners from planting and eating the potato, because they were not mentioned in the Bible. An early edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica described the potato as a “demoralizing esculent.”

War and the subsequent famine which followed the conflicts began to change people’s minds. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) produced one of the worst famines in European history, and the people adopted the potato without hesitation. A subsequent famine in 1740 moved Prussia Frederick the Great to encourage potato cultivation by giving away potato seeds to farmers.

Famine caused Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, to encourage peasants to grow the crop. The potato grew easily in Russia and it could be used as a great substitute for making bread if the wheat crop failed. By 1800 potatoes were cultivated in the western parts of Russia and Ukraine. Potatoes quickly became Russia’s most popular vegetable.

The potatoes eventual rise to prominence in France can be credited in part to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a pharmacist who fought in the French army during the Seven Years War – the first true world war – fought between 1756 and 1763. It involved every European great power of the time and spanned five continents.  Parmentier spent five years as a prisoner of war in Germany, where he and his fellow prisoners subsisted mainly on potatoes. Parmentier became a great believer in the nutritional properties of the potato; back home in France, he championed them. 

When Marie-Antoinette heard that the peasants had no bread to eat, she is supposed to have declared, “Let them eat cake.” She probably never said that. The queen was accused of all kinds of debauchery by her political opponents in the run-up to the French Revolution in 1789. But ironically, she was someone who cared about the starving poor. Even if Marie-Antoinette never advocated the substitution of cake for bread, she did endorse the potato to the poor.

Although potatoes arrived in North America in the late 1600s, they did not become a field crop until the middle of the following century, when Scotch-Irish immigrants brought potatoes to New England from Ireland. By the mid-19th century, potatoes were an important field crop in Canada and the United States.

From Europe, potatoes spread south and east. They were introduced into Africa, where they became staples in the mountainous areas of east Africa. From Russia potatoes were disseminated to Turkey and to western China. The potato was brought to Japan, Korea and eastern China in the 17th century. The British introduced potatoes into the Australia, New Zealand, and India.

The total value of the potato crop in 2017 was $3.74 billion. China is now the world's top potato producer, followed by India, Russia, and Ukraine. The United States is the fifth largest producer of potatoes in the world. The potato is the single most cultivated and consumed vegetable in the world. 

Next week: from the European potato famine to the success of a Soviet botanist.

👉  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications” (Psalm 116:1).

It is marvelous that God speaks to us – life-giving, world-creating words.  This marvel is matched by another – that he listens to us.  His listening gives all our words significance and makes all our prayers personal.

Prayer: I have times of desperation, O God, when I suppose that you neither speak nor listen.  When that happens bring me back to this psalm and to Jesus Christ, who also felt despair and now lives to make intercession for me.  Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 305

January 29, 2021

Before we start the monthly wrap-up of “What Happened On This Day” Amy asks, “If the first oranges were green, how did they come to be called oranges?”  The word was introduced to English through the Spanish word “naranja”, which came from the Sanskrit word nāraga, which was the name of that particular tree.  The “n” was dropped in English usage, and we thus have “orange.”  We had the fruit before we named the color.

And now our monthly look back in history.

👉  On January 2, 1788, Georgia voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, becoming the fourth state in the modern United States.  Named after King George II, Georgia was first settled by Europeans in 1733, when a group of British debtors led by English philanthropist James E. Oglethorpe traveled up the Savannah River and established Georgia’s first permanent settlement – the town of Savannah.

👉  On January 3, 1521, Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, which excommunicated Martin Luther from the Catholic Church.  Martin Luther, the chief catalyst of Protestantism, was a professor of biblical interpretation at the University of Wittenberg in Germany when he drew up his 95 theses condemning the Catholic Church for selling indulgences, or the forgiveness of sins. 

👉  On January 5, 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.  The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time.  The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.

👉  On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse’s telegraph system was demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey.  In May 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line, with the message: “What hath God wrought!”

👉  On January 9, 2007, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone – a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod, camera and Web-browsing capabilities, among other features.  The iPhone helped turn Apple, which Jobs co-founded with his friend Stephen Wozniak in California in 1976, into one of the planet’s most valuable corporations.

👉  United States Surgeon General Luther Terry knew his report declaring a link between cigarette smoking and cancer was a bombshell.  He intentionally chose to release it on January 11, 1964, a Saturday, so as to limit its immediate effects on the stock market.  

👉  On January 12, 2010, Haiti was devastated by a massive earthquake.  It drew an outpouring of support from around the globe, but the small nation has yet to fully recover.

👉  In the midst of depression and a steep decline in his musical career, legendary country singer Johnny Cash played for inmates at California’s Folsom Prison on January 13, 1968.  Despite the presence of armed guards, and the warden’s prohibition against standing during the show, Cash’s audience was raucous, invigorating the performers and lending a unique verve to the live recording.  The album went to No. 1, and revived Cash’s career.

👉  On January 15, 2009, a potential disaster turned into a heroic display of skill and composure when Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III safely landed the plane he was piloting on New York City’s Hudson River after a bird strike caused its engines to fail.  David Paterson, governor of New York at the time, dubbed the incident the “Miracle on the Hudson.”  The story was dramatized in the movie Sully, starring Tom Hanks.

👉  The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was ratified by the requisite number of states on January 16, 1919, and the nation became officially dry.  In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.

👉  On January 17, 1953, a prototype Chevrolet Corvette sports car made its debut at General Motors’ (GM) Motorama auto show at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.  The Corvette, named for a fast type of naval warship, would eventually become an iconic American muscle car and remains in production today.

👉  On January 21, 1924, Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 54.  His body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum outside the Moscow Kremlin walls.  Since 1924, a group of scientists has been tasked with maintaining the body. Every few days scientists visit the mausoleum to check on the body, where it is preserved under carefully calculated temperature and lighting, and every 18 months Lenin’s corpse is taken to a lab beneath the dimly-lit viewing room to be re-embalmed and washed.

👉  On January 22, 1988, Theodore J. Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all federal charges against him, acknowledging his responsibility for a 17-year campaign of package bombings attributed to the “Unabomber.”  From 1978 to 1995, the former math professor with a genius-level IQ and a massive grudge against modern technology mailed or hand-delivered 16 homemade explosive devices to universities, businesses, homes and public areas across the United States, killing three people and injuring nearly two dozen more.

👉  On January 23, 1984, Hulk Hogan became the first wrestler to escape the “camel clutch” – the signature move of reigning World Wrestling Federation champion Iron Sheik – as he defeated the Sheik to win his first WWF title, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  Hulk Hogan was born Terry Gene Bollea in Augusta, Georgia.  The victory began what became known as “Hulkamania,” as Hogan’s phenomenal popularity led to a golden age for professional wrestling.

👉  On January 24, 1972, after 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam, farmers discovered Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who fought in World War II.  Left behind by the retreating Japanese forces, Yokoi went into hiding rather than surrender to the Americans.  In the jungles of Guam, he carved survival tools and for the next three decades waited for the return of the Japanese and his next orders.  After he was discovered in 1972, he was finally discharged and sent home to Japan, where he was hailed as a national hero.

👉  On January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond was discovered during a routine inspection by the mine’s superintendent.  Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the “Cullinan,” it is the largest diamond ever found.  The Cullinan was later cut into nine large stones and about 100 smaller ones.  There is speculation that the Cullinan broke off of an even larger diamond, which has never been found.

👉  Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven,” was published on January 29, 1845, in the New York Evening Mirror.  The first stanza sets the mood for the entire poem: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore – While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. ‘Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door – Only this and nothing more.’”

👉  With the stirring notes of the William Tell Overture and a shout of “Hi-yo, Silver! Away!” The Lone Ranger debuted on Detroit’s WXYZ radio station, on January 30, 1933.  The Lone Ranger never smoked, swore, or drank alcohol; he used grammatically correct speech free of slang; and, most important, he never shot to kill.  The televised version of The Lone Ranger, staring Clayton Moore as the masked man, became ABC’s first big hit in the early 1950s.

👉  In 1988 McDonalds received permission from the Communist party to start the business in the Soviet Union.  Two years later the first restaurant opened its doors in Moscow on Pushkinskaya square.  At dawn on January 31, 1990 more than 5,000 people came to be the first at its opening.  That day Moscow McDonald’s set a world record: it served more than 30 thousand visitors.  People stood in line for over 6 hours, willing to get a taste of this unusual food.  At that time it was the first fast food place in the whole country.  McDonald’s on Pushkinskaya square is huge, with more than 700 seats inside and 200 outside.

👉  The author of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” Thomas Obediah Chisholm, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky.  At age sixteen, he began teaching school, but his health was unstable, and he alternated between bouts of illness and gainful employment in which he did everything from journalism to insurance to evangelistic work.  Through all the ups and downs, he discovered new blessings from God every morning.  The third chapter of Lamentations 3 became precious to him: “His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (verses 22-23).

Thomas said there was no dramatic story behind the writing of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”  While serving the Lord in Vineland, New Jersey, Thomas sent several poems to his friend, musician William Runyan, who was so moved by this one that he prayed earnestly for special guidance in composing the music.  Runyan was in Baldwin, Kansas, at the time, and the hymn was published in 1923 in Runyan’s private song pamphlets.

“It went rather slowly for several years,” Thomas recalled.  Then Dr. Will Houghton of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago discovered it and it became an unofficial theme song for the Institute; and when Houghton died, it was sung at his funeral.

Still, it remained relatively unknown until popularized around the world by George Beverly Shea and the choirs at the Billy Graham Crusades.

Thomas died in 1960 at age 96.  During his lifetime he wrote 1,200 poems and hymns.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 304

January 28, 2021

It was 35 years ago today.  At 11:38 a.m., the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off from Pad 39B.  Seventy-three seconds later the Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members aboard. 

STS-51-L was commanded by Francis Scobee.  Michael Smith was assigned as the pilot, and the mission specialists were Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair.  The two payload specialists were Gregory Jarvis, who was assigned in October as a payload specialist to conduct research for the Hughes Aircraft Company, and Christa McAuliffe, who flew as part of the Teacher in Space Project.

President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give the 1986 State of the Union Address on the evening of the Challenger disaster.  After a discussion with his aides, Reagan postponed the State of the Union, and instead addressed the nation about the disaster from the Oval Office of the White House.  Reagan’s national address was written by Peggy Noonan, and is considered one of the most significant speeches of the 20th century.  It finished with the following statement, which quoted from the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee Jr.:

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their  journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of Earth” to “to touch the face of God.”

President Reagan’s address was 4 minutes and 47 seconds long, and worth listening to completely.

On board Challenger was an American flag, dubbed the Challenger flag, that was sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado.  It was recovered intact, still sealed in its plastic container.  On December 18, 1986, the Challenger flag was returned to Troop 514 in a special ceremony.  Astronaut Guy Bluford, who had flown on board the Challenger on two previous missions, and who is also an Eagle Scout, returned the flag to the troop.

A fragment of Challenger’s fuselage is on display as part of the “Forever Remembered” installation at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

👉  For the first time since 2013, the Baseball Hall of Fame welcomed exactly zero new members to its ranks.  Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports wrote, “And the best part is, the cheaters are almost all the way out.  It takes 75% of the total vote to make it, and Barry Bonds finished with 61.8%, Roger Clemens 61.6%, Sammy Sosa 17.0%.  All three were in their ninth year of the maximum 10 a player can stay on the ballot and, thus, all three have only one more year before they go poof.  With not much momentum, either: Bonds had 60.7% last year, Clemens 61.0%, Sosa 13.9%, out of the total of 401 cast.”

👉  Baseball’s true all-time home run leader, Hank Aaron, died January 22.  Barry Bonds took steroids for over half his career and still only had 7 more home runs than Hank Aaron.

Here is home run # 715 that broke Babe Ruth’s record.  Listen to Vin Scully’s call of the home run, and his personal comments after Aaron touches home plate.

👉  And while we’re at it, baseball’s true one season home run leader is Roger Maris.

Here is Phil Rizzuto’s call of # 61 on October 1, 1961.

👉  From another field of entertainment, Brian and Elizabeth sent me one of the best comedic routines I’ve ever seen.  It is thoughtful, creative, and without a single four letter word.  The comedian’s name never appears in the video, so I can’t acknowledge him, but watch and laugh at “Car Names.”

👉  We haven’t visited our “Did You Know Department” for a while, so here are a couple of quick mentions:

Oranges were originally green.  The first oranges ever imported from to the West were from Southeast Asia and were tangerine-pomelo hybrids that were green in color.  In fact, oranges grown in warmer parts of the world such as Vietnam and Thailand stay green throughout their lifetime.

Queen Elizabeth’s handbag is a body language communication device.  It is used by her to relay secret and silent messages to her staff.  For example, if she is finished speaking to a guest she will move it from one arm to another and her aides will politely end the conversation, or if she wants to abruptly end a conversation she will put her bag on the ground.

👉  A couple days ago my morning Bible reading was from Exodus 3: “[Moses] looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’  So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’  And he said, ‘Here I am.’  Then He said, ‘Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’  And I searched YouTube for this incredible worship song – “Holy Ground.”

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 303

January 27, 2021

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War.  It remembers the genocide that resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews (around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population) and 11 million others (including ethnic Poles, Soviet civilians and prisoners of war, gypsies, the disabled, political and religious dissidents, and gay men), by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.  The date of January 27 was chosen because that was the day in 1945, that Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Red Army.

Another tragedy arising from Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution,” is the disgusting rise of Holocaust deniers who claim, either explicitly or implicitly, that the Holocaust is a hoax – or an exaggeration – arising from a deliberate Jewish conspiracy designed to advance the interest of Jews at the expense of other people.  In the face of all the evidence to the contrary, they claim the “Final Solution” was aimed only at deporting Jews and did not include their extermination, that Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas chambers for the genocidal mass murder of Jews, and that the actual number of Jews murdered is significantly lower than the accepted figure of 6 million, typically around 600,000 – a tenth of the figure.

I will never understand Christians who are prejudiced towards Jews.  Our Savior was a Jew!  And God promised Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3).

👉  Our political correspondent reports that nearly all Senate Republicans voted to endorse the idea that impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump are unconstitutional, a blow to Democrats’ hopes of recruiting significant GOP support for conviction in the trial set to begin in two weeks.  Democrats said that the trial is proper and that Republicans are focusing on the constitutional question in order to avoid having to weigh in on the merits of the case itself.  

So, the Constitution doesn’t matter, just the Democratic lawmakers pathological hatred of Donald Trump.  This is the first move of dismantling the framework of our nation, and when they take out enough pieces, collapse is inevitable.  

👉  Amy pointed out that I did not put a link in yesterday’s blog for the Star Trek: Generations reference about Tuesday.  Take another look.

👉  Follow up to yesterday’s story about Forbes Field:

The Pirates moved from Forbes Field to Three Rivers Stadium on June 28, 1970.  The Pirates opened their new stadium, PNC Park, with two exhibition games against the New York Mets, the first of which was played on March 31, 2001.  The first official baseball game played in PNC Park was between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pirates, on April 9, 2001.

One of the features of PNC Park is the 21 feet high right field wall, known as the Clemente Wall, so named because Roberto wore number 21.  But it could have been 13 feet high.

The 1955 season opened with rookie outfielder Earl Smith wearing No. 21 and fellow rookie Roberto Clemente wearing 13.  Smith did not live up to his Triple A promise and was sent to the minor leagues from where he never returned. Soon thereafter, Clemente switched to 21, the number he wore to a spot in the eternal fabric of the franchise.

We know why PNC architects made the right-field wall 21 feet high, but why was Clemente so quick to take the number when the chance presented itself that spring of 1955?  Twenty-one letters: the number it takes to spell Roberto Walker Clemente.

👉  For your amusement:

👉  Today’s close is from Joyce Meyer.

We all like “suddenlies,” and God promises that whatever remains to be accomplished in us will be done “suddenly” when Jesus returns to the earth.

Until then, we can confidently trust He is working in us through His Word and Spirit on a regular basis.  If you are spending time in God’s word and believing He is doing work in you, then you are changing from one degree of glory to another.

You don’t have to be discouraged about your spiritual growth or in your walk with God, because no matter what remains to be done in the transformation of the old you into the new you, it will be finished at the appearing of Jesus in the heavenlies.

If the devil tries to tell you you’re going to stay the way you are forever, he is lying.  God promises in His Word that He has begun a good work in you and He also will finish it (see Philippians 1:6).

Prayer Starter: Thank you, Lord, for Your faithfulness and I look forward to the day that I am suddenly transformed.  In the meantime, help me stay the course and grow in faith and in Your love.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 302

January 26, 2021

We begin with some signs (and other visual aids) of the times:

👉  Pitchers and catchers report to spring training on February 13, and so in anticipation of a 162 game season, for the next several Tuesdays we will do stories of baseball fields that exist today only in the memories of their fans.  Why Tuesday?   See "Star Trek: Generations".

First, Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates from June 30, 1909 until June 28, 1970.

The ballpark opened on June 30, 1909, with the visiting Chicago Cubs defeating the Pirates 3-2 in front of an announced crowd of 30,338 at the 25,000-seat park. The Pirates made their final appearance at Forbes Field on June 28, 1970, sweeping a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs. 

Aside from the opening of Forbes Field, the 1909 season proved to be a special one on the field for the Pirates, who advanced to the World Series and defeated the Detroit Tigers to claim their first title.

Forbes Field was home to the Pirates for three of their World Series seasons, including 1925 and the 1960 campaign that ended with Bill Mazeroski belting a walk-off home run in game seven of the World Series to defeat the New York Yankees.  It was also there on May 25, 1935 that Babe Ruth hit his final three home runs.  Decades later – April 17, 1955, to be exact – Forbes Field was the setting for the beginning of baseball legend Roberto Clemente’s career.

Roberto Clemente in right field

Forbes Field helped introduce to Major League Baseball an era of modern concrete-and-steel, multi-deck ballparks that would set a standard around the sport.  Over time, however, Forbes Field – like many of the ballparks of its era – began to feel out of date. The Pirates would eventually move to Three Rivers Stadium.  A section of Forbes Field caught fire on December 24, 1970, and another fire occurred in 1971. The process of demolishing the ballpark was completed later that year.

Today, much of the site is occupied by the University of Pittsburgh’s Posvar Hall. There is one iconic reminder of Forbes Field inside of the building – home plate is in the same spot it occupied when baseball was played around it.

If you would like a piece of Forbes Field as a souvenir, you can purchase a stadium seat for $3,500 purchase a stadium seat for $3,500.  Shipping included.

👉  Today is National Plan for Vacation Day.  It was created by Project: Time Off of the U.S. Travel Association to encourage, well, planning a vacation, because, they say, Americans had 662 million unused vacation days, which accounted for an estimated $236 billion loss to the US economy.  Somehow I don’t think the day will be well celebrated, what with the Chinese virus and all.  But I’ll cross my fingers nonetheless (even though it makes typing difficult).

👉  Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned today because his coalition government could not decide how to spend the more than 200 billion euros in European Union economic-recovery funds earmarked for Italy.  His resignation has triggered a search for a new governing majority, but if none can be found, then the EU’s third-biggest economy is likely to hold elections in coming months.  Elections could pose major public-health challenges amid the pandemic, and would also delay further Italy’s efforts to come up with a plan for reviving its battered economy with EU help.

👉  I’m not sure I’m ready for this, but Coca Cola introduced two new soft drinks yesterday, Coca-Cola with Coffee and Coca-Cola with Coffee Zero Sugar.  The new drinks are infused with Brazilian coffee.  Coca-Cola with Coffee is available in three flavors – Dark Blend, Vanilla and Caramel – while the zero-sugar, zero-calorie version comes in Dark Blend and Vanilla.  All 12-ounce cans have 69 mg of caffeine while Coca-Cola says the same serving of a Coke has 34 mg and a Diet Coke has 46 mg of caffeine. The average cup of coffee has 95 mg of caffeine.

👉  In other menu news, Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A premiered its new Grilled Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich yesterday.  The company says the new offering is for a limited time.  “We know guests are looking to add more variety to their meals, especially after a year where new food experiences were limited,” Leslie Neslage, director of menu and packaging at Chick-fil-A, said.  “The Grilled Spicy Deluxe offers the spicy flavors our guests have come to know and love, now available in a grilled option.”

👉  Speaking of food:

👉   Today’s close is from A Daily Word  by Ed Young.

The older I get, the more I love my family.  My wife, my sons and daughters in law and my six grandchildren are more precious to me than anything else in this life.  But if I were starting my family over again, I’d strive to do better.  I would listen more.  Love my wife more.  Spend more quality time with my children.  Praise them more often for doing right.  If I had it to do over again I’d let them know how grateful to God I am for each of them, every day.  Because family matters.

Puritan reformer and preacher Jonathan Edwards married Sarah Pierpoint, and they had 11 children.  Every day Jonathan and Sarah Edwards would sit down with each one of those children alone, and say “Let’s talk a little about you.”  Also, every day, this husband and wife rode on horseback together for an hour or more.  And 150 years after Edwards’ death, his family was still growing strong.  By 1900, the Edwards clan included 13 college presidents, 66 professors, a law school dean, 100 attorneys, 32 judges, 56 physicians, a medical school president, over 80 public office holders, over 100 missionaries, and a whole platoon of clergymen.  Edwards’ legacy was not his writings or the sermons he preached.  It was the family he loved and led.

What about you?  Is your family your number one priority?  Do they know it?  Tell them today, and let your actions prove that it is true.

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