QUARANTINE BLOG # 318

February 11, 2021

Baseball fans, if you missed this, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have agreed on COVID-19 health and safety protocol rules for the 2021 season.  The plan is for a full 162 games.  Doubleheaders will be two seven-inning games.  Each offense will get a runner on second to start every extra inning.  And best of all, there will be no universal DH, allowing old, over-the-hill players to keep drawing paychecks while eliminating important strategy from the game.  CBS Sports says, “the goal here is to limit overly extended stays at the ballpark while also protecting players from additional wear and tear.”  For the multiple millions they are paid, I’d think “wear and tear” came with the contract.  Oh well.  The important news is, pitchers and catchers report February 17.  Play ball!  Let’s go Bucs!

👉  With the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump underway, the Quarantine Blog offers the following Non-Sequitur cartoon:

👉  Oceania Cruises announced an “Around the World in 180 Days” voyage for 2023 on Tuesday and every ticket was snatched up the same day.  At least a third of those tickets were purchased by cruise passengers who hadn’t booked a trip with Oceania previously.  Bob Binder, President and CEO of Oceania Cruises, said, “Despite the challenges the world faces today, travelers are clearly bullish on the future and are embracing these new opportunities to travel the world and create lifelong memories.”  The bull paid between $41,599 and $49,999 per guest.  I wonder if they need a Special Interest Lecturer?

👉  It is getting crowded around Mars.  A Chinese spacecraft went into orbit around Mars on yesterday on an expedition to land a rover on the surface and scout for signs of ancient life.  A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around the red planet on Tuesday, and a U.S. rover is set to arrive next week.  If all goes as planned, the Chinese rover will separate from the spacecraft in a few months and touch down safely on Mars, making China only the second nation to pull off such a feat.  Only the U.S. has successfully touched down on Mars – eight times, beginning with two Viking missions in the 1970s. An American lander and rover are in operation today.

👉  We may soon be “off to see the Wizard” again.  New Line Cinema has announced a new adaptation of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” L. Frank Baum children’s novel. Baum’s 1900 novel, now in the public domain, has spawned many adaptations over the years – most famously, of course, the 1939 MGM musical starring Judy Garland.  New Line said it will be a “fresh take” and a “reimagining” of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”  The Broadway sensation “Wicked” focuses on the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West, while the new Disney movie, “Oz the Great and Powerful” explores how the Wizard came to Oz, greatness and power.  The New Line version will have some advantages, since Warner Bros. owns New Line and the 1939 film.  That means it can use some trademarked elements like the ruby slippers. 

👉  Our next bridge is “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” both a real bridge, and a cinema bridge.  

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), the memorable, epic World War II adventure/action drama starred Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins.  British POWs are ordered to build a railroad bridge over the River Kwai for Japanese trains.  The movie ends with the British commander, Lt. Col. Nelson, blowing up the bridge he hoped would be a memorial to British soldiers.

A haunting piece of music heard frequently in the film is of the POWs marching while whistling.

The film’s story was loosely based on a true World War II incident, and the real-life character of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey.  One of a number of Allied POWs, Toosey was in charge of his men from late 1942 through May 1943 when they were ordered to build two Kwai River bridges in Burma (one of steel, one of wood), to help move Japanese supplies and troops from Bangkok to Rangoon.

In reality, the actual bridge took 8 months to build (rather than two months in the movie version), and they were actually used for two years, and were only destroyed two years after their construction – in late June 1945.

Bridge on the River Kwai, built by POWs.

Original steel bridge, in the foreground, destroyed by Allied bombing.

In the movie, British commandos lay charges in order to destroy the bridge and a train carrying important dignitaries and soldiers that will be the first to cross the bridge.

The River Kwai railroad bridge in 2017. The arched sections are original. The two sections with trapezoidal trusses were built by Japan after the war as war reparations, replacing sections destroyed by Allied aircraft.

👉  Here are two more from our “Old People Have More Fun Than Anybody Department.”

👉  Practice, Practice, Practice

A little country church just down the road from my house has one of the best out-front-sign-messages I’ve seen lately: “Prayer doesn’t need proof. It needs practice.”

That sign brought to my remembrance a sermon entitled, “Don’t Settle for a Two-Bit Prayer Life.” Pastor Ben Haden revealed the truth about praying when he asked: “If you stopped praying and your life would not be radically changed, why do you bother to pray at all?”

Since I have heard them pray, I will never again be able to think of the subject of prayer without remembering the believers in Samara, Russia.  One memory makes me ashamed of my own prayer life. It was the request of a lady who had three sick cows. She asked me to pray for her cows, because if they did not recover, they would have to be slaughtered and she would lose a great deal of money.

“Pray for cows,” I thought. “This is udderly ridiculous.”

But I prayed. No, let me rephrase that. I said words. She prayed. The next week I asked her, “How are your cows?”

I will always remember her answer: “They are fine. You prayed, didn’t you?”

Prayer does not need proof. It needs practice. Where did we lose that simplicity, that trust? Ben is right. If prayer does not change our lives, why do we bother to pray at all?

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