QUARANTINE BLOG # 330

February 23, 2021

The QB leads off today with a sad story, which we knew was coming, but sad nonetheless.  Friday’s show marked the last Jeopardy! appearance by guest host Ken Jennings, the first replacement since the death of longtime moderator Alex Trebek.  “That’s a wrap on my six weeks of @Jeopardy guest hosting,” Jennings wrote in a tweet.  “Thanks for watching, thanks for your patience with a tough learning curve…and, as always, thank you Alex.”

The all-time Jeopardy! champion was the first of several guest hosts to take over the quiz show while a permanent replacement is sought.  This week’s guest host is Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards, to be followed by journalist and author Katie Couric, Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, 60 Minutes Correspondent Bill Whitaker, actress and neuroscientist/actress Mayim Bialik, Dr. Oz, NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Here are reasons (and I know you have not forgotten them) why Ken Jennings should be the permanent host.  He set the record for longest winning streak in the game’s history.  His 74 consecutive wins earned him $2.52 million.  He won the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time tournament in 2020.

In 1976, the first space shuttle orbiter was scheduled to be named Constitution, instead when the craft rolled out on September 15, 1976, it was named Enterprise.  President Gerald R. Ford had received thousands of letters from Star Trek fans (representing, as he was told, millions of people enthusiastic about America’s space program, and therefore millions of voters) asking that the first shuttle be named after the flag ship of the United Federation of Planets.  I don’t know if will work a second time, but here is the link to write to the producers of Jeopardy!   I have.

Jeopardy! fan Craig Cocca posted the following Tweet:

Who is Ken Jennings?

👉  Speaking of Star Trek:

👉  More distressing news.   The once respected Mouse House, a.k.a Disney Productions, has slapped a warning label on its streaming release of the children’s classic The Muppet Show, warning of “offensive content.”

Five seasons of the show started streaming on Disney+ on Friday. Prior to each viewing, a disclaimer warns of the dangers that lay ahead.

The Muppets was once celebrated for its depictions Native American, Middle Eastern, and Asian people.  But there are some moments that haven’t survived the change in attitudes since they first aired, and the PC Police have taken over.

👉  The Google doodle at the top of the search page yesterday did not celebrate George Washington, whose birthday was February 22, but instead celebrated  Zitkála-Šá (Lakota Sioux for “Red Bird)” who was born February 22, 1876.  She was also known by her missionary-given and later married name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin.  She was a writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and political activist of American Indian descent.  She wrote several works chronicling her struggles with cultural identity and the pull between the majority culture she was educated within and her Dakota culture into which she was born and raised.  Her later books were among the first works to bring traditional Native American stories to a widespread white English-speaking readership, and she has been noted as one of the most influential Native American activists of the 20th century.  Through her activism, Zitkála-Šá was able to make crucial changes to education, health care, and legal standing for Native American people and the preservation of Indian culture.

👉  With all of the rough weather our nation has been experiencing, and with so many people relying upon prognosticators who give you their weather predictions in terms of a percentage of success, the QB has decided that a more reliable – rephrase that – a reliable method – of prediction is needed.  You are hereby referred to the Bermuda Weather Stone.  Be sure to read the sign.

👉  Jesus Paid It All

“Christ also suffered. He died once for the sins of all us guilty sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God” (1 Peter 3:18 – TLB).

In my daily Bible readings, I have worked through Exodus – with lists of commandments, and now the book of Leviticus – with lists of sacrifices.

Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying,  “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock – of the herd and of the flock” (Leviticus 1:1-2).  The call to bring a burnt offering for sins begins with generalities and then moves into the specific.  It progresses from the herd, to the fold, to birds, to grain.  Throats are to be cut.  Necks are to be wrung.  Grain is to be baked in an oven.  There are sin offerings, peace offerings, remedies for unintentional sins, remedies for intentional sins.  If you’ve been to Leviticus, you know that Moses, through the word of God, covers every eventuality.  

For most of us, these are difficult books to read because of the detail and the complexity of God’s directions to Israel.  I read them with a grateful heart because I know what Peter said in his first letter: “Christ died once for all the sins of all of us guilty sinners!”  There is no longer any sacrifice or atonement that can please God other than what Jesus provided at the cross.  Even our own suffering won’t pay for our sins.  The price has already been paid.

Charles Spurgeon preached, “It is almost as if the apostle said, ‘You have none of you suffered when compared with him; or, at least, he was the Arch-Sufferer, the Prince of sufferers, the Emperor of the realm of agony, Lord Paramount in sorrow . . . You know a little about grief, but you do not know much.  The hem of grief’s garment is all you ever touch, but Christ wore it as his daily robe.  We do but sip of the cup he drank to its bitterest dregs.  We feel just a little of the warmth of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace; but he dwelt in the very midst of the fire.”

And to that I say, “Thank you, Jesus!” and “Hallelujah!”  My sins – your sins – have been paid for, the Innocent dying for the guilty.  Well did Elvina M. Hall say, “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain.  He washed it white as snow.”

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