QUARANTINE BLOG # 353

March 18, 2021

For all of you scribes, scribblers, wordsmiths, persons of letters, and otherwise writers, the QB begins this morning with something for semantic, morphological, and linguistic enjoyment.  We offer you a new definition of amplified: “screaming like a raving lunatic dancing in hot lava during a tsunami.”  You are welcome.

👉  Here is a great Jeopardy! answer and question.

👉  Today is Absolutely Incredible Kid Day.  It was created in 1997 by Camp Fire (which used to be called Camp Fire USA, and before that Camp Fire Girls), and celebrates children by encouraging adults to write them a letter or tell them how much they appreciate them, and how incredible they are.  It exists to encourage and uplift children, and ultimately, to change their lives.  Adults can participate by writing letters or notes, or by making a video or sharing a message on social media.  The goal of the day is for every child in America to receive a letter or message.

Here are 10 Absolutely Incredible Kids:

👉  Why do we say something is a “White Elephant,” a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of?  White elephants (actually albino elephants) were considered to be sacred creatures in Siam (now Thailand), yet they were also very hard to take care of.  It is believed that Siamese kings would gift white elephants as a subtle form of punishment, because the animals could not be killed and taking care of them would drive the recipient into financial ruin.

👉  When someone is being insincere, why do we say they are “shedding crocodile tears”?  Written in the 14th century, a book called “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville” recounts a knight’s adventures through Asia.  In the book it says that crocodiles shed tears while eating a man they captured.  Even though the story is apocryphal, the phrase “crocodile tears” found its way into Shakespeare’s work and became an idiom in the 16th century, symbolizing insincere grief.

👉  One of the most famous cartoon characters of all time is Bugs Bunny.  Looking to add to the growing Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated features, Leon Schlesinger began with “Happy Wabbit.”  Happy first appeared in a Porky Pig feature in April 1938, but the screwball-crazy rabbit was almost identical in character to Daffy Duck, so the producers started to redesign and refine their rabbit.  

Believe it or not, Bugs Bunny as we have come to know him, was based on Clark Gable’s character in “It Happened One Night.”  Bugs’ nonchalant carrot-chewing pose originated in a scene as Gable chews raw carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full.  His fast talking wise-cracking, “know it all” personality also comes from the same movie in which Gable attempts to fast talk his way into Claudette Colbert’s heart.  His voice “is an equal mix of Bronx accent and Brooklyn accent” according to Mel Blanc, who developed the voice in line with Gable’s character (who was born in New York).   

Bugs’ birth place is noted as: Brooklyn, New York in a warren under Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers – born July 27, 1940.

The producers developed the character over many years, and Bugs would gain and lose weight, height, and definition as the years rolled on.  His personality was once modeled on Groucho Marx.  Bugs is known to use the line “Of course you know, this means war!” from the Marx Bros. movie, “Duck Soup” (1933), and is often seen imitating Groucho.

He starred in 167 theatrical animated shorts for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series until June 1964 when the character was retired, only to appear again in the 1980s and ’90s in several one-off specials, a cameo in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988) and opposite Michael Jordan in Space Jam (1996).

“What’s Opera, Doc?” ranked in the top 50 animated cartoons of all time, was released on July 6, 1957, and stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.  The story features Elmer chasing Bugs through a parody of 19th-century classical composer Richard Wagner’s operas.  It has been widely praised by many in the animation industry as the greatest animated cartoon that Warner Bros. ever released.  Here is a short clip of Elmer singing “Kill the Wabbit.”

And click this link to the full-length cartoon.  Be sure to click the start arrow, and then expand to full screen.

👉  The Sufferer Healed

We continue to look at Psalm 107 and four unforgettable pictures of the changing circumstances of life.  The human predicament lays hold on God.  And that leads to a thrilling call to praise: “Oh that men would praise the Lord for their goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”

First, the pilgrim who can have God as a guide.  Second, the prisoner God can set free.  Today, the sufferer God can heal.

There has never been a lack of diseases to incapacitate and to kill.  From the black plague of centuries ago that wiped out entire cities, to the coronavirus pandemic of today where 2,680,000 of us have died, there have always been threats to life.  But there is one malady endemic to the race, and it is 100% fatal.  This is a scourge no soul escapes.  It is dreadfully contagious, and clams its victims everywhere.  The plague stalks unchallenged through the world.  That disease is sin.  

It is not from failure to attempt a cure, that this disease marches on.  We’ve tried forgetfulness, self-determination, excessive permissiveness, education, resolution, and still it is uncured.  

But then comes the transforming word.  “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distresses” (107:19).  This is a suffer whom God can heal – and that includes healing on the physical level.  But ultimately all healing is reconciliation with God.  And that is what the psalmist is after here.  He says, “God sent his Word and healed them” (107:20) which points forward to the declaration of John – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  

To the neediest among us Christ comes today, and says, “I am your healing and your life!”  

The suffer?  Yes, says the psalmist, but far more – the sufferer whom God makes whole because of the Great Physician’s aid, the remedy Christ went to the cross to give you.  “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” (107:21).

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