QUARANTINE BLOG # 373

April 7, 2021

Especially for those whose level of maturity qualifies them to relate to it, and to those young enough to laugh with the rest of us:

1966: long hair.  2021: looking for hair.

1966: KEG.  2021: EKG.

1966: acid rock.  2021: acid reflux.

1966: stems and stems.  2021: roughage.

1966: hoping for a BMW.  2021: hoping for a BM.

1966: going to a new, hip joint.  2021: receiving a new hip joint.

1966: Whatever.  2021: Depends.

👉   Just in case you weren’t feeling too old today, this will certainly change things.  Students who graduate from high school this year are too young to remember the space shuttle Challenger blowing up.  The CD was introduced 7 years before they were born.  They have always had cable.  They cannot fathom not having a remote control.  Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.  They can’t imagine what hard contact lenses are.  They don’t know who Mork was or where he was from.  They never heard: “Where’s the Beef?,”  “I’d walk a mile for a Camel,” or “de plane, Boss, de plane.”  They do not care who shot J. R. & have no idea who J. R. even is.  They don’t have a clue how to use a typewriter.  Do you feel old yet?  Pass this on to the other old fogies on your list.  Notice the larger type, that’s for those of you who have trouble reading.

👉  Today’s selection from the juke box filled only with songs featuring girls’ names was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and released by Bobby Rydell in 1962.  “I've Got Bonnie” spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

👉  My supply of panels and comics has been replenished, so here are a couple of smiles for today:

👉  Google’s doodle reminds us to the need to stay safe, and to keep wearing our masks:

👉  The King.  Golf’s first superstar.  Arnie’s Army.  Arnold Daniel Palmer.  Born in Latrobe, PA in 1929, Arnold Palmer’s impact on golf was unrivaled among fellow professionals.  His popularity helped change the perception of golf from an elite, upper-class pastime of private clubs to a sport accessible to middle and working classes via public courses. 

Here are a few incredible statistics from Arnie’s six decade career.  He won 62 PGA Tour titles from 1955 to 1973, 12 PGA Senior Tour wins, 18 international wins, and 3 Senior Skins Games, for a total of 95 professional wins.  He won seven major titles in a six-plus-year domination from the 1958 Masters to the 1964 Masters.  Palmer’s first tour win came during his 1955 rookie season, at the Canadian Open and earned him $2,400.  His first major championship was the 1958 Masters Tournament, where he earned $11,250 (that’s $102,000 today, but still chickenfeed in comparison – Dustin Johnson earned $2,070,000 last year).  In 1967 he became the first man to reach $1 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.  

And as far as I know, he's the only professional golfer to be mentioned in a James Bond film – in 1964’s Goldfinger, suspecting cheating on the course, Bond’s caddie said, “If that’s Goldfinger’s original ball, I’m Arnold Palmer.”

William McGirt, then a PGA TOUR rookie, had just made his way through the nearby autograph line at the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational and was now on Bay Hill’s practice green.   Arnold Palmer walked up to him and said, “I just want to say thank you.”  Arnie had just finished signing autographs for the same group of fans McGirt had accommodated earlier.  Many of those fans had multiple autographs of players on their pin flags and caps. “Yours was the only signature I could read,” Palmer told McGirt.  A sly smile crossed the rookie’s face as he offered up a response: “I remember some old guy said one time, if you’re gonna take the time to sign it, at least make it legible,” McGirt explained.

This blogger heard the story about Arnold Palmer’s autograph and his exhortation to golfers (and all persons from whom fans seek their signature) many years ago, and applauds it wholeheartedly.  For Arnie, if someone thought enough of him to ask for his autograph, he was going to make it the best possible, to honor that individual.  Take a look at this video from pgatour.com with golfers respecting that advice.  Checkout sportswriter Mike McAllister’s great article that amplifies Arnie's special relationship with his fans.

👉  Secret Light?

In a day when there was no electric power source, if you wanted to chase away the darkness, you filled a lamp with oil and lit the wick, or you made a candle out of some sort of fat.  And this brings us back to Jesus’ parable:

“Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house” (Matthew 5:14-15 KJV).

The Greek word Matthew uses for candle literally meant a portable lamp fed with oil, but the English word chosen by the King James translators does no harm to the verse. In fact, the candle was typically the smallest form of lights, and that gives us a beautiful application.  Charles Spurgeon says, “God has many small lights.  In his great house he has candles as well as stars and he would not have even a small light wasted.  Even the most twinkling ray of light is of God’s kindling – think of that, you who do nothing that is perceived as a large service to your Lord.  You are a little light, but if the Lord has given you even a spark of the sacred fire, he means that you should shine!”

When Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5), and then told the crowd listening to the teaching we call the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world,” he meant that we should be like him.  A light is something that is meant to be seen.  As Jesus ministered he constantly told people not to tell who had blessed them with a miracle, but they told the good news to everyone with whom they came in contact.  They couldn’t hide the light that had come into their lives, and we must not hide the light that has come into ours.

Someone said, “There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.”  If our Christianity is visible only inside the church, it is not much use to anyone.  Our light must shine in the work place, the schoolroom, the office, the kitchen, the golf course, the playing field as much or more as when we are in church.  Jesus did not say, “You are the light of the church.”  He said, “You are the light of the world,” and our Christian life out in the world must be evident to all.

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