QUARANTINE BLOG # 406

May 10, 2021

Several blogs ago I was looking for a quote, or the source of a quote – I don’t remember which, and I no longer remember which quote – but I stumbled onto a great website, shmoop.com.  The page has many categories, but the one I’ve been enjoying lately is the misquoted quotes section.  And I came to one of my all-time favorite misquotes, this one attributed to Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the Starship Enterprise: “Beam me up, Scotty.”

Shmoop.com correctly states that neither Captain Kirk nor anyone else in Star Trek ever said those exact words.  To quote them (using copy and paste so I am sure it is correct): “The Starship Enterprise goes where no man has gone before – and sometimes where those men (and women) wish they’d never gone at all.  When it’s time to hightail it off Gamma Hydra II, Captain Kirk calls out, “Beam me up, Scotty!”  And then Shmoop correctly say, “Neither Captain Kirk nor anyone else on the Enterprise said these exact words.”

He came close in the episode “Gamesters of Triskelion” when he said, “Beam us up.”  “Gamesters” has an important footnote in the Sisler family ancestral record – my youngest daughter’s name was almost one chosen from this episode, and she says it would have been a good choice because of its uniqueness.

Shmoop did make a mistake about Gamma Hydra II.  The Enterprise never visited that planet located in the Gamma Hydra system of the Beta Quadrant.  They did visit Gamma Hydra IV where the crew, affected by radiation, aged rapidly, and Kirk mistakenly said they were orbiting GH2.

While we are Trekking Out, bonus points to anyone who knows what She Who Is Called Amy might have been called had Galt, the Master Thrall of Triskelion had been victorious.  Bonus will be paid in quatloos.

Also, bonus points for identifying the episode pictured above where the Captain is holding a communicator and looking at a miniature of his ship, and double bonus points for knowing the episode pictured below in which Kirk holds a different type of communicating device.

👉  One month ago today I hosted a private gathering for the 37th annual celebration of the greatest night in sports entertainment, otherwise known as Wrestlemania 37.  My plan was to serve chicken wings to the assembled enthusiasts and placed a call to my favorite Chinese restaurant to order 50.  I was told that they could not provide that many, they were limited to 25.  So, prompted by a member of the group, I called another supplier and made my purchase.  Several weeks earlier I picked up a takeout order at the earlier mentioned dispenser of gastronomic delights and learned the price of chicken wings had increased by 20%.  

It was not a big surprise, then, that I read an article in Wall Street Journal last week and learned that there is a scarcity of poultry.  This is definitely an unforseen consequence of the Chinese Virus.  KFC, Wingstop Inc., Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., and more, say they are paying steep prices for scarce poultry (my favorite grocery store manager verified that the chicken has crossed the road).  Some are running out of or limiting sales of tenders, filets and wings, cutting into some of their most reliable sales.  Chicken breast prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and wing prices have hit records.  

It’s the same story that many businesses and industries are facing: employers are struggling to raise production because they are having trouble getting enough workers – afraid of contracting COVID-19 and/or afraid of losing the generous federal unemployment benefit the virus has generated.  Driving home from church yesterday we noticed a sign in front of Captain D’s offering a $100 signing bonus for anyone willing to come to work!  

👉  Ark Linkletter, a Canadian-born American radio and television personality, hosted several shows which appeared on radio and television, including “House Party,” “People Are Funny,” and “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”  Well, none of the following quotes are specifically attributed to kids, or to Art Linkletter, but they are some of the darndest things, proving Art was right – people are funny.

●  I believe the only time the world beats a path to my door is when I’m in the bathroom.

●  I have a new philosophy, I’m only going to dread one day at a time. 

●  If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.

●  If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before. 

●  Life’s hard; get a helmet. 

👉  And now, back to El Arroyo restaurant for some signs inspired by our life since the spread of the Chinese Virus.

👉  Our correspondents from Victoria, BC sent me a video, asking me if I could work out a solution.  I have discovered two, and tomorrow I will share both of them with you.  In the meantime, have fun with the mysterious chocolate bar.

👉  Charles Wesley’s conversion was dramatic, and he began to spread the news of what had happened to him.  “In the coach to London,” he wrote, “I preached faith in Christ.  A lady was extremely offended and threatened to beat me.  I declared I deserved nothing but hell; so did she; and must confess it, before she could have a title to heaven.  This was most intolerable to her.”

He found a fruitful arena for ministry at the infamous Newgate Prison and allowed himself to be locked up with condemned men on nights before their executions, that he might comfort and witness to them during their final hours.

As the first anniversary of his conversion approached, Charles wrote an eighteen- stanza hymn describing his praise to the Lord.  It was titled “For the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion,” and the first stanza began, “Glory to God, and praise, and love . . .”  Verse 7 began, “0 for a thousand tongues to sing,” inspired by a statement Charles had once heard: “Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise Him with them all.”

Beginning with a 1767 hymnbook, the seventh stanza was made the first, and when John Wesley compiled his Collection of Hymns in 1780, he chose this for the first hymn in the book.  It remains today, the first hymn in the United Methodist Hymnal.  Congregations today usually sing verses 7, 8, 9, and 10 of Wesley’s original, which we know today as “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.”

-30-