QUARANTINE BLOG # 407

May 11, 2021

The solution to the mysterious divided chocolate bar – from yesterday’s blog – is an optical illusion as illustrated in this video.  The other solution, as suggested to me by Brian is, “Eat the extra piece of chocolate.”

👉  As a followup for yesterday’s scarce chicken and scarce workers piece, Matt sent me the following panel:

👉  Some members of my family have said that when the time comes that I need one, they are going to have “Answer!” carved into my tombstone because I yelled it at the late Alex Trebek and continue to do so for all of his co-hosts (please, Jeopardy! producers, if Ken Jennings won’t accept the permanent position, hire Aaron Rogers, and stop the annoying guest hosts).  Jeopardy! is the Answer and Question show, not the Clue and Question show.  Anyway, here are some tombstones I found while surfing the ‘net.  Some of them, I am quite sure, are the production of Photoshop, not the user of the tombstone or his or her relatives, but still . . .

👉  Yesterday’s blog asked 3 questions related to Star Trek.  The answers are Shahna, “Cat’s Paw,” and “The Arena.”

One of the interesting things a Trekker can discover is how this marvelous TV show predicted the future.  We are still years, perhaps decades or centuries away from Gene Roddenberry’s vision of everyone on earth getting along, but some of the futuristic technology from this hour-long show are already every day devices.  Consider the following Trek Tech:

👉  We’ve been doing some Broadway Plays, but today’s feature started as a movie musical and later went to Broadway.  “Singin’ in the Rain” was directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly.  It offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, with the three stars –  Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds – portraying performers caught up in the transition from silent films to “talkies.”  Only a modest hit when it was first released, it is often regarded as the greatest musical film ever made. 

If you’ve never seen the movie, or if it’s been a while since you have, start by watching the trailer. 

In the most memorable sequence, and the one which gives the film its title, Gene Kelly dances and sings the title song while spinning an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked with rain.  At the time of the filming Kelly was sick with a 103 °F fever.  A common myth is that Kelly managed to perform the entire song in one take, thanks to cameras placed at predetermined locations.  However, this was not the case; filming the sequence took several days.  Another myth is that the rain was mixed with milk in order for the drops to show up better on camera; but the desired visual effect was produced through backlighting.

As the film was about to commence shooting, the directors realized Donald O’Connor didn’t have a solo number.  They asked something new, something along the lines of “Be a Clown,” from Cole Porter’s 1947 MGM musical “The Pirate.”   The result was “Make 'em Laugh” which was later called “100 percent plagiarism” of “Be a Clown.”

Debbie Reynolds had no dance experience before she made the movie.  She pointed this out when she was asked to be in “Singin’ in the Rain,” but Kelly said he could teach her, just as he’d done with Frank Sinatra for “Anchors Aweigh.”  She rehearsed day and night until she could share a dance floor with Kelly and O’Connor without embarrassing herself.  Her feature number was “Good Morning.”  She later said, “The two hardest things I ever did in my life are childbirth and “Singin’ in the Rain.”  As verification of the later, the shot of them somersaulting over one couch and then tipping another one over backwards took 40 takes.

👉  It’s an unusual source for a closing piece, but The Body by Bill Bryson is a powerful read.  Bryson, unwittingly perhaps, over and over again gives evidence of our Creator, the Lord God Almighty, and his intricate handiwork in creation.  The subtitle, “A Guide for Occupants,” guides us through the human body, how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail.

In the section “In the Dissecting Room, The Skeleton,” Bryson takes us into the room at the University of Nottingham where would-be doctors study anatomy by dissecting corpses their owners had donated.  Pointing to a small, smooth very white obtrusion at the base of the thumb, Dr. Ben Ollivere says, “That’s cartilage.  It is many times smoother than glass: it has a friction coefficient five times less than ice.  Imagine playing ice hockey on a surface so smooth that the skaters went sixteen times as fast.  That’s cartilage.  But unlike ice, it isn’t brittle.  It doesn’t crack under pressure as ice would.  And you grow it yourself.  It’s a living thing.  None of this has been equaled in engineering of science” [emphasis mine].

And I thought of Psalm 139: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well” (verses 13-15).

What did you say Dr. Ollivere?  “None of this has been equaled in engineering of science.”

What did you say David?  “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

And some people doubt that there is a God!

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