QUARANTINE BLOG # 408

May 12, 2021

When was the last time you paid attention to the flight attendant’s instructions on an airplane?  Shoot, better still, when was the last time you were on an airplane?  Thanks, Chinese virus!  The last time you paid attention was probably the first time you flew, but people are paying attention to the lead flight attendant in this video.

Well, if you didn’t chuckle on that one, give this guy a try.  Even his fellow employees think his announcement is funny.  Unfortunately, the person recording didn’t start right away, so we’ve missed the intro.

And you’ve got to love those uniforms of the Saudi Airlines cabin attendants!

👉  A creative YouTuber mirrored the BeeGee’s “Staying Alive” with clips of North Korean marching military to very funny effect.  Even Kim Jong Un, with his regrettable hair cut, seems to like it.  But then, if you are your nation’s Supreme Leader, President of the State Affairs Commission, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and Chairman of the National Defense Commission, you can style your hair anyway you wish – and having total sway over who lives and who dies in your nation helps, too.

👉  A Russian ransomware gang known as “Darkside” was the group responsible for the attack last weekend that forced the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline networks responsible for carrying gasoline from Texas to the Northeast.  And people are panicking to the gas pumps.  In this picture, taken here in Augusta, GA, a hoarder is filling 4 large gas cans while the line at every pump is 2 deep and people are in line waiting to get in line.  

As usual, the “Oh-My-Goodness-Did-You-See-That-And-We-Just-Have-To-Tell-You-Over-And-Over-Again” media is making the problem worse by its undisciplined reporting.  Meanwhile, almost no one is reporting that Colonial Pipeline officials said they are restoring supplies in a phased support, after shutting down the line to protect the system from the Russian attack.  They plan to have supplies running at almost full strength by the weekend.

👉  From our supply of misquoted quotes come this line from one of Clint Eastwood’s movies, Dirty Harry.  Many people misquote the famous line as, “Do you feel lucky punk?”  Actually, it goes like this.  Approaching the wounded robber, Harry Callahan raises his 44 magnum and says, “I know what you’re thinking.  Did he fire six shots or only five?”  Harry says that in the excitement he lost track himself.  Then Harry says, “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’  Well, do you, punk?”  Here is the scene.  And a second punk considers the same scenario.

👉  Today is Limerick Day, observed annually on May 12, the birthday, in 1812, of Edward Lear, an English painter and writer who popularized the five line poem.  Limericks are short, often humorous or ribald poems.  They consist of five lines: the first two lines rhyme with the last line, and the middle two lines rhyme with each other.  This is an example of an AABBA rhyme scheme.

Lear’s popular Book of Nonsense begins with:

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, “It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!”

Google found this one for me:

A major, with wonderful force,

Called out in Hyde Park for a horse.

All the flowers looked round,

But no horse could be found;

So he just rhododendron, of course.

If you write one of your, kindly share it with the Quarantine Blog.  No limericks using the word “Nantucket” will be considered for publication.

👉  And in case you missed it, today is National Odometer Day.  You read that correctly – there is a day to celebrate the device that tells you how many miles until your next oil change.  

Before the time of odometers, in ancient Greece, bematists were trained to measure distance by counting their steps.  Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer, is credited with inventing the odometer in 15 BC.  He found that a chariot wheel of standard size made 400 rotations in a mile.  He mounted it to a frame with a cogwheel with 400 teeth.  Each time a mile passed, the cogwheel completed a full rotation, and a gear connected to it dropped a pebble into a collector.  The number of pebbles that were dropped during a commute told the number of miles that had been traveled. 

👉  Our excursion through graveyards concludes with these 3 tombstones:

👉  And some signs of the times:

👉  Today’s close, “The Wait,” is by Steve Arterburn.

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:25-26).

Do you find waiting tough? Most twenty-first century people do. We don’t want to wait in traffic, wait in line, wait for the economy, or wait for a table. So the thought of waiting on God sets us back on our heels. We think our timing is what matters and then God says, “Wait!” And it can be especially difficult to wait on God.  

Look at this great promise from the prophet, Isaiah. “Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not grow faint” (40:31). The Living Bible paraphrases Lamentations, “The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for Him and seek Him.”

The Lord will reward you for waiting upon Him. You can remain calm when it appears that nothing is happening when you think it should. Waiting is a response contrary to the ways of the world. But when you learn to wait, you’ll find the winds of adversity will lift you up, like wind beneath the wings of an eagle, instead of knocking you down. As you develop a patient faith in God, you will be able to endure to the end of the race and win. As you seek God and wait on Him to complete His work in your life, you will be find strength. Try it and see!

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