QUARANTINE BLOG # 409

May 13, 2021

Today's Quarantine Blog is # 409, so we begin with a musical salute to 4-0-9.

👉  Cruise lines are closer to sailing than they’ve been since March 2020.  Carnival Cruise Line announced schedule shifts this week, canceling some cruises as it jockeys to restart some sailings in U.S. waters in July on select ships.  Carnival hopes to begin operating sailings on three ships from Florida and Texas.  “We continue to have constructive discussions with the CDC but still have many questions that remain unanswered.  We are working diligently to resume sailing in the U.S. and meet the CDC guidelines,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said. 

👉  At least nine states have announced that they will be ending participation in the unemployment assistance programs which was directed at alleviating problems produced by the coronavirus pandemic, among them: $300 unemployment checks.  Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, and South Carolina have ended state participation in federal unemployment programs.  

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said the additional unemployment benefits were meant to help people during the height of the pandemic, but has, “turned into a dangerous federal entitlement.  In many instances, these payments are greater than the worker’s previous paychecks,” McMaster said. “These federal entitlements pose a clear and present danger to the health of our State’s businesses and to our economy.  Since the Biden administration and Congress appear to have little to no comprehension of the damage being done and no appetite to terminate the federal payments, the State of South Carolina must take action.”

No word from Georgia as of this writing.

👉  A man walking on a glass-bottom bridge in China was left stranded temporarily after some of the panels shattered underneath his feet.  The Piyan Mountain bridge, located in the city of Longjing, China, was hit with gust force winds that damaged several glass panels in the walkway, leaving a tourist clinging to the rails.  The bridge is more than 300 feet high and was hit with winds up to 93 miles per hour before rescue teams were able to rescue the man at 1:20 p.m. on Friday. 

👉  If you are interested in walking long distances to cross ridiculously high places, check out the following suspension foot bridges.

Colorado’s Royal Gorge Bridge hangs 956 feet above the Arkansas River and is America’s highest bridge, nearly as high as the Eiffel Tower.

If you’re afraid of heights, think twice about crossing the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge in the Swiss Alps.  Only a metal grate separates you and your next shaky step from the valley 279 feet below.

Unfenced cliff edges plunge to the Atlantic Ocean and high winds sweep the coastal farmland where Northern Ireland’s Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge swings almost 100 feet above the sea.  First erected by salmon fishermen some 350 years ago, the rope bridge links the mainland with Carrick-a-Rede Island and its lone fisherman’s cottage.

The Vine Bridges of Japan’s Iya Valley were built to be quickly cut down after crossing the river.  As the legend goes, these swaying, creaking bridges in Japan’s remote West Iya Valley were first built more than 800 years ago when two samurai were battling over who would rule the country.  Reminds me of the swinging bridge scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

👉  Yesterday QB featured a misquote from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry.  We have more misquotes for future blogs, but for today, a parallel series on quotes from America’s top movies.  The American Film Institute compiled a list of the greatest movie quotes based on feedback from more than 1,500 leaders in the creative community including film artists, critics, and historians.  We’ll check out a few.

AFI’s #100 is Titanic, and the line is “I’m king of the world!” spoken by Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio).  Titanic is still tied with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for the most Oscar wins of all time.  Titanic ranks third, behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, for highest box office grosses at $2,201,647,264.

#99 – The Wizard of Oz.  “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!” by the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton).  The Wizard of Oz remains one of the most influential films in history, in part because it features witches (both good and bad). These on-screen witches gave way to the popular Broadway show Wicked.

#84 – King Kong.  “Oh, no, it wasn’t the airplanes.  It was Beauty killed the Beast” by Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong).  This line is delivered when King Kong has fallen off the Empire State and lies dead in the street below.

#71 – The Jazz Singer.  “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” by Jack Robin (Al Jolson).  This famous line inaugurates the moment in film history when “talkies” took over.  It was the first film with a synchronized soundtrack that included both dialogue and singing. 

👉  Butterfly Kisses

“And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. ‘When you commin’ home dad?’ ‘I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then. You know we’ll have a good time then.’”

The first time you heard Harry Chapin's song, you suspected what was going to happen. And you were right. Harry sang to the adult son, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind.” The young man answered, “I’d love to Dad if I could find the time.”

“And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me,” Harry concluded, “he’d grown up just like me. My boy was just like me.”

Harry Chapin certainly did not start it, but he became an adept chronicler of parenting behavior. In the desire to provide “better for my children than my parents did for me” the circle became vicious – wanting, working, buying, wanting, working, buying. And before you knew it, you had a house full of things, and a drawer full of bills, and the kids were grown up and gone, strangers you barely knew.

There were many who never entered that rat race. I remember one man whose take-home pay was $166.66 a month, and on that salary, he bought a house, supported a wife and two sons, and saw to it that, after a quick nap and the evening meal, he had plenty of time for all three of them. That man’s younger brothers started a small business (which became a multi-million dollar company) and they invited him to join them. He quit after less than six weeks because to become a millionaire, he had to be away from his family, and they were his priority, not the paycheck.

Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, specifically, 1946.

Winston Churchill warned the West of an “iron curtain” falling over Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. In sports, St. Louis defeated Boston in the World Series and Joe Louis defended the heavyweight title for the 23rd time. Americans watched “The Best Years of Our Lives” at the movies and sang “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.”

1946 was also the year Americans were introduced to Dr. Benjamin Spock’s “Baby and Child Care,” a book which influenced millions of new and expectant parents. Looking back on Spock’s permissive parenting 50 years later, maybe the book should have been called “Honey, We Screwed Up the Kids!”

Dr. Spock’s magic book was almost 20 years old when a twelfth grade Problems of Democracy teacher extolled its virtues to our class. I recounted the discussion to my Dad, and asked him what he thought of the book. His answer was succinct: “If it had a handle on it, it might be useful as a paddle, but I doubt it.”

The non-structured parenting style first championed by Dr. Spock moved the parenting pendulum away from maintaining parental authority and more toward serving children’s needs. That may be why a harried mother told her son’s teacher, “You’ll have to handle the problem. I can’t do anything with him!”

I began this piece with the words of a song which talks about one way of raising children. I offer a different song, and a different pattern of parenting in conclusion.

“With all that I’ve done wrong, I must have done something right to deserve her love every morning and butterfly kisses. I couldn’t ask God for more. Man, this is what love is. I know I’ve gotta let her go, but I’ll always remember every hug in the morning, and butterfly kisses at night.”

The first time I heard "Butterfly Kisses" in its entirety I was walking towards an altar, wearing in a rented tuxedo, a beautiful young woman on my left arm, when over the loud speakers drifted Bob Carlisle’s modern anthem to parenting. Precious moment. Precious memory.

I wish someone would set music to the ultimate parenting song. The words are found in an old book, a Good Book. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

“Train up” is an old Hebrew word which means “to narrow his life path.” In other words, if it is your intention that your child be raised, not merely jerked up, set limits, maintain standards, and remember, you are the parent, not he. That is not terribly popular today and I guess the words might be too hard to rhyme. It is definitely very old fashioned. But then so are butterfly kisses. We’ll have a good time now, and for eternity.

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