QUARANTINE BLOG # 455

June 28, 2021

The highly contagious Delta variant could soon become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the U.S., the director of the CDC said Friday.  “It’s more transmissible than the Alpha variant, or the U.K. variant, that we have here.  We saw that quickly become the dominant strain in a period of one or two months, and I anticipate that is going to be what happens with the Delta strain here,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.  Delta is more infectious and appears to be more effective at evading vaccines, though fully vaccinated individuals are believed to have significant protection against illness. 

“Our COVID 19 vaccine public education efforts have continued in earnest and, in fact, with even greater urgency given the spread of the Delta variant, which is significantly more transmissible, may be more dangerous than prior variants, and which serves as a stark reminder that if you are vaccinated, you are protected.  “If you are not, the threat of variants is real and growing,” said Vivek Murthy, surgeon general of the U.S. [emphasis added].

👉  June 23 was the first day Major League Baseball checked pitchers for “sticky stuff,” something that they are alleged to be applying to the ball to make it spin more and therefore be harder for the batter to hit.  Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer was the first one to be examined (the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, Dodgers’ Trevor Bauer, and the Astros’ Justin Verlander join Scherzer as being the top suspects).  Not once.  Not twice.  But three times – and Scherzer, in disgust, appeared to be ready to drop his pants so the umpire could give a very thorough inspection.  This video shows how ridiculous this may become, but it seems obvious that MLB has to do something to stop the cheating.

👉  A blog reader in Edgewater, Maryland sent me two “awww” pictures, and included a caption, for your enjoyment:

Bros rule in cuteness and awwwsomeness!

👉  The Colosseum, the towering 2,000-year-old stone amphitheater, the biggest in the Roman empire, is Italy’s most popular tourist attraction, but the underground passages, cages and rooms where prisoners, animals and gladiators waited to pass through trapdoors to enter the arena above their heads was only opened to the public on Friday after lengthy renovations.

More than 80 archaeologists, architects and engineers worked on the 162,000 square feet “hypogeum” for two years to complete the work.  The balconies, long accessible to tourists, used to accommodate up to 70,000 spectators to watch gladiator fights, executions and animal hunts.  Now a new walkway reveals a part of the monument that has not been accessible to visitors.

👉  Matt sent me this cartoon.  Save it for next year’s Father’s Day.

👉  Some strips from “Pearls Before Swine” for your Monday enjoyment:

👉  Next up in our look at Disney Renaissance films is Aladdin, which is based on the Arabic folktale of the same name from the “One Thousand and One Nights.”

The story of the “1001 Nights,” or the “Arabian Nights,” as it is sometimes called, is a fascinating one by itself.  The story goes that the monarch Shahryar, on discovering that his first wife was unfaithful to him, resolved to marry a new virgin every day and have her beheaded the next morning before she could dishonor him.  Eventually the vizier could find no more virgins of noble blood and offered his own daughter, Scheherazade, as the king’s next bride.  Once in the king’s chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved younger sister, Dunyazad, who had been prompted to ask Scheherazade to tell a story during the long night.  

The king lay awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story, stopping in the middle, as dawn was breaking.  So, the king spared her life for one day to finish the story the next night.  The following night, Scheherazade finished the story and then began a second, more exciting tale, which she again stopped halfway through at dawn.  At the end of 1,001 nights, and 1,000 stories, Scheherazade finally told the king that she had no more tales to tell him.  During the 1,001 nights, the king had fallen in love with Scheherazade, sparing her life permanently and making her his queen.  Aladdin was one of those 1,000 stories.

Aladdin, an Arabian street urchin, finds a magic lamp containing a genie.  He disguises himself as a wealthy prince, and tries to impress the Sultan and his daughter – featured in the song, “Prince Ali.”   Released in 1992, Aladdin was the last film by Disney to be entirely based on a fairytale or folklore until the release of Tangled (based on Rapunzel) in 2010, 17 years later.

The most popular character in the animated film is Genie.  The role was written for Robin Williams, and, when Williams resisted signing, the directors asked Eric Goldberg, Genie’s supervising animator, to animate the character over one of Williams’s old stand-up comedy routines to pitch the idea to the actor.  The resulting test, with Williams’s stand-up about schizophrenia translated into Genie growing another head to argue with himself, convinced Williams to sign on for the role.

Well, let’s listen to some more of the music beginning with “One Jump Ahead.”

Next, “Friend Like Me.”

And of course, the Academy Award Winning “Whole New World.”

👉  I was invited to preach yesterday at Macedonia while Pastor Roger Canuel is on vacation.  “Let Me Touch Him” is from the same text (Luke 8:40-48) I used June 6 at Crawfordville UMC, but with a different slant on the story.

👉  Today’s close is by Jack Graham.

There was a man from Russia who came over to the U.S. years ago on business.  His partners wanted to show him a little American culture, so they took him to experience a football game.  He saw the crowds, the extravagance of the stadium, and the passion of the fans.

After the game was over, the men were walking back to their car when one of them put his arm around the Russian and asked, “So what did you think?”  The man looked down, thought for a moment, and said, “Well, I’ve never seen such first-rate enthusiasm wasted on such a second-rate cause.”

Now I love sports, but I wholeheartedly agree with that Russian man.  As a culture, and even as a church, we waste so much enthusiasm and energy on things that don’t matter.  We get angry about traffic but stay silent about human trafficking.  We’re passionate about our style of worship but often couldn’t care less about living a lifestyle of evangelism.

I wonder what would happen if the church today channeled her enthusiasm toward things that mattered!  Not only would we be more attuned with the concerns of God, but we’d also make a bigger impact on the world as we give others a real taste of His Kingdom on earth!

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