QUARANTINE BLOG # 580

October 31, 2021

Jesse Ventura Was Right – Partly

I first published this piece in The Augusta Chronicle October 16, 1999.

One of the disadvantages of writing a weekly column is a lag time which can be as long as ten days. When a major event happens, a great deal has already been written by the time Saturday rolls around. On the other hand, one of the advantages of writing a weekly column is a lag time which can be as long as ten days. That gives the writer time to do research, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, and hopefully keep from embarrassing himself.

With that thought in mind, Jesse Ventura was right. Partly. And for the uninitiated, Jesse was once a star in the world of professional wrestling – Jesse “The Body” Ventura.

Unless you were in a foreign country without access to CNN or an English language newspaper, you know the governor of Minnesota did an interview with Playboy magazine and some folks actually read the magazine.

Up until the interview, Ventura’s strength was his penchant for speaking plain English. That is refreshing in an era when most politicians seriously imitate something Alan Greenspan told a congressional committee in jest: “If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.”

Commenting on the speaking habits of most public officials, Garrison Keillor said, “[they] cannot give you the time of day without saying that time is a topic of great concern to them, as it is to all Americans, and that they have long devoted themselves to finding a solution for the chronic problem of time shortage. Governor Ventura just says it’s 12 o’clock.”

That worked for the governor until he said a lot of really stupid stuff, showing the effects of all of those body slams. One of the most notable was his proclamation that “organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.”

Grilled on NBC’s Meet the Press by panelist Tim Russert, Governor Ventura admitted he believed in God, considered himself a Christian, and believes Jesus is the Savior.

Back-peddling further, Ventura said, “Being weak-minded is not necessarily a detriment. It just means that you have a weakness and, therefore, you go to organized religion to help strengthen yourself... And for those people, it’s OK.”

While organized religion is probably better than disorganized religion (especially since God’s Word directs that all things are to be done decently and in order) I submit that Jesus the Savior is indeed for the weak – all the weak, those who are weak in body, and weak in spirit, as well as those who are weak in mind.

The year was 1986. The Seattle Mariners lost 95 baseball games, for a winning percentage of .414. Manager Dick Williams attributed the club’s miserable record, in part, to the Christians on the team. He insinuated that they lacked mental toughness, that they did not deliver on the field.

How tough is a Christian supposed to be?

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Almost since the echo of those words died on a dusty road in Galilee, we have been misinterpreting Jesus to mean, “It is easy to be a Christian,” when in fact, he was saying quite the opposite.

“If you want to be my disciple,” Jesus said, “you must deny yourself, you must pick up your cross and carry it, and you must follow me. Incidentally, I am on my way to the place of execution.”

Well, didn’t he say he would give us rest? Yes, he did, but he was not speaking of rest in a beachfront condo or a splendid retirement home. That word means, “I will give you relief – relief from the anguish of your struggle.”

Well, didn’t he say, “My yoke is easy?” Yes, he did, but a yoke is a wooden frame placed on oxen to help them pull a heavy load. And the word “easy” means well-fitted, not easy in the sense of not hard. An ox yoke was carefully carved to make it fit as comfortably as possible. With a properly fitting yoke, an ox worked better and produced more. “My yoke will fit you just right,” Jesus said, “so you can carry the heavy weight of living in my name.”

Being a Christian is not easy. If it were otherwise, Jesus would not offer to help carry our burdens. Jesse Ventura was right, in part. Christians are weak. That is why Jesus offers his strength. My weakness is David Sisler. My strength is Jesus Christ, the Savior.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 579

October 30, 2021

Blackbeard was one of the first to hear about King George’s “Act of Grace” which offered pardon for the pirates. On his last sailing north out of Nassau, Blackbeard came to a decision that he hadn’t shared with his crew: The time for overt piracy was coming to a close. 

Blackbeard secretly decided that the time had come to break up his company, but had no intention of sharing the collected plunder with all 400 men. He developed a plan to rid himself of them, sharing it with only a few trusted colleagues. He ran two of his four ships onto a sandbar and sailed away with the treasure. In Bath, NC, Governor Charles Eden gave Blackbeard and the men still with him pardons, and also gave them privateers licenses. The agreement was they would split any loot with Governor Eden.

With a colonial governor in his pocket, North Carolina was shaping up to be a safer pirate lair than the Bahamas ever were. Blackbeard never would have guessed that the governor of another colony would have the audacity to invade.

Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia, argued that Blackbeard represented a threat to Virginia’s commerce, and that his presence encouraged others to piracy, but was not the real reason. Like politicians before and since, Spotswood intended to launch a military expedition abroad to divert public attention from his own improprieties at home.

Virginia legislators said Governor Spotswood nurtured a culture of corruption. He built an outlandishly expensive Governor’s Palace. There were corrupt land dealings. He controlled the appointment of all priests in Virginia’s Anglican Church. The legislature was working to remove him from office altogether. With so many enemies at his door, began a plan to rid the Americas of Blackbeard, and throw his enemies off of his trail.

Governor Spotswood planned his attack on Blackbeard under a cloak of secrecy. He sent a contingent of marines overland, and a naval force by sea, ensuring no pirates escaped into the Atlantic. The ships were placed under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard. If all went well, it would prove both patriotic and profitable.

Spotswood’s plan was entirely illegal. He did not have the authority to invade another colony. Blackbeard was, legally speaking, a citizen in good standing; he had been pardoned for his previous crimes, had received legal sanction from Governor Eden, and had yet to be indicted for any crime.

No matter, because on the morning of November 22, 1718, Maynard’s men and Blackbeard’s pirates engaged each other. In a scene that inspired many Hollywood movies, Blackbeard and Maynard faced off against each other. The pirates were outnumbered by Maynard’s men and rapidly fell.

Blackbeard suffered five gunshot wounds and twenty sword cuts. The final blow decapitated Blackbeard. His head was a grotesque trophy that would fetch the sailors $10,000 bounty when they got back to Virginia. Maynard had Blackbeard’s headless body thrown into Pamlico Sound, where, according to legend, it swam around his ship three times before sinking.

Back in the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers decided to execute ten pirates he had in custody. Rogers had barely enough men to keep his them under guard, still yet to defend the colony from a pirate attack or a Spanish invasion fleet. The time had come for a final test of wills between Rogers and the island’s pirate sympathizers.

When eight pirates dropped off the executioner’s block – two had been found to have been pressed into piracy and were pardoned – Woodes Rogers had brought an end to the Republic of the Pirates.

Strangely, Rogers received no financial assistance from the Crown. He continued to purchase vital war supplies on credit, or with his own money. Many suppliers started cutting him off for nonpayment. He alerted his partners, but his letters went unanswered.

The Bahamas were secured, but the effort exhausted Rogers’s physical and financial resources. Arriving back in London he learned that King George had fired him, and a new governor was already on his way to Nassau. Worse, his fellow investors had liquidated their company, making no allowance for the $600,000 Rogers had personally advanced on their behalf. He was financially ruined. Before long he found himself in debtors prison. The man who had beaten the pirates of the Caribbean, and successfully defended Nassau from a superior invasion force was left behind bars.

Shortly after killing Blackbeard, Lieutenant Robert Maynard was found to have disobeyed orders and kept a number of valuables taken from Blackbeard’s ship. His self-aggrandizing accounts of the battle further discredited him with his superiors. Maynard was not promoted to commander for another twenty-one years.

While cleared of wrongdoing by his governing council, Governor Charles Eden’s reputation never recovered from his dealings with Blackbeard.

Assisted by the fallout from his invasion of North Carolina, Alexander Spotswood’s political enemies succeeded in having him replaced as governor of Virginia.

Woodes Rogers was sickly, indebted, and deeply depressed. In the end, his creditors who took pity on him, absolved his debts and got him out of debtors prison.

In 1722 or 1723, he was approached by a man who was researching a book about the pirates. The author needed Rogers’s help to fill in details of the pirate republic that Rogers had put down. The result was the publication, in May 1724, of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. It was an enormous hit, going through numerous editions. The book, still in print, almost single-handedly created the popular images of the pirates that remain with us today.

The publication of A General History – which highlighted Rogers’s role in dispersing the Bahamian pirates – revived his reputation as a national hero. He successfully petitioned the king for redress. In the end, the king awarded Rogers with a pension, and appointed him to a second term as the governor of the Bahamas.

Before leaving for New Providence, Rogers sat for what may have been his only portrait. The painter, William Hogarth, placed Rogers in a romanticized version of Nassau. Rogers, is seated with his face turned in profile, concealing the disfigurement left by a Spanish musket ball. At his back is Fort Nassau, on which an ornamental plaque can be seen which bears his personal motto: Dum Spiro Spero, “While I breathe, I hope.” William Whetstone Rogers, who would accompany his father to Nassau, is standing wearing the wig and elegant clothing of a gentleman. Daughter Sarah Rogers sits to the left, awaiting a servant with a plate of fruit. In the harbor behind them, a large warship lets off a multi-gun salute.

Governor Rogers never truly recovered his health. He passed away on July 15, 1732, and was buried in Nassau. His grave has since been lost, but his name adorns the main street on the city’s waterfront, and he is honored in the official motto of the Bahamas: Expulsis Piratis, Comercia Restitua, “Pirates Expelled, Commerce Restored.”

  Today’s close, “Trust His Heart,” is by Meghan Kleppinger.

“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’” (Psalms 31:14).

Whether it be financial, relational, spiritual, or physical troubles (and don’t they all seem to come at the same time?), it’s easy to find ourselves questioning God and His plan for our lives.

Christian singer Babbie Mason's song, “Trust His Heart,” addresses these times of hardship. I heard this song for the first time when I was a preteen, and its moving lyrics continue to encourage me now in my adult years. I sing the chorus whenever I’m going through one of life’s rough patches.

God is too wise to be mistaken

God is too good to be unkind

So when you don’t understand

When you don’t see His plan

When you can’t trace His hand

Trust His heart

These aren’t just lyrics of a song, they’re descriptions of God’s character and reminders of His promises as told through scripture.

1. God is too wise to be mistaken: “But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding” (Jeremiah 10:12).

2. God is too good to be unkind: “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalms 34:8).

3. So when you don’t understand, When you don’t see His plan, When you can’t trace His hand, Trust His heart: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Isn’t it good to know that when we are afraid or in the middle of circumstances we don’t understand, that we can trust the ways of our wise and wonderful God!

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 578

October 29, 2021

The Bro and CJ, heading west

Today’s QB will run longer than normal because it’s time to wrap up October with a look at “this day.”

On October 1, 1890, an act of Congress created Yosemite National Park, home of such natural wonders as Half Dome and the giant sequoia trees.  Environmental trailblazer John Muir and his colleagues campaigned for the congressional action, which was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison and paved the way for generations of hikers, campers and nature lovers, along with countless “Don’t Feed the Bears” signs.

On October 2, 1965, a team of scientists invented Gatorade, a sports drink to quench thirst, in a University of Florida lab.  The name Gatorade is derived from the nickname of the university’s sports teams.  Eventually, the drink became a phenomenon and made its inventors wealthy.

At the end of a sensational trial, on October 3, 1995, former football star O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the brutal 1994 double murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.  In the epic 252-day trial, Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers employed creative and controversial methods to convince jurors that Simpson’s guilt had not been proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” thus surmounting what the prosecution called a “mountain of evidence” implicating him as the murderer.

The Soviet Union inaugurated the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957.  The spacecraft was named Sputnik after the Russian word for “fellow traveler.”  Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds and circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. 

Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University, 220-0, on October 7, 1916, in the most lopsided game in college football history.  Coached by John Heisman, later namesake of college football’s most famous trophy, Georgia Tech took a 63-0 lead in the first quarter at Grant Field in Atlanta.  “I think one of our best plays of the game was when one of our players got the ball on a pitchout and he lost only 10 yards,” Ed Haysler Poague, who played for Cumberland, recalled decades later.

Don Larsen of the New York Yankees threw the only perfect game in World Series history on October 8, 1956, for a New York 2-0 win in Game 5 over the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The Yankees won the World Series in seven games.  Over two hours, six minutes and 97 pitches, Larsen retired all 27 batters.  On a 1-2 pitch, he struck out Dale Mitchell to end the game and catcher Yogi Berra raced toward Larsen, jumping into his arms.

Less than a year before Richard M. Nixon’s resignation as president of the United States, Spiro Agnew became the first U.S. vice president to resign in disgrace. The same day, October 10, 1973, he pleaded no contest to a charge of federal income tax evasion in exchange for the dropping of charges of political corruption.  He was subsequently fined $10,000, sentenced to three years probation, and disbarred.

Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched on October 11, 1968, with astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr.; Donn F. Eisele; and Walter Cunningham aboard. Under the command of Schirra, the crew of Apollo 7 conducted an 11-day orbit of Earth, during which the crew transmitted the first live television broadcasts from orbit.

The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792, for a presidential residence in the newly designated capital city of Washington, D.C.  In 1800, President John Adams became the first president to reside in the executive mansion, which soon became known as the “White House” because its white-gray Virginia freestone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings.

For years, many aviators believed that it was not possible to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart.  All that changed on October 14, 1947, when U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager flew an X-1 rocket plane over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California.  The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet, exceeding 662 miles per hour.  Because of the secrecy of the project, Yeager’s achievement was not announced until June 1948.

On October 15, 1989, Los Angeles King Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s points record (1,850) in the final period of a game against the Edmonton Oilers.  Gretzky’s record-setting goal tied the game; in overtime he scored another, and the Kings won 5-4.  By the time Gretzky retired at the end of the 1998-99 season, he held or shared 61 NHL records.  In all, he scored 894 goals and tallied 1,963 assists for 2,857 points in 1,487 games. 

Gangster Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion on October 17, 1931, and fined $80,000.  Capone was at the top of the F.B.I.’s “Most Wanted,” but he avoided long stints in jail until 1931 by bribing city officials, intimidating witnesses and maintaining various hideouts.  He became Chicago’s crime kingpin by wiping out his competitors through a series of gangland battles and slayings, including the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929, when Capone’s men gunned down seven rivals.

On October 18, 1867, the U.S. formally took possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre.  The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson.

One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s massive invading force entered a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army was forced on October 19, 1812, to begin a hasty retreat out of Russia.  On December 8 Napoleon left what remained of his army to return to Paris with a few cohorts.  Six days later, the Grande Armée finally escaped Russia, having suffered a loss of more than 400,000 men during the disastrous invasion.

On October 20, 1968, 21-year-old Oregonian Dick Fosbury won gold – and set an Olympic record – when he high-jumped 7 feet 4 1/4 inches at the Mexico City Games.  It was the first American victory in the event since 1956.  It was also the international debut of Fosbury’s unique jumping style, known as the “Fosbury Flop.”

A landslide of coal waste crashed into a small Welsh mining village, on the morning of October 21, 1966, killing 116 children and 28 adults.  Hitting a school, the accident wiped out half the town’s youth.  The Aberfan disaster became one of the UK’s worst coal mining accidents.  The landslide sent 140,000 cubic yards of coal waste in a tidal wave 40-feet high hurtling down the mountainside destroying farmhouses, cottages, houses and part of the neighboring County Secondary School.

In a televised speech, President John F. Kennedy announced  on October 22, 1962, that U.S. spy planes had discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba.  These missile sites housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C.  Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine” of Cuba and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place.  The president made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.”

On October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to successfully take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.  Strapped for cash and seeking fame, Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt: She would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.  After a brief flurry of photo-ops and speaking engagements, Taylor’s fame cooled, and she was unable to make the fortune for which she had hoped.  Between 1901 and 1995, 15 people went over the falls; 10 of them survived.  No matter the method, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, and survivors face charges and stiff fines on either side of the border.

The Earp brothers faced off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881.  The famous gunfight that ensued lasted 30 seconds, and around 30 shots were fired.  When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded.  Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne had run for the hills.

On October 27, 2006, the last Ford Taurus rolled off the assembly line in Hapeville, Georgia.  The keys to the silver car went to 85-year-old Truett Cathy, the founder of the Chick-fil-A fast-food franchise, who took it straight to his company’s headquarters in Atlanta and added it to an elaborate display that included 19 other cars, including one of the earliest Fords.  “I do have this disease of collecting cars,” Cathy told a reporter.

On October 28, 1965, construction was completed on the Gateway Arch, a spectacular 630-foot-high parabola of stainless steel marking the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront of St. Louis, Missouri.  The Gateway Arch was erected to commemorate President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and to celebrate St. Louis’ central role in the rapid westward expansion that followed.

“The War of the Worlds,” Orson Welles’s realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth was broadcast on the radio on October 30, 1938.   Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of radio, and millions of Americans had their radios turned on.  But most of these Americans were listening to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy “Charlie McCarthy” on NBC and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the comedy sketch ended and a little-known singer went on.  By then, the story of the Martian invasion was well underway.  The radio play was extremely realistic, with Welles employing sophisticated sound effects and his actors doing an excellent job portraying terrified announcers and other characters.  An announcer reported that widespread panic had broken out in the vicinity of the landing sites, with thousands desperately trying to flee.

On October 31, 1517, priest and scholar Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.  In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment – called “indulgences” – for the forgiveness of sins.

👉  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities ... As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalms 103:1-3, 12).

The experience of forgiveness provokes the activity of praise.  In forgiveness our sins are personally confronted, not impersonally condemned.  We experience God’s severity, but even more his grace.

Prayer: Merciful Father, I used to try to hide my true self from you, assuming that if you knew all about me you would necessarily condemn me.  Now I know your knowledge is gracious and that deception is futile.  Come to me with just the right mixture of severity and kindness.  Judge me and save me, both at the same time, in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 577

October 28, 2021

Okay, get on the bandwagon.  Line up for the boondoggle.  Hold out your hand.  Here is a new way get your snout into the trough of greed.

Kellogg is being hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging its “Whole Grain Frosted Strawberry” Pop-Tarts are deceiving consumers, failing to warn them that strawberries are not its only fruit filling ingredient.  “Strawberries are the Product’s characterizing ingredient, since their amount has a material bearing on price and consumer acceptance, and consumers expect they are present in an amount greater than other fruits,” the suit asserted.  “The Product’s common or usual name of ‘Whole Grain Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries,’ is false, deceptive, and misleading, because it contains mostly non-strawberry fruit ingredients,” namely, cheaper pears and apples, the suit said.

👉  Some menace from Dennis:

👉  Pearls Before Swine and The New York Times:

👉  Here are last of our strange and unusual clubs.  

First up, the Not Terribly Good Club.  Journalist Stephen Pile started the club in the late ‘70s for people who were, well, just not terribly good at things.  To qualify for membership, you had to demonstrate your mediocrity, or, ideally, your “special incompetence.” At meetings, members would discuss and show off their inability to do things.  But the rules were absolute: no success.  At the first meeting, Pile reportedly messed up big time by catching a falling soup tureen before it hit the floor.  For this demonstration of ability, by his own bylaws, he had to step down from his role as club president.

The Association of Dead People isn’t what you think: Being alive is actually a requirement to belong.  Lal Bihar discovered that he was dead ... on paper.  In order to inherit Bihar’s share of the family’s ancestral homeland, a relative of Bihar’s had him declared deceased.  It took 17 years for Bihar to undo what his relative had done.  Frustrated with the extremely slow process to get himself declared alive again, Bihari formed an advocacy group to help others going through the same thing.

No one wants a Putney High Tide Club Membership.  Members are involuntarily inducted when they park too close to the Thames in the Putney district of London and fail to move their cars before the tide comes in.  Members are inducted via photos on the official Putney High Tide Club pages on Twitter and Facebook.

👉  You read in yesterday’s blog a closed circuit to my supplier of Blackouts and other amusing bits.  Today I received the following letter:

“Dear Loyal Customer – as you may be aware most parts of the free world are in a situation of pandemic-related supply bottlenecks.  Unfortunately this problem has recently surfaced in our supply chain and at this time we are unable to estimate when regular shipping will be reinstated in order that we may pass on our outstanding product to you.  After considerable effort, in recognition of your past commitment to our products, we were fortunate to be able to obtain a special one time sample of new market offerings.  In appreciation of your past business we provide you with these gifts but do caution you to consume them prudently as we cannot confirm specific future availability.”

Therefore, in recognition of the excellent products QB has received in the past, and of the lack of quality material QB was able to produce on its own, we are now practicing strict conservation with material from our supplier.

👉  Before there was Google, there was the library and librarians.  I was trying to describe a card catalog to one of my grandkids and was rewarded with a blank look.  It’s hard for their generation to realize there was a time when, if you wanted to learn something, you had to do more than punch letters into an electronic device.  And that was the day of the librarian.  

I remember being taught, in high school, how to use the card catalog.  It was a great research tool, but now, the final toll of the old-fashioned reference system’s death knell has rung for good: The library cooperative that printed and provided catalog cards has officially called it quits on the old-fashioned technology.

The reference librarian used to be the most important person in your local library.  Today, the library that I use has banished the reference desk to the basement and no directions are posted as to where this once crucial asset is located.  You just have to stumble along.

But just as a reminder how valuable a resource the above items were, NPR collected some questions for whose answers we used to ask the librarian.

●  Is it proper to go to Reno alone to get a divorce? (1945)

●  I just saw a mouse in the kitchen. Is DDT OK to use? (1946)

●  What is the life span of an eyelash? Answer: Based on the book Your Hair & Its Care, it’s 150 days. (1946)

●  What does it mean when you dream of being chased by an elephant? (1947)

●  Where can I rent a beagle for hunting? (1963)

●  Can you tell me the thickness of a U.S. Postage stamp with the glue on it? Answer: We couldn’t find that answer. Why don’t you try the Post Office? Response: This is the Post Office. (1963)

👉  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine around.  I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety” (Psalm 4:7-8).

The scattered experiences of the day – distress, indignation, trust, devotion, threat – are assembled in prayer and laid before God, after which the psalmist simply turns over and goes to sleep, joyfully and peacefully.

Prayer: God of all beginnings and all endings, I bring all my unfinished business to you – everything that I started and couldn’t finish, all that I began but lost interest in, all that I began in hope and quit in despair.  Make finished work of all of it, by your grace.  Amen.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 576

October 27, 2021

We featured some collectible sneakers a while ago, but here is the Which Of Which There Is No Whicher.  A pair of Michael Jordan’s shoes from 1984 sold for almost $1.5 million at Sotheby’s on Sunday, setting a record for sneakers at auction.  The 1984 Nike Air Ships are Jordan’s earliest known regular season game-worn Nikes.  The shoes are the first pair of sneakers to ever crack the $1 million mark at an auction, going for $1.472 million.  The signed sneakers are from Jordan’s fifth NBA game in his rookie season.  

👉  Alaska State Senator Lora Reinbold was banned from Alaska Airlines for refusing to wear a mask.  Reinbold was banned from flying from Juneau to cast her vote against a public health emergency bill.  Alaska Airlines brought in a mask mandate before the federal government’s mask mandate.  Reinbold has been a strong opponent of masks since the pandemic began.  She announced since her banning that she has contracted COVID-19.

👉  Jennifer sent me some great images from Instagram.  I don’t think the original presenter meant it this way, but I think it could relate to the piece immediately above  this post.

👉  We haven’t played a tune for a while, so let’s drop a nickle in the jukebox and play the Number One hit from May 9, 1964 – “Hello Dolly!” by Louis Armstrong.  “Hello, Dolly!” is the title song of the popular 1964 musical of the same name.  Louis Armstrong’s version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.  His version was used by the song’s publisher to promote the show.  “Hello Dolly!” became the most successful single of Armstrong’s career.

This time Louis is singing with Barbara Streisand in the 1969 movie.

👉  Closed circuit to my supplier – these are my last 3 Blackouts and or other sign amusements:

👉  Always trying to be helpful, QB shares 2 new helpful hints:

How to put shoes in the dryer

How to keep the straw from rising out of your soda can

👉  Here is a Pickles for my family members who say I write this strip:

👉  Today’s close is from New Morning Mercies, Paul David Tripp.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4).

God’s grace will expose what you want to hide, not to shame you, but to forgive and deliver you.

“It’s a sad way to live,” I thought as I listened to him recount the events of the night before. He worked next to me on the long packing table that kept our hands busy eight hours a day. But our mouths were free to talk, and talk we did. He was being unfaithful to his wife. He thought he was in charge, he thought he was free, but he wasn’t. He told of taking his girlfriend to a certain restaurant in the small community where he lived, only to see his wife’s car parked outside. He told of going to another place but having to make sure the coast was clear before they left so they wouldn’t get caught. 

I said to him: “You think you’re free, but you’re not free. You have to hide. You have to worry about being caught. You have to lurk around in the darkness.” I then said: “You think I’m bound, but I’m the one who’s free. When I go out with my wife, I never have to worry about where we’re going. I never have to fear being caught. I can boldly live in the light.”

Sin turns all of us into citizens of the night. Sin causes all of us to be committed to low-light living. We hide, we deny, we cover, we lie, we excuse, we shift the blame, we rationalize, we defend, and we explain away. These are all acts of darkness by people who fear exposure.

What is the movement of grace? It is to shine light on what once lived in darkness. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:19-20). Grace shatters our darkness. Grace explodes on us with penetrating, heart-exposing light. Grace illumines our dank hallways and our dark corners. 

The Son of grace shines the light of his grace into the darkest recesses of our hearts, not as an act of vengeance or punishment, but as a move of forgiving, transforming, and delivering grace. He dispels our self-inflicted darkness because he knows that we cannot grieve what we do not see, we cannot confess what we have not grieved, and we cannot turn from what we haven’t confessed.

The Light has come. Run to the Light; it is not to be feared. Yes, it is the Light of exposure, but what will be exposed has already been covered by the blood of the One who exposes it.

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