QUARANTINE BLOG # 550

October 1, 2021

The index for the Quarantine Blog has been updated and is online.

👉  We’ve been doing some state birds and state flowers, featuring Georgia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.  Today, I’m concluding this brief series with Tennessee (all 4 states are associated with Sislers).  If you’d like to see another state, put your request in the comment section at the end of this blog.

In the early 1930s, Tennessee residents were swept up in a wave of gardening. Enthusiastic green thumbs joined garden clubs, discussed native plants, and urged the state legislature to designate a state flower.  Lawmakers chose the Iris.  The legislature did not specify a color or particular species in its official naming, the Purple Iris is widely accepted as the Tennessee state flower.

The trouble was, Tennessee already had a state flower.  14 years earlier, in a process overseen by a five-member state commission, the state’s school children had chosen the passion flower as the Tennessee state flower.  Discontent on both sides of the issue kept the matter in floral limbo for 40 years.  It was not until 1973 that the state legislature orchestrated a compromise and named the Iris Tennessee’s state cultivated flower.  The passion flower is the state wildflower.

With respect to Tennesseans everywhere, that reminds me of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors.

Iris flowers appear on the Tennessee license plate.  And each spring, residents gather for the state’s annual Iris Festival which honors the Tennessee state flower with a rodeo, a floral show and coronation of an Iris queen.

The Iris is also the subject of the state song, “When It's Iris Time In Tennessee.”

In 1933, the Tennessee Ornithological Society initiated a statewide campaign of education in connection with a vote to adopt an official state bird to represent the state.  Over 70,000 people cast votes that gave the mockingbird a 480 winning vote edge over the robin.  Finishing third was the cardinal.

This year’s cardinals, of St. Louis, have clinched a wild card spot 😂😉 and the orioles of Baltimore will lose more games than anyone except the snakes of Arizona.

👉  Two blackouts for your consideration:

👉  Some images to prompt a smile:

👉  And an oldie, but a goodie from 9 Chickweed Lane.

👉  Continuing our selection from Wednesday of fast foods that taste good but are unhealthy, first on today’s menu is Little Caesars’ Extramostbestest Italian Sausage Pizza.  

The FDA says that Americans eat about 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day, but the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends only eating no more than 2,300 milligrams. That can be equated to about one teaspoon of salt.  The large Extramostbestest Italian sausage pizza at Little Caesars has 5,620 milligrams of sodium.  It also contains 2,660 calories, 128 grams of fat, and 252 grams of carbs.  Little Caesars topped this pizza with a mozzarella and Muenster cheese blend and made sure to include as much savory Italian sausage as possible.

Next up, the Burger King Triple Whopper With Cheese.  The most popular menu item at Burger King has always been their signature hamburger, the Whopper.  They took that idea and made it a lot less nutritious with the Triple Whopper with cheese.  It’s called a Triple Whopper because it contains three quarter-pound patties.  Fast Food Nutrition found that the Triple Whopper with cheese contains 1,216 calories and 60 percent of those calories come from fat.  It also has 1,470 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of carbs, 4.5 grams of trans fats, and 32 grams of saturated fat.

👎  It’s old news, but in 1999 and again in 2000 President Bill Clinton declared June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.”  Then from 2009 to 2016, each year he was in office, President Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month.  Later, President Joe Biden declared June LGBTQ+ Pride Month in 2021.  

In case you missed it, QB turns the calendar back a few pages and notes the introduction of a new chicken sandwich at Burger King (no idea of where it fits on the unhealthy scale), and in so doing donated 40 cents from every Ch’King Sandwich sold during June to the Human Rights Campaign up to $250,000.  The Human Rights Campaign is one of the most powerful pro-LGBTQ rights organizations in the country.

In its advertising for the new sandwich, and on their Twitter account, Burger King took a shot at Chick-fil-A, a Christian owned company who built its reputation, not only on good food, and great customer service, but also on being closed on Sunday to honor the Lord’s Day.

Here is that tweet:

They won’t miss my purchases, but with their commercials and tweets, I stopped eating at Burger King.

👉  Today’s close, “God’s Handiwork” is from The Story by Zondervan.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

You are created in God’s own image.  You are not a biological accident.  You are not some beating-the-infinite-odds chance arrangement of cells into organs into systems into a body.

No, you are created and crafted.  You are “God’s handiwork” (Ephesians 2:10).  And he created not only your body, but he “created [your] inmost being” (Psalm 139:13).  And the model for this work of art?  Himself.  You are created in God’s image.

God’s image is reflected in our “inmost being,” in our abilities to think and reason, understand good and evil, create and invent, make choices, appreciate beauty, be in relationship, have a sense of justice, and love.

Created in God’s image, may we live, may we speak, act, and interact, in a way that honors him and reflects his image.

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